The Seven Ecumenical Councils Lesson 9: Chalcedon Continued Review of the First 4 Councils

Canons of Chalcedon (Continued)

Canons of Chalcedon Bishops shall be ordained within three months, unless there is grave necessity A steward shall be chosen by the bishop from among his clergy to handle business Eloping is forbidden The bishop of “New Rome” shall have the same honor as the bishop of “Old Rome”

Canons of Chalcedon Bishops shall not be degraded to the rank of presbyter. If he is unjustly deposed, he shall be restored to the episcopacy Since Egyptian custom is that the clergy cannot subscribe without the permission of the Archbishop, they are not blamed for waiting to subscribe to Leo’s Tome until an Archbishop is appointed.

Aftermath of Chalcedon

Aftermath of Chalcedon Schisms Nestorian – Assyrian Church of the East Monophysite – Oriental Orthodox (e.g. Coptic) Chalcedonian Definition Accepted Roman Catholics Eastern Orthodox Most Protestants

Review of the First Four Ecumenical Councils

Review Nicaea I – 325 Important Document – Nicene Creed (Original) Main Theological Issue – The Divinity of Christ “of one substance with the Father” Main Heresy – Arianism “There was a time when the Son was not”

Review Constantinople I – 381 Important Document – Nicene Creed (Current) Main Theological Issues – The Divinity of Christ/Spirit, Full humanity of Christ Christ is “of one substance with the Father” The Holy Spirit: “who with the Father and the Son is worshiped and glorified” Cappadocian Fathers: “What he has not assumed, he has not redeemed.”

Review Constantinople I – 381 (cont.) Main Heresies: Arianism, Semi-Arianism,& Apollinarianism Arianism: “there was a time when the Son was not” Semi-Arianism: the Son is of similar substance to the Father; The Spirit is not a person/divine Apollinarianism: Christ had a divine mind/will, not human mind/will

Review Ephesus I – 431 (No major lasting document) Theological issues: Unity of Christ’s person Mary being “Theotokos” is theologically accurate/appropriate Major Heresy: Nestorianism Mary is only “Christotokos”

Review Chalcedon – 451 Major Document – Formula of Chalcedon Theological issues: Distinction of Christ’s Natures within a single PersonHypostatic Union: Two Distinct Natures within one Person Main Heresy: Monophysitism Monophysitism: Jesus’ human and divine natures are combined into a single new nature

Anglicanism and the Councils

Review – Anglican Issues “Moreover, in the Catholic Church itself, all possible care must be taken, that we hold that faith which has been believed everywhere, always, by all” - St. Vincent of Lerens, 434

Review – Anglican Issues “But especially shall they see to it that they teach nothing in the way of a sermon, which they would have religiously held and believed by the people, save what is agreeable to the teaching of the Old or New Testament, and what the Catholic fathers and ancient bishops have collected from this selfsame doctrine.” – Canon 6, 1571.

Review – Anglican Issues “Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation.” – Article VI

Review – Anglican Issues “General Councils may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of Princes. And when they be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God), they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture.” – Article XXI

Review – Anglican Issues “One canon reduced to writing by God himself, two testaments, three creeds, four general councils, five centuries, and the series of Fathers in that period – the centuries that is, before Constantine, and two after, determine the boundary of our faith.” – Bp. Lancelot Andrewes, d. 1626.

Review – Anglican Issues “We confess as proved by most certain warrants of Holy Scripture the historic faith of the undivided church as declared in the three Catholic Creeds: the Apostles’, the Nicene, and the Athanasian. “Concerning the seven Councils of the Undivided Church, we affirm the teaching of the first four Councils and the Christological clarifications of the fifth, sixth, and seventh Councils, in so far as they are agreeable to the Holy Scriptures.” - Constitution of the ACNA, Article I, 2009.