 |
The Ecumenical Councils
and their Chief Doctrines The twenty one General Councils are presented here in their chronological order. Several General Councils were held in the same places at different times and so are named first, second, etc., after the particular place where they were held. Of necessity only a very general statement can here be made of the various actions of the Councils and we limit this to the more important doctrinal questions. |
1.
The First Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325)
This Council, the
first Ecumenical Council of the Catholic Church, was
held in order to
bring out the true teaching of the Church as opposed
by the heresy of
Arius. It formally presented the teaching of the
Church declaring
the divinity of God the Son to be one substance and
one nature with
that of God the Father. There were twenty canons drawn
up, in which the
time of celebrating Easter was clarified and a
denunciation of
the Meletian heresy made, also various matters of
discipline or law
were dealt with and several decisions advanced. From
this Council we
have the Nicene Creed.
2.
The First Council of Constantinople (A.D. 381)
Again the true
faith was maintained against the Arians. Answer was
also given against
the Apollinarian and Macedonian heresies. In
answering the latter
which denied the Godhead of the Holy Spirit, the
dogma of the Church
was again stated and the words inserted into the
Nicene Creed declaring
the truth that the Holy Spirit proceeded from
both the Father
and the Son.
3.
The Council of Ephesus (A.D. 431)
The third General
Council of the Church defined the Catholic dogma
that the Blessed
Virgin is the Mother of God (theotokos) and presented the
teaching of the
truth of one divine person in Christ. The Council was
convened against
the heresy of Nestorius.
4.
The Council of Chalcedon (A.D. 451)
Held twenty years
after the third General Council, this was to answer
the Eutychian or
Monophysite heresy and affirm the doctrine of two
natures in Christ.
This followed as a result of the growing
controversy among
the early theologians who were being led into error
by a confused idea
of the one divine person being both God and man or
that there are
two natures, human and divine, in the one person of the
Word.
5.
The Second Council of Constantinople (A.D. 553)
This Council is
sometimes referred to as the Council of the Three
Chapters because
its chief work was to condemn the writings and
teaching of Theodore
of Mopsuestia, the erroneous portions in the
writings of Theodoret,
and the letters of Ibas. It reaffirmed the
dogmas stated by
the third and forth General Councils.
6.
The Third Council of Constantinople (A.D. 680)
This Council gave
the definition of two wills in Christ as the true
teaching against
the Monothelite heresy which claimed only one will.
7.
The Second Council of Nicaea (A.D. 757)
Here was defined
the veneration due to holy images, that we give honor
only to those they
represent and not to the image itself as such; it
presented the answer
to the image breakers or iconoclasts. It also
gave twenty-two
canons regarding the clergy.
8.
The Forth Council of Constantinople (A.D. 869)
This was a disciplinary
Council to heal the threat of schism which was
separating the
East and Rome. This was done by deposing the usurper,
Photius, and restoring
the patriarch, Ignatius. The Greeks finally
refused acknowledgment
of the Council.
9.
The First Council of the Lateran (A.D.
1123)
The Lateran is
the Cathedral Basilica of Rome. This was the first
General Council
held in the West. It was convened to confirm the peace
between the Church
and State and to give final settlement to the
problem of Investiture
between Emperor Henry V and the Holy See. It
was agreed that
the Church has all rights to choose and consecrate
prelates and invest
them, and Church goods were restored to the
Church.
10.
The Second Council of the Lateran (A.D.
1139)
This Council took
disciplinary action and excommunicated Roger of
Sicily who championed
the anti-pope. Anacletus II, and imposed silence
on Arnold of Brescia.
Canons against simony, incontinence, breaking
the "Truce of God,"
dueling or group feuding were advanced, and
regulations concerning
clerical dress were given.
11.
The Third Council of the Lateran (A.D.
1179)
After forty years
again the General Council took actions against
simony and abuses
of the clergy. Also defense of the true teaching was
made in answer
to the Albigenses and Waldenses.
12. The Fourth Council of the Lateran (A.D.
1215)
Besides disciplinary
action the seventy decrees of this Council
answered prevailing
heresies, gave pronouncements in favor of the
Crusades, prescribed
the duty of annual confession and Easter
Communion, offered
additional definitions on the absolute unity of
God, and presented
definition of the doctrine of the Church regarding
sacraments, and
in particular that the bread and wine, by
transubstantiation,
become the Body and Blood of Christ.
13.
The First Council of Lyons (A.D. 1245)
This Council was
called to bring disciplinary action against Emperor
Frederick II and
at the same time sentence of the solemn renewal of
excommunication
was passed on the emperor.
14.
The Second Council of Lyons (A.D. 1274)
Effort was made
at this Council under Pope Gregory X to bring about
union between the
East and West. It also defined that the Holy Spirit
proceeds eternally
from the Father and the Son. The discipline
governing the election
of the pope was formulated.
15.
The Council of Vienne (A.D. 1311 and 1312)
The purpose of
this Council was to settle the affair of the Templars,
to advance the
rescue of the Holy Land, and to reform abuses in the
Church. The doctrinal
decrees of the Council were: condemnation that
the soul is not
"in itself the essentially the form of the human
body",; that sanctifying
grace is infused into the soul at baptism;
and denial that
a perfect man is not subject to ecclesiastical and
civil law.
16.
The Council of Constance (A.D. 1414 - 1418)
This Council can
be regarded as ecumenical only in so far as it was in
union with the
pope. The heretical teaching of John Huss and Wyclif
were answered.
It was here that communion to the laity under one
species was prescribed
as a cure to the make it understood that the
entirety of Jesus
Christ is present under both or either species. In
transubstantiation
all of the bread is changed into the body, blood,
soul and Divinity
of Christ and all of the wine is changed into the
body, blood, soul
and Divinity of Christ and reception of either
species was reception
of the total; body, blood, soul and Divinity of
Jesus Christ.
17.
The Council of Ferrara-Florence (A.D. 1438
- 1439)
This was convened
to unite the Greeks and other oriental sects with
the Latin Rite.
It was defined that "the Holy Apostolic See and Roman
Pontiff hold the
primacy over all the world; that the Roman Pontiff is
the successor of
Peter, prince of the Apostles; that he is the true
vicar of Christ,
the head of the whole Church, the Father and teacher
of all Christians."
18.
The Fifth Council of the Lateran (A.D. 1512
- 1517)
It defined the
Pope's authority over all Councils and condemned errors
regarding the human
soul, namely, that the soul with its intellectual
power is mortal.
19.
The Council of Trent
(opened under Pope Paul III in 1545,
continued under Pope Julius III, and concluded under
Pope Pius IV (A. D. 1563)
The doctrine of
original sin was defined; the decree on Justification
was declared against
the Lutheran errors that faith alone justifies
and that the merits
of Christ; the doctrine of the sacraments of
Penance and Extreme
Unction was defined; decrees relating to the
censorship of books
were adopted; the doctrine of Christian marriage
was defined and
decrees on Purgatory and indulgences adopted. Besides
many refutations
against the so called reformers were given and
measures of true
reform advanced.
20.
The First Vatican Council
(opened under Pope Pius IX in 1869 and adjourned on October 20, 1870)
This General Council
was never closed officially, but was suspended.
Technically, it
continued until it was closed by Pope John XXIII. Of
this council the
most important decree was that of the primacy of the
pope and of papal
infallibility.
21.
The Second Vatican Council
(opened under Pope John XXIII in 1962, it continued under Pope Paul XI
until the end in 1965)
Several important
constitutions and decrees were promulgated, the most
far reaching being
the Constitution on Sacred Liturgy.