_Notice of the General Councils._
Assembly, council of state, parliament, states-general, formerly
signified the same thing. In the primitive ages nothing was written in
Celtic, nor in German, nor in Spanish. The little that was written was
conceived in the Latin tongue by a few clerks, who expressed every
meeting of _lendes_, _herren_, or _ricohombres_, by the word
_concilium_. Hence it is that we find in the sixth, seventh, and eighth
centuries so many councils which were nothing more than councils of
state.
We shall here speak only of the great councils called _general_, whether
by the Greek or by the Latin church. At Rome they were called _synods_,
as they were in the East in the primitive ages--for the Latins borrowed
names as well as things from the Greeks.
In 325 there was a great council in the city of Nicæa, convoked by
Constantine. The form of its decision was this: "We believe that Jesus
is of one substance with the Father, God of God, light of light,
begotten, not made. We also believe in the Holy Ghost."
Nicephorus affirms that two bishops, Chrysanthus and Mysonius, who had
died during the first sittings, rose again to sign the condemnation of
Arius, and incontinently died again, as I have already observed.
Baronius maintains this fact, but Fleury says nothing of it.
In 359 the emperor Constantius assembled the great councils of Rimini
and of Seleucia, consisting of six hundred bishops, with a prodigious
number of priests. These two councils, corresponding together, undo all
that the Council of Nice did, and proscribe the consubstantiality. But
this was afterwards regarded as a false council.
In 381 was held, by order of the emperor Theodosius, a great council at
Constantinople, of one hundred and fifty bishops, who anathematize the
Council of Rimini. St. Gregory Nazianzen presides, and the bishop of
Rome sends deputies to it. Now is added to the Nicene symbol: "Jesus
Christ was incarnate, by the Holy Ghost, of the Virgin Mary. He was
crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He was buried, and on the third
day he rose again, according to the Scriptures. He sits at the right
hand of the Father. We also believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and
giver of life, who proceeds from the Father."
In 431 a great council was convoked at Ephesus, by the emperor
Theodosius II. Nestorius, bishop of Constantinople, having violently
persecuted all who were not of his opinion on theological points,
undergoes persecution in his turn, for having maintained that the Holy
Virgin Mary, mother of Jesus Christ, was not mother of God; because
said he, Jesus Christ being the word, the Son of God, consubstantial
with His Father, Mary could not, at the same time, be mother of God the
Father and of God the Son. St. Cyril exclaims loudly against him.
Nestorius demands an ecumenical council, and obtains it. Nestorius is
condemned; but Cyril is also displaced by a committee of the council.
The emperor reverses all that has been done in this council, then
permits it to re-assemble. The deputies from Rome arrive very late. The
troubles increasing, the emperor has Nestorius and Cyril arrested. At
last he orders all the bishops to return, each to his church, and after
all no conclusion is reached. Such was the famous Council of Ephesus.
In 449 another great council, afterward called "the banditti," met at
Ephesus. The number of bishops assembled is a hundred and thirty; and
Dioscorus, bishop of Alexandria, presided. There are two deputies from
the church of Rome, and several abbots. The question is, whether Jesus
Christ has two natures. The bishops and all the monks of Egypt exclaim
that "all who would divide Jesus Christ ought themselves to be torn in
two." The two natures are anathematized; and there is a fight in full
council, as at the little Council of Cirta in 355, and at the minor
Council of Carthage.
In 452, the great Council of Chalcedon was convoked by Pulcheria, who
married Marcian on condition that he should be only the highest of her
subjects. St. Leo, bishop of Rome, having great influence, takes
advantage of the troubles which the quarrel about the two natures has
occasioned in the empire, and presides at the council by his legates--of
which we have no former example. But the fathers of the council,
apprehending that the church of the West will, from this precedent,
pretend to the superiority over that of the East, decide by their
twenty-eighth canon, that the see of Constantinople, and that of Rome,
shall enjoy alike the same advantages and the same privileges. This was
the origin of the long enmity which prevailed, and still prevails,
between the two churches. This Council of Chalcedon established the two
natures in one only person.
Nicephorus relates that, at this same council, the bishops, after a long
dispute on the subject of images, laid each his opinion in writing on
the tomb of St. Euphemia, and passed the night in prayer. The next
morning the orthodox writings were found in the saint's hand, and the
others at her feet.
In 553, a great council at Constantinople was convoked by Justinian, who
was an amateur theologian, to discuss three small writings, called _the
three chapters_, of which nothing is now known. There were also disputes
on some passages of Origen.
Vigilius, bishop of Rome, would have gone thither in person; but
Justinian had him put in prison, and the Patriarch of Constantinople
presided. No member of the Latin church attended; for at that time Greek
was no longer understood in the West, which had become entirely
barbarous.
In 680, another general council at Constantinople was convoked by
Constantine the bearded. This was the first council called by the Latins
_in trullo_, because it was held in an apartment of the imperial palace.
The emperor, himself, presided; on his right hand were the patriarchs of
Constantinople and Antioch; on his left, the deputies from Rome and
Jerusalem. It was there decided that Jesus Christ had two wills; and
Pope Honorius I., was condemned as a Monothelite, i.e., as wishing Jesus
Christ to have but one will.
In 787, the second Council of Nice was convoked by Irene, in the name of
the emperor Constantine, her son, whom she had deprived of his eyes. Her
husband, Leo, had abolished the worship of images, as contrary to the
simplicity of the primitive ages, and leading to idolatry. Irene
re-established this worship; she herself spoke in the council, which was
the only one held by a woman. Two legates from Pope Adrian V., attended,
but did not speak, for they did not understand Greek: the patriarch did
all.
Seven years after, the Franks, having heard that a council at
Constantinople had ordained the adoration of images, assemble, by order
of Charles, son of Pepin, afterwards named Charlemagne, a very numerous
council at Frankfort. Here the second Council of Nice is spoken of as
"an impertinent and arrogant synod, held in Greece for the worshipping
of pictures."
In 842, a great council at Constantinople was convoked by the empress
Theodora. The worship of images was solemnly established. The Greeks
have still a feast in honor of this council, called the _orthodoxia_.
Theodora did not preside. In 861, a great council at Constantinople,
consisting of three hundred and eighteen bishops, was convoked by the
emperor Michael. St. Ignatius, patriarch of Constantinople, is deposed,
and Photius elected.
In 866, another great council was held at Constantinople, in which Pope
Nicholas III. is deposed for contumacy, and excommunicated. In 869 was
another great council at Constantinople, in which Photius, in turn, is
deposed and excommunicated, and St. Ignatius restored.
In 879, another great council assembled at Constantinople, in which
Photius, already restored, is acknowledged as true patriarch by the
legates of Pope John VIII. Here the great ecumenical council, in which
Photius was deposed, receives the appellation of "_conciliabulum_." Pope
John VIII. declares all those to be Judases who say that the Holy Ghost
proceeds from the Father and the Son.
In 1122-3, a great council at Rome was held in the church of St. John of
Lateran by Pope Calixtus II. This was the first general council convoked
by the popes. The emperors of the West had now scarcely any authority;
and the emperors of the East pressed by the Mahometans and by the
Crusaders, held none but wretched little councils.
It is not precisely known what this Lateran was. Some small councils had
before been assembled in the Lateran. Some say that it was a house built
by one Lateran in Nero's time; others, that it was St. John's church
itself, built by Bishop Sylvester. In this council, the bishops
complained heavily of the monks. "They possess," said they, "the
churches, the lands, the castles, the tithes, the offerings of the
living and the dead; they have only to take from us the ring and the
crosier." The monks remained in possession.
In 1139 was another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent II. It is
said there were present a thousand bishops. A great many, certainly.
Here the ecclesiastical tithes are declared to be of _divine right_, and
all laymen possessing any of them are excommunicated. In 1179 was
another great Council of Lateran, by Pope Alexander III. There were
three hundred bishops and one Greek abbot. The decrees are all on
discipline. The plurality of benefices is forbidden.
In 1215 was the last general Council of Lateran, by Pope Innocent III.,
composed of four hundred and twelve bishops, and eight hundred abbots.
At this time, which is that of the Crusades, the popes have established
a Latin patriarch at Jerusalem, and one at Constantinople. These
patriarchs attend the council. This great council says that, "God having
given the doctrine of salvation to men by Moses, at length caused His
son to be born of a virgin, to show the way more clearly," and that "no
one can be saved out of the Catholic church."
The _transubstantiation_ was not known until after this council. It
forbade the establishment of new religious orders; but, since that time,
no less than eighty have been instituted. It was in this council that
Raymond, count of Toulouse, was stripped of all his lands. In 1245 a
great council assembled at the imperial city of Lyons. Innocent IV.
brings thither the emperor of Constantinople, John Palæologus, and makes
him sit beside him. He deposes the emperor Frederick as a _felon_, and
gives the cardinals red hats, as a sign of hostility to Frederick. This
was the source of thirty years of civil war.
In 1274 another general council was held at Lyons. Five hundred bishops,
seventy great and a thousand lesser abbots. The Greek emperor, Michael
Palæologus, that he may have the protection of the pope, sends his Greek
patriarch, Theophanes, to unite, in his name, with the Latin church. But
the Greek church disowns these bishops.
In 1311, Pope Clement V. assembled a general council in the small town
of Vienne, in Dauphiny, in which he abolishes the Order of the Templars.
It is here ordained that the Bégares, Beguins, and Béguines shall be
burned. These were a species of heretics, to whom was imputed all that
had formerly been imputed to the primitive Christians. In 1414, the
great Council of Constance was convoked by an emperor who resumes his
rights, viz.: by Sigismund. Here Pope John XXIII., convicted of numerous
crimes, is deposed; and John Huss and Jerome of Prague, convicted of
obstinacy, are burned. In 1431, a great council was held at Basel, where
they in vain depose Pope Eugene IV., who is too clever for the council.
In 1438, a great council assembled at Ferrara, transferred to Florence,
where the excommunicated pope excommunicates the council, and declares
it guilty of high treason. Here a feigned union is made with the Greek
church, crushed by the Turkish synods held sword in hand. Pope Julius
II. would have had his Council of Lateran, in 1512, pass for an
ecumenical council. In it that pope solemnly excommunicated Louis XII.,
king of France, laid France under an interdict, summoned the whole
parliament of Provence to appear before him, and excommunicated all the
philosophers, because most of them had taken part with Louis XII. Yet
this council was not, like that of Ephesus, called the Council of
Robbers.
In 1537, the Council of Trent was convoked, first at Mantua, by Paul
III., afterwards at Trent in 1543, and terminated in December, 1561,
under Pius VI. Catholic princes submitted to it on points of doctrine,
and two or three of them in matters of discipline. It is thought that
henceforward there will be no more general councils than there will be
states-general in France or Spain. In the Vatican there is a fine
picture, containing a list of the general councils, in which are
inscribed such only as are approved by the court of Rome. Every one puts
what he chooses in his own archives.