before or during it he received another letter from Bar-soma,[1] to inform him that the marquis had written to the King (who had clearly authorized the holding of the council) to say that he could not spare his active helper. He reiterates his guarded assurance that he will accept "all that the council does for the preservation of the Faith and in accordance with the canons"—an assertion which, of course, meant that he would accept just as much as he approved—but declares that he is not to be expected at it.
The council met without him in February 486, and was scantily attended. As its first Canon it passed a Confession of Faith, which was declared to be the more necessary as some "false ascetics" were busy spreading false teaching among the Faithful, particularly round Seleucia. The Confession (which speaks of a Trinity in Three perfect "Qnumi"—a point to be noted, as being the first official use of that term in the sense in which it is afterwards habitually employed) is orthodox: but it emphatically asserts the Two Natures, and is (perhaps with intention) so worded that a Nestorian could accept it. Thus it speaks of the ܢܩܝܦܘܬܐ ܓܡܝܪܬܐ, naqiputha gamirta, or the "perfect Conjoining" of the two natures, and also of the Unity of the Person[2] of Christ.
After a second Canon ordering the false ascetics spoken of (who were Monophysite monks) to be confined to their monasteries, and in particular to refrain from schismatic celebrations of the Eucharist—an indication that the Monophysite party were already beginning to try to secure for themselves a separate existence; the council goes on to affirm
- ↑ Letter 4.
- ↑ Parsopa. For the force of this term in the councils, see chap. xiii.
