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In 451, the leaders of various Christian churches met at Chalcedon to hammer out a solution to the monophisite controversy. According to the traditional understanding common in church history--which I will accept as basically true for the purposes of this discussion--the so-called Tome of Leo was a decisive event at the counsel. Pope Leo laid down the line the counsel eventually took: one Christ, two natures.

However, it is generally accepted that Eastern emperors preferred a more compromising position. After all, Leo wasn't dealing with monophisitism on any large scale at all in the west and--it has been argued--didn't deal adequately with the complexity of the Greek.

So, let's assume Pope Leo's messengers never make it to the counsel, and the statement issued at Chalcedon is more akin to the henoticon promulgated by Emperor Xeno forty years document. This document basically treated the dispute over one-nature verses two-nature Christology as though it never happened. Of course, Leo is a bit distracted at the time--the Huns are just about on his doorstep--so it's conceivable he might not be able to respond before this counsel becomes official throughout the ERE.

"Okay, but what does this mean outside the realm of complex trinitarian Christian theology nobody today can even understand?" My simple answer is that it could mean a more stable and powerful Eastern Roman Empire. Given that Syria and Egypt were the two regions most alienated by the hard-line Chalcedonianism of later Emperors, a more modest position which allows for one-nature and two-nature christology to co-exist within one church might actually keep the Empire somewhat more united. There will be hard-case monasteries on both sides, but they can probably be delt with.

On the other hand, it could mean a much earlier breech with Rome. I'm invisioning a worse version of the schism briefly inaugurated after the Henoticon was put in place. If this happens earlier--and isn't reversed--the consequences could be huge for the political development of both the ERE and Western Europe.

Thoughts? Does anyone want to see a TL, or to question the assumptions I've made so far?
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