609
Northern Egypt
For the past several months, Organa, leader of the Bulgarian tribesmen who travelled south at the bidding of the Byzantine Emperor, would lead his 150,000 Bulgarian people (and another 8000 or so Syrians or Ghassanids) west through the deserts, crossing from Asia into Africa.
During this time, virtually the entirety of his tribe had converted to the Miaphysite Church, hearing many sermons (heavily translated) lambasting the Byzantines for their view of God's two natures being somehow different than the Miaphysite's view of God's two natures.
In truth, it all seemed the same to him but Organa did not tell that to the Miaphysites clergy and his Syrian friends. What DID matter to Organa was the tales of fertile lands, huge populations and great riches of Egypt. Learning that 30,000 Greek Catholics ruled over a land of 5 million Coptic Miaphysites....well, that was interesting wasn't it.
Organa arrived in Egypt to find the nation wracked in rebellion. The Greeks, Jews and whatever other minorities present in the land were being suppressed, humiliated and often slaughtered. A handful of fortresses remained in Byzantine hands but were already feeling the strain of waiting for the Emperor's forces to arrive.
Only a week prior to the Bulgarians reaching Alexandria, 15,000 Byzantine troops made their belated arrival. The Byzantines would fight one quick, bitter engagement with the Coptic rebels before belatedly realizing the true threat. In the plains outside the city, the Byzantine Empire Army was routed utterly and completely, the survivors fleeing for their ships.
Organa simply let them go. He then dispatched messengers to the few remaining Greek or Byzantine loyalist holdouts and informed them that they had three choices:
They may join their cousins on their ships without further incident.
They may put down their arms and return in freedom to their homes (including the Greek Catholics).
They may try to hold out longer and be slaughtered.
Unsurprisingly, most choose options 1 or 2. Those few remaining held out a bit longer but soon saw the writing on the wall and would later receive the same generous terms from Organa.
Having crushed the Byzantines....and seen the riches of the northern Nile Delta, Organa approached the gates and "requested" that Pope Anastasius come out to greet him. Having absolutely no knowledge of Bulgars (he'd only heard of them a few months prior), the Pope bravely exited the city with only a few attendants to meet this new conqueror. To his shock, Organa knelt (and signaled his largely newly converted army to do the same) and requested that the Pope bless his new disciples.
Stunned, Anastasius agreed and was warmly welcomed by Organa, whom calmly explained that he was the new King of Egypt. The Pope was then personally requested to baptize Organa's three year old nephew, Kubrat, and bring him directly into the faith.
The Copts would be no less confused than Anastasius. However, when they learned that a Miaphysite King, controlling a vast army, had slaughtered the hated Byzantines in battle, the gates were thrown open. Under Organa's strict command, the city was not pillaged. Instead, promises were made of good grazing land near the Nile for the Bulgarian (and Syrian/Ghassamid) soldiers and families.
Organa entered the city, receiving homage from his new subjects. Surrounded by his subjects (and a very good translator), King Organa removed his helmet, bent over and used it to dig several handfuls of soil from the ground. He proclaimed that, on this spot, the Miaphysite Church (later mainly just called "Coptic") would raise a new cathedral here in the city where Coptic clergy had been forbidden by law to enter.
Toledo, Hispania
Heraclius the Younger, having crushed the remnant of the Arian Visigoths, would attempt to consolidate his power over 609 and 610 over the various factions of the peninsula. Even the term Latin term "Hispania" and Greek Term "Iberia" tended to cause problems. The peninsula had spoken Latin for centuries and, seeking to differentiate between the former Western Roman Empire and the Greek-led Byzantine Empire, Heraclius the Younger would tend to present himself as the "Latin" candidate.
The General would find a certain level of assistance by the fortuitous lack of clerical leadership emerging from the east. With Rome fallen and Byzantium in such dire political and economic straights that a new Pope could not even be selected, there was precious little competition from Byzantium for the attention of the Hispanian people.
Heraclius, whom hadn't exactly been confident that the coup launched by his father, the former Exarch of Africa and now King of Cathage, would go so long without Byzantine interference. It appeared, however, that the Byzantine Empire was perhaps on its last legs.
Byzantium
Though it would be months before Theodosius would receive news of the defeat in Egypt, that did not mean that the ensuing months were not chaotic and soul-crushing.
Over the course of the past two years, Theodosius would allow the clergy to try to resolve the issue of the Papacy having lost the Eternal City to the Arian heretics. With many assuming that the Holy City would soon be reclaimed (by 610, it was apparent that it would not, at least not by Byzantium's sword. Rumor had it that the Italian Catholics had repeatedly risen up against the Lombards only to be crushed again and again.
Theodosius would order the bishops of the Empire to Byzantium by Christmas in order to select a new Pope. The Roman Clergy had historically chosen the new Pope (after receiving the blessing of the Roman nobles). However, the exiled Roman Clergy and Nobles in Byzantium soon learned that the rest of the church had never been particularly happy with that arrangement and would eagerly convene to select the next leader.
Humiliated and outraged, over a hundred Roman priests and nobles would convene across town with the intent of selecting their own Pope, publicly dismissing even the possibility that anyone else had a say in the matter. Naturally, that merely encouraged their rivals and ensured a break between factions.
Rome
The King of the Lombards, Agilulf, would quickly tire of these rebellions. No matter how brutally they were put down, the Italians only rose up again. Priests were removed from their churches, the buildings handed over to Arian settlers. It was hoped by the King that the Latins would see reason after a while if their priests could be made to stop inciting the riots. But nothing worked.
In desperation, the King went to the remaining Roman clergy and offered a deal. He would allow them to select a Pope among them...if they found a way to reconcile the Non-Trinitarian Arian Church with their own faith.
The idea was so absurd that several of the priests present laughed in the King's face. While many of the clergy would be willing to compromise on esoteric wording (like the minor differences between the Miaphysite and Catholic Chalcedonian Churches), the Arians were so far beyond heretical that no common ground could possibly exist.
Agilulf, who was willing to compromise on the Arian faith itself if the priests could have bent a LITTLE, flew into a rage and slaughtered every Roman clergymen present. He then ordered every Catholic church closed within the confines of Rome.
The response was a predictable rebellion, once again brutally put down with the aid of hundreds of thousands of Visigoths, Vandals, Bavarians, Burgundians and others arriving from the rest of Europe. Indeed, the death toll was so high that there were good lands available to all of these peoples to settle, thus providing the King with a secure base of support the length of Italy.
Agilulf, seeing the futility of forcing people to a new faith, opted to simply cut off access to the old one. With the priests rounded up, the largely illiterate peasants would have no one to teach them the Catholic liturgy. With Arian priests then set up in the churches, it was believed that the peasants would naturally gravitate to them to learn the word of god. In another generation or two, the old faith would be gone.
However, this would prove more difficult than Agilulf imagined. He began to see the benefits of an organized church and began conceiving of unifying the somewhat disparate groups of Arians.