and the legend of the apostle andrew

349 Pages·2017·14.48 MB·English

TH E ID E A OF
APOSTOLI CITY
IN BYZANTIUM
AND THE LEGEND OF THE
APOSTLE ANDREW
by
FRANCIS DVORNIK
Professor of Byzantine History, Dumbarton Oaks,
and Member of the Faculty of Arts and Sciences,
Harvard University
HARVARD UNIVERSITY PRESS
Cambridge, Massachusetts
1958
All Rights reserved by the
Trustees for Harvard University
The Dumbarton Oaks Research Library and Collection
Washington, D.C.
γ /&Ή50
Printed in Germany at J. J. Augustin* Glückstadt
G 8 / 12359
Foreword
The tradition concerning the missionary activity of the Apostle
Andrew in Achaea and his death at Patras is regarded as legendary
by the majority of modern scholars. The account of the Apostle's
residence at Byzantium, where he is said to have ordained his
disciple Stachys as the first bishop of that city, has likewise been
shown to have little foundation in fact. But even if they are
fictitious, these traditions played an important role in the religious
history of the Middle Ages. The purpose of this study is not,
therefore, to re-examine the apocryphal literature in which these
traditions are contained/with a view to ascertaining the true facts
about the Apostle Andrew (which, in all probability, will never be
fully known), but to determine when these traditions arose, what
use was made of them, and what prompted the Byzantines to
regard the Apostle Andrew as the founder of their Church.
These problems are intimately connected with a larger issue,
namely, the importance attached, both in the West and in the East,
to the apostolic origin of a bishopric. Thus we are led to examine
the role which the idea of apostolicity played in the relations
between Rome and Byzantium, and more specifically the use made
in Greek polemical literature of the supposed apostolic origin of the
bishopric of Constantinople.
These questions, in turn, cannot be answered without reference
to the over-all development of Church organization in the Later
Roman Empire. It is now generally admitted that accommodation
to the administrative division of the Empire was a guiding principle
in the structure of the Early Church. Yet it remains to be determined
to what extent this principle continued to dominate the outlook of the
Eastern Church, and how it clashed with the idea of apostolicity which
was adopted by Western Christianity at a relatively early period.
Such are the main topics presented in this Study, and it is
hoped that their discussion may contribute to a better understanding
of Byzantine history and of Eastern Christianity.
FOREWORD
I should like to express my sincere thanks to my colleagues at
Dumbarton Oaks with whom I have had frequent occasion to
discuss the problems raised by this study and who have given me
their help in my research. I should also like to thank members of
the staff of Dumbarton Oaks for their assistance in preparing my
manuscript for the press, and for reading the proof.
It is a matter of great regret to me that Professor A. M. Friend,
Jr. did not live to see this work completed. As Director of Studies at
Dumbarton Oaks he first invited me to investigate the transfer of
the relics of the Apostle Andrew to the church of the Holy Apostles
at Constantinople, and encouraged me to extend my research to the
various problems connected with the legendary tradition of Andrew.
It is on his initative that this work was undertaken, and I wish to
offer it in reverent respect of his memory.
Dumbarton Oaks
Washington, D. C. Francis Dvornik
June, 1958
CONTENTS
Foreword
I The Guiding Principle in the Evolution of 3
Church Organization
The practice of the Apostles — The Council of Nicaea
sanctions the adaptation of the ecclesiastical organization
to the administrative division of the Empire — The bishop
of Alexandria as supra-metropolitan? — Position of
Antioch — The rights of the bishops of Antioch compared
with those of Rome and Alexandria — Ephesus, Caesarea,
Heraclea as supra-metropolitan cities? — The canons of
the Council of Constantinople {381) compared with the
Nicene decrees -— The see of Jerusalem — Jerome s
testimony — Adaptation to the divisions of the Empire in
the West: Rome, Italy, Illyricum — Africa and Spain —
Gaul and Arles.
II The Idea of Apostolicity in the West and in
the East before the Council of Chalcedon 39
Rome the only apostolic see in the West — Apostolic sees
in the East — Canon three of the Council of Constantinople
(381) viewed in a new light — Reaction in the West —
The views of the Council of 382 on apostolicity — St. Basil
and the idea of apostolicity — John Chrysostom —
Struggle between Alexandria and Constantinople — The
principle of apostolicity at the Council of Ephesus —
St. Cyril, Dioscorus of Alexandria, and Domnus of
Antioch — Leo Fs success in stressing the apostolicity of
his see in the East — The idea of apostolicity at Chalcedon
— Leo I and the so-called twenty-eighth canon —
Attitude of the legates — Omission of apostolicity in the
canon — Reasons for Leo's negative attitude — Leo's
apparent success a disguised compromise.
vii
CONTENTS
III Growth of the Idea of Apostolicity during the
Acacian Schism 106
Acacius and Pope Simplicius — Gelasius' claims derived
from Petrine tradition — Eastern and western reaction to
Gelasius' claims — Increasing concern with apostolicity in
the East — Libellus Hormisdae — Apostolic character of
the Roman see in imperial and patriarchal letters —
Currency of the idea of apostolicity in the East and its
possible consequences for Constantinople.
IV The Birth of the Andrew Tradition Concerning
Byzantium 138
The transfer of Andrew's relics and its meaning — No
trace of the Andrew tradition in Chrysostom's writings —
St. Gregory of Nazianzus, Cyril of Jerusalem, Theodoret
and Basil of Seleitcia on Andrew — Western writers on
Andrew — The Andrew Legend unknown in the sixth
century — The see of Constantinople called “apostolic"
from the seventh century onward — This usage not
originated by Andrew Legend — The defenders of image-
worship promote the idea of apostolicity in Constantinople
— The Narratio key to the dating of writings containing
the Andrew and Stachys Legend? — First codification of
the Andrew Legend in Pseudo-Epiphanius' List of
Disciples — Origin of List of Apostles and Disciples;
dating of Pseudo-Epiphanius' List — Pseudo-Dorotheas'
List later than Pseudo-Epiphanius' List and the Narratio.
V The Legendary Elements in the Andrew Tra­
dition 181
The lost apocryphal Acts of Andrew as the ultimate source
of the Constantinopj)litan tradition — Gregory of Tours on
Andrew's stay in Byzantium — The apocryphal Acts of
Andrew known in the East and West from the fifth to the
viii
CONTENTS
ninth centuries — Date of the composition of the apocryphal
Acts of Andrew — Scythia, not Achaea, as Andrew's
missionary field — Did Andrew preach in Asia Minor? —
The legend of the maneaters as a reflection of the old
tradition of Andrew's preaching in Scythia — Later tra­
dition identifying the city of the maneaters with Sinope —
The “Scythian tradition" reflected in the original Acts and
in the Legends of Andrew's preaching in Colchis and in
Georgia — Legendary traits in the “Achaean tradition" —
Oldest traditions quote Luke as missionary of Achaea —
Spread of the new “Achaean tradition" — Legendary
accounts of Argyropolis and Zeuxippus — Probable origin
of the “Achaean tradition" — Conclusion.
VI The Growth of the Andrew Legend 223
Ninth-century writings propagating the Andrew and
Stachys Legend — The Laudatio, the Passio Artemii, and
their connection with the Andrew Legend — The Laudatio
echoes some ideas of the Patriarch Photius — Nicetas the
Paphlagonian and Ignatius the Deacon on Andrew and
Stachys — Theophanes' critical altitude toward the Andrew
Legend — Another source of Byzantium's apostolic
character: Constantinople heir of Ephesus and of the
Apostle John. Ignatius' and Photius' testimony — John's
connection with Constantinople in Armenian and Nestorian
tradition — The Patriarch Photius and the Andrew
Legend ■— The Andrew tradition, one of the principal
arguments in the opuscule against Roman primacy, falsely
attributed to Photius — The ninth-century Typicon of
Constantinople on Andrew, Stachys, and Metrophanes
— Spread of the Andrew and Stachys Legend in the tenth
century — Its acceptance by the Syrians and Georgians —
The Andrew story in the Russian Primary Chronicle —
Pseudo-Symeon's and Cedrenns' catalogue of Byzantine
bishops.
IX
CONTENTS
VII The Idea of Apostolicity and the Andrew
Legend in the Controversies between Con­
stantinople and Rome 265
The idea of apostolicity as the basis of the pentarchic
order —■ The pentarchic idea at the Ignatian Council of
86g-8yo — The definition of the duties of emperors and
patriarchs in the Epanagoge reflects a new spirit created by
the growth of apostolicity— Possibilities of a rapprochement
on this new basis — The argument of apostolicity in the
controversies of the tenth and eleventh centuries — The
position of the see of Constantinople in Church organization
and the Western canonists of the eleventh century —
Eastern writers of the eleventh and twelfth centuries — The
Andrew Legend and the controversies during the thirteenth
century — How the character of universal teachers attributed
to the apostles by Greek polemists diminished the value of
the Andrew tradition for the Greeks — The Andrew Legend
in the fourteenth century in Byzantium — The Councils
of Lyons and Florence on the see of Constantinople —
Acceptance of the Andrew Legend by the Latin West.
List of Abbreviations 300
List of Manuscripts Quoted 301
Bibliography: 303
Primary Sources 303
Secondary Authorities 313
Index 3 29
X
THE IDEA OF APOSTOLICITY IN BYZANTIUM
AND THE LEGEND OF THE APOSTLE ANDREW