|
WE have judged it fight that the canons of the Holy Fathers made
in every synod even until now, should remain in force.
NOTES.
ANCIENT EPITOME OF CANON I.
The canons of every Synod of the
holy Fathers shall be observed.
HEFELE.
Before the holding of the Council
of Chalcedon, in the Greek Church, the canons of several synods, which were
held previously, were gathered into one collection and provided with continuous
numbers, and such a collection of canons, as we have seen, lay before the Synod
of Chalcedon. As, however, most of the synods whose canons were received into
the collection, e.g. those of Neo-
268
caesarea, Ancyra, Gangra, Antioch,
were certainly not Ecumenical Councils, and were even to some extent of
doubtful authority, such as the Antiochene Synod of 341, the confirmation of
the Ecumenical Synod was now given to them, in order to raise them to the
position of universally and unconditionally valid ecclesiastical rules. It is
admirably remarked by the Emperor Justinian, in his 131st Novel, cap.j.;
"We honour the doctrinal decrees of the first four Councils as we do Holy
Scripture, but the canons given or approved by them as we do the laws."
It seems quite impossible to
determine just what councils are included in this list, the Council in Trullo
has entirely removed this ambiguity in its second canon.
This canon is found in the Corpus,
Juris Canonici, Gratian's Decretum, Pars II., Causa XXV., Qusest. 1, can. xiv.
|