The Church Fathers: Sola Scriptura or Catholic? Introduction and Table of Contents

One of the major arguments that takes place between Catholics and Protestants is over whether the Fathers of the early Church support a Catholic or a Protestant epistemology (“epistemology” is simply a fancy, but convenient, word for “a method of knowing truth”).

The Protestant epistemology is the doctrine of Sola Scriptura. The basic idea is that God has given us an infallible revelation in the Bible, and that this is the only place we can find God's infallible revelation. God has not granted infallibility to any Church tradition, and he has not granted to the Church or to anyone else infallibility in their interpretation and application of God's revelation in the Bible. No doubt the best and most classic statement of this position is in the words of the founder of Protestantism, Martin Luther, at the Diet of Worms. Luther was commanded by the Catholic Church to recant his teachings in light of the fact that they were condemned by the Church. Luther refused, and gave his reason for this refusal:

Unless I am convinced by Scripture and plain reason - I do not accept the authority of the popes and councils, for they have contradicted each other - my conscience is captive to the Word of God. I cannot and I will not recant anything for to go against conscience is neither right nor safe. God help me. Amen. (Retrieved from http://www.luther.de/en/worms.html)

Sola Scriptura does not mean that we can't try to get help in our attempts to interpret the Bible from popes, councils, the Fathers of the Church, theologians, Church historians, etc., but it does mean that we cannot trust any of these other sources implicitly. We must always examine them in light of what we think Scripture is saying. After carefully taking into consideration all of the evidence we can get our hands on, after listening humbly and respectfully to the advice of others, especially those who are rightly held in high esteem in the Church, we must decide what we think is the correct biblical interpretation, and then we must stick with that, no matter who disagrees with us.

The Catholic view, on the other hand, is that God has given us, as it were, a three-legged school, and that all three legs are necessary for the correct interpretation and application of the word of God. God has given us the Bible. The Bible is the infallible, inerrant word of God. In this, Catholics agree with Protestants. God has also handed down his word in the Tradition of the Church. In addition to the writing, collecting, preserving, and handing on of Scripture, the Church has also passed down the message of God by means of her preaching, her life, her worship, and her teaching. The Catholic view is that this other way of handing down the message of God has been blessed by God's gift of infallibility as well. The Tradition of the Church is also infallible, like the Scriptures. We can learn the revelation of God from both with equal surety. God has also blessed the Church herself with the gift of infallibility, and particularly her leaders, the bishops. The body of leaders and teachers in the Church is called the Magisterium. The Catholic position is that God has granted to the Church the gift of being able to unerringly recognize, gather, preserve, hand down, interpret, and apply the revelation of God whether found in Scripture or Tradition. The Catholic position also holds that the Church grows in her understanding and application of the word of God through history by the infallible guidance of the Holy Spirit.  (You can read about this in the Catholic Church's own words here, especially Chapter II.)

In practice, then, where the rubber meets the road, if a Protestant is confronted with a contradiction between his own (carefully, humbly thought-out) interpretation of Scripture and what the visible, institutional Church is teaching (say, in a recognized Ecumenical Council), he will go with his own interpretation of Scripture. A Catholic, on the other hand, will follow the teaching of the Church. To take a concrete example: The Bible doesn't explicitly address the question of whether or not infants should be baptized. Proponents and opponents of infant baptism try to derive their view from inferences made from various statements and doctrines of Scripture. If a Protestant comes to the conclusion that, as far as he can tell, the best interpretation of Scripture would oppose infant baptism, then he will (if he is consistent) oppose infant baptism, even if the institutional Church as a whole is telling him to do otherwise. A Catholic, on the other hand, upon hearing the teaching of the Church, will decide that his own attempt to interpret Scripture in this case has been faulty, and he will abandon his own interpretation for that of the Church.

So the big question is, Which of these views or attitudes was embraced by the early Church and the Fathers of the early Church?

A few years back, when I was trying to get a clear idea of what the early Church had to say about the idea of the papacy (the authority and role of the Pope of Rome), one of the books I found by far to be the most helpful was a book written by an Anglican who simply printed out the vast majority of the quotations from the Fathers that had a bearing on this issue and also provided commentary on each quotation from both Catholic and Anglican scholars arguing for or against the papacy. The reason I found this book so helpful was that, while there are a host of books and articles on all sides arguing various views of what the Church Fathers had to say about the papacy, this book wasn't trying to present a case for one view or another. It was simply trying to lay out for readers the basic data and the arguments on both sides, allowing the reader to do his own critical thinking for himself without having to worry he was getting only a biased polemical argument or a set of one-sided quotations. This book had a huge influence on shaping my view of the papacy in the early Church.

There are many articles out there by Catholics and Protestants trying to argue that the Church Fathers took this or that view of Scripture and its relationship to the Tradition and authority of the Church. But I have not found an easily available resource doing what that book on the papacy did—simply presenting the relevant quotations used by all sides so that the reader can form his own judgment. So that's what I have done in this set of posts. I've gone through a number of articles written by both Catholics and Protestants. I've picked out from these the major quotations from the Church Fathers appealed to, gone back to their original sources to check the context, and then I've printed them here with enough context to tell what the quotation is trying to say in its own setting. There are a lot of quotations! I've ended up with fifteen posts full of them! But if you're the kind of person who wants to see for yourself what the Fathers had to say about Scripture, Tradition, and Church authority, and the relationship between these, you will find these posts a treasure-trove. I'm not sure you could get much closer to an objective presentation of the teaching of the Fathers on these issues unless you would go back and just read through all of them yourself in their entirety.

One of the things I've often found annoying about quotations from the Fathers used in controversy is that people tend often to provide tiny snippets of quotation, sometimes only a single sentence or two. The problem with this is that it is difficult to be sure that one is not getting words, phrases, or sentences out of context. So what I have done is go back to find the original sources of each of the quotations I've printed here, and I've put in enough context so that readers can see clearly what the quotation means (rather than taking the quoter's word for it). Some may think I've gone too far in this sometimes and provided too much surrounding text, but I say, better safe than sorry. There are a few times I have not been able to find the original source or context of a quotation. In such cases, I have made a note after the quotation that this has been the case.

Just to illustrate the importance of context, let me provide an example I came across of a quotation taken out of context. A Protestant apologist provided a quotation from St. Vincent of Lerins, a fifth century Father, in one of his articles. Here was his quotation: “. . . the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient.” The author intended this quotation as evidence that St. Vincent believed in Sola Scriptura. However, here is some larger context for this quotation:

But here some one perhaps will ask, Since the canon of Scripture is complete, and sufficient of itself for everything, and more than sufficient, what need is there to join with it the authority of the Church's interpretation? For this reason — because, owing to the depth of Holy Scripture, all do not accept it in one and the same sense, but one understands its words in one way, another in another; so that it seems to be capable of as many interpretations as there are interpreters. For Novatian expounds it one way, Sabellius another, Donatus another, Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, another, Photinus, Apollinaris, Priscillian, another, Iovinian, Pelagius, Celestius, another, lastly, Nestorius another. Therefore, it is very necessary, on account of so great intricacies of such various error, that the rule for the right understanding of the prophets and apostles should be framed in accordance with the standard of Ecclesiastical and Catholic interpretation. (This is from St. Vincent of Lerins's Commonitory, which you can read in full here.)

The context here reveals the meaning of St. Vincent's comment to be pretty much the exact opposite from what that little snippet by itself suggested. And in these posts, you will find even more context given for St. Vincent's comment in its proper place.

(Of course, I should add that Catholic apologists sometimes do the same sort of thing. For one example, I came across a Catholic apologist providing a quotation seeming to support a Catholic view of Tradition from St. Jerome. The apologist, however, had neglected to mention that the quotation came from a fictional dialogue written by St. Jerome, and particularly that the quotation was from the bad guy [from St. Jerome's point of view] in the dialogue. In this case, however, it does seem that St. Jerome himself endorsed what his fictional opponent was saying, based on the wider context, but I found it frustrating to be presented with a quote from St. Jerome without being told a very relevant aspect of its context.)

The large majority of my quotations are taken from the plain text versions of the writings of the Ante-Nicene, Nicene, and Post-Nicene Fathers found on the website of the Christian Classics Ethereal Library. (You can find the collection here.)  This is the famous nineteenth-century edition of the Fathers edited by Philip Schaff. I chose to make use of the plain text versions of these writings from CCEL because they are completely in the public domain, and, especially with so many quotations, I find looking up lots of proper citations for copyrighted books tedious. The quotations that come from other sources are, of course, provided with fuller citations. Although I have decided not to provide links with each of these quotations, if you know how to do a good Google search, I've provided you plenty of material to find the full works each of these quotations have come from, should you be inclined to go and look them up.

I mentioned that I found many of these quotations with the help of various Protestant and Catholic articles (even though, unless otherwise noted, I did not actually take the quotations from these sources but rather looked them up and copied them myself from their original source locations). I made use of two very helpful (but also very polemical) articles by Protestant apologist William Webster (found here and here). I also made use of some articles from Catholic apologist Dave Armstrong (here, here, and here), as well as some other sources (here and here). I no doubt utilized some other sources I don't even remember at this point. (I've been working on this for some time now.) I also found some of the quotations on my own. So thank you to all who helped me compile all of this!

Note that my focus in this compilation has been narrowly upon the Fathers' ideas of Scripture, Tradition, and Church authority, and the relationships between these. There are a number of related issues I avoided but that are also important, particularly the issue of the papacy. The papacy plays a hugely important role in Catholic epistemology, and I think the Catholic position is abundantly testified to in the early Church, but I have not focused any attention on garnering quotations related to this issue. It comes up from time to time incidentally in the quotations, but most of the data from the Fathers relevant to that issue is not here. You will have to look elsewhere for that. (And one resource I would very highly recommend is that book on the papacy in the early Church I mentioned earlier, which you can read about here.)

Also, note that, of course, even though there are a lot of quotations, lots more could be added!  What is here provides a nice, overall picture of the thinking of the Fathers, and it also includes most of the typical quotations that are used polemically by Protestants trying to show Sola Scriptura in the Fathers and by Catholics responding to them.  In fact, the selection of Fathers and quotations to focus on has been driven largely by the choices of Protestant apologists, and particularly by William Webster, looking for evidence of Sola Scriptura in the Fathers.  There are Fathers, especially later Fathers like St. Gregory the Great, that have been left out mostly because Protestants have not focused on them as much.  Nevertheless, what we have here illustrates well the overall thinking of the Fathers.  I also included at the end a series of quotations from various Church councils, especially Ecumenical councils, which round out the whole collection of quotations a bit.

I should also briefly note that a few of the authors here are somewhat on the borderline when it comes to being categorized with the "holy Fathers"--such as Origen, Tertullian, and, to some extent, Theodoret--because of certain viewpoints that came to be seen as at odds with some of the Church's overall teaching (Tertullian actually left the Catholic Church eventually and joined a sect called the Montanists).  I won't go into details about this here except just to make that note.  But, regardless of their overall position among the Fathers, they are important for their historical testimony and for their contributions.

OK, without further ado, here are the Fathers!

Part One: St. Irenaeus, Tertullian

Part Two: Clement of Alexandria

Part Three: Origen, St. Cyril of Jerusalem

Part Four: St. Athanasius

Part Five: St. John Chrysostom

Part Six: St. Gregory of Nyssa

Part Seven: St. Basil of Caesarea, St. Gregory of Nazianzus

Part Eight: St. Augustine of Hippo

Part Nine: St. Augustine of Hippo, continued

Part Ten: St. Augustine of Hippo, continued

Part Eleven: St. Epiphanius of Salamis, St. Isidore of Pelusium, St. Jerome, St. Vincent of Lerins

Part Twelve: St. Cyprian, St. Ambrose, Theophilus of Antioch, St. Nicetas of Remesiana, Theodoret of Cyrus

Part Thirteen: St. Thomas Aquinas, Church councils

Part Fourteen: Church councils, continued

Part Fifteen: Church councils, continued

My Personal Conclusion

Taking the teaching of the Fathers as a whole, I, personally, would summarize their view of Scripture, Tradition, and Church authority in this way:

The word of God has been handed down to us in the Sacred Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments, as well as in the Holy-Spirit-guided Tradition of the Catholic Church.

The Scriptures contain the fullness of the gospel message.  They have parts that are more plain and parts that are more obscure.  The message of salvation is plain in them, so that all can understand, while there is enough depth to keep the intellectuals busy forever.  The Scriptures are, in principle, sufficient to give us everything we need to live the life God calls us to.

God gave to the apostles and to their successors in the Church, the bishops, his Holy Spirit to guide them to unfailingly hand on the truth, both through the writing and preservation of the Sacred Scriptures as well as through the Tradition of the Church—the unwritten proclamation of the truth, the teachings of the holy Fathers, the Church's divine worship, the declarations of the holy councils of the Church (especially the Ecumenical Councils of the entire Catholic Church), etc.  Since the Fathers of the Church, both past and present, have been granted the grace and guidance of the Holy Spirit and the authority of Christ and his apostles, it is just as blasphemous to oppose the Tradition of the Church as to oppose the Scriptures.  One can disagree with individual Fathers, but one must not find oneself in opposition to the Fathers or the Church as a whole.

While the Scriptures are sufficient and sufficiently plain, yet they only lead to truth when used aright.  One must approach them prayerfully, with a pure heart and mind.  One must compare Scripture with Scripture.  And one must interpret and apply Scripture in the context of the Church's Tradition, for the Church provides the authoritative and true interpretation of the meaning of the Scriptures, and the Church has also handed down outside of the Scriptures certain practices and observances (such as, for example, using the sign of the cross, the anointing with holy oil those who are baptized, and the baptizing of infants) which provide essential context for how Scripture is to be applied.

The Church develops in her understanding and articulation of the divine word through time, especially as God prompts his people through the rising up of false teachings or previously-unconsidered questions.  What at one time is obscure may become more plain to the entire Church through the teaching of the Fathers and the deliverances of councils (especially Ecumenical Councils, which decisively and authoritatively affirm doctrine for the entire Church).

It seems to me that a thorough read-through of the Fathers makes it abundantly clear that the early Church held to the Catholic rather than to the Protestant epistemology.  But the reader must judge for himself.  That, after all, is why I've created these posts!  Go see what you think!

The Church Fathers: Sola Scriptura or Catholic? Part Fifteen: Church councils, continued

The Provincial Council of Carthage (418)

For no otherwise can be understood what the Apostle says, "By one man sin is come into the world, and death through sin, and so death passed upon all men in that all have sinned," than the Catholic Church everywhere diffused has always understood it.  For on account of this rule of faith (regulam fidei) even infants, who could have committed as yet no sin themselves, therefore are truly baptized for the remission of sins, in order that what in them is the result of generation may be cleansed by regeneration.  (Synod of Carthage against the heresy of Pelagius and Celestius)

The Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (787)

The bishop Basil of Ancyra read as follows from a book; Inasmuch as ecclesiastical legislation has canonically been handed down from past time, even from the beginning from the holy Apostles, and from their successors, who were our holy fathers and teachers, and also from the six holy and ecumenical synods, and from the local synods which were gathered in the interests of orthodoxy, that those returning from any heresy whatever to the orthodox faith and to the tradition of the Catholic Church, might deny their own heresy, and confess the orthodox faith,

Wherefore I, Basil, bishop of the city of Ancyra, proposing to be united to the Catholic Church, and to Hadrian the most holy Pope of Old Rome, and to Tarasius the most blessed Patriarch, and to the most holy apostolic sees, to wit, Alexandria, Antioch, and the Holy City, as well as to all orthodox high-priests and priests, make this written confession of my faith, and I offer it to you as to those who have received power by apostolic authority.  And in this also I beg pardon from your divinely gathered holiness for my tardiness in this matter. For it was not right that I should have fallen behind in the confession of orthodoxy, but it arose from my entire lack of knowledge, and slothful and negligent mind in the matter.  Wherefore the rather I ask your blessedness to grant me indulgence in God's sight. . . .

Anathema to those who spurn the teachings of the holy Fathers and the tradition of the Catholic Church, taking as a pretext and making their own the arguments of Arius, Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, that unless we were evidently taught by the Old and New Testaments, we should not follow the teachings of the holy Fathers and of the holy Ecumenical Synods, and the tradition of the Catholic Church. . . .

Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch, said:  This whole sacred gathering yields glory and thanks to God for this confession of yours, which you have made to the Catholic Church.

The Holy Synod said:  Glory to God which maketh one that which was severed.  (Extracts from the Acts. Session I.  Confession of Basil of Ancyra)

Fulfilling the divine precept of our God and Saviour Jesus Christ, our holy Fathers did not hide the light of the divine knowledge given by him to them under a bushel, but they set it upon the candlestick of most useful teaching, so that it might give light to all in the house--that is to say, to those who are born in the Catholic Church; lest perchance anyone of those who piously confess the Lord might strike his foot against the stone of heretical evil doctrine.  For they expelled every error of heretics and they cut off the rotten member if it was incurably sick.  And with a fan they purged the floor.  And the good wheat, that is to say the word which nourisheth and which maketh strong the heart of man, they laid up in the granary of the Catholic Church; but throwing outside the chaff of heretical evil opinion they burned it with unquenchable fire.  Therefore also this holy and ecumenical Synod, met together for the second time in this illustrious metropolis of Nice, by the will of God and at the bidding of our pious and most faithful Emperors, Irene a new Helena, and a new Constantine, her God-protected offspring, having considered by their perusal the teachings of our approved and blessed Fathers, hath glorified God himself, from whom there was given to them wisdom for our instruction, and for the perfecting of the Catholic and Apostolic Church:  and against those who do not believe as they did, but have attempted to overshadow the truth through their novelty, they have chanted the words of the psalm: [528]   "Oh how much evil have thine enemies done in thy sanctuary; and have glorified themselves, saying, There is not a teacher any more, and they shall not know that we treated with guile the word of truth."  But we, in all things holding the doctrines and precepts of the same our God-bearing Fathers, make proclamation with one mouth and one heart, neither adding anything, nor taking anything away from those things which have been delivered to us by them.  But in these things we are strengthened, in these things we are confirmed. Thus we confess, thus we teach, just as the holy and ecumenical six Synods have decreed and ratified.  We believe in one God the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible; and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son and Word, through whom all things were made, and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, consubstantial and coeternal with the same Father and with his Son who hath had no beginning.  The unbuilt-up, indivisible, incomprehensible, and non-circumscribed Trinity; he, wholly and alone, is to be worshipped and revered with adoration; one Godhead, one Lordship, one dominion, one realm and dynasty, which without division is apportioned to the Persons, and is fitted to the essence severally.  For we confess that one of the same holy and consubstantial Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ the true God, in these last days was incarnate and made man for our salvation, and having saved our race through his saving incarnation, and passion, and resurrection, and ascension into heaven; and having delivered us from the error of idols; as also the prophet says, Not an ambassador, not an angel, but the Lord himself hath saved us.  Him we also follow, and adopt his voice, and cry aloud; No Synod, no power of kings, no God-hated agreement hath delivered the Church from the error of the idols, as the Jewdaizing conciliabulum hath madly dreamed, which raved against the venerable images; but the Lord of glory himself, the incarnate God, hath saved us and hath snatched us from idolatrous deceit.  To him therefore be glory, to him be thanks, to him be eucharists, to him be praise, to him be magnificence.  For his redemption and his salvation alone can perfectly save, and not that of other men who come of the earth.  For he himself hath fulfilled for us, upon whom the ends of the earth are come through the economy of his incarnation, the words spoken beforehand by his prophets, for he dwelt among us, and went in and out among us, and cast out the names of idols from the earth, as it was written.  But we salute the voices of the Lord and of his Apostles through which we have been taught to honour in the first place her who is properly and truly the Mother of God and exalted above all the heavenly powers; also the holy and angelic powers; and the blessed and altogether lauded Apostles, and the glorious Prophets and the triumphant Martyrs which fought for Christ, and the holy and God-bearing Doctors, and all holy men; and to seek for their intercessions, as able to render us at home with the all-royal God of all, so long as we keep his commandments, and strive to live virtuously.  Moreover we salute the image of the honourable and life-giving Cross, and the holy reliques of the Saints; and we receive the holy and venerable images:  and we salute them, and we embrace them, according to the ancient traditions of the holy Catholic Church of God, that is to say of our holy Fathers, who also received these things and established them in all the most holy Churches of God, and in every place of his dominion.  These honourable and venerable images, as has been said, we honour and salute and reverently venerate:  to wit, the image of the incarnation of our great God and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that of our spotless Lady the all-holy Mother of God, from whom he pleased to take flesh, and to save and deliver us from all impious idolatry; also the images of the holy and incorporeal Angels, who as men appeared to the just.  Likewise also the figures and effigies of the divine and all-lauded Apostles, also of the God-speaking Prophets, and of the struggling Martyrs and of holy men. So that through their representations we may be able to be led back in memory and recollection to the prototype, and have a share in the holiness of some one of them.

Thus we have learned to think of these things, and we have been strengthened by our holy Fathers, and we have been strengthened by their divinely handed down teaching.  And thanks be to God for his ineffable gift, that he hath not deserted us at the end nor hath the rod of the ungodly come into the lot of the righteous, lest the righteous put their hands, that is to say their actual deeds, [529] unto wickedness.  But he doeth well unto those who are good and true of heart, as the psalmist David melodiously has sung; with whom also we sing the rest of the psalm:  As for such as turn back unto their own wickedness, the Lord shall lead them forth with the evil doers; and peace shall be upon the Israel of God.  (Extracts from the Acts. Session IV)

Leo the most renowned secretary said:  The holy and blessed Synod know how at the last session we examined divers sayings of the God-forsaken heretics, who had brought charges against the holy and spotless Church of the Christians for the setting up of the holy images.  But to-day we have in our hands the written blasphemy of those calumniators of the Christians, that is to say, the absurd, and easily answered, and self-convicting definition (horon) of the pseudosyllogus, in all respects agreeing with the impious opinion of the God-hated heretics. But not only have we this, but also the artful and most drastic refutation thereof, which the Holy Spirit had supervised.  For it was right that this definition should be made a triumph by wise contradictions, and should be torn to pieces with strong refutations. This also we submit so as to know your pleasure with regard to it.

The holy Synod said:  Let it be read.

John, the deacon and chancellor [of the most holy great Church of Constantinople, in Lat. only] read.

[John, the deacon, then read the orthodox refutation, and Gregory, the bishop of Neocæsarea, the Definition of the Mock Council, the one reading the heretical statement and the other the orthodox answer.]

[Thus follows the heretical statement from the previous iconoclastic council:]

The holy and Ecumenical synod, which by the grace of God and most pious command of the God-beloved and orthodox Emperors, Constantine and Leo, [531] now assembled in the imperial residence city, in the temple of the holy and inviolate Mother of God and Virgin Mary, surnamed in Blachernæ, have decreed as follows.

Satan misguided men, so that they worshipped the creature instead of the Creator.  The Mosaic law and the prophets cooperated to undo this ruin; but in order to save mankind thoroughly, God sent his own Son, who turned us away from error and the worshipping of idols, and taught us the worshipping of God in spirit and in truth.  As messengers of his saving doctrine, he left us his Apostles and disciples, and these adorned the Church, his Bride, with his glorious doctrines.  This ornament of the Church the holy Fathers and the six Ecumenical Councils have preserved inviolate.  But the before-mentioned demi-urgos of wickedness could not endure the sight of this adornment, and gradually brought back idolatry under the appearance of Christianity.  As then Christ armed his Apostles against the ancient idolatry with the power of the Holy Spirit, and sent them out into all the world, so has he awakened against the new idolatry his servants our faithful Emperors, and endowed them with the same wisdom of the Holy Spirit.  Impelled by the Holy Spirit they could no longer be witnesses of the Church being laid waste by the deception of demons, and summoned the sanctified assembly of the God-beloved bishops, that they might institute at a synod a scriptural examination into the deceitful colouring of the pictures (homoiomaton) which draws down the spirit of man from the lofty adoration (latreias) of God to the low and material adoration (latreian) of the creature, and that they, under divine guidance, might express their view on the subject.

Our holy synod therefore assembled, and we, its 338 members, follow the older synodal decrees, and accept and proclaim joyfully the dogmas handed down, principally those of the six holy Ecumenical Synods.  In the first place the holy and ecumenical great synod assembled at Nice, etc.

After we had carefully examined their decrees under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we found that the unlawful art of painting living creatures blasphemed the fundamental doctrine of our salvation--namely, the Incarnation of Christ, and contradicted the six holy synods.  These condemned Nestorius because he divided the one Son and Word of God into two sons, and on the other side, Arius, Dioscorus, Eutyches, and Severus, because they maintained a mingling of the two natures of the one Christ.

Wherefore we thought it right, to shew forth with all accuracy, in our present definition the error of such as make and venerate these, for it is the unanimous doctrine of all the holy Fathers and of the six Ecumenical Synods, that no one may imagine any kind of separation or mingling in opposition to the unsearchable, unspeakable, and incomprehensible union of the two natures in the one hypostasis or person.  What avails, then, the folly of the painter, who from sinful love of gain depicts that which should not be depicted--that is, with his polluted hands he tries to fashion that which should only be believed in the heart and confessed with the mouth?  He makes an image and calls it Christ.  The name Christ signifies God and man. Consequently it is an image of God and man, and consequently he has in his foolish mind, in his representation of the created flesh, depicted the Godhead which cannot be represented, and thus mingled what should not be mingled.  Thus he is guilty of a double blasphemy--the one in making an image of the Godhead, and the other by mingling the Godhead and manhood.  Those fall into the same blasphemy who venerate the image, and the same woe rests upon both, because they err with Arius, Dioscorus, and Eutyches, and with the heresy of the Acephali.  When, however, they are blamed for undertaking to depict the divine nature of Christ, which should not be depicted, they take refuge in the excuse: We represent only the flesh of Christ which we have seen and handled. But that is a Nestorian error.  For it should be considered that that flesh was also the flesh of God the Word, without any separation, perfectly assumed by the divine nature and made wholly divine.  How could it now be separated and represented apart?  So is it with the human soul of Christ which mediates between the Godhead of the Son and the dulness of the flesh.  As the human flesh is at the same time flesh of God the Word, so is the human soul also soul of God the Word, and both at the same time, the soul being deified as well as the body, and the Godhead remained undivided even in the separation of the soul from the body in his voluntary passion.  For where the soul of Christ is, there is also his Godhead; and where the body of Christ is, there too is his Godhead.  If then in his passion the divinity remained inseparable from these, how do the fools venture to separate the flesh from the Godhead, and represent it by itself as the image of a mere man?  They fall into the abyss of impiety, since they separate the flesh from the Godhead, ascribe to it a subsistence of its own, a personality of its own, which they depict, and thus introduce a fourth person into the Trinity.  Moreover, they represent as not being made divine, that which has been made divine by being assumed by the Godhead.  Whoever, then, makes an image of Christ, either depicts the Godhead which cannot be depicted, and mingles it with the manhood (like the Monophysites), or he represents the body of Christ as not made divine and separate and as a person apart, like the Nestorians.

The only admissible figure of the humanity of Christ, however, is bread and wine in the holy Supper.  This and no other form, this and no other type, has he chosen to represent his incarnation.  Bread he ordered to be brought, but not a representation of the human form, so that idolatry might not arise.  And as the body of Christ is made divine, so also this figure of the body of Christ, the bread, is made divine by the descent of the Holy Spirit; it becomes the divine body of Christ by the mediation of the priest who, separating the oblation from that which is common, sanctifies it.

The evil custom of assigning names to the images does not come down from Christ and the Apostles and the holy Fathers; nor have these left behind them any prayer by which an image should be hallowed or made anything else than ordinary matter.

If, however, some say, we might be right in regard to the images of Christ, on account of the mysterious union of the two natures, but it is not right for us to forbid also the images of the altogether spotless and ever-glorious Mother of God, of the prophets, apostles, and martyrs, who were mere men and did not consist of two natures; we may reply, first of all:  If those fall away, there is no longer need of these.  But we will also consider what may be said against these in particular.  Christianity has rejected the whole of heathenism, and so not merely heathen sacrifices, but also the heathen worship of images. The Saints live on eternally with God, although they have died.  If anyone thinks to call them back again to life by a dead art, discovered by the heathen, he makes himself guilty of blasphemy.  Who dares attempt with heathenish art to paint the Mother of God, who is exalted above all heavens and the Saints?  It is not permitted to Christians, who have the hope of the resurrection, to imitate the customs of demon-worshippers, and to insult the Saints, who shine in so great glory, by common dead matter.

Moreover, we can prove our view by Holy Scripture and the Fathers.  In the former it is said:  "God is a Spirit:  and they that worship him must worship him in spirit and in truth;" and:  "Thou shalt not make thee any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath;" on which account God spoke to the Israelites on the Mount, from the midst of the fire, but showed them no image.  Further:  "They changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man,...and served the creature more than the Creator."  [Several other passages, even less to the point, are cited.] [532]

The same is taught also by the holy Fathers.  [The Synod appeals to a spurious passage from Epiphanius and to one inserted into the writings of Theodotus of Ancyra, a friend of St. Cyril's; to utterances--in no way striking--of Gregory of Nazianzum, of SS. Chrysostom, Basil, Athanasius of Amphilochius and of Eusebius Pamphili, from his Letter to the Empress Constantia, who had asked him for a picture of Christ.] [533]

Supported by the Holy Scriptures and the Fathers, we declare unanimously, in the name of the Holy Trinity, that there shall be rejected and removed and cursed out of the Christian Church every likeness which is made out of any material and colour whatever by the evil art of painters.

Whoever in future dares to make such a thing, or to venerate it, or set it up in a church, or in a private house, or possesses it in secret, shall, if bishop, presbyter, or deacon, be deposed; if monk or layman, be anathematised, and become liable to be tried by the secular laws as an adversary of God and an enemy of the doctrines handed down by the Fathers.  At the same time we ordain that no incumbent of a church shall venture, under pretext of destroying the error in regard to images, to lay his hands on the holy vessels in order to have them altered, because they are adorned with figures.  The same is provided in regard to the vestments of churches, cloths, and all that is dedicated to divine service.  If, however, the incumbent of a church wishes to have such church vessels and vestments altered, he must do  this only with the assent of the holy Ecumenical patriarch and at the bidding of our pious Emperors.  So also no prince or secular official shall rob the churches, as some have done in former times, under the pretext of destroying images.  All this we ordain, believing that we speak as doth the Apostle, for we also believe that we have the spirit of Christ; and as our predecessors who believed the same thing spake what they had synodically defined, so we believe and therefore do we speak, and set forth a definition of what has seemed good to us following and in accordance with the definitions of our Fathers.

(1)  If anyone shall not confess, according to the tradition of the Apostles and Fathers, in the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost one godhead, nature and substance, will and operation, virtue and dominion, kingdom and power in three subsistences, that is in their most glorious Persons, let him be anathema.

(2)  If anyone does not confess that one of the Trinity was made flesh, let him be anathema.

(3)  If anyone does not confess that the holy Virgin is truly the Mother of God, etc.

(4)  If anyone does not confess one Christ both God and man, etc.

(5)  If anyone does not confess that the flesh of the Lord is life-giving because it is the flesh of the Word of God, etc.

(6)  If anyone does not confess two natures in Christ, etc.

(7)  If anyone does not confess that Christ is seated with God the Father in body and soul, and so will come to judge, and that he will remain God forever without any grossness, etc.

(8)  If anyone ventures to represent the divine image (charakter) of the Word after the Incarnation with material colours, let him be anathema!

(9)  If anyone ventures to represent in human figures, by means of material colours, by reason of the incarnation, the substance or person (ousia or hypostasis) of the Word, which cannot be depicted, and does not rather confess that even after the Incarnation he [i.e., the Word] cannot be depicted, let him be anathema!

(10)  If anyone ventures to represent the hypostatic union of the two natures in a picture, and calls it Christ, and thus falsely represents a union of the two natures, etc.!

(11)  If anyone separates the flesh united with the person of the Word from it, and endeavours to represent it separately in a picture, etc.!

(12)  If anyone separates the one Christ into two persons, and endeavours to represent Him who was born of the Virgin separately, and thus accepts only a relative (schetike) union of the natures, etc.

(13)  If anyone represents in a picture the flesh deified by its union with the Word, and thus separates it from the Godhead, etc.

(14)  If anyone endeavours to represent by material colours, God the Word as a mere man, who, although bearing the form of God, yet has assumed the form of a servant in his own person, and thus endeavours to separate him from his inseparable Godhead, so that he thereby introduces a quaternity into the Holy Trinity, etc.

(15)  If anyone shall not confess the holy ever-virgin Mary, truly and properly the Mother of God, to be higher than every creature whether visible or invisible, and does not with sincere faith seek her intercessions as of one having confidence in her access to our God, since she bare him, etc.

(16)  If anyone shall endeavour to represent the forms of the Saints in lifeless pictures with material colours which are of no value (for this notion is vain and introduced by the devil), and does not rather represent their virtues as living images in himself, etc.

(17)  If anyone denies the profit of the invocation of Saints, etc.

(18)  If anyone denies the resurrection of the dead, and the judgment, and the condign retribution to everyone, endless torment and endless bliss, etc.

(19)  If anyone does not accept this our Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Synod, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the seven holy Ecumenical Synods!  (Extracts from the Acts. Session VI - Epitome of the Definition of the Iconoclastic Conciliabulum held in Constantinople, A.D. 754 - in other words, this is from the iconoclastic council rejected as false by the Seventh Ecumenical Council)

[Here follows the Decree of the Seventh Ecumenical Council of Nicaea:]

The holy, great, and Ecumenical Synod which by the grace of God and the will of the pious and Christ-loving Emperors, Constantine and Irene, his mother, was gathered together for the second time at Nice, the illustrious metropolis of Bithynia, in the holy church of God which is named Sophia, having followed the tradition of the Catholic Church, hath defined as follows:

Christ our Lord, who hath bestowed upon us the light of the knowledge of himself, and hath redeemed us from the darkness of idolatrous madness, having espoused to himself the Holy Catholic Church without spot or defect, promised that he would so preserve her:  and gave his word to this effect to his holy disciples when he said:  "Lo!  I am with you always, even unto the end of the world," which promise he made, not only to them, but to us also who should believe in his name through their word.  But some, not considering of this gift, and having become fickle through the temptation of the wily enemy, have fallen from the right faith; for, withdrawing from the traditions of the Catholic Church, they have erred from the truth and as the proverb saith:  "The husbandmen have gone astray in their own husbandry and have gathered in their hands nothingness," because certain priests, priests in name only, not in fact, had dared to speak against the God-approved ornament of the sacred monuments, of whom God cries aloud through the prophet, "Many pastors have corrupted my vineyard, they have polluted my portion."

And, forsooth, following profane men, led astray by their carnal sense, they have calumniated the Church of Christ our God, which he hath espoused to himself, and have failed to distinguish between holy and profane, styling the images of our Lord and of his Saints by the same name as the statues of diabolical idols.  Seeing which things, our Lord God (not willing to behold his people corrupted by such manner of plague) hath of his good pleasure called us together, the chief of his priests, from every quarter, moved with a divine zeal and brought hither by the will of our princes, Constantine and Irene, to the end that the traditions of the Catholic Church may receive stability by our common decree.  Therefore, with all diligence, making a thorough examination and analysis, and following the trend of the truth, we diminish nought, we add nought, but we preserve unchanged all things which pertain to the Catholic Church, and following the Six Ecumenical Synods, especially that which met in this illustrious metropolis of Nice, as also that which was afterwards gathered together in the God-protected Royal City.

We believe...life of the world to come.  Amen. [535]

We detest and anathematize Arius and all the sharers of his absurd opinion; also Macedonius and those who following him are well styled "Foes of the Spirit" (Pneumatomachi).  We confess that our Lady, St. Mary, is properly and truly the Mother of God, because she was the Mother after the flesh of One Person of the Holy Trinity, to wit, Christ our God, as the Council of Ephesus has already defined when it cast out of the Church the impious Nestorius with his colleagues, because he taught that there were two Persons [in Christ].  With the Fathers of this synod we confess that he who was incarnate of the immaculate Mother of God and Ever-Virgin Mary has two natures, recognizing him as perfect God and perfect man, as also the Council of Chalcedon hath promulgated, expelling from the divine Atrium [aules] as blasphemers, Eutyches and Dioscorus; and placing in the same category Severus, Peter and a number of others, blaspheming in divers fashions. Moreover, with these we anathematize the fables of Origen, Evagrius, and Didymus, in accordance with the decision of the Fifth Council held at Constantinople.  We affirm that in Christ there be two wills and two operations according to the reality of each nature, as also the Sixth Synod, held at Constantinople, taught, casting out Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Macarius, and those who agree with them, and all those who are unwilling to be reverent.

To make our confession short, we keep unchanged all the ecclesiastical traditions handed down to us, whether in writing or verbally, one of which is the making of pictorial representations, agreeable to the history of the preaching of the Gospel, a tradition useful in many respects, but especially in this, that so the incarnation of the Word of God is shown forth as real and not merely phantastic, for these have mutual indications and without doubt have also mutual significations.

We, therefore, following the royal pathway and the divinely inspired authority of our Holy Fathers and the traditions of the Catholic Church (for, as we all know, the Holy Spirit indwells her), define with all certitude and accuracy that just as the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross, so also the venerable and holy images, as well in painting and mosaic as of other fit materials, should be set forth in the holy churches of God, and on the sacred vessels and on the vestments and on hangings and in pictures both in houses and by the wayside, to wit, the figure of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ, of our spotless Lady, the Mother of God, of the honourable Angels, of all Saints and of all pious people.  For by so much more frequently as they are seen in artistic representation, by so much more readily are men lifted up to the memory of their prototypes, and to a longing after them; and to these should be given due salutation and honourable reverence (aspasmon kai timetiken proskunesin), not indeed that true worship of faith (latreian) which pertains alone to the divine nature; but to these, as to the figure of the precious and life-giving Cross and to the Book of the Gospels and to the other holy objects, incense and lights may be offered according to ancient pious custom.  For the honour which is paid to the image passes on to that which the image represents, and he who reveres the image reveres in it the subject represented.  For thus the teaching of our holy Fathers, that is the tradition of the Catholic Church, which from one end of the earth to the other hath received the Gospel, is strengthened.  Thus we follow Paul, who spake in Christ, and the whole divine Apostolic company and the holy Fathers, holding fast the traditions which we have received. So we sing prophetically the triumphal hymns of the Church, "Rejoice greatly, O daughter of Sion; Shout, O daughter of Jerusalem.  Rejoice and be glad with all thy heart.  The Lord hath taken away from thee the oppression of thy adversaries; thou art redeemed from the hand of thine enemies.  The Lord is a King in the midst of thee; thou shalt not see evil any more, and peace be unto thee forever."

Those, therefore who dare to think or teach otherwise, or as wicked heretics to spurn the traditions of the Church and to invent some novelty, or else to reject some of those things which the Church hath received (e.g., the Book of the Gospels, or the image of the cross, or the pictorial icons, or the holy reliques of a martyr), or evilly and sharply to devise anything subversive of the lawful traditions of the Catholic Church or to turn to common uses the sacred vessels or the venerable monasteries, [536] if they be Bishops or Clerics, we command that they be deposed; if religious or laics, that they be cut off from communion.

[After all had signed, the acclamations began (col. 576).]

The holy Synod cried out:  So we all believe, we all are so minded, we all give our consent and have signed.  This is the faith of the Apostles, this is the faith of the orthodox, this is the faith which hath made firm the whole world.  Believing in one God, to be celebrated in Trinity, we salute the honourable images!  Those who do not so hold, let them be anathema.  Those who do not thus think, let them be driven far away from the Church.  For we follow the most ancient legislation of the Catholic Church.  We keep the laws of the Fathers.  We anathematize those who add anything to or take anything away from the Catholic Church.  We anathematize the introduced novelty of the revilers of Christians.  We salute the venerable images.  We place under anathema those who do not do this.  Anathema to them who presume to apply to the venerable images the things said in Holy Scripture about idols.  Anathema to those who do not salute the holy and venerable images.  Anathema to those who call the sacred images idols. Anathema to those who say that Christians resort to the sacred images as to gods.  Anathema to those who say that any other delivered us from idols except Christ our God.  Anathema to those who dare to say that at any time the Catholic Church received idols.

Many years to the Emperors, etc., etc. . . .

1. If anyone does not confess that Christ our God can be represented in his humanity, let him be anathema.

2. If anyone does not accept representation in art of evangelical scenes, let him be anathema.

3. If anyone does not salute such representations as standing for the Lord and his saints, let him be anathema.

4. If anyone rejects any written or unwritten tradition of the church, let him be anathema.  (The anathemas were found at the EWTN website at https://www.ewtn.com/library/COUNCILS/NICAEA2.HTM.  Translation taken from Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils, ed. Norman P. Tanner [Georgetown University Press, 1990].)  (The Decree of the Holy, Great, Ecumenical Synod, the Second of Nice)

Canon I.

The pattern for those who have received the sacerdotal dignity is found in the testimonies and instructions laid down in the canonical constitutions, which we receiving with a glad mind, sing unto the Lord God in the words of the God-inspired David, saying:  "I have had as great delight in the way of thy testimonies as in all manner of  riches."  "Thou hast commanded righteousness as thy testimonies for ever."  "Grant me understanding and I shall live."  Now if the word of prophesy bids us keep the testimonies of God forever and to live by them, it is evident that they must abide unshaken and without change. Therefore Moses, the prophet of God, speaketh after this manner:  "To them nothing is to be added, and from them nothing is to be taken away."  And the divine Apostle glorying in them cries out, "which things the angels desire to look into," and, "if an angel preach to you anything besides that which ye have received, let him be anathema." Seeing these things are so, being thus well-testified unto us, we rejoice over them as he that hath found great spoil, and press to our bosom with gladness the divine canons, holding fast all the precepts of the same, complete and without change, whether they have been set forth by the holy trumpets of the Spirit, the renowned Apostles, or by the Six Ecumenical Councils, or by Councils locally assembled for promulgating the decrees of the said Ecumenical Councils, or by our holy Fathers.  For all these, being illumined by the same Spirit, defined such things as were expedient.  Accordingly those whom they placed under anathema, we likewise anathematize; those whom they deposed, we also depose; those whom they excommunicated, we also excommunicate; and those whom they delivered over to punishment, we subject to the same penalty.  And now "let your conversation be without covetousness," crieth out Paul the divine Apostle, who was caught up into the third heaven and heard unspeakable words.

Canon II.

When we recite the psalter, we promise God:  "I will meditate upon thy statutes, and will not forget thy words."  It is a salutary thing for all Christians to observe this, but it is especially incumbent upon those who have received the sacerdotal dignity.  Therefore we decree, that every one who is raised to the rank of the episcopate shall know the psalter by heart, so that from it he may admonish and instruct all the clergy who are subject to him.  And diligent examination shall be made by the metropolitan whether he be zealously inclined to read diligently, and not merely now and then, the sacred canons, the holy Gospel, and the book of the divine Apostle, and all other divine Scripture; and whether he lives according to God's commandments, and also teaches the same to his people.  For the special treasure (ousia) of our high priesthood is the oracles which have been divinely delivered to us, that is the true science of the Divine Scriptures, as says Dionysius the Great.  And if his mind be not set, and even glad, so to do and teach, let him not be ordained.  For says God by the prophet, "Thou hast rejected knowledge, I will also reject thee, that thou shalt be no priest to me."  (The Canons of the Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Council)

To our most religious and most serene princes, Constantine and Irene his mother.  Tarasius, the unworthy bishop of your God-protected royal city, new Rome, and all the holy Council which met at the good pleasure of God and upon the command of your Christ-loving majesty in the renowned metropolis of Nice, the second council to assemble in this city.

Christ our God (who is the head of the Church) was glorified, most noble princes, when your heart, which he holds in his hands, gave forth that good word bidding us to assemble in his name, in order that we might strengthen our hold on the sure, immovable, and God-given truth contained in the Church's dogmas.  As your heads were crowned with gold and most brilliant stones, so likewise were your minds adorned with the precepts of the Gospel and the teachings of the Fathers.  And being the disciples and companions, as it were, of those whose sounds went forth into all the earth, ye became the leaders in the way of piety of all who bore the name of Christ, setting forth clearly the word of truth, and giving a brilliant example of orthodoxy and piety; so that ye were to the faithful as so many burning lamps.  The Church which was ready to fall, ye upheld with your hands, strengthening it with sound doctrine, and bringing into the unity of a right judgment those who were at variance.  We may therefore well say with boldness that it was through you that the good pleasure of God brought about the triumph of godliness, and filled our mouth with joy and our tongue with gladness. And these things our lips utter with a formal decree.  For what is more glorious than to maintain the Church's interests; and what else is more calculated to provoke our gladness?

Certain men rose up, having the form of godliness, inasmuch as they were clothed with the dignity of the priesthood, but denying the power thereof; and thus deserving for themselves the charge of being but priests of Babylon.  Of such the word of prophecy had before declared that "lawlessness went forth from the priests [545] of Babylon."  Nay more, they banded themselves together in a sanhedrim, like to that which Caiaphas held, and became the propagators of ungodly doctrines. And having a mouth full of cursing and bitterness, they thought to win the mastery by means of abusive words.  With a slanderous tongue and a pen of a like character, and objecting to the very terms used by God himself, they devised marvellous tales, and then proceeded to stigmatise as idolaters the royal priesthood and the holy nation, even those who had put on Christ, and by his grace had been kept safe from the folly of idols.  And having a mind set upon evil, they took in hand unlawful deeds, thinking to suppress altogether the depicting of the venerable images.  Accordingly, as many icons as were set in mosaic work they dug out, and those which were in painted waxwork, they scraped away; thus turning the comely beauty of the sacred temples into complete disorder.  Among doings of this sort, it is to be specially noted that the pictures set up on tablets in memory of Christ our God and of his Saints, they gave over to the flames.  Finally, in a word, having desecrated our churches, they reduced them to utter confusion. Then some bishops became the leaders of this heresy and where before was peace, they fomented strife among the people; and instead of wheat sowed tares in the Church's fields.  They mingled wine with water, and gave the foul draught to those about them.  Although but Arabian wolves, they hid themselves under sheeps' clothing, and by specious reasoning against the truth sought to commend their lie.  But all the while "they hatched asps' eggs and wove a spider's web," as says the prophet; and "he that would eat of their eggs, having crushed one, found it to be addled, with a basilisk within it," and giving forth a deadly stench.

In such a state of affairs, with a lie busy destroying the truth, ye, most gracious and most noble princes, did not idly allow so grave a plague, and such soul-destroying error long to continue in your day. But moved by the divine Spirit which abideth in you, ye set yourselves with all your strength utterly to exterminate it, and thus preserve the stability of the Church's government, and likewise concord among your subjects; so that your whole empire might be established in peace agreeably with the name [Irene] you bear.  Ye rightly reasoned, that it was not to be patiently endured, that while in other matters we could be of one mind and live in concord, yet in what ought to be the chief concern of our life, the peace of the Churches, there was amongst us strife and division.  And that too, when Christ being our head, we ought to be members one of another, and one body, by our mutual agreement and faith.  Accordingly, ye commanded our holy and numerously-attended council to assemble in the metropolis of Nice, in order that after having rid the Church of division, we might restore to unity the separated members, and might be careful to rend and utterly destroy the coarse cloak of false doctrine, which they had woven of thorn fibre, and unfold again the fair robe of orthodoxy.

And now having carefully traced the traditions of the Apostles and Fathers, we are bold to speak.  Having but one mind by the inbreathing of the most Holy Spirit, and being all knit together in one, and understanding the harmonious tradition of the Catholic Church, we are in perfect harmony with the symphonies set forth by the six, holy and ecumenical councils; and accordingly we have anathematised the madness of Arius, the frenzy of Macedonius, the senseless understanding of Appolinarius, the man-worship of Nestorius, the irreverent mingling of the natures devised by Eutyches and Dioscorus, and the many-headed hydra which is their companion.  We have also anathematised the idle tales of Origen, Didymus, and Evagrius; and the doctrine of one will held by Sergius, Honorius, Cyrus, and Pyrrhus, or rather, we have anathematised their own evil will.  Finally, taught by the Spirit, from whom we have drawn pure water, we have with one accord and one soul, altogether wiped out with the sponge of the divine dogmas the newly devised heresy, well-worthy to be classed with those just mentioned, which springing up after them, uttered such empty nonsense about the sacred icons.  And the contrivers of this vain, but revolutionary babbling we have cast forth far from the Church's precincts.

And as the hands and feet are moved in accordance with the directions of the mind, so likewise, we, having received the grace and strength of the Spirit, and having also the assistance and co-operation of your royal authority, have with one voice declared as piety and proclaimed as truth:  that the sacred icons of our Lord Jesus Christ are to be had and retained, inasmuch as he was very man; also those which set forth what is historically narrated in the Gospels; and those which represent our undefiled Lady, the holy Mother of God; and likewise those of the Holy Angels (for they have manifested themselves in human form to those who were counted worthy of the vision of them), or of any of the Saints.  [We have also decreed] that the brave deeds of the Saints be pourtrayed on tablets and on the walls, and upon the sacred vessels and vestments, as hath been the custom of the holy Catholic Church of God from ancient times; which custom was regarded as having the force of law in the teaching both of those holy leaders who lived in the first ages of the Church, and also of their successors our reverend Fathers. [We have likewise decreed] that these images are to be reverenced (proskunein), that is, salutations are to be offered to them.  The reason for using the word is, that it has a two-fold signification. For kunein in the old Greek tongue signifies both "to salute" and "to kiss."  And the preposition pros gives to it the additional idea of strong desire towards the subject; as for example, we have phero and prosphero, kuro and proskuro, and so also we have kuneo and proskuneo. Which last word implies salutation and strong love; for that which one loves he also reverences (proskunei) and what he reverences that he greatly loves, as the everyday custom, which we observe towards those we love, bears witness, and in which both ideas are practically illustrated when two friends meet together.  The word is not only made use of by us, but we also find it set down in the Divine Scriptures by the ancients.  For it is written in the histories of the Kings, "And David rose up and fell upon his face and did reverence to (prosekunese) Jonathan three times and kissed him" (1 Kings xx. 41).  And what is it that the Lord in the Gospel says concerning the Pharisees?  "They love the uppermost rooms at feasts and greetings (aspasmous) in the markets."  It is evident that by "greetings" here, he means reverence (proskunesin) for the Pharisees being very high-minded and thinking themselves to be righteous were eager to be reverenced by all, but not [merely] to be kissed.  For to receive salutations of this latter sort savoured too much of lowly humility, and this was not to the Pharisees' liking.  We have also the example of Paul the divine Apostle, as Luke in the Acts of the Apostles relates:  "When we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly, and the day following Paul went in with us unto James, and all the presbyters were present.  And when he had saluted (aspasamenos) them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry" (Acts xxi. 17, 18, 19).  By the salutation here mentioned, the Apostle evidently intended to render that reverence of honour (timetiken proskunesin) which we shew to one another, and of which he speaks when he says concerning Jacob, that "he reverenced (prosekunesen) the top of his staff" (Heb. xi. 21).  With these examples agrees what Gregory surnamed Theologus says:  "Honour Bethlehem, and reverence (proskuneson) the manger."

Now who of those rightly and sincerely understanding the Divine Scriptures, has ever supposed that these examples which we have cited speak of the worship in spirit (tes en pneumati latreias)?  [Certainly no one has ever thought so] except perhaps some persons utterly bereft of sense and ignorant of all knowledge of the Scriptures and of the teaching of the Fathers.  Surely Jacob did not adore (elatreusen) the top of his staff; and surely Gregory Theologus does not bid us to adore (latreuein) the manger?  By no means.

Again, when offering salutations to the life-giving Cross, we together sing:  "We reverence (proskunomen), thy cross, O Lord, and we also reverence (proskunomen) the spear which opened the life-giving side of thy goodness."  This is clearly but a salutation, and is so called, and its character is evinced by our touching the things mentioned with our lips.  We grant that the word proskunesis is frequently found in the Divine Scriptures and in the writings of our learned and holy Fathers for the worship in spirit (epi tes en pneumati latreias), since, being a word of many significations, it may be used to express that kind of reverence which is service.  As there is also the veneration of honour, love and fear.  In this sense it is, that we venerate your glorious and most noble majesty.  So also there is another veneration which comes of fear alone, thus Jacob venerated Esau.  Then there is the veneration of gratitude, as Abraham reverenced the sons of Heth, for the field which he received from them for a burying place for Sarah his wife.  And finally, those looking to obtain some gift, venerate those who are above them, as Jacob venerated Pharaoh.  Therefore because this term has these many significations, the Divine Scriptures teaching us, "Thou shalt venerate the Lord thy God, and him only shalt thou serve," says simply that veneration is to be given to God, but does not add the word "only;" for veneration being a word of wide meaning is an ambiguous term; but it goes on to say "thou shalt serve (latreuseis) him only," for to God alone do we render latria.

The things which we have decreed, being thus well supported, it is confessedly and beyond all question acceptable and well-pleasing before God, that the images of our Lord Jesus Christ as man, and those of the undefiled Mother of God, the ever-virgin Mary, and of the honourable Angels and of all Saints, should be venerated and saluted.  And if anyone does not so believe, but undertakes to debate the matter further and is evil affected with regard to the veneration due the sacred images, such an one our holy ecumenical council (fortified by the inward working of the Spirit of God, and by the traditions of the Fathers and of the Church) anathematises.  Now anathema is nothing less than complete separation from God.  For if any are quarrelsome and will not obediently accept what has now been decreed, they but kick against the pricks, and injure their own souls in their fighting against Christ.  And in taking pleasure at the insults which are offered to the Church, they clearly shew themselves to be of those who madly make war upon piety, and are therefore to be regarded as in the same category with the heretics of old times, and their companions and brethren in ungodliness.

We have sent our brethren and fellow priests, God-beloved Bishops, together with certain of the Hegumenoi and clergy, that they may give a full report of our proceedings to your godly-hearing ears.  In proof and confirmation of what we have decreed, and also for the assurance of your most religious majesty, we have submitted proofs from the Fathers, a few of the many we have gathered together in illustration of the brightly shining truth.

And now may the Saviour of us all, who reigns with you (sumbasileuon humin) and who was pleased to vouchsafe his peace to the Churches through you, preserve your kingdom for many years, and also your council, princes, and faithful army, and the whole estate of the empire; and may he also give you victory over all your enemies.  For he it is, who says:  "As I live, saith the Lord, they that glorify me, I will glorify."  He it is also who hath girded you with strength, and will smite all your enemies, and make your people to rejoice.

And do thou, O city, the new Sion, rejoice and be glad; thou that art the wonder of the whole world.  For although David hath not reigned in thee, nevertheless thy pious princes here preside over thy affairs as David would have done.  The Lord is in the midst of thee; may his name be blessed forever and ever.  Amen.  (The Letter of the Synod to the Emperor and Empress)

Part Fourteen: Church councils, continued

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Published on the feast of St. Thomas More, my patron saint, and also of St. John Fisher and St. Paulinus of Nola

The Church Fathers: Sola Scriptura or Catholic? Part Fourteen: Church councils, continued

The Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon (451)

Paschasinus, the most reverend bishop and legate of the Apostolic See, stood up in the midst with his most reverend colleagues and said:  We received directions at the hands of the most blessed and apostolic bishop of the Roman city, which is the head of all the churches, which directions say that Dioscorus is not to be allowed a seat in this assembly, but that if he should attempt to take his seat he is to be cast out.  This instruction we must carry out; if now your holiness so commands let him be expelled or else we leave. [278]

The most glorious judges and the full senate said:  What special charge do you prefer against the most reverend bishop Dioscorus?

Paschasinus, the most reverend bishop and legate of the Apostolic See, said:  Since he has come, it is necessary that objection be made to him.

The most glorious judges and the whole senate said:  In accordance with what has been said, let the charge under which he lies, be specifically made.

Lucentius, the most reverend bishop having the place of the Apostolic See, said:  Let him give a reason for his judgment.  For he undertook to give sentence against one over whom he had no jurisdiction.  And he dared to hold a synod without the authority of the Apostolic See, a thing which had never taken place nor can take place. [279]

Paschasinus the most reverend bishop, holding the place of the Apostolic See, said:  We cannot go counter to the decrees of the most blessed and apostolic bishop ["Pope" for "bishop" in the Latin], who governs the Apostolic See, nor against the ecclesiastical canons nor the patristic traditions.

The most glorious judges and the full senate, said:  It is proper that you should set forth specifically in what he hath gone astray.

Lucentius, the venerable bishop and holding the place of the Apostolic See, said:  We will not suffer so great a wrong to be done us and you, as that he who is come to be judged should sit down [as one to give judgment].

The glorious judges and the whole senate said:  If you hold the office of judge, you ought not to defend yourself as if you were to be judged.

And when Dioscorus the most religious bishop of Alexandria at the bidding of the most glorious judges and of the sacred assembly (tes hieras sunkletou [280] ) had sat down in the midst, and the most reverend Roman bishops also had sat down in their proper places, and kept silence, Eusebius, the most reverend bishop of the city of Dorylæum, stepping into the midst, said:

[He then presented a petition, and the Acts of the Latrocinium were read.  Also the Acts of the council of Constantinople under Flavian against Eutyches (col. 175).]

And when they were read, the most glorious judges and immense assembly (huperphues sunkletos) said:  What do the most reverend bishops of the present holy synod say?  When he thus expounded the faith did Flavian, of holy memory, preserve the orthodox and catholic religion, or did he in any respect err concerning it?

Paschasinus the most reverend bishop, representing the Apostolic See, said; Flavian of blessed memory hath most holily and perfectly expounded the faith.  His faith and exposition agrees with the epistle of the most blessed and apostolic man, the bishop of Rome.

Anatolius the most reverend archbishop of Constantinople said; The blessed Flavian hath beautifully and orthodoxly set forth the faith of our fathers.

Lucentius, the most reverend bishop, and legate of the Apostolic See, said; Since the faith of Flavian of blessed memory agrees with the Apostolic See and the tradition of the fathers it is just that the sentence by which he was condemned by the heretics should be turned back upon them by this most holy synod.

Maximus the most reverend bishop of Antioch in Syria, said:  Archbishop Flavian of blessed memory hath set forth the faith orthodoxly and in accordance with the most beloved-of-God and most holy Archbishop Leo. And this we all receive with zeal.

Thalassius, the most reverend bishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia said; Flavian of blessed memory hath spoken in accordance with Cyril of blessed memory.

[And so, one after another, the bishops expressed their opinions.  The reading of the acts of the Council of Constantinople was then continued.]

And at this point of the reading, Dioscorus, the most reverend Archbishop of Alexandria said, I receive "the of two;" "the two" I do not receive (to ek duo dechomai; to duo, ou dechomai).  I am forced to be impudent, but the matter is one which touches my soul.

[After a few remarks the reading was continued and the rest of the acts of the Latrocinium of Ephesus completed.  The judges then postponed to the morrow the setting forth a decree on the faith but intimated that Dioscorus and his associates should suffer the punishment to which they unjustly sentenced Flavian.  This met with the approval of all the bishops except those of Illyrica who said:  "We all have erred, let us all be pardoned."  (col. 323.) ]

The most glorious judges and the whole senate said; Let each one of the most reverend bishops of the present synod, hasten to set forth how he believes, writing without any fear, but placing the fear of God before his eyes; knowing that our most divine and pious lord believes according to the ecthesis of the three hundred and eighteen holy fathers at Nice, and according to the ecthesis of the one hundred and fifty after them, and according to the Canonical epistles and ectheses of the holy fathers Gregory, Basil, Athanasius, Hilary, Ambrose, and according to the two canonical epistles of Cyril, which were confirmed and published in the first Council of Ephesus, nor does he in any point depart from the faith of the same.  For the most reverend archbishop of Old Rome, Leo, appears to have sent a letter to Flavian of blessed memory, with reference to Eutyches's unbelieving doubt which was springing up against the Catholic Church.  (Extracts from the Acts. Session I)

When all were seated before the rails of the most holy altar, the most superb and glorious judges and the great (huperphues) senate said; At a former meeting the question was examined of the condemnation of the most reverend bishop Flavian of blessed memory and Eusebius, and it was patent to you all with what justice and accuracy the examination was conducted:  and it was proved that they had been cruelly and improperly condemned.  What course we should pursue in this matter became clear after your deliberations.  Now however the question to be enquired into, studied, and decided, is how the true faith is to be established, which is the chief end for which this Council has been assembled.  As we know that ye are to render to God a strict account not only for your own souls in particular, but as well for the souls of all of us who desire rightly to be taught all things that pertain to religion, and that all ambiguity be taken away, by the agreement and consent of all the holy fathers, and by their united exposition and doctrine; hasten therefore without any fear of pleasing or displeasing, to set forth (ekthesthai) the pure faith, so that they who do not seem to believe with all the rest, may be brought to unity through the acknowledging of the truth.  For we wish you to know that the most divine and pious lord of the whole world and ourselves hold the orthodox faith set forth by the 318 and by the 150 holy fathers, and what also has been taught by the rest of the most holy and glorious fathers, and in accordance with this is our belief.

The most reverend bishops cried; Any other setting forth (ekthesin allen) no one makes, neither will we attempt it, neither will we dare to set forth [anything new] (ekthesthai).  For the fathers taught, and in their writings are preserved, what things were set forth by them, and further than this we can say nothing.  (Extracts from the Acts. Session II)

Concerning the Virgin Mother of God, we thus think and speak; and of the manner of the Incarnation of the Only Begotten Son of God, necessarily, not by way of addition but for the sake of certainty, as we have received from the beginning from the divine Scriptures and from the tradition of the holy fathers, we will speak briefly, adding nothing whatever to the Faith set forth by the holy Fathers in Nice. For, as we said before, it suffices for all knowledge of piety and the refutation of all false doctrine of heretics.  But we speak, not presuming on the impossible; but with the confession of our own weakness, excluding those who wish us to cling to those things which transcend human consideration.

We confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Only Begotten Son of God, perfect God, and perfect Man of a reasonable soul and flesh consisting; begotten before the ages of the Father according to his Divinity, and in the last days, for us and for our salvation, of Mary the Virgin according to his humanity, of the same substance with his Father according to his Divinity, and of the same substance with us according to his humanity; for there became a union of two natures. Wherefore we confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord.

According to this understanding of this unmixed union, we confess the holy Virgin to be Mother of God; because God the Word was incarnate and became Man, and from this conception he united the temple taken from her with himself.

For we know the theologians make some things of the Evangelical and Apostolic teaching about the Lord common as pertaining to the one person, and other things they divide as to the two natures, and attribute the worthy ones to God on account of the Divinity of Christ, and the lowly ones on account of his humanity [to his humanity].

These being your holy voices, and finding ourselves thinking the same with them ("One Lord, One Faith, One Baptism,") we glorified God the Saviour of all, congratulating one another that our churches and yours have the Faith which agrees with the God-inspired Scriptures and the traditions of our holy Fathers. . . .  

Like to this is the prophecy through the voice of the prophet, as from him, "I gave my back to the smiters, and my cheeks to them that plucked off the hair:  I hid not my face from shame and spitting."  Let your holiness be convinced nor let anyone else be doubtful that we altogether follow the teachings of the holy fathers, especially of our blessed and celebrated Father Athanasius, deprecating the least departure from it.

I might have added many quotations from them also establishing my words, but that it would have added to the length of my letter and it might become wearisome.  And we will allow the defined Faith, the symbol of the Faith set forth by our holy Fathers who assembled some time ago at Nice, to be shaken by no one.  Nor would we permit ourselves or others, to alter a single word of those set forth, or to add one syllable, remembering the saying:  "Remove not the ancient landmark which thy fathers have set," for it was not they who spoke but the Spirit himself of God and the Father, who proceedeth also from him, and is not alien from the Son, according to his essence.  And this the words of the holy initiators into mysteries confirm to us.  For in the Acts of the Apostles it is written:  "And after they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia; but the Spirit of Jesus suffered them not."  And the divine Paul wrote:  "So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God.  But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you.  Now if any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of his."

When some of those who are accustomed to turn from the right, twist my speech to their views, I pray your holiness not to wonder; but be well assured that the followers of every heresy gather the occasions of their error from the God-inspired Scriptures, corrupting in their evil minds the things rightly said through the Holy Spirit, and drawing down upon their own heads the unquenchable flame.  (The Letter of Cyril to John of Antioch)

By this means Eutyches, who seemed to be deserving of honour under the title of Presbyter, is now shown to be exceedingly thoughtless and sadly inexperienced, so that to him also we may apply the prophet's words, "He refused to understand in order to act well: he meditated unrighteousness on his bed."  What, indeed, is more unrighteous than to entertain ungodly thoughts, and not to yield to persons wiser and more learned?  But into this folly do they fall who, when hindered by some obscurity from apprehending the truth, have recourse, not to the words of the Prophets, not to the letters of the Apostles, nor to the authority of the Gospels, but to themselves; and become teachers of error, just because they have not been disciples of the truth.  For what learning has he received from the sacred pages of the New and the Old Testament, who does not so much as understand the very beginning of the Creed?  And that which, all the world over, is uttered by the voices of all applicants for regeneration, is still not grasped by the mind of this aged man.  If, then, he knew not what he ought to think about the Incarnation of the Word of God, and was not willing, for the sake of obtaining the light of intelligence, to make laborious search through the whole extent of the Holy Scriptures, he should at least have received with heedful attention that general Confession common to all, whereby the whole body of the faithful profess that they "believe in God the Father Almighty, and in Jesus Christ his only Son our Lord, who was born of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary."  By which three clauses the engines of almost all heretics are shattered.  (Leo [the bishop] to his [most] dear brother Flavian. The Tome of St. Leo)

The most magnificent and glorious judges and the great Senate said:

Let the reverend council now declare what seems good concerning the faith, since those things which have already been disposed of have been made manifest.

Paschasinus and Lucentius, the most reverend bishops, and Boniface the most reverend presbyter, legates of the Apostolic See through that most reverend man, bishop Paschasinus said:  As the holy and blessed and Ecumenical Synod holds fast and follows the rule of faith (fidei regulam in the Latin Acts) which was set forth by the fathers at Nice, it also confirms the faith set forth by the Synod of 150 fathers gathered at Constantinople at the bidding of the great Theodosius of blessed memory.  Moreover the exposition of their faith, of the illustrious Cyril of blessed memory set forth at the Council of Ephesus (in which Nestorius was condemned) is received.  And in the third place the writings of that blessed man, Leo, Archbishop of all the churches, who condemned the heresy of Nestorius and Eutyches, shew what the true faith is.  Likewise the holy Synod holds this faith, this it follows--nothing further can it add nor can it take aught away.

When this had been translated into Greek by Beronician, the devout secretary of the divine consistory, the most reverend bishops cried out:  So we all believe, so we were baptized, so we baptize, so we have believed, so we now believe.  (Extracts from the Acts. Session IV)

Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ, when strengthening the knowledge of the Faith in his disciples, to the end that no one might disagree with his neighbour concerning the doctrines of religion, and that the proclamation of the truth might be set forth equally to all men, said, "My peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you."  But, since the evil one does not desist from sowing tares among the seeds of godliness, but ever invents some new device against the truth; therefore the Lord, providing, as he ever does, for the human race, has raised up this pious, faithful, and zealous Sovereign, and has called together unto him from all parts the chief rulers of the priesthood; so that, the grace of Christ our common Lord inspiring us, we may cast off every plague of falsehood from the sheep of Christ, and feed them with the tender leaves of truth.  And this have we done with one unanimous consent, driving away erroneous doctrines and renewing the unerring faith of the Fathers, publishing to all men the Creed of the Three Hundred and Eighteen, and to their number adding, as their peers, the Fathers who have received the same summary of religion.  Such are the One Hundred and Fifty holy Fathers who afterwards assembled in the great Constantinople and ratified the same faith.  Moreover, observing the order and every form relating to the faith, which was observed by the holy synod formerly held in Ephesus, of which Celestine of Rome and Cyril of Alexandria, of holy memory, were the leaders, we do declare that the exposition of the right and blameless faith made by the Three Hundred and Eighteen holy and blessed Fathers, assembled at Nice in the reign of Constantine of pious memory, shall be pre-eminent:  and that those things shall be of force also, which were decreed by the One Hundred and Fifty holy Fathers at Constantinople, for the uprooting of the heresies which had then sprung up, and for the confirmation of the same Catholic and Apostolic Faith of ours. . . .

Following the holy Fathers we teach with one voice that the Son [of God] and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], that he is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, very God and very man, of a reasonable soul and [human] body consisting, consubstantial with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood; made in all things like unto us, sin only excepted; begotten of his Father before the worlds according to his Godhead; but in these last days for us men and for our salvation born [into the world] of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God according to his manhood.  This one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures, [287] unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably [united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the Prophets of old time have spoken concerning him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ hath taught us, and as the Creed of the Fathers hath delivered to us.  (The Definition of Faith of the Council of Chalcedon)

The Fifth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (553)

We therefore, to whom it has been committed to rule the church of the Lord, fearing the curse which hangs over those who negligently perform the Lord's work, hasten to preserve the good seed of faith pure from the tares of impiety which are being sown by the enemy.

When, therefore, we saw that the followers of Nestorius were attempting to introduce their impiety into the church of God through the impious Theodore, who was bishop of Mopsuestia, and through his impious writings; and moreover through those things which Theodoret impiously wrote, and through the wicked epistle which is said to have been written by Ibas to Maris the Persian, moved by all these sights we rose up for the correction of what was going on, and assembled in this royal city called thither by the will of God and the bidding of the most religious Emperor.

And because it happened that the most religious Vigilius stopping in this royal city, was present at all the discussions with regard to the Three Chapters, and had often condemned them orally and in writing, nevertheless afterwards he gave his consent in writing to be present at the Council and examine together with us the Three Chapters, that a suitable definition of the right faith might be set forth by us all. Moreover the most pious Emperor, according to what had seemed good between us, exhorted both him and us to meet together, because it is comely that the priesthood should after common discussion impose a common faith.  On this account we besought his reverence to fulfil his written promises; for it was not right that the scandal with regard to these Three Chapters should go any further, and the Church of God be disturbed thereby.  And to this end we brought to his remembrance the great examples left us by the Apostles, and the traditions of the Fathers.  For although the grace of the Holy Spirit abounded in each one of the Apostles, so that no one of them needed the counsel of another in the execution of his work, yet they were not willing to define on the question then raised touching the circumcision of the Gentiles, until being gathered together they had confirmed their own several sayings by the testimony of the divine Scriptures.

And thus they arrived unanimously at this sentence, which they wrote to the Gentiles:  "It has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us, to lay upon you no other burden than these necessary things, that ye abstain from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication."

But also the Holy Fathers, who from time to time have met in the four holy councils, following the example of the ancients, have by a common discussion, disposed of by a fixed decree the heresies and questions which had sprung up, as it was certainly known, that by common discussion when the matter in dispute was presented by each side, the light of truth expels the darkness of falsehood.

Nor is there any other way in which the truth can be made manifest when there are discussions concerning the faith, since each one needs the help of his neighbour, as we read in the Proverbs of Solomon:  "A brother helping his brother shall be exalted like a walled city; and he shall be strong as a well-founded kingdom;" and again in Ecclesiastes he says:  "Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour."

So also the Lord himself says:  "Verily I say unto you that if two of you shall agree upon earth as touching anything they shall seek for, they shall have it from my Father which is in heaven.  For wheresoever two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them."

But when often he had been invited by us all, and when the most glorious judges had been sent to him by the most religious Emperor, he promised to give sentence himself on the Three Chapters (sententiam proferre):  And when we heard this answer, having the Apostle's admonition in mind, that "each one must give an account of himself to God" and fearing the judgment that hangs over those who scandalize one, even of the least important, and knowing how much sorer it must be to give offence to so entirely Christian an Emperor, and to the people, and to all the Churches; and further recalling what was said by God to Paul:  "Fear not, but speak, and be not silent, for I am with thee, and no one can harm thee."  Therefore, being gathered together, before all things we have briefly confessed that we hold that faith which our Lord Jesus Christ, the true God, delivered to his holy Apostles, and through them to the holy churches, and which they who after them were holy fathers and doctors, handed down to the people credited to them.

We confessed that we hold, preserve, and declare to the holy churches that confession of faith which the 318 holy Fathers more at length set forth, who were gathered together at Nice, who handed down the holy mathema or creed.  Moreover, the 150 gathered together at Constantinople set forth our faith, who followed that same confession of faith and explained it.  And the consent of the 200 holy fathers gathered for the same faith in the first Council of Ephesus.  And what things were defined by the 630 gathered at Chalcedon for the one and the same faith, which they both followed and taught.  And all those who from time to time have been condemned or anathematized by the Catholic Church, and by the aforesaid four Councils, we confessed that we hold them condemned and anathematized.  And when we had thus made profession of our faith we began the examination of the Three Chapters . . .

Having thus detailed all that has been done by us, we again confess that we receive the four holy Synods, that is, the Nicene, the Constantinopolitan, the first of Ephesus, and that of Chalcedon, and we have taught, and do teach all that they defined respecting the one faith.  And we account those who do not receive these things aliens from the Catholic Church.  Moreover we condemn and anathematize, together with all the other heretics who have been condemned and anathematized by the before-mentioned four holy Synods, and by the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, Theodore who was Bishop of Mopsuestia, and his impious writings, and also those things which Theodoret impiously wrote against the right faith, and against the Twelve Chapters of the holy Cyril, and against the first Synod of Ephesus, and also those which he wrote in defence of Theodore and Nestorius.  In addition to these we also anathematize the impious Epistle which Ibas is said to have written to Maris, the Persian, which denies that God the Word was incarnate of the holy Mother of God, and ever Virgin Mary, and accuses Cyril of holy memory, who taught the truth, as an heretic, and of the same sentiments with Apollinaris, and blames the first Synod of Ephesus as deposing Nestorius without examination and inquiry, and calls the Twelve Chapters of the holy Cyril impious, and contrary to the right faith, and defends Theodorus and Nestorius, and their impious dogmas and writings.  We therefore anathematize the Three Chapters before-mentioned, that is, the impious Theodore of Mopsuestia, with his execrable writings, and those things which Theodoret impiously wrote, and the impious letter which is said to be of Ibas, and their defenders, and those who have written or do write in defence of them, or who dare to say that they are correct, and who have defended or attempt to defend their impiety with the names of the holy Fathers, or of the holy Council of Chalcedon.  These things therefore being settled with all accuracy, we, bearing in remembrance the promises made respecting the holy Church, and who it was that said that the gates of hell should not prevail against her, that is, the deadly tongues of heretics; remembering also what was prophesied respecting it by Hosea, saying, "I will betroth thee unto me in faithfulness, and thou shalt know the Lord," and numbering together with the devil, the father of lies, the unbridled tongues of heretics who persevered in their impiety unto death, and their most impious writings, will say to them, "Behold, all ye kindle a fire, and cause the flame of the fire to grow strong, ye shall walk in the light of your fire, and the flame which ye kindle."  But we, having a commandment to exhort the people with right doctrine, and to speak to the heart of Jerusalem, that is, the Church of God, do rightly make haste to sow in righteousness, and to reap the fruit of life; and kindling for ourselves the light of knowledge from the holy Scriptures, and the doctrine of the Fathers, we have considered it necessary to comprehend in certain Capitula, both the declaration of the truth, and the condemnation of heretics, and of their wickedness.  (The Sentence of the Synod)

The Sixth Ecumenical Council of Constantinople (680-681)

Thus, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and instructed by your doctrine, we have cast forth the vile doctrines of impiety, making smooth the right path of orthodoxy, being in every way encouraged and helped in so doing by the wisdom and power of our most pious and serene Emperor Constantine.  And then one of our number, the most holy præsul of this reigning Constantinople, in the first place assenting to the orthodox compositions sent by you to the most pious emperor as in all respects agreeable to the teaching of the approved Fathers and of the God-instructed Fathers, and of the holy five universal councils, we all, by the help of Christ our God, easily accomplished what we were striving after.  For as God was the mover, so God also he crowned our council.

   Thereupon, therefore, the grace of the Holy Spirit shone upon us, displaying his power, through your assiduous prayers, for the uprooting of all weeds and every tree which brought not forth good fruit, and giving command that they should be consumed by fire.  And we all agree both in heart and tongue, and hand, and have put forth, by the assistance of the life-giving Spirit, a definition, clean from all error, certain, and infallible; not removing the ancient landmarks,' as it is written (God forbid!), but remaining steadfast in the testimonies and authority of the holy and approved fathers, and defining that, as of two and in two natures (to wit, the divinity and the humanity) of which he is composed and in which he exists, Christ our true God is preached by us, and is glorified inseparably, unchangeably, unconfusedly, and undividedly; just so also we predicate of him two natural operations, undividedly, incontrovertibly, unconfusedly, inseparably, as has been declared in our synodal definition.  These decrees the majesty of our God-copying Emperor assented to, and subscribed them with his own hand.  And, as has been said, we rejected and condemned that most impious and unsubstantial heresy which affirmed but one will and one operation in the incarnate Christ our true God, and by so doing we have pressed sore upon the crowd who confound and who divide, and have extinguished the inflamed storm of other heresies, but we have set forth clearly with you the shining light of the orthodox faith, and we pray your paternal sanctity to confirm our decree by your honourable rescript; through which we confide in good hope in Christ that his merciful kindness will grant freely to the Roman State, committed to the care of our most clement Emperor, stability; and will adorn with daily yokes and victories his most serene clemency; and that in addition to the good things he has here bestowed upon us, he will set your God-honoured holiness before his tremendous tribunal as one who has sincerely confessed the true faith, preserving it unsullied and keeping good ward over the orthodox flocks committed to him by God.  (Letter of the Council to St. Agatho)

Part Thirteen: St. Thomas Aquinas, Church councils, and Part Fifteen: Church councils, continued

Back to Introduction and Table of Contents

Published on the feast of St. Thomas More, my patron saint, and also of St. John Fisher and St. Paulinus of Nola