Home  ›  Council

Council

A council (from Latin assembly), or synod (the Greek sun-path = odos common), is an assembly of bishops of the Church Catholic (Roman or otherwise) or Orthodox. It shows a fundamental element of any Christian church: the synodical or hierarchical organization of the body under which the prelates charged the government of each portion of the Church (bishops) are likely to come together to jointly take decisions which involve the faith and discipline of all under the authority of a primate.

So this is an assembly of bishops which establishes the rules of faith (Ecumenical Council) and common discipline (Ecumenical Councils and individuals). One form of their decisions is the canon or law.

There are five kinds of councils divided into two main categories: the ecumenical councils and individuals.

  • ecumenical or general councils are meetings of all bishops belonging to the same ecclesial communion. In this case, ecumenical takes its original meaning and etymology of universality. It does not mean all Christian churches but all parties (bishops, faithful dioceses) of the same unit;
  • where the particular councils are convened only part of the bishops.

Among the particular councils are distinguished:

  • Whole or national councils, composed of all the bishops of a State;
  • the provincial councils, convened by Metropolitan Bishop, where the bishops met an ecclesiastical province;
  • diocesan synods summoned by the bishop.

The episcopal conferences are neither councils, or synods, but consultative assemblies of prelates are those of the participants and not all communities in which they are responsible.

The council seems to have originated in the year 49 , at the meeting in Jerusalem, also called Council of Jerusalem. He reportedly said that Christian converts from paganism will not be subject to the requirements of Jewish Law, including circumcision and kashrut.

Every council is convened by the superior of all the bishops concerned (pope or patriarch ecumenical council, metropolitan council for the province, etc.).. When the ecclesiastical power had not the means, or when they were exercised by the state, especially when the Church was treated as a state agency, the civil authorities (emperor, king, princes) have attempted to reserve the right to call councils. However, no council can not enact legislation without the approval of ecclesiastical authority who presides.

Called Eastern Schism separation between the Western Church and the Church of the East, traditionally placed in 1054. From this date, ecumenicity councils no longer absolute but is relative to all the churches in communion of faith with the convening authority.

Summary

/ / In Eastern Orthodoxy

In Orthodox churches , the council is the body that decides for all patriarchates of one or the other Church. It says it brings together all the ecumenical patriarchate. This term does not, then the meaning of all churches, but of all the Orthodox patriarchs.

In Catholicism

For Catholics , the authority and jurisdiction of the council, in matters of doctrine or discipline, are subject today Role and place of councils

The first universal council comes twelve years after Constantine I the Great had brought the Christianity to the status of legal religion (Christianity was in effect banned until that date, not to be confused with the nationalization of Christianity); Constantine feels then the need to convene an ecumenical council responsible for arbitrating the dispute between Arius and Athanasius. This first ecumenical council, often called the council of the five Patriarchs , beginning in 325.

  • From 325, the council (except for force majeure) is held every year but a council can take several years. Thus, locally, it gives rise to the creation of a neighborhood or village of Bishops.

The notices are a council on the other. The councils are usually held over several years, as travel can take several weeks or months and that some theological issues (eg Grace, the Incarnation , the Trinity , etc..) require a very long time to debate thought. They stand at the beginning, on the territory of the Roman Empire and the territory of the Roman Empire and Carolingian , amputated from the Arab conquest (post 632) crescent from Syria to Tunisia (Algeria and Morocco has never been conciliar land).

Ranking of councils and synods

This classification has led to long discussions as acts of councils - acta in Latin - were often not dated or post dated. Some academic studies have attempted to identify exactly like the "Bibliographic Information Base in Patristics" of Laval University , Quebec , edited by Professor Ren-Michel Roberge , who is now one of the most comprehensive databases and more accessible. They reference the councils in the form year / code, for example: the Council of Carthage in 251 matches CHPRZ 1993 (1993 being the year when the Commission HPR-Z has published the proceedings of the Council of Carthage) ...

List of councils until 1054

General Councils

Seven of these councils are recognized by the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church ( List of ecumenical councils ).

  1. 325 : I. Council of Nicaea council said the five Patriarchs , he condemns Gnosticism and Arianism (the doctrine of Arius ). Adoption of the Nicene Creed. Adoption consubstantiality the Father and the Son. Fixing the date of Easter. Adoption of the agenda of patriarchal sees Rome , Alexandria , Antioch and Jerusalem.
  2. 381 : I. Council of Constantinople ( two councils of churches ) against the denial of the divinity of the Holy Spirit and against the Arians. Adoptions of consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit with the Father and the Son, the Nicene-Constantinople. Assigns the 2nd row seat to the patriarchal Constantinople , Alexandria relegated to third place.
  3. 431 : I. Council of Ephesus ( three councils of churches ) proclaims Mary Mother of God and condemned Nestorius. Proclaims the unity of person in Jesus Christ. Adoption of the Symbol of Ephesus in 433.
  4. 451 : Council of Chalcedon condemned the doctrine of Eutyches that Christ has one nature, divine, human nature being as it were absorbed by the divine nature of doctrine Monophysites. Instead, the council says his two natures, divine and human in the one Person of Jesus Christ. Adoption of the Symbol of Chalcedon and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
  5. 506 : Council of Agde defines the rite that every Christian should receive communion three times a year at Easter , at Pentecost and Christmas.
  6. 553 : Second Council of Constantinople condemns works suspicious of Nestorianism (see Nestor ).
  7. 680 - 681 : Third Council of Constantinople condemns monothelitism. Monothelites the disciples of Sergius , bishop of Constantinople, changed, in part, the error of Eutyches (see above): they taught that there is only one will of Jesus Christ, the divine will absorbs and destroys human will.
  8. 692 : Council in Trullo , also said the synod of Constantinople or Quinisext Council: it is a complement, only on questions of discipline, the two preceding councils. He was received by the Christian Churches of the East
  9. 787 : Second Council of Nicaea ( Church of the Seven Councils ) has condemned the iconoclasm. It allows precise and the worship of images (not the image itself, but what it meant to represent).
  10. 869 - 870 : Fourth Council of Constantinople , against the schism of Photius. The council says the tradition is one of the rules of faith. The trichotomy is doomed (man is composed of body, soul and spirit) and the dichotomy is asserted (man is composed of body and soul). The Orthodox Church does not recognize it.
Other councils (regional)

List of councils from the Great Schism of the East in 1054

General Councils

The councils meet below, in addition to the bishops alone Catholic , monastic orders of the generals, princes and scholars, both in the West than the East - the Catholic Church encompasses but goes beyond the West just as many of the Eastern Churches are united in Rome without being of the Latin rite. The decrees of the ecumenical councils that are currently recognized by the Catholic Church.

  1. 1123 : I. Lateran Council.
  2. 1139 : Second Lateran Council.
  3. 1179 : Third Lateran Council defines the rules for papal elections.
  4. 1184 : Verona council excommunicated the Vaudois.
  5. 1215 : Fourth Lateran Council condemned the Waldenses and Albigenses ( Cathars ), enacts the confession , the communion , the marriage and the patriarchal hierarchy of the seats.
  6. 1229 : Council of Toulouse , ban read bible , possess a Bible in the vernacular and translated from Latin into the vernacular.
  7. 1245 : I. Council of Lyons , reform the rules for electing bishops.
  8. 1274 : Second Council of Lyons , reform the rules for electing the Pope.
  9. 1311 - 1312 : Vienna council condemns Bgards and Beguine.
  10. 1,414 - one thousand four hundred and eighteen - Council of Constance , late great Western Schism , which began in 1378 with the opening of the council, three competing popes the Holy See.
  11. One thousand four hundred and thirty-one - 1442 : Council of Basel explicitly affirms the authority of councils over the pope - the ecclesiology , and thus not counted as ecumenical, and was continued to Ferrara in 1438 and Florence ( 1439 - 1445 ).
  12. In 1512 - 1517 : Fifth Lateran Council - Schism Lutheran ( 1520 ) - Anglican Schism ( 1534 ) condemns the superiority of the council and Pope restates the bubble "Pastor Aeternus", the superiority of the pope.
  13. 1 545 - one thousand five hundred and sixty-three : Council of Trent defines the Catholic faith on the points denied by Protestantism and undertakes a radical reform of the functioning of the Church. It establishes the doctrine on the number and nature of the sacraments, the church reorganized around the priest and reinforces the primacy of the pope.
  14. 1 869 - 1 870 : I. Vatican Council defined the dogma of papal infallibility.
  15. 1,962 - 1,965 : Second Vatican Council
Other councils (regional)

Notes

  1. It has not always been so, for the record the councils of the early fifteenth century, the papal infallibility was confirmed in one thousand eight hundred sixty-nine - 1 870 when I Vatican Council.
  2. GCN - See also

    Related articles

    External Links

    Bibliography

    Texts of councils

    The main collections of the councils are:

    They were summarized by Jean Cabassut in his Synopsis Conciliorum, Paris, 1685 and 1839. Mansi, Martin and Small, amplissima Conciliorum collectio, Paris, 1901-1927, 53 vol. fol.

    • Edward Schwartz, Berlin-Leipzig, 1926-1995 ... (Up to Constantinople III Nicaea II in preparation). This is the only full critical edition of the acts of the first six ecumenical councils

    Studies

    • G. Alberigo and A. Duval, the Ecumenical Councils, Cerf, coll. "Magisterium of the Church," 1991: Volume 1, "History" Volume 2, "decrees" * (Nice to Lateran V) and ** (of Trent to Vatican II);
    • Ramsay MacMullen , Voting to define God: three centuries of Councils (253-553), Les Belles Lettres
    • R. Minnerath, History of Councils, PUF, coll. "What do I know? "1996.
    • Marie-Nicolas Bouillet and Alexis Chassang (ed.), "Council" in Universal Dictionary of History and Geography, 1878 [ detail editions ] ( Wikisource )
    • F. Dvornik, History of the Councils of Nicaea to Vatican II, Seuil, 1962


Leave a Reply

0 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 vote, average: 0.00 out of 51 vote, average: 0.00 out of 50 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5 (0 votes, average: 0.00 out of 5, rated)
Loading ... Loading ...
Help us improve the wiki Send Your Comments