New Face of Old Heresy Sixth Ecumenical Council Pyrrhus and St. Maximus the Confessor About the year 645 AD, Emperor Constans II deposed Pyrrhus, Patriarch of Constantinople from his see. Pyrrhus fled to Alexandria and there met with Maximus, a…
The Three Chapters One hundred years after the bishops gathered at Chalcedon to settle the error of Eutyches, they are summoned again for yet another business. The events leading to the fifth ecumenical council would make one stop his ears…
Finally the Bishops Arrive Chalcedon – 451 AD September 1, 451 AD. A great number of bishops gather at Nicaea. The legates had arrived Constantinople with correspondence from the Pope. The emperor was delayed by matters of the state. He…
The Robber Synod at Ephesus – 449 AD Flavian held the synod at Constantinople in November, 448. The correspondence between the emperor and the pope was in February, 449. The next month, the emperor summoned a council slated for August…
The Word, The Flesh and God “It is Peter who says this through Leo” The history of the council of Chalcedon is filled with intrigue! We must work our way through the two years leading to it slowly – in…
Can God have a Mother? The Council of Ephesus – 431 In the year 430 AD, the Emperor Theodosius II summoned the bishops of the all the East to settle a heated controversy brought about by the sermons of Nestorius,…
First the Son, now the Holy Ghost “And we believe in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Life-giver” We are at Constantinople (Istanbul for modern eyes) and some ecclesiastics are gathered together. It is easy to see their split into…
Meletian or Christian? “It has also been necessary to consider the question of Meletius and those ordained by him” After the council condemned Arius and his followers, and settled the Easter Controversy, the Bishops, before drawing up the twenty decrees…
The Easter Controversy “Easter is to be celebrated on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal equinox” The Bishops gathered at Nicaea for four uninterrupted weeks of discussions on these three issues: Arius and his erroneous…
Homoousion or Homoiousion? First Ecumenical Council of Nicaea (325 AD) – Part 1 “…God from God. Light from Light. True God from True God. Begotten, not made. Consubstantial with the Father…” NICENE CREED Did you try pronouncing those Greek terms?…
“For it has seemed good to the Holy Ghost and to us to lay no further burden upon you than these necessary things” [Acts 15:28] In the introduction to these stories on the Councils of the Church, we agreed to…
The history of all that has passed since our Lord Jesus Christ laid his back in a manger with infant eyes piercing the earth from within a cave contains the events which have moved the world the most. Events which…
