05 — The Three-Languages Heresy and Rome
The Slavonic liturgy provoked a doctrine the brothers called a heresy: the claim of Frankish clergy that God might rightly be worshipped only in the three “sacred” languages — Hebrew, Greek, and Latin — the tongues of the inscription on the Cross. This section treats the brothers’ refutation of that “trilingual” or “Pilatian” error, argued first at Venice and then before the Pope, and the consequential journey to Rome: the papal approval of the Slavonic books and liturgy, Constantine’s profession as the monk Cyril, and his death in Rome on 14 February 869.
Tradition: Pan-Orthodox (Equals-to-the-Apostles)
The trilingual dispute is the theological pivot of the whole story. On its outcome depended whether the Slavonic liturgy would be tolerated or suppressed, and the brothers staked their mission on winning it. They carried the question to the one tribunal that could settle it in the West — the Apostolic See of Rome — and, remarkably, won: Pope Hadrian II approved the Slavonic books, blessed the liturgy, and ordained the brothers’ disciples. But the victory cost Constantine his life: worn out by his labors, he took the monastic habit and the name Cyril in Rome and died there in 869, charging his brother to carry the work on. These files set out the argument and the journey.
Files in This Section
| File | Description |
|---|---|
| The Trilingual Dispute | The “three sacred languages” doctrine of the Frankish clergy; the debate at Venice as the Vita Constantini renders it; Constantine’s scriptural and patristic refutation; the “Pilatian heresy.” |
| To Rome and the Death of Cyril | The journey to Rome with the Clementine relics; Pope Hadrian II’s approval of the Slavonic liturgy and the ordination of the disciples; Constantine’s monastic profession as Cyril and his death on 14 February 869; his burial at San Clemente. |
See Also
- Liturgy in the Slavonic Tongue — the worship that provoked the dispute
- Relics of Clement of Rome — the gift that won the brothers their Roman welcome
- Archbishop and the Frankish Conflict — the conflict’s continuation after Cyril’s death
- Holy Tradition — the authority by which the Church discerns true from false teaching
References
- Vita Constantini (Life of Constantine), chapters 15–18. Trans. in Marvin Kantor, Medieval Slavic Lives of Saints and Princes. Ann Arbor: Michigan Slavic Publications, 1983.
- Vita Methodii (Life of Methodius), chapters 6–7. Trans. in Kantor, Medieval Slavic Lives, 1983.
- Dvornik, Francis. Byzantine Missions Among the Slavs. New Brunswick: Rutgers University Press, 1970, ch. 5.
- Tachiaos, Anthony-Emil N. Cyril and Methodius of Thessalonica. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press, 2001, chs. 6–7.
- Vlasto, A. P. The Entry of the Slavs into Christendom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970, ch. 2.