Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/482

 COUNCILS

424

COUNCILS

the oldest Christian literature the ordinary meetings for worship are also called synods; and diocesan synods are not properly councils because they are only convened for deliberation. Councils unlawfully as- sembled are termed conciliahula, conventiaila, and even latrocinm, i.e. " robber synods ". The constit- uent elements of an ecclesiastical council are the fol- lowing: —

(a) A legally convened meeting of

(b) members of the hierarchy, for

(c) the purpose of carrying out their judicial and doctrinal functions,

(d) by means of deliberation in common,

(e) resulting in regulations and decrees invested with the authority of the whole assembly.

All these elements result from an analysis of the fact that councils are a concentration of the ruluig powers of the Church for decisive action.

The first condition is that such concentration con- form to the constitution of the Church: it must be started by the head of the forces that are to move and to act, e. g. by the metropolitan if the action is lun- ited to one province. The actors themselves are nec- essarily the leaders of the Church in their double capacity of judges and teachers, for the proper oliject of conciliar acti\'ity is the settling of questions of faith and discipline. When they assemble for other pur- poses, either at regular times or in extraordinary cir- cumstances, in order to deliberate on current ques- tions of administration or on concerted action in emergencies, their meetings are not called coimcils but simply meetings, or assemblies, of bishops. Delibera- tion, with free discussion and ventilation of private views, is another essential note in the notion of coun- cils. They are the mind of the Church in action, the sensus ecclesiw taking form and shape in the mould of dogmatic definition and authoritative decrees. The contrast of conflicting opinions, their actual clash, necessarily precedes the final triumph of faith. Lastly, in a council's decisions we see the highest ex- pression of authority of which its members are capable within the sphere of their jurisdiction, with the added strength and weight resulting from the combined action of the whole body.

II. CL.4.SSIFICATION'. — tovmcils are, then, from their nature, a common effort of the Church, or part of the Church, for self-preservation and self-defence. They appear at her very origin, in the time of the Apostles at Jerusalem, and throughout her whole history, whenever faith or morals or discipline are seriously threatened. Although their object is always the same, the circumstances under which they meet im- part to them a great variety, which renders a classifi- cation necessary. Taking territorial extension for a basis, seven kinds of synods are distinguished: —

(1) Gi^cumemcal counrils arethose towhichthe bish- ops, and others entitled to vote, are convoked from the whole world {oUovfLivri) luider the jjresidency of the pope or his legates, and the decrees of which, hav- ing received papal confirmation, bind all Christians. A council, oecumenical in its convocation, may fail to secure the approbation of the whole Church or of the pope, and thus not rank in authority with oecimienical councils. Such was the casewiththeRobber Synod of 449(Latrocimu m Epheftinuni). theSynod of Pisa in 1 409, and in part with the Councils of Constance and Basle.

(2) The second rank is held by the general synods nj the East or of the West, composed of but one-half of the episcopate. The Sjmod of Constantinople (^{S1) was originally only an Eastern general synod, at which were present the four patriarclis of the East (viz. of Constant inopUs Alexandria, Antioch, and Jer- usalem), with many metro|iolituns and bishops. It ranks as oecimienical because its decrees were ulti- mately received in the West also.

(H) Patriarchal, national, and primatial councils represent a whole patriarchate, a whole nation, or the

councils we have frequent examples in Latin Africa "' where the metropolitan and ordinary bishops used t f meet under the Primate of Carthage; in Spain, unde P the Primate of Toledo, and in earlier times in Syria *° under the Metropolitan — later Patriarch — of Antiocl f

(4) Provincial councils bring together the suffraga bishops of the metropolitan of an ecclesiastical pro\ !P ince and other dignitaries entitled to participate. ,,'

(5) Diocesan synods consist of the clergy of the die cese and are presided over by the bishop or the ^^cal * general. *»'

(6) A peculiar kind of council used to be held a K Constantinople; it consisted of bishops from any pai , of the world who happened to be at the time in tha ' imperial city. Hence the name aivoBoi ivitiiwvirt ' " visitors' synods ". 'i

(7) Lastly there have been mixed synods, in whicl ^"'^ both civil and ecclesiastical dignitaries met to settU '<^' secular as well as ecclesiastical matters. They we« '*'" frequent at the beginning of the Middle Ages in France *',! Germany, Spain, and Italy. In England even ab '■' .. besses were occasionally present at such mixed couii' ™* cils. Sometimes, not always, the clergy and laitj ! ' voted in separate chambers. '^'

Although it is in the nature of councils to represett ™ either the whole or part of the Church organism ye^ 2' i we find many councils simply consi.sting of a nunibe j of bishops brought together from different coimtrie 5^?^ for some special purpose, regardless of any territoria 'J '' or hierarchical connexion. They were most frequen ''-j' in the fourth century, when the metropolitan anc j"'- patriarchal circumscriptions were still imperfect, ani ~* questions of faith and discipline manifold. Not a fei j,™ of them, summoned by emperors or bishops in opposi ["^* tion to the lawful authorities (such as that of Antioc j^ in 341), were positively irregular, and acted for ev "|"' rather than good. Coimcils of this kind may be con ''™/ pared to the meetings of bishops of our own timei ™P* decrees passed in them had no binding power on an '™' but the subjects of the bishops present; they wei ?™"i important manifestations of the sensus ecclesice (min 'J ^'f of the Church) rather than judicial or legislati^ ™,»( bodies. But precisely as expressing the mind of tl f ''? Church they often acquired a far-reaching influem ™'5 due, either to their internal soundness, or to the ai ffsli thority of their franiers, or to both.

It should be noted that the terms concilia ph unii-ersalia, or generalia are, or used to be, appli discriminately to all synods not confined to a si pro\-ince; in the Middle Ages, even provincial syn( as compared to diocesan, received these nai Down to the late Middle Ages all papal synods' which a certain numlier of bishops from differei countries had been summoned were regularly stylL plenan.-, general, or universal SJ^lods. In earlil'. times, before the separation of East and West, coup cils to which several distant patriarchates or exarc f-awii ates sent representatives, were described absolute ^'^bi as "plenary councils of the universal Church". The terms are applied by St. Augustine to the Council Aries (314), at which only Western bishops Wf present. In the same way the Council of Constan nople (382), in a letter to Pope Daniasus, calls council held in the same town the year before (3f "an oecumenical synod" i. e. a synod representing t ' iseEj; olKovnivT], the whole inhabited world as known to t '-: Greeks and Romans, because all the Eastern pat 'ciil, archates, though no A\'estern, took part in it. 1 synod of 381 could not, at that time, be tenned oet nienical in the strict sense now in use, because it s lacked the formal confirmation of the Apostolic S As a matter of fact, the Greeks themselves did not I this council on a par with those of Nica-a ami Ephei until its confirmation at the Synod of Chalcedon, a the Latins acknowledged its authority only in ' sixth century.

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