— sat in a circle, in the order of the dates of their ordi- nation or the rank of their sees ; behind them, the priests ; be- fore or beside them, the deacons. The meetings were opened and closed with religious solemnities in liturgical style. In the ancient councils the various subjects were discussed in open synod, and the Acts of the councils contain long dis- courses and debates. But in the council of Trent the subjects of action were wrought up in sej^arate committees, and only laid before the whole synod for ratification. The vote was always taken by heads, till the council of Constance, when it was taken by nations, to avoid the preponderance of the Ital- ian prelates. The jurisdictio7i of the ecumenical councils covered the entire legislation of the church, all matters of Christian faith and practice {jidei et 7normn\ and all matters of organization and worship. The doctrinal decrees were called dogmata or ■symhola j the disciplinary, canones. At the same time the councils exercised, when occasion required, the highest judicial authority, in excommunicating bishops and patriarchs. The authority of these councils in the decision of all points < >f controversy was supreme and final. Their doctrinal decisions were early invested with infalli- bility ; the promises of the Lord respecting the indestructible- ness of his church, his own perpetual presence with the ministry, and the guidance of the Spirit of truth, being applied in the full sense to those councils, as representing the whole church. After the example of the apostolic council, the usual formula for a decree was : Yisum est Spiritui Sancto et nolis.^ ' "ESole t4? vvivfiaTi ayicf koX Tjfuv, Acts xv. 28. The provincial councils, too, had already used this phrase ; e. g. the Concil. Carthaginiense, of 252 (in the Opera § 65. THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. 341 Constantiiie tlie Great, in a circular letter to the churches, styles the decrees of the Nicene council a divine command ; ' a phrase, however, in reference to which the abuse of the word divine, in the language of the Byzantine despots, must not be forgotten. Athanasius says, with reference to the doctrine of the divinity of Christ : " What God has spoken by the council of Nice, abides forever." " The council of Chalcedon pro- nounced the decrees of the Nicene fathers unalterable statutes, since God himself had spoken through them.^ The council of Ephesus, in the sentence of deposition against Nestorius, uses the formula : " The Lord Jesus Christ, whom he has blasphem- ed, determines through this most holy council." ' Pope Leo speaks of an " irretractabilis consensus " of the council of Chal- cedon upon the doctrine of the person of Christ. Pope Greg- ory the Great even placed the first four councils, which re- futed and destroyed respectively the heresies and impieties of Arius, Macedonius, ISTestorius, and Eutyches, on a level with the four canonical Gospels." In like manner Justinian puts Cypriani) : "