enemies of Flavian, the enemies of the faith ! Away with the murderer Dioscurus ? Who does not know his wicked deeds ? " The Egyptian bishops cried again : " Away with the Jew, the adversary of God, and call him not bishop ! " To which the oriental bishops answered : " Away with the rioters, away with the murderers ! The orthodox man belongs to the council ! " At last the imperial commis- sioners interfered, and put an end to what they justly called an unworthy and useless uproar.^ In all these outbreaks of human passion, however, we must not forget that the Lord was sitting in the ship of the church, directing her safely through the billows and storms. The Spirit of truth, who was not to depart from her, always triumphed over error at last, and even glorified himself through the weaknesses of his instruments. Upon this unmis- takable guidance from above, only set out by the contrast of human imperfections, our reverence for the councils must be based. Soli Deo gloria / or, in the language of Chrysostom : Ao^a TO) '^663 TTavTUiV eveKev ! ^ 'EK0or)(Teis S-rjuoTiKal. See Ilarduin, torn. ii. p. 11 sqq., and Mansi, torn, vi, p. 590 sq. Comp. also Hefele, ii. p. 406 sq. § 6G. LIST OF ECUMENICAL COrNCILS. 349 § 66. List of the Ecumenical Councils of the Ancient Church. "We only add, by way of a general view, a list of all the ecumenical councils of the Grseco-Romau church, with a bfief account of their character and work. 1. The Conciliitm; Nicenum I., a. d. 325 ; held at Nicsea in Bithynia, a lively commercial town near the imperial resi- dence of Nicomedia, and easily accessible by land and sea. It consisted of three hundi-ed and eighteen bishops,' besides a large number of priests, deacons, and acolytes, mostly from the East, and was called by Constantine the Great, for the settlement of the Arian controversy. Having become, by de- cisive victories in 323, master of the whole Roman- empire, he desired to complete the restoration of unity and peace with the help of the dignitaries of the church. The result of this couu- cil was the establishment (by anticipation) of the doctrine of the true divinity of Christ, the identity of essence between the Son and the Father. The fundamental importance of this dogma, the number, learning, piety and wisdom of the bishops, many of whom still bore the marks of the Diocletian persecu- tion, the personal presence of the first Christian emperor, of Eu- sebius, " the father of church history," and of Athanasius, " the father of orthodoxy" (though at that time only archdeacon), as well as the remarkable character of this epoch, combined in giving to this first general synod a peculiar weight and au- thority. It is styled emphatically " the great and holy council," holds the highest place among all the councils, especially with the Greeks,^ and still lives in