Fayette County herald. [volume] (Washington [Washington Court House], Fayette County, O. [Ohio]) 1860-1???, 1870-01-06
[From Hearth and IIome.l
The Council at Rome.
BY JOSEPH p. THOMPSON, Ii. D.

]
The great Council now Assem-
bled at Rome has been styled ecu
menicap by the same assumption
that has proclaimed in advance TIL
infallibility Of the Pope and tn
supremacy Of the Roman Catholi
Church over civil society as dog
mas to be ratified and dccreed b,
the Council, almost without thr
formality Of discussion. The tern
ecumenical is derived from a Greel
word signifying " the inhabited
world" and hence that which in it,
constitution or representation o
or from the whole world.
A council, to be properly ecu
menical, should have for its con
stituency the whole Church through
out the world; and, therefore, I
council in which neither the Eas
tern churches nor the Protestant
communions have any representa-.
ton cannot be ecumenical, since it,
members, though called from all
parts Of the earth, are all Of Latin
Church. Professor Schaff, in his
History of the Christian Church,
has neatly defined the various kinds
Of councils
There was, first, the diocesan,
or district council, in which the
bishop Of a diocese presided over
his clergy; then the provincial
council, consisting Of the metro
Eolitan or archbishop, and the
bishops of his ecclesiastical prov
ince; next, the patriarchal council,
embracing all the bishops Of a pa
triarchal district; then the nation
al council, inaccurately styled also
general, representing either the en-
tire Greek or the entire Latin Church
(like the later Latcran councils and
the Council Of Trent land finally,
at the summit, stood the ecumeni-
cal council, for the whole Christian
world"
The Council convened at Rome
falls properly under the fourth
head of this classification and it is
Obvious that no ecumenical coun-
Gil would assemble under the au-
thority Of the Pope; and since on
ly the concurrence of all the great
communions could give validity to
such council, this would require
that the Greek, Latin, and Reformed
communions should come together
upon q basis Of mutual recognition,
that would render the council itself
almost superfuous as an express
ion of the union Of the Church,
though it might reduce that ideal
unity to some concrete form.
Only seven councils are admit
ted to the rank of ecumenical by all
branches of the Church: these are
the Council Of Nice, AID. 1926; the
Council of Constantinople, AID.
3S1; the Council of Ephesus, AID.
431 /; the Council of Chalcedon, AID.
451 ; the second of Constantinople,
AID. 553; the third Of Constantine
pie, AID. $50, and the second Coun-
Gil of Nice, AID, 7S7. Thus the
whole series was embraced within
a period of little more than four
and half. Although,
since the eighth century, the Latin
Church, embracing all adherents of
the Papacy, has held several coun-
ellis that gathered its own bishops
from all parts of the world, and one
of these has been able to command
the united assent of Christendom
as an nsecumenical council.
1t was the ambition Of the EN-
peror Constantine to figure as the
head of the Church, and his desire
to secure the peace of his empire
by allaying theological strife, that
led to the convening of the Coun-
Gil of Nice, with special reference
to the controversy touching the
person of Christ, that then agitated
the whole Christian world. The |
result of the council was the decla-
ration of that high Trinitarianism
which was afterward embodied in
what is now familiarly known as
The Nicene Creed. Every subse-
1uent ecumenical council was in
ike manner convoked by the EN-
Deror, at the expense of the State,
md for the settlement of some
question of theological dogma or
Of religious practice. Thus, with
matters of ecclesiastical faith and
regimen were mingled questions of
civil policy, and the Emperor pre-
sided in the council either in per-
son or by his commissioner, and
'atifed its DEGREES by his official
signature, and often by laws en-
'orcing them. Hence the ascen-
lancy of the Pope over later coun-
ills was a usnrpation of the rights
both of the State and Of the coun-
ills themselves.
Although the seven ecumenical
appear so venerable and
sanity upon the page of history,
ire embalmed in the creeds and
,anons Of the universal Church, and
ire commemorated by the Eastern
in particular, in a sacred
md triumphant festival on the first
sunday in Lent, nevertheless some
If them were far from sanity, rev.
.rend, or even decorous in their
proceedings for the settlement of
he faith. Even the Council of
Vice was distracted by fierce ieal-
,usies and personal animosities
hat the presence of the Emperor
.ould hardly restrain; and its the
illogical decisions were due as
nnch to fha force of political con {