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
