Illyricum

ILLYRICUM. - A coastal region east of the Adriatic, originally comprising Dalmatia and Albania, which under the Roman Empire gradually extended inland as far as the Danube and along the sea as far as the Aegean, excluding Thrace. It was evangelized by St. Paul (Rom. 15:19), who stayed there several times until the end of his apostolic activity (Tit. 3:12: he goes to Nicopolis, where he summons Titus). A praetorian prefecture from Diocletian onward; in the Constantinian era, when the ecclesiastical hierarchy was not yet organized, there corresponded to it a group of episcopal sees which by force of circumstance were in frequent relations with one another, as appears at the Council of Sardica (343-44); during the same 4th century, however, two sees, both imperial residences, began to take on special importance: Sirmium for the western Illyricum and Thessalonica for the eastern; but as Sirmium declined, Aquileia, Milan (St. Ambrose) and later Salona acquired influence in that area; from the end of the 4th century Thessalonica began to receive important commissions from the Pope, so that the institution of the so-called vicariate gradually took shape, almost a kind of legateship.

Thus in the 5th century one sees a complete hierarchy, made up of provinces corresponding to the civil provinces: Noricum Ripense and Mediterraneum (metropolitan sees Lusitano and Teurnia), Dalmatia (metropolitan see Salona), Pannonia I, Valeria, Pannonia II (metropolitan see Sirmium), Savia, forming the western group; Moesia I, Dacia Ripensis, Dacia Mediterranea (metropolitan see Sardica), Dardania (metropolitan see Scupi, later Justiniana I), Praevalitana (metropolitan see Scodra), Macedonia (metropolitan see Thessalonica), Epirus Nova (metropolitan see Durazzo), Epirus Vetus (metropolitan see Nicopolis), Thessaly (metropolitan see Larissa), Achaea (metropolitan see Corinth) and Crete, the last of which, however, remained ecclesiastically almost apart.

The rise of Constantinople, as capital of the Empire and therefore also as a most important episcopal see and then even patriarchal, on the one hand, and the many relations of Illyricum with the Roman See on the other, made this region the classic field of contention between the old and the new Rome in matters of jurisdiction (schism was not yet spoken of); there were attempts, beginning with St. John Chrysostom, on the part of Constantinople to extend Byzantine influence over Illyricum, but because of the country's western tendency and papal vigilance, they came to nothing; the Illyrian ecclesiastical history of the 5th, 6th and 7th centuries is a whole fabric of papal administrative measures, exercised directly or through the bishop of Salona, for the western Illyricum (without any interference of Constantinople in this part); and directly or through the "vicar" of Thessalonica or another appointee, for the eastern; moreover the Roman See exercised influence over Illyricum as far as Scodra through the administrators of the pontifical patrimonies of Dalmatia and Praevalitana. Under Justinian (535), Thessalonica, which had by then practically lapsed from the vicariate because of its participation in the Acacian schism (end of the 5th century; beginning of the 6th), lost it in favor of the Emperor's homeland, the newly erected Justiniana Prima, and of other sees which from time to time received important commissions. The result was that the western Illyricum and the northern provinces of the eastern (especially Praevalitana) always maintained a frankly Roman character and orthodoxy, and the southern ones, even if they sometimes allowed themselves to be drawn into heretical or schismatic movements, always ended by returning to rectify their position.

Characteristic, for example, is the constant position of the Illyrian bishops at the great Councils (Ephesus, Chalcedon, etc.): even counting exponents of strong theological worth, they remain at first hesitant or neutral, until, as soon as the Roman position crystallized, they automatically reattached themselves to it.

The barbarian invasions which submerged most of the peninsula caused almost all the ancient sees to disappear on the one hand, and on the other made relations between Rome and the surviving ones difficult; the iconoclast Leo the Isaurian took advantage of this to detach Illyricum from Rome and assign it to Constantinople: the Adriatic coast from Scodra upward, however, continued in its tradition, while from then on the rest of the region, even through pontifical protests and local resistance, was in practice lost to direct Roman jurisdiction; the last act of the drama was played out over jurisdiction over the Bulgarians (second half of the 9th century) settled in Illyrian provinces, and for that reason claimed by Rome; from then on, too, in matters of heresy and schism, if not always, very often the eastern Illyricum would follow Constantinople; true it is, however, that by then the ecclesiastical toponym "Illyricum" was no longer officially spoken of.

Giuseppe Valentini