Theodosius I

Life

Theodosius was born in 347 into a military family in the Roman province of Hispania. In 378 the eastern Roman emperor Valens was defeated and killed by the Goths at the Battle of Adrianople. Afterward, in 379, the western Roman emperor Gratian made Theodosius emperor of the East. In 382 Theodosius concluded a treaty with the Goths that settled them within the empire as allies. In 394 he defeated the western usurper Eugenius at the Battle of the Frigidus and briefly ruled the entire empire alone. He died in Milan the following year. After his death the empire was divided between his two sons, Arcadius in the East and Honorius in the West, and it was never reunited.

Work and Achievements

• Edict of Thessalonica (380): The edict declared that only those who held the faith confessed at the Council of Nicaea (325)—namely, that the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit are one God of the same essence—would be recognized as "Catholic Christians." The edict is often described as the point at which Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, but scholars differ on whether that establishment should be attributed to a single edict or understood as a gradual process built up through a series of laws.
• Council of Constantinople (381): Theodosius convened a council of eastern bishops, which is understood to have ratified a creed that expanded upon the creed of Nicaea. This is the confession of faith commonly called the Nicene Creed today, and its article on the Holy Spirit was considerably expanded. The council rejected Arianism, which held that the Son is a created being inferior to the Father, and the doctrine of the Trinity was thereby firmly established as orthodoxy.
• Prohibition of paganism: Through a series of laws issued around 391–392, he prohibited pagan sacrifices and temple worship, that is, the rites of traditional Roman religion.
• Confrontation with the bishop of Milan: When a riot broke out in Thessalonica in 390, several thousand inhabitants are reported to have been killed in its suppression. Ambrose, bishop of Milan, barred the emperor from Communion and demanded that he do public penance, and the emperor submitted.

Influence on the Korean Church

The Nicene Creed, ratified in 381, is a confession of faith shared by the Catholic Church, the Orthodox Church, and Protestantism. In Korean Protestant Sunday worship, the Apostles' Creed is the creed most commonly confessed. However, liturgical denominations such as the Anglican Church of Korea and the Lutheran Church in Korea use the Nicene Creed in their Eucharistic services, and other denominations also teach it in catechesis as the standard of orthodox Trinitarian faith. Ambrose's success in bringing the emperor to penance is frequently cited in Korean sermons and church history textbooks as an example of the church speaking truth to power, and it is often discussed in connection with the relationship between church and politics.

Assessment

Church tradition regards Theodosius as an emperor who defended orthodox faith and protected the church, and accordingly calls him "the Great." On the other hand, his use of imperial power to enforce belief by law and to punish pagans and heretics has been criticized as marking the beginning of the suppression of religious freedom through the union of state and religion. The repeated violence against pagan sites during this period, such as the destruction of the Serapeum in Alexandria, is also cited as grounds for criticism. Some within traditions that emphasize the separation of church and state, such as the Baptist and Anabaptist traditions, view this period as the turning point at which the church began to rely on state power. The massacre at Thessalonica likewise remains one of the most prominent examples cited in criticism of his reign.