The conciliar principle of deciding
matters of doctrinal and disciplinary importance began with the Council of
Jerusalem, described in Acts 15, where the Apostles met to decide whether Gentile
converts should be subject to the Mosaic Law. (They were not!). With this
Council in mind, and the various local councils which met at diverse parts of
the Empire in the period prior to Nicea, the Church established an important
principle: In council, the members of the Church, so to speak, can together
claim an authority which individually none of them possess. The Seven
Ecumenical Councils which met in the period from 325 to 787 performed two basic
tasks: 1) They formulated the visible, ecclesiastical organization of the
Church, setting the ranking of the Five Patriarchates; and 2) they defined,
once and for all, the teachings of the Church on faith, formulating the basic
dogmas concerning the Trinity and the Incarnation.
This Council condemned the heresy of
Arianism, which had contended that the Son was inferior to the Father and was,
in fact, created. The Fathers here declared that the Son is one in essence
(homoousios) with the Father, and formulated the first part of what eventually became
the Creed — the Symbol of Faith. In addition, three great Sees were singled out
— Rome, Alexandria and Antioch (Canon 6), and the See of Jerusalem, although still subject to the
Metropolitan of Caesarea, was given the next place in honor after Antioch (Canon 7).
This Council expanded the Nicene
Creed, developing the teachings concerning the Holy Spirit, “who proceeds from
the Father; Who, with the Father and Son, is worshipped and glorified...,”
against the heresy of the Pneumatomachi (Spiritsmashers) and the Macedonians
(followers of Macedonius), who could not accept the Third Person of the Trinity
as equal to the other Two. It was in this period that we see the activities of
the great Cappadocian Fathers, St. Gregory Nazianzus (the Theologian), St. Basil the Great and St. Gregory of Nyssa, as well
as the great Alexandrian Father, St. Athanasius the Great. The First Council of
Constantinople also decreed that Constantinople, the new capital, should hold the next place of honor after Rome, since it was
now the New Rome (Canon 111).
This Council met to discuss the
heresy of the Nestorians, who could not accept that God and Man had been united
in one Person, Christ, refusing to call the Virgin Mary, Theotokos (or Birthgiver
of God). Supported primarily by St. Cyril of Alexandria, this
Council affirmed that Mary was truly Theotokos, since, as the Evangelist had
proclaimed, the Word was made flesh (John 1:14), and the Virgin had borne
a single and undivided Person Who is, at the same time, God and Man.
This Council met to discuss the
heresy of the Monophysites who held that in Christ the human nature had been
merged into the divine, so that there was, after the divine union, only one
nature. The Bishops of this Council accepted the so-called Tome of Pope St. Leo
the Great of Rome, which affirmed the belief that the “one and the same son,
perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, [is] truly God and truly
man...acknowledged in two natures unconfused, unchanged, undivided and
inseparable.” In addition, the place of Constantinople after that of Rome was confirmed, as was that of Jerusalem in the
fifth place of honor.
A tragic result of this Council (and
that of Ephesus prior) was the splitting apart from the main body of a large group
of Christians adhering to either the Nestorian or Monophysite view. The
Nestorians were found basically in Persia
and Mesopotamia, and were especially decimated by the Islamic and Turkish
onslaughts, whereas the Monophysites were strong in Africa (Egypt and
Ethiopia — the present Coptic Church), Armenia,
and India (the Jacobite Church).
This Council met to further
reinterpret the decrees of Chalcedon, seeking to explain how the two natures of Christ unite to form a
single person. It affirmed that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is “one of the
Holy Trinity,” one and the same divine Person (hypostasis), Who has united
personally (hypostatically) in Himself the two natures of God and Man, without
fusing them together and without allowing their separation. Certain teachings
of Origen, including his teaching concerning the pre-existence of the soul,
among other things, were also expressly condemned.
This Council met to condemn the
Monothelite heresy which held that in the union of the two natures in Christ,
the human will was merged into the divine as one will, since the two natures
were united into one person. The Council, however, held that if Christ has two
natures, he also has two wills — human and divine.
This Council met to affirm the
belief of the Orthodox that veneration of the Holy Icons was proper and
necessary for a correct understanding of the Incarnation of Christ, against
those who held that Icon-veneration was idolatry and that all Icons should be
destroyed (Iconoclasts). This Seventh Council was also the last of the
Ecumenical Councils accepted as such by the Orthodox Church, although the
possibility does exist that, in principle, more could be convened. The
Iconoclast controversy did not end until after another rising of the heretics
beginning in 815, which was finally suppressed by the Empress Theodora in 843.
This final victory of the Holy .Icons in 843 is known as the Triumph of Orthodoxy,
and is commemorated on the First Sunday of Great Lent. Thus, with the
resolution of the Iconoclast controversy, the Age of the Seven Councils came to
an end.
During this same period, there were
two other major currents that were to have a profound effect on the Byzantine Empire and Orthodoxy.
The first of these was the rise of monasticism. It began as a definite
institution in Egypt in the 4th Century and rapidly spread across the Christian world.
It literally began at a time when the persecutions had ended, and the Monks,
with their austere life, were, in a real sense, martyrs when martyrdom of blood
had virtually ceased. At a time when people were in danger of forgetting that
life in the world — the earthly kingdom — was not the Kingdom of God, the Monks
and their withdrawal from society, reminded Christians that God's Kingdom, in
fact, is not of this world.
The second major current in this
period was the rise and rapid spread of Islam, the most striking characteristic
of which was the speed of its expansion. Within fifteen years after the death
of Mohammed in 632, his followers had captured Syria, Palestine and Egypt,
and in fifty years, they were already at the gates of Constantinople. Within 100
years, they had swept across North Africa and through Spain. The Byzantine Empire lost the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and
until the actual fall of Constantinople in 1453, the Empire was never free from attack.