Page:History of Heresies (Liguori).djvu/105

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AND THEIR REFUTATION.
97

"This was a Council of the Oriental Church alone, and was only, ex post facto, Ecumenical, inasmuch as the Western Church, congregated in the Synod of Rome, under Pope Damasus, held the same doctrine, and condemned the same heresy, as the Oriental Church." And Graveson says: "This Council of Constantinople was afterwards reckoned a general one, for Pope Damasus, and the whole Church of the West, gave it this dignity and authority." An anonymous author says the same thing (Auctor Lib. Apparat. brev. ad Theol. & Jus Canon.) This Council is considered a General one, because it followed in everything what was previously defined in the Roman Council, to which the Eastern bishops were convoked, by letters of St. Damasus, presented to the bishops assembled in Constantinople, and what was decreed in that Council was confirmed in the other Synod, held in Rome, in 382. The Fathers of the Council wrote to St. Damasus, that he had, by his fraternal charity, invited them, by letters of the Emperor, to assist as members of the Council, to be held in Rome. The reader will find in the third volume the refutation of the heresy of Macedonius.

74. In this Council of Constantinople, besides the condemnation of the heresy of Macedonius, the heresies of Apollinaris and Eunomius were also condemned; and Maximus Cinicus, who seized on the See of Constantinople, was deposed, and St. Gregory of Nazianzen was confirmed in possession of it, but he, through love of peace, afterwards resigned it, and Neptarius was chosen in his place by the Council. Several canons, regarding the discipline of the Church, were passed, and the Nicene Creed was confirmed by the Council, and some few words were added to it concerning the mystery of the Incarnation, on account of the Apollinarists and other heretics, and a more ample explanation of the article regarding the Holy Ghost was added, on account of the heresies of the Macedonians, who denied his Divinity. The Nicene Creed says, of the incarnation of Jesus Christ, these words alone: "Qui propter nos homines, et propter nostram salutem descendit, et incarnatus est, et homo factus. Passus est, et resurrexit tertia die; et ascendit in cœlos; et iterum venturus est judicare vivos, et mortuos; et in Spiritum Sanctum, &c." But the Symbol of Constantinople goes on thus: "Descendit de cœlis, et incarnatus est de Spiritu Sancto ex Maria Virgine, et homo factus est. Crucifixus etiam pro nobis sub Pontio Pitato, passus, et sepultus est; tertia die resurrexit a mortuis secundum Scripturas, &c. Et in Spiritum Sanctum Dominum et vivificantem, ex Patre procedentem, et cum Patre et Filio adorandum et conglorificandum qui locutus est per Prophetas, &c."[1]. Nicephorus[2] relates, that St. Gregory of Nyssa laid down the declaration of the Council in these words: "Et in Spiritum Sanctum

  1. Cabassutius, Not. Concil p. 136; Orsi, t. 8, l. 18, n. 71, & seq.; Fleury, l. 18, n. 1, & seq.; Nat. Alex. t. 1, diss. 37, ar. 2.
  2. Niceph. l. 12, c. 2.