THE THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, OR, THE SIXTH ECUMENICAL. THE sixth Ecumenical Council of 170 Bishops, was assembled by the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, A. D. 680, to terminate the divisions in the Church, which had been caused by the heresy of the Monothelites, who held, that in our Lord Jesus Christ, after the union of the divine and human natures, there was but one will and one operation. This opinion was clearly a subtle form of the Eutychian heresy, and inconsistent with the true doctrine of the coexistence of the divine and human natures perfect and distinct in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The originator of this error was Theodorus Bishop of Pharan, by whom it was communicated to Sergius Bishop of Constantinople, and Cyrus Bishop of Phasis. At the persuasion of these men the Emperor Heraclius issued an edict in favor of the doctrine, and Sergius, by an artful letter which he addressed to Honorius Bishop of Rome, led him also to give his countenance to it. The heresy spread widely through the East, and caused much trouble to the Church for some time. It was supported by Constantine who succeeded Heraclius, and by Constans who succeeded Constantine in the empire; and by Pyrrhus, and after him by Paulus, Bishops of Constantinople. It was condemned in a 138 SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. written or do write in defence of it, or of the impiety which is contained in it, and presume to defend it, or the impiety which is inserted in it, by the name of the holy Fathers, or of the holy Council of Chalcedon, and continue in this conduct to their death; Let them be, &c. We, then, having thus rightly confessed those things which have been delivered to us, as well by the holy Scriptures as by the doctrine of the holy Fathers, and the definitions of the one and same faith of the beforementioned four holy Councils, and having pronounced a condemnation against the Heretics and their impiety, and also against those who have defended or do defend the three impious Chapters, and have persisted or do persist in their error; if any person shall attempt to deliver, or teach, or write, contrary to this, which we have piously settled, if he be a Bishop, or any of the Clergy, he shall be deprived of his Episcopate or Clergy, as doing things alien to Priests and the ecclesiastical office; but if he be a Monk or Layman, he shall be anathematized. THE THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE, OR, THE SIXTH ECUMENICAL. THE sixth Ecumenical Council of 170 Bishops, was assembled by the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, A. D. 680, to terminate the divisions in the Church, which had been caused by the heresy of the Monothelites, who held, that in our Lord Jesus Christ, after the union of the divine and human natures, there was but one will and one operation. This opinion was clearly a subtle form of the Eutychian heresy, and inconsistent with the true doctrine of the coexistence of the divine and human natures perfect and distinct in the Person of our Lord Jesus Christ. The originator of this error was Theodorus Bishop of Pharan, by whom it was communicated to Sergius Bishop of Constantinople, and Cyrus Bishop of Phasis. At the persuasion of these men the Emperor Heraclius issued an edict in favor of the doctrine, and Sergius, by an artful letter which he addressed to Honorius Bishop of Rome, led him also to give his countenance to it. The heresy spread widely through the East, and caused much trouble to the Church for some time. It was supported by Constantine who succeeded Heraclius, and by Constans who succeeded Constantine in the empire; and by Pyrrhus, and after him by Paulus, Bishops of Constantinople. It was condemned in a Lateran Council, A. D. 642, under Martin I., who was seized in consequence, by Constans, and exiled to the Chersonese, where he died. The troubles still continuing, Constantine Pogonatus, the successor of Constans, summoned this Ecumenical Synod at Constantinople, which was attended (amongst other Bishops) by George Archbishop or Patriarch of Constantinople, and Macerius of Antioch; and by Peter a Presbyter of Alexandria, and George a Presbyter of Jerusalem, on the part of those Sees; and by George and Theodore, Presbyters, John a Deacon, and Constantine a Subdeacon, on the part of Agatho Archbishop of Rome: and also by John Bishop of Portus, Abundantius of Paternum, and John of Rhegium, as representatives of 125 Bishops who had attended a Council at Rome, under Agatho, in the beginning of the same year, and upon the same subject. The Synod of Constantinople, having fully examined the controversy, published a definition of faith, in which they received the five preceding Ecumenical Councils, and the Creeds of Nice and Constantinople, and condemned the authors and supporters of the Monothelite heresy. The decrees of this Council were universally approved and received by the Catholic Church. The Acts of the Council remain, but some of the Roman writers, in their anxiety to free Honorius from the charge of heresy, assert (but without any apparent reason), that they have been corrupted in parts, and particularly in those relating to that Pope. See Palmer, Hist. of Ch. vol. ii. p. 187, and the authorities there referred to. And also the notes of Binius upon the life of Honorius, and his preface to the Council. Neither this nor the preceding Council enacted any new Canons of discipline, but a Council was afterwards convened for this purpose at Constantinople, according to some authors A.D. 692, and according to others A.D. 707. This Council is therefore sometimes called the Quinisextine, as supplemental to the fifth and sixth, but more commonly the Council in Trullo, from the hall in the imperial palace in which the Bishops assembled. It enacted 102 Canons: but these are not to be considered as sanctioned by the authority of the whole Church, never having been formally received by the Western Churches. The first of these Canons acknowledges and confirms all the decrees respecting faith of the six preceding Councils, and anathematizes all persons who do not receive and hold them, or who teach anything contrary to them. The second Canon gives a list of all the Canons of discipline which the Council received and confirmed, and acknowledged as the standing rules of the Church. These are as follows. The 85 Canons which have been delivered in the name of the holy and glorious Apostles. The Canons of Nice, Ancyra, Neocæsarea, Gangra, Antioch, Laodicea, Constantinople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon; and in addition to these, the Canons of Sardica, and Carthage; and those enacted at Constantinople under Nectarius and Theophilus; the Canons of Dionysius Archbishop of Alexandria; of Basil Archbishop of Cæsarea in Cappadocia; of Gregory Bishop of Nyssa; of Gregory the divine; of Amphilochius of Iconium; of Timothy, Theophilus, and Cyril Archbishops of Alexandria; and Gennadius Patriarch of Constantinople; and lastly a Canon of Cyprian. This last is a decision of Cyprian and other African Bishops contained in an Epistle from Cyprian to Januarius, and other Bishops of Numidia, respecting the baptism of heretics. Cyp. Ep. 70. It is to the same effect as the 47th Apostolical Canon. |