# The Nestorians and their Rituals/Volume 2/Chapter 25

CHAPTER XXV.
OF THE AUTHORITY OF GENERAL COUNCILS.
"General councils may not be gathered together without the commandment and will of princes. And when they be gathered together, (forasmuch as they be an assembly of men, whereof all be not governed with the Spirit and Word of God,) they may err, and sometimes have erred, even in things pertaining unto God. Wherefore things ordained by them as necessary to salvation have neither strength nor authority, unless it may be declared that they be taken out of holy Scripture."—Article XXI.
I have not been able to find any authoritative declaration on the subject contained in the first clause of this article, but Mar Abd Yeshua speaks approvingly of the convention of the Councils of Nice and Chalcedon by the Eastern Emperors. With respect to the former he thus writes: "The œcumenical council of the 318 was convened by order of the good and Christ-loving Emperor and Saint Constantine, in the year of Alexander, 636, and by proofs adduced from the Holy Scriptures, they decreed, interpreted, enlightened, disclosed, manifested, and confirmed, the orthodox faith." And with respect to the latter he says: "Tumult and confusion went on increasing until the zealous and Christ-loving Marcion undertook to convene the great council of the 632 in the town of Chalcedon, and commanded that both parties should be examined and judged, and that whosoever should not follow the truth and faith as declared by this Council should be expelled the Church," See Appendix B, Part III., c. 4. It is to me a matter of great surprise that the Nestorian rituals contain no formal condemnation of the Council of Ephesus. The excommunication of Nestorius is frequently referred to and censured, but no mention whatever is made of the ​Council which expelled him from the Church. The above admission, however, that the Council of Chalcedon was rightly ​convened; and by its constitution could justly lay claim to the title of "œcumenical," and withal their rejection of some of its ​decrees, is sufficient proof that the Nestorians believe that such councils "may err, and have erred, in things pertaining to God."
The same doctrine may be inferred from the following extract: "O thou who hast been affianced to Christ, seek not after another bridegroom, for He is the true Bridegroom who has been from everlasting, and shall exist for ever. He has given thee His body to be thy food, and His truth for thy faith; exchange it not with any other, lest He become thine adversary. The jealousy of Him Who has affianced thee is great; prove thou faithful to His love lest He write thy bill of divorcement, and thou become a derision unto all those who are called to thy wedding. The wedding of a mortal bridegroom comes to an end after three days; but if thou wilt, thy wedding shall last from this time forth and for ever." From the service appointed in the Khudhra for the first Sunday of the "Sanctification of the Church."
The Nestorians, however, maintain that the Church founded by Christ can never fail from off the earth. On this subject the author of the Warda, in a poem on the Resurrection, writes: "Let the believing Church rejoice, because He Who has affianced her has truly risen, and has so raised her and her children that they cannot fall." And again: "Blessed is He who through His Name founded His Church, and promised and confirmed to Peter, that the bars of hell, which are of old, shall never prevail against her." From the service in the Khudhra for the first Sunday of the "Sanctification of the Church."