Tuesday, June 17, 2025

It is the 17th of June 2025. Welcome to the Christian History Almanac, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org; I’m Dan van Voorhis.

I feel bad for the Middle Ages. At least I didn’t call them the “Dark Ages”- that’s some real Renaissance chauvinism (everything was Dark until those Italians started getting fancy, or so they thought…) But even when we gussy up the name to ‘Medieval’ we need to be reminded that this is just a latin word for “middle”- and back to this idea that the years from about 500 to about 1500 were just a lull between eras of Italian glory.

Back in my full-time teaching days, my course on Medieval history didn’t get the numbers that other classes got- I blame the Italians. But, what if I told you that some of the most important and fascinating events in all of church history took place in this period as the church continued to grow and develop- but with considerable growing pains, either internally or with the parallel growth of Islam developing out of the Arabian peninsula and into lands once held by the church.

It can be a tricky time- in fact, the Roman Empire, which had fallen, gave way to the Byzantine Empire, and today we still use the term “Byzantine” to mean intricate and ornate to the level of confusion. But I can straighten it out for you with the story of one man- Martin… no, not that one- rather Pope Martin, who came to an ignominious end but who has since been venerated by both Eastern and Western churches and is the last Pope to die a martyr's death.

To understand Martin and the Middle Ages in a nutshell, we can keep two big ideas and their tensions in mind. The first is the battle between the sacred and the secular- in our case, this would show up as a battle between the Emperor (now in Constantinople) and the Pope (usually in Rome). The second is the age-old and forever battle over the two natures in Christ, that is: how is he human and how is he divine, and how is he both without overemphasizing one of the other.

Pope Martin was elected in 649- between then and when Gregory the Great died in 609, there had been 10 Popes- it had been a rocky time, in part because the Emperor in Constantinople had demanded that they confirm any Pope before they were consecrated. This was in part because they had tried to hold together the “Christian Empire” from Islam and other burgeoning empires in the face of theological disagreement over the two natures in Christ.

Enter Pope Martin I- Elected in 649, didn’t wait for the Emperor to confirm him. Strike 1. Then he called one of the more significant councils in the Middle Ages- the Lateran Council of 649 (called such because it was held in the lateran palace in Rome) which had over 100 bishops present to confirm the teachings of the council of Chalcedon and condemn “monothelitism” or the idea that while Christ had two natures he only had one will. The issue had been threatening the peace of the church, such that the Emperor forbade any discussion on the matter. So, holding a whole council on the topic put Martin in the crosshairs. So much so that he had his bed moved into the Lateran basilica in front of the altar, such that he wouldn’t be arrested as he slept.  

Well, so much for that kind of literal “sanctuary” as it was on this, the 17th of June in 653, the exarch of Italy was ordered to arrest Pope Martin. The emperor didn’t want the trial to reopen the question of the will of Christ, and so they had him charged with an invented conspiracy in which he was said to have been in league with the Muslims to overthrow the Empire. He was quickly found guilty of treason and humiliated- his vestments were stripped, and he was publicly flogged in the city streets before being sent to Crimea in exile, where he died.

History, however, has been kinder to Pope Martin I as he has been rehabilitated and renamed St. Martin the Confessor- recognized as both a saint in the Western and Eastern churches and named the “confessor” for his role in defending the two natures of Christ. A lot of Pope talk recently, this is still 1517 but we do well to remember the whole panoply of church history- especially with a character as representative and instructive for his era- not the last pope to be arrested, but the last Martyred- Pope Martin I.

The Last word for today comes from the daily lectionary and Psalm 124:

If the Lord had not been on our side—
    let Israel say—

if the Lord had not been on our side

    when people attacked us,

they would have swallowed us alive

    when their anger flared against us;

the flood would have engulfed us,

    the torrent would have swept over us,

the raging waters

    would have swept us away.

Praise be to the Lord,

    who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

We have escaped like a bird

    from the fowler’s snare;


the snare has been broken,

    and we have escaped.

Our help is in the name of the Lord,

    the Maker of heaven and earth.

This has been the Christian History Almanac for the 17th of June 2025, brought to you by 1517 at 1517.org.

The show is produced by a man whose favorite martins are… c’mon- who are we kidding… he is Christopher Gillespie.

The show is written and read by a man who thought the raging waters were where the 10 and the 210 meet in San Dimas…I’m Dan van Voorhis. 

You can catch us here every day- and remember that the rumors of grace, forgiveness, and the redemption of all things are true…. Everything is going to be ok.