The Threatened Series - 27
THE SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, 553.
>From ODCC:
"This, the Fifth General Council, was convoked by the Emp. Justinian to
decide the prolonged controversy over the Three Chapters: whether
Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrrhus and Ibas of Edessa should
be condemned as tainted with Nestorianism, or whether, following the
attitude of the Council of Chalcedon, they should be accepted. The
Emperor, who wished to reconcile moderate Monophysite opinion, was
opposed to any toleration of Theodore, Theodoret and Ibas. Justinian's
first decree condemning the Three Chapters (543/4) met with W.
opposition, though Pope Vigilius first vacillated, first condemning
Menas, the Patriarch of Constantinople, and the Emperor's supporters
(547) but then withdrawing his anathema. The Emperor's second decree
against the Three Chapters (551) met with the same W. opposition, and
again Vigilius first condemned Menas (552), but then retracted his
condemnation. The Council was convoked to resolve the matter.
"It was convened on 5 May 553 under the presidency of Eutychius, the
new Patr. of Constantinople. The 165 bishops who signed the acts were
almost all Easterns. The Three Chapters were condemned and their
authors anathematized. During its course Vigilius, who refused to
attend for fear of violence as well as in protest against the
preponderance of E. bishops present, drew up the so-called
'Constitutum', signed by himself and 16 W. bishops, in which, while
condemning 60 propositions of Theodore of Mopsuestia, he refused to
anathematize his person on the grounds that he had not been condemned
at Ephesus (431) or Chalcedon (451) and that it was not the custom of
the Church to condemn the dead. The Council replied by erasing the
Pope's name from the diptychs in the 7th session. Vigilius was for a
short time exiled, but as the Emperor had nothing to gain from a
rupture with the Pope he used every means to bring about
reconciliation. Vigilius finally agreed to accept the Council and
annulled his former decisions in favour of the Three Chapters.
"Of the 14 anathemas pronounced by the Council the first 12 are
directed chiefly against Theodore of Mopsuestia, the 13th against
Theodoret of Cyrrhus, and the 14th against Ibas. In the 11th anathema
the name of Oriegen occurs in a list of heretics, but there are grounds
for believing this to be an interpolation. Despite the Papal
acceptance the Council was not at once recognized as oecumenical in the
W. Milan and Aquileia even broke off communion with Rome, and
relations were not restored with Milan until the end of the 6th, and
with Aquileia until the end of the 7th, cent."
Henry Chadwick comments:
"The painful affair of the Three Chapters did nothing to reconcile even
moderate Monophysites, and actually had the reverse effect to that
intended. From 553 onwards, a fanatical Monophysite bishop from Syria,
Jacob Baradaeus, realized the full dimensions of the threat to the
independence and survival of his party contained in Justinian's plan.
He travelled round the East in disguise creating an underground
Monophysite episcopate to coexist with the Chalcedonians. (To the
present day the Syrian Jacobites, like the Armenians, Copts and
Ethiopians, reject Chalcedon.) On the Chalcedonians the immediate
effect was to produce temporary schisms in the West; and the
successive contradictory utterances of Vigilius did not enhance the
authority of the Roman see." (H. Chadwick, 'The Early Church', p.
210).
Chadwick adds in a footnote:
"Vigilius' successor, chosen by Justinian, was his deacon Pelagius, in
youth a violent opponent of the condemnation of the Three Chapters, but
rightly judged by the emperor to be capable of changing his mind. By
autocratic authority and the minimum of explanation Pelagius succeeded
in upholding the Fifth Council against its Western critics."
The Supple Doctor.
____________________________________________________________
Do You Yahoo!?
Get your free @yahoo.co.uk address at http://mail.yahoo.co.uk
or your free @yahoo.ie address at http://mail.yahoo.ie
%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%
|