General Catholic Councils.
THE importance of the great Council now in session at Rome, renders any information concerning these Catholic Councils of interest at this time. This is the nineteenth in order. The time when the preceding were held, and the purposes for which they were called, are given in the following table, which we clip from the Franklin Almanac for 1870: 1. The first General Council was that of Nice, held in 325, for the purpose of refuting the heresies of Arius, who asserted that Christ was inferior to his Father. 2. The second General Council was held at Constantinople in 381, to refute the errors of Macedonius, who asserted that the Holy Ghost was not one of the three divine persons. 3. The third General Council was held at Ephesus in 431, concerning the heresy of Nestorius, who asserted that the blessed Virgin should not be called the mother of God. 4. The fourth General Council met at Chalcedon in 451, to decide on the doctrine of Eutyches, who denied the humanity of Christ. 5. The fifth General Council was held at Constantinople in 553. It condemned the heresy of Origen, who asserted that the Holy Ghost is nothing more than divine energy or power of acting, &c. 6. The sixth General Council met at Constantinople in 680; it condemned the doctrine of the Monothelites. 7. The seventh met at Nice in 787, to denounce the impiety and heresy of the Iconoclasts, who opposed veneration of images. 8. The eighth General Council met at Constantinople in 869, and confirmed the reverence of images, and other regulations of the church. 9. The ninth General Council and the first Lateran met 1123. 10. The tenth General Council and the second Lateran met in 1139. This Council, among other matters, condemned the acts of Arnold of Brescia. 11. The eleventh General Council also met in the Lateran in 1197. This Council ordained that the right of voting for a new Pontiff should from that time forward belong exclusively to the College of Cardinals. 12. The twelfth also met in the Lateran in 1215. This Council, among other matters, gave its assent to seventy chapters drawn up by the Pope, who presided at it. 13. The thirteenth met at Lyons in 1245. Its object was that of deposing the Emperor Frederick. It also treated of two other subjects: 1st. The assisting of the Empire of Constantinople against the Tartars; and 2d. The Holy Land against the Saracens. 14. The fourteenth met at Lyons in 1274, for the purpose, among other things, of reuniting the Greek church. 15. The fifteenth met at Vienna in 1311, for the purpose of suppressing the order of Knights Templars, and the doctrine of the “Brethren and Sisters of the Free Spirit,” a German institution condemned. 16. The sixteenth was that of Constance, which assembled in 1414, on account of a dispute that existed in the selection of a Pope, there being at that time no less than three claimants for the holy office. 17. The seventeenth is known as that of Ferrara and Florence. Its object was the reunion of the Latin and Greek churches. 18. The eighteenth was the Council of Trent, which was convoked in 1545, by Pope Paul III., to refute the heresies of Luther, Calvin, and Zuinglius. 19. The nineteenth General Council commenced at Rome, December 8, 1869.