Unit 2 Religion Church History and Late Antiquity Vocabulary

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering early Church history, key councils, imperial decrees, heresies, and monasticism from Late Antiquity.

Apostolic Fathers

Early Church leaders who directly succeeded the Apostles.

Orthodoxy

Correct teaching or doctrine within the Church.

Orthopraxy

Correct action, living, and worship in Christian practice.

Diocletian

Roman emperor who persecuted Christians and divided the empire into Western Latin and Eastern Greek halves.

Battle of the Milvian Bridge

312 AD battle where Constantine defeated Maxentius to gain control of Rome.

Edict of Milan

313 AD decree legalizing Christianity and granting religious freedom across the Roman Empire.

Constantinople

The new capital of the Roman Empire, formerly known as Byzantium.

Council of Nicaea

First ecumenical council (325 AD) called to resolve Arianism and compose the Nicene Creed.

Arianism

Heresy asserting that Jesus was a created being inferior to God the Father.

Council of Constantinople

381 AD council that condemned Arianism and Christianized traditional holidays.

Emperor Theodosius

Roman emperor who declared Christianity the official state religion in 391 AD.

Nestorianism

Heresy claiming Christ had two separate natures and that Mary was not the Mother of God.

Pelagianism

Heresy denying original sin and asserting salvation is earned through good works without God's grace.

Monophysitism

Heresy asserting that Christ possessed only a divine nature.

Manicheism

Gnostic movement based on a cosmic duality between light and darkness.

Monasticism

Movement where individuals commit to communal lives of prayer, sacrifice, and devotion.

Barbarians

Germanic tribes living outside the empire that conquered Rome in 476 AD.

Vandals

Germanic tribe that established a kingdom in North Africa.

Romulus Augustulus

The final emperor of the Western Roman Empire.

Byzantium

The Greek-speaking Eastern Roman Empire and its capital city.

Emperor Justinian

Eastern emperor who codified Roman law into the Codex Constitutium in 528 AD.

Fall of the Eastern Empire

The 1453 AD collapse of the Byzantine Empire to the Ottoman Turks.

St. Anthony of Egypt

First Christian monk who lived in complete solitude as a hermit.

Religious Orders

Communities of men and women dedicated to lives of prayer and service to God.

Vows of Religious Life

Poverty, chastity, and obedience.

Ecumenical Council

A Church gathering called to resolve doctrinal disputes and refute heresies.

Ambrose of Milan

Lawyer and bishop who fought Arianism and stood against Emperor Theodosius.

St. Jerome

Church scholar who translated the Bible into Latin.

Arius' Argument

Claimed Jesus was an exceptional creation rather than God or equal to the Father.

Homoousios

Greek theological term meaning 'consubstantial' or 'of the same substance'.

Consubstantial

Of the exact same nature or substance.

Apollinaris' Heresy

Denied that Christ possessed a human mind and full human nature.

Theotokos

Greek title for Mary meaning 'Mother of God' or 'God-bearer'.

Constantine

First Christian Roman emperor who issued the Edict of Milan.

Maxentius

Co-emperor defeated by Constantine at the Battle of the Milvian Bridge.

In Hoc Signo Vinces

Latin phrase meaning 'In this sign you will conquer'.

Chi Rho

Christian monogram representing the first two letters of 'Christ' in Greek.