Wednesday, April 22, 2009

Papal Participation (Through Legates) in the First Seven Ecumenical Councils

Ruins of Hagia Sophia in present-day Iznik, Turkey, where the first Ecumenical Council met. (photo credit: David Trobisch; Trip to Turkey)

Here is my understanding of papal presence (personally or through legates) at the first seven councils:

Nicaea, 325 [papal legates; possibly including Hosius or Ossius, who presided]

The recommendation for a general or ecumenical council . . . had probably already been made to Constantine by Ossius [aka Hosius], and most probably to Pope Silvester as well (9). . . Ossius presided over its deliberations; he probably, and two priests of Rome certainly, came as representatives of the Pope.

(Dr. Warren Carroll, The Building of Christendom, Christendom College Press, 1987, 11)
For much more on this, see the Brian Harrison article cited below in #2 and my paper, Pope Silvester and the Council of Nicaea.

2) Constantinople, 381
[no pope and no legates]
No bishops from the west were present, nor was the Pope represented. Therefore, this was not really an ecumenical council, though due to later historical confusion and the enthusiastic acceptance by the whole Church of its strongly orthodox creed, including an explicit confession of the full divinity of the Holy Spirit, it came to be regarded and numbered as such.

(Dr. Warren Carroll, The Building of Christendom, Christendom College Press, 1987, 62)

With the First Council of Constantinople (381) we are dealing with another case in which there are not extant acts. This council also was convoked by an emperor, Theodosius I. [Ibid.] The language of his decree suggests he regarded the Roman see as a yardstick of Christian orthodoxy. He commands all his subjects to practice the religion which Peter the apostle transmitted to the Romans. In calling the Council, Theodosius did not envisage the assembled bishops debating Roman doctrine as thought it were an open question.

The fact that Meletius of Antioch presided at Constantinople I, and the absence of any Roman legates, might appear to be evidence against the Roman primacy. It must be remembered that the Council was not originally intended to be ecumenical in the same sense as Nicaea.

It included, after all, only 150 bishops from Thrace, Asia Minor, and Egypt and was convoked to deal with certain Eastern problems.[New Catholic Encyclopedia, s.v. "Constantinople, First Council of."] In fact, it was not recognized as ecumenical by the Council of Ephesus half a century later, and it was left to Pope Gregory the Great to elevate it to that status.

("Papal Authority at the Earliest Councils," Brian W. Harrison, This Rock, Jan. 1991)

3) Ephesus, 431 [papal legates Arcadius, Projectus, and Philip]

(Catholic Encyclopedia: "Council of Ephesus"; written by John Chapman)

4) Chalcedon, 451 [papal legate Paschasinus, who presided]



(Catholic Encyclopedia: "Council of Chalcedon," written by Francis Schaefer)

5) Constantinople, 553 [no pope and no legates, due to imperial strong-arm tactics and imprisonment of Pope Vigilius]
From 25 January, 547, Pope Vigilius was forcibly detained in the royal city; . . . Vigilius had persuaded Justinian . . . to proclaim a truce on all sides until a general council could be called to decide these controversies. Both the emperor and the Greek bishops violated this promise of neutrality;. . .



(Catholic Encyclopedia: "Second Council of Constantinople," written by Thomas Shahan)
For more, see the article "Pope Vigilius".

6) Constantinople, 681 [papal legates]




(Catholic Encyclopedia: "Third Council of Constantinople," written by Thomas Shahan)

7) Nicaea, 787 [papal legates archpriest Peter and abbot Peter]



(Catholic Encyclopedia: "The Second Council of Nicaea," written by Henri Leclercq)
* * * * *

Conclusion: popes were not personally present at the first seven councils. The custom in those days was to send papal legates. These were present at five of the seven councils. They weren't at Constantinople in 381 because no western bishops at all were present; hence it was not regarded as an ecumenical council at first, because it was of an exclusively eastern nature and not representative of the universal church. But it was orthodox, and so later declared to be ecumenical. And they weren't present at Constantinople in 553 because the pope was being held prisoner and the Emperor didn't want western Catholicism to be proportionately represented. Pope Vigilius refused to participate because of the disproportion, and due to fears of further violence. It was later deemed an ecumenical council by Rome since it was also orthodox in outcome (by God's grace, as always).



Taake said...

Excellent presentation. Thank you!

Dave Armstrong said...

You're welcome.