p. 246 | Untitled article

The Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Third-day, October 1, 1867.

Historical Department.

Prophecy is History in Advance.

THE GENERAL COUNCILS OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH.

The following article, which we take from the New York Tribune, will be of interest to every Protestant, as illustrative of the means by which the unity and power of the Roman Catholic church is preserved; and to the student of prophecy it will be especially interesting, showing as it does that the Pope regards his power as in danger, from the increase of knowledge and general intelligence among the masses. May the time hasten when the blasphemous “Man of Sin” shall be “consumed by the brightness of His coming,” whose right it is to reign.

After a period of more than 300 years the Pope has signified his intention of holding a General Council of the church. It will be the 20th General Council recognized by the Roman Catholic church, and will be in wonderful contrast to all that have preceded it. The last general council was the famous Council of Trent, occasioned by the reformation of Martin Luther, then sweeping over Europe during the wonderful 30 years before its progress could be stayed, or its success retarded. These councils are called œcumenical, from a Greek word, signifying the habitable earth, and are composed of all the bishops of Christendom; but this name is often given to convocations of a less universal import. When the Council of Trent was held, the dark ages had long been passed, the crusades were ended, and the intervening years had been years of unexampled prosperity and progress, both material and intellectual. Indeed, all things considered, the downfall of the mighty Roman Empire, the conquests of the Saracens and Turks, the incursions of the Huns, Lombards, and Franks, controlled for a moment by the great Charlemagne and the romantic wars for the recovery of the Holy Sepulchre—the progress in every essential sense of progress of the 300 years anterior to the Council of Trent was as great, if not greater, than even of the boasted three centuries which have succeeded. That Council for the first time since Constantine, found Europe presenting an established political system, all the States bound together by the ties of a common religion, and controlled in their intercourse with one another by the principles of international law. If the nineteenth century does not find civilization, society, religion, and government, the material arts and questions of personal and individual liberty where the sixteenth century left them, neither were the preceding three centuries less tardy in advancing the standard above what the thirteenth century had to offer.

When the Council of Trent was held, America had not been discovered, but this was accomplished before the close of the century, and in this achievement will be found the great contrast between the nineteenth and twentieth General Councils of the church. In Europe the first 100 years of this new era were consumed in religious bickerings and mutual persecutions, but the colonial system of Spain, and afterward of the Netherlands, of France, and of England, which, more even than the Reformation itself, will distinguish this epoch, had planted the standard of the church in the West, and here Rome was to have her greatest triumphs, converting, through the instrumentality of the Society of Jesus, the Micmacs of the North, and the savages of the St. Lawrence, the Mississippi and the Missouri—overturning the thrones of the Incas and suppressing the fanes of the Aztec priesthood, and making the United States a very footstool of the Papacy, maintaining the venerable symbols of the catacombs and the basilicas side by side with the severer forms observed by the Huguenots in the Carolinas, and the Puritans of New England. And now, for the first time in the history of the church and the world the bishops of this new domain where Rome had recovered more than she lost by the Reformation, will sit down in council with the representatives of Sees as old almost as Christianity itself, and distinguished in every council since the first Council of Nice in the fourth century.

The first General Council was held at Jerusalem by the Apostles about the middle of the first century. General Councils do not create new dogmas, but interpret the meaning of the Scripture, and adjudge questions of schism and heresy, belief and discipline. The decree of the Council of Jerusalem was remarkably pointed, and was addressed to the Gentiles of Antioch and Syria. The occasion of the council was the question of circumcision, and the decree was as follows: “For it seemed good to the Holy Ghost, and to us, to lay upon you no greater burden than these necessary things: that ye abstain from meats offered to idols, and from blood, and from things strangled, and from fornication.”

The Second General Council, generally known as the first Council of Nice in Bithynia, was held in the year 325. Protestants regarded this as the first General Council. It was called together by the Emperor Constantine to settle the Arian controversy, as the Council at Jerusalem had been called to settle the question of circumcision, and was attended by 318 bishops. This council, the most famous of all the councils of the church, adopted the celebrated word Homoousion, which affirmed that the Father and the Son were consubstantial, or of the same substance. The doctrines of the Arians were not only condemned, but Arius himself was deprived of his office, and banished into one of the remote provinces of Illyricum. His writings were ordered to be burned, and it was made a capital offense to read them. Constantine himself was present at the council, and took an active part in its deliberations, but Osius, a favorite general, seems to have presided. The Nicene Creed was ratified by the Emperor, but this celebrated formula of faith is not the same now known as Nicene. The creed now used in Catholic and Protestant churches under that name is an exemplification of the one made at Nice, and was drawn up at Constantinople in 381. Notwithstanding Constantine had ratified, possibly prompted, the action of the Council of Nice, he was baptized before his death by the learned Eusebius, the Arian Bishop of Nicomedia, and had received Arius into favor and protected his followers, before the death of that renowned Presbyter. A second council was held at Nice in 787, which is recognized by the Roman Catholics as the Eighth General Council. It was assembled by Pope Adrian I., at the desire of the Empress Irene, who, obliged by her husband to abandon the worship of images to which she had been educated, manifested her zeal by obtaining from the Council a declaration that the veneration of images and of the cross was agreeable to Scripture and reason.

The Third General Council, known as the first of Constantinople, was held in 381, and was convened by the Emperor Theodosius at the instance of Pope St. Damasus. It was this Council which put the Nicene Creed in the formula it has since retained. Seven canons were agreed upon, but its most important action was the declaration that Maximus Cynicus, Bishop of Constantinople, had not been consecrated and the installation of St. Gregory Nazianzen in that important See, and the acceptance of the decrees of the Council of Nice.

Between the first and Second Councils of Constantinople were held the First Council of Ephesus, and the Council of Chalcedon. The disputes concerning the Trinity, settled at Nice, were followed by those relating to the Incarnation, and the first Council of Ephesus was assembled in 431 to condemn the heresy of Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople. It was called by the Emperor Theodosius II., and was presided over by St. Cyril, Bishop of Alexandria. Nestorius maintained that there was a great distinction between Christ the Son of God, and Christ the Son of man, or in other words, between the humanity of the Master Christ, and the divinity of the Lord Jesus, and that the Virgin Mary could only be called “mother of Christ,” and not “mother of God.” Gibbon describes the Council which lasted only a single day, as the scene of much confusion, and Nestorius was condemned and deposed with ignominy. The Second Council of Ephesus, held in 449 was not a General Council, but dealt with the same general questions as the one which had preceded it, and was so much more violent as to be called Latrocinium, or robber Synod, and led to the Fifth General Council, that of Chalcedon in 451. It was called at the request of the Emperor Marcian to counteract the bad effects of the Synod of 449 in which Dioscurus, a fierce soldier, but zealous disciple of Eutyches had caused Flavian, the Byzantine pontiff, to be given to wild beasts. Eutyches was the head of the party opposed to Nestorius, but in his zeal for the singleness of person in Christ, was led to avow also that he possessed but one nature. Pope Leo I. refused to recognize the Synod of 449, and in the General Council of Chalcedon, the doctrines of both Nestorius and Eutyches were condemned.

The Sixth General Council, the second of Constantinople, assembled in 553, two years after the Council of Chalcedon, to consider further the same general questions before that Council, but especially to examine the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, which were condemned as containing the heresies of Arius, Nestorius, and others. The Seventh General Council was held at Constantinople in 680. Its object was to put an end to the dissensions occasioned by the doctrines of the Monothelites, who taught that there was but one will in Jesus Christ. Macarius, the leader of the Monothelite party, was deposed and excommunicated. The Ninth General Council (the Eighth being held in Nice, as already related) was held in the church at St. Sophia, in Constantinople, in the year 869. It re-affirmed the decrees of previous councils, and condemned the practices of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, but was mostly occupied with the affairs of Photius, who had deposed St. Ignatius, Bishop of Constantinople, and usurped his See. Photius was anathematized and deposed, but his followers who subscribed to the articles of faith imposed by the Council were allowed to retain their ecclesiastical positions.

The next General Council was held in the church of St. John Lateran at Rome, the oldest, and in point of ecclesiastical dignity, the most renowned of the churches of the Eternal City, in the year 1123. This was followed by three other councils in the same place in 1139, 1179, and 1215, and they are all known as the Councils of Lateran. These councils were convoked with reference to matters of discipline, for the settlement of troubles springing out of the unsettled state of Europe and for the encouragement of those who took the cross in defense of Palestine. When the Council of 1123 was held the first crusade had been ended for a quarter of a century, and Jerusalem was in the hands of the Christians; but to retain it required the most untiring vigilance against the Turks, so that a special indulgence was offered to all who would enlist in its defense and in the wars with the Mussulmans. The Council of 1139 condemned the anti-Pope Anacletus, and also the heresies of Peter of Bruis and Arnaldo of Brescia. The Council of 1179 made many canons of discipline and morality, and anathematized Cotteraux, Brabancons, and other partisan leaders in the pay of turbulent barons, who were mixed up with the sectarian feuds of the times. This Council forbade Saracens and Jews to possess Christian slaves. The Council of 1215 sanctioned 70 canons framed by Pope Innocent III., enforcing auricular confession, and forbidding the priest to reveal anything heard in the confessional; enjoining the appointment of teachers to every cathedral or collegiate church for the poor of the laity as well as the clergy; promulgating the doctrine of transubstantiation, and regulating the punishment of heretics.

The next General Councils were held at Lyons in 1245 and 1274. The first of these was convoked to extirpate heresy and schism, to afford assistance to the Christians of Palestine, and to judge of the charges against the Emperor Frederick II. who was deposed by Pope Innocent IV. in the presence of the council. The Council of 1274 consisted of more than 500 bishops and many inferior dignitaries of the church, and was assembled to receive the submission of the Greek church. It was attended by an ambassador from Manuel

Comnenus, the Emperor of Constantinople, who, with thirty-eight Greek prelates, sent in an act of adhesion to the Roman Catholic faith and acknowledged the primacy of the See of Rome. The first council of Lyons ordered a new crusade for the recovery of the Holy Land, and provided the funds necessary for the purpose, and the second council also rendered assistance to the Christian warriors in the East.

The next General Council, called the 15th by Protestants, and the 16th by Catholics, was held at Vienna in Dauphiny, in 1311, and this was followed by the Council of Constance in 1414. The latter lasted nearly four years, and in point of interest and importance is not surpassed by any Council of the Catholic church. Its object was to remedy the great Western schism occasioned by the residence of some of the Popes at Avignon. At the time of the Council of Constance there were three claimants to the Papal throne. Of these, John XXIII. (Balthazar Cossa) presided, and was called upon at the first session to resign the papacy. He promised to do so under oath, provided Gregory XII. (Angelo Corario) and Benedict XIII. (Peter de Luna) would do the same, but on the night following fled from Constance to Schaffhausen, and it was not until May, 1415, that he could be induced to resign the pontifical honors. Pope Gregory, who is generally regarded by Catholics as the legitimate successor to the pontificate, then resigned; but the anti-pope refused to vacate the papacy, and after 100 days the Council condemned him as an inveterate “schismatic, heretic, and scandalous sinner,” and proceeded to the election of a new pope, but he persisted in calling himself pope until his death in 1424. This Council spent much time in the examination of the doctrines of Wycliffe, which were condemned, his books ordered to be burnt, and his bones to be disinterred. It also condemned the doctrines taught by the celebrated John Huss, a follower of Wycliffe, degraded him from the priesthood, and handed him over to the secular magistrates of Constance, by whom he was burnt alive. The practice of giving heretics into the hands of civil magistrates was introduced by a canon of the Fourth Council of Lateran.

The Council of Basel was summoned to meet in 1431 by Pope Martin V., who had been elected to the Papacy at Constance, but in the meantime the Pope died, and on the very day when it was summoned to meet, his successor, Eugenius IV., was elected. He immediately confirmed the act of his predecessor calling the Council, but when the Council was to be opened not a single bishop, and only one abbot, was in attendance. The abbot formally opened the Council notwithstanding, and the Council thus inauspiciously begun lasted six years, was twice dissolved by the Pope, was adjourned to Florence, but continued to sit at Basel, although a rival body was in session elsewhere, and was afterward adjourned to Ferrara, to which place many of its members actually went, but what is most remarkable, during nearly the whole time it was composed of ecclesiastics not entitled to sit in œcumenical council. Until its transfer to Ferrara in 1437, it is regarded as œcumenical. It made no decisions of doctrine, but only of discipline, and it made little progress in effecting the reconciliation of the Greek church, which was the purpose of its convocation, nor did it accomplish anything toward the reconciliation of the Hussites, which was a favorite purpose with the Papal legate who presided. After the adjournment to Ferrara, where it was at once dissolved by the Pope, the debris of the council which remained at Basel continued to sit for twelve or fifteen years longer, during which it elected an anti-Pope, Amadeus VIII., former Duke of Savoy, who had resigned his dukedom. He took the name of Felix V. After bearing the title for ten years he submitted to Pope Nicholas V., and the Council at length put an end to itself by electing the reigning Pontiff to the Papacy.

The Council of Trent, the last of the œcumenical councils, was held in 1545, many years having elapsed from the time the Emperor Charles V. promised, at the Diet of Ratisbon, to induce the Pope to convene the council, until it finally met. The occasion was the appeal of Luther, and the Protestant princes of Germany, from the decision of the Pope to a council. But after the promise of the Emperor three Popes had died without convoking a council, and after Paul III. agreed to it in 1537, a period of eight years intervened before it was held. The object was, of course, to effect a reformation of the church, and, if possible, to bring the Protestants again within the folds of the church. The Council met on the 14th of December, and on the 4th of February agreed upon the Nicene Creed as the basis of further action.

The Council then proceeded to determine great doctrinal questions. On the 8th of April it declared that tradition was, equally with the Bible, a rule of faith, and proclaimed the Vulgate as the authentic version, including the Apocrypha, in the canon of the Bible. In the three following sessions, which consumed nearly a year, the Catholic doctrines of original sin, justification, and the sacraments, were defined, and the Council then adjourned to Bologna, on account of being exposed to the plague at Trent. The Council at Bologna promulgated no decrees, and in September, 1549, was indefinitely prorogued by Pope Paul III. It was re-assembled at Trent in 1551, and great efforts were made to effect a reconciliation of the Protestants, but a new war breaking out between the Protestant princes of Germany and the Emperor, the Council suspended its deliberations early in 1552. During this period the doctrines of the eucharist, and of confession and extreme unction, were promulgated. The Council was again re-opened in 1562. A strenuous effort was now made by France and Germany to have the cup extended to the laity, and for the abolition of celibacy and fasting, but these propositions were lost. The Council continued to sit for some time longer, defining most of the doctrines of the church, as the mass, marriage, celibacy, purgatory, the veneration of saints, &c., and was finally closed, Dec. 4, 1563, at its twenty-fifth public session. Its action was confirmed by the Pope, and the “Canons and Decrees” were printed at Rome by Aldus in 1564. The Council of Trent, when defining the doctrine of original sin, expressly declared that it did not intend to include the Virgin Mary. A grand convocation of bishops was held in 1854, when the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was defined by the Pope; but this was not a council, neither was the great gathering held on occasion of the canonization of the Japanese martyrs in 1862, nor that celebrated in June of the present year.