Theodoret, two hundred and seventy; St. Athanasius, in his epistle to the Solitaries, three hundred, like Constantine; while, in his letter to the Africans, he speaks of three hundred and eighteen. Yet these four authors were eye-witnesses, and worthy of great faith.

leaders of the Arian party, had been an accomplice in the cruelty of Licinius, in the massacres of the bishops, and the persecutions of the Christians. Of this the emperor himself accuses him, in the private letter which he wrote to the church of Nicomedia :

"He sent spies about me," says he, "in the troubles, and did everything but take up arms for the tyrant. I have proofs of this from the priests and deacons of his train, whom I took. During the council of Nicea, with what eagerness and what impudence he maintained, against the testimony of his conscience, the error exploded on every side! repeatedly imploring my protection, lest, being convicted of so great a crime, he should lose his dignity. He shamefully cireumvented and took me by surprise, and carried everything as he chose. Again, see what has been done but lately, by him and Theogenes."

This number 318, which Pope St. Leo calls mysterious, has been adopted by most of the fathers of the church. St. Ambrose assures us, that the number of three hundred and eighteen bishops was a proof of the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ in his council of Nicea; because the cross designates three hundred, and the name of Jesus eighteen. St. Hilary, in his defence of the word consubstantial, approved in the council of Nice, though condemned fifty-five years before in the council of Antioch, reasons thus:66 Eighty bishops rejected the word consubstantial, but three hundred and eighteen have received it. Now this latter number seems to me a sacred number; for it is Constantine here alludes to the fraud that of the men who accompanied Abra- which Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theoham, when, after his victory over the im- genes of Nicea resorted to in subscribing. pious kings, he was blessed by him who In the word "omoousios," they inserted is the type of the eternal priesthood." an iota, making it "omoiousios," meanAnd Selden relates, that Dorotheus, me-ing of like substance; whereas the first tropolitan of Monembasis, said there were means of the same substance. We hereby precisely three hundred and eighteen fa-see that these bishops yielded to the fear thers at this council, because three hundred and eighteen years had elapsed since the Incarnation. All chronologists place this council in the year 325 of our modern era; but Dorotheus deducts seven years, to make his comparison complete: this, however, is a mere trifle. Besides, However, Theonas of Marmarica, and it was not until the council of Lestines, in Secundas of Ptolemaïs continued obsti743, that the years began to be counted nately attached to Arius; and, the council from the Incarnation of Jesus. Diony- having condemned them with him, Consius the Less had imagined this epoch in stantine banished them, and declared by his solar cycle of the year 526; and Bedean edict, that whosoever should be conhad made use of it in his Ecclesiastical History.

of being displaced or banished; for the emperor had threatened with exile such as should not subscribe. The other Eusebius too, Bishop of Cæsarea, approved the word consubstantial, after condemning it the day before.

victed of concealing any of the writings of Arius instead of burning them, should It will not be a subject of astonishment, be punished with death. Three months that Constantine adopted the opinion of after, Eusebius of Nicomedia and Theothe three hundred or three hundred and genes were likewise exiled into Gaul. eighteen bishops who held the divinity of It is said that, having gained over the Jesus, when it is born in mind that Euse-individual who, by the emperor's order, bius of Nicomedia, one of the principal'kept the acts of the council, they had

erased their signatures, and begun to teach } The divinity of Jesus being once estain public that the Son must not be be-blished, it was natural to give to his molieved to be consubstantial with the Father.ther the title of Mother of God. However, Happily, to replace their signatures Nestorius, Patriarch of Constantinople, and preserve entire the mysterious num- inaintained in his sermons that this would ber three hundred and eighteen, the be justifying the folly of the Pagans, who expedient was tried of laying the book, gave mothers to their gods. Theodosius in which the acts were divided into ses- the younger, to have this great question sions, on the tomb of Chrysanthus and decided, assembled the third general Mysonius, who had died while the council council at Ephesus, in the year 431, and was holding: the night was passed in in it Mary was acknowledged to be the prayer, and the next morning it was Mother of God. found that these two bishops had signed. It was by an expedient nearly similar, that the fathers of the same council distinguished the authentic from the apoeryphal books of scripture. Having placed them altogether upon the altar, the apocryphal books fell to the ground of themselves.

Another heresy of Nestorius, likewise condemned at Ephesus, was that of ad{mitting two persons in Jesus. Nevertheless, the Patriarch Photius subsequently acknowledged two natures in Jesus. A monk named Eutyches, who had already exclaimed loudly against Nestorius, affirmed, the better to contradict them Two other councils, assembled by the both, that Jesus had also but one nature. emperor Constantine, in the year 359; But this time the monk was wrong; the one, of upwards of four hundred although, in 449, his opinion had been bishops, at Rimini; the other, of more maintained by blows in a numerous than a hundred and fifty, at Seleucia: council at Ephesus. Eutyches was after long debates, rejected the word nevertheless anathematised, two years cousubstantial, already condemned, as afterwards, by the fourth general council, we have before said by a council of An-held under the emperor Marcian at tioch. But these councils are recognised & Chalcedon, in which two natures were only by the Socinians. assigned to Jesus.

It was still to be determined, with one person and two natures, how many wills Jesus was to have. The fifth general council, which in the year 553 quelled, by Justinian's order, the contentions

The Nicene fathers had been so much occupied with the consubstantiality of the Son, that they had made no mention of the church in their symbol, but contented themselves with saying, We also believe in the Holy Ghost. This omis-about the doctrine of three bishops, had sion was supplied in the second general council, convoked at Constantinople in 381. by Theodosius. The Holy Ghost was there declared to be the Lord and giver of life, proceeding from the Father, who with the Father and Son is worshipped and glorified, who spake by the prophets. Afterwards the Latin church would have the Holy Ghost proceed from the Son also; and the "filioque" was added to the symbol: first in Spain, in 447; then in France, at the council of Lyons, in 1974; and lastly at Rome, notwithstand-will. We do not see that either the ing the complaints made by the Greeks councils or the scriptures authorise us to against this innovation. think otherwise. But whether, from the

no leisure to settle this important point. It was not until the year 680, that the sixth general council, also convened at Constantinople by Constantine Pogonatus, informed us that Jesus had precisely two wills. This council, in condemning the monothelites, who admitted only one, made no exception from the anathema in favour of Pope Honorius I., who, in a letter given by Baronius, had said to the Patriarch of Constantinople

"We confess in Jesus Christ one only

works of divinity and of humanity which are in him, we are to look for two operations, is a point of little importance, and one which I leave it to the grammarians to decide."

Thus, in this instance, with God's permission, the account between the Greek and Latin churches was balanced. As the Patriarch Nestorius had been condemned for acknowledging two persons in Jesus, so Pope Honorius was now condemned for admitting but one will in Jesus.

{

of the year 866: but Ignatius being recalled the following year, another council removed Photius; and in the year 869, the Latins, in their turn, condemned the Greek church in what they called the eighth general council-while those in the east gave this name to another council, which, ten years after, annulled what the preceding one had done, and restored Photius.

These four councils were held at Constantinople: the others, called general by the Latins, having been composed of The seventh general council, or the the bishops of the west only, the popes, second of Nice, was assembled in 787, with the aid of false decretals, gradually by Constantine, son of Leo and Irene, arrogated the right of convoking them. to re-establish the worship of images. The last of these which assembled at The reader must know, that two councils Trent, from 1545 to 1563, neither served of Constantinople, the first in 730, under to convert the enemies of papacy nor to the emperor Leo, the other twenty-four { subdue them. Its decrees, in discipline, years after, under Constantine Coprony-have been scarcely admitted into any mus, had thought proper to proscribe one catholic nation: its only effect has images, conformably to the Mosaic law and been to verify these words of St. Gregory to the usage of the early ages of Christian- Nazianzen :—“I have not seen one counity. So also the Nicene decree, in which it cil that has acted with good faith, or that is said, that "whosoever shall not render has not augmented the evils complained service and adoration to the images of of rather than cured them. Ambition the saints as to the Trinity, shall be and the love of disputation, beyond the deemed anathematised," at first en- power of words to express, reign in every countered some opposition. The bishops assembly of bishops." who introduced it, in a council of Con- However, the council of Constance, stantinople, held in 789, were turned out in 1415, having decided that a councilby soldiers. The same decree was also general receives its authority immediately rejected with scorn by the council of from Jesus Christ, which authority every Frankfort in 794, and by the Caroline person, of whatever rank or dignity, is books, published by order of Charle-bound to obey in all that concerns the magne. But the second council of Nice faith; and the council of Basil having was at length confirmed at Constantino- afterwards confirmed this decree, which ple under the Emperor Michal and his it holds to be an article of faith which mother Theodora, in the year 842, by a cannot be neglected without renouncing numerous council, which anathematised salvation, it is clear how deeply every the enemies of holy images. Be it here one is interested in paying submission to observed, it was by two women, the councils. Empresses Irene and Theodora, that the images were protected.

SECTION II.

We pass on to the eighth general council. Under the Emperor Basilius, Notice of the General Councils. Photius, ordained Patriarch of Constan- Assembly, council of state, parliament, tinople in place of Ignatius, had the states-general, formerly signified the same Latin church condemned for the "fi-thing. In the primitive ages nothing lioque" and other practices, by a council was written in Celtic, nor in German,

nor in Spanish. The little that was, and on the third day he rose again, acwritten, was conceived in the Latin cording to the scriptures. He sits at the tongue by a few clerks, who expressed right hand of the Father. We also beevery meeting of lendes, herren, or ricos lieve in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and ombres, by the word concilium. Hence giver of life, who proceeds from the it is that we find in the sixth, seventh, Father." 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 Nicea, 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."

N: prus affirms, that two bishops, us and Mysonius, who had ring the first sittings, rose again to ▲ the condemnation of Arius, and incontinently died again, as I have already observed.

In 431, a great_council of Ephesus, convoked 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 œcumenical 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 ar

Baronius maintains this fact, but Fleuri{rested. At last, he orders all the bishops says nothing of it. to return, each to his church, and no In 359, the Emperor Constantius as-conclusion is come to. Such was the sembled the great councils of Rimini and famous council of Ephesus. 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 449, another great council at Ephesus, afterwards called "the Banditti." 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 In 381 was held, by order of the Em- is, whether Jesus Christ has two natures. peror Theodosius, a great council at The Bishops and all the monks of Egypt Constantinople, of one hundred and fifty exclaim, that "all who would divide bishops, who anathematise the council Jesus Christ, ought themselves to be torn of Rimini. St. Gregory Nazianzen pre-in two." The two natures are anathesides, and the Bishop of Rome sends matised; and there is a fight in full deputies to it. Now is added to the council, as at the little council of Cirtha Nicene symbol:"Jesus Christ was in- in 355, and at the minor council of Carcarnate, by the Holy Ghost, of the thage. Virgin Mary. He was crucified for us under Pontius Pilate. He was buried,

In 452, the great council of Chalcedon was convoked by Pulcheria, who married

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.

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 In 787, the second council of Nice which we have no former example. But was convoked by Irene, in the name of the fathers of the council, apprehending the Emperor Constantine, her son, whom that the church of the west will, from this she had deprived of his eyes. Her husprecedent, pretend to the superiority over band Leo had abolished the worship of that of the east, decide by their twenty-images, as contrary to the simplicity of eighth canon, that the see of Constanti-the primitive ages, and leading to idonople, 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.

latry. 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 IV, 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

ping of pictures."

In 553, a great council at Constanti-synod, held in Greece for the worshipnople 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;

In 842, a great council at Constantinople was convoked by the Empress Theodora. The worship of images solemnly established. The Greeks have still a feast in honour 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 Michal. 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.