The Fourth Great & Holy Council - Chalcedon, 451
The Fourth Great & Holy Council was convoked in Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor on October 8th, 451 under the Emperor Marcius. The Council closed on November 1st with six hundred to six hundred and thirty bishops present.
The Tasks of this Council
Assert the Orthodox doctrine against the heresy of Eutyches and the Monophysites, Address issues of ecclesiastical discipline and jurisdiction
The Monophysite Controversy
Not long after the Council of Ephesus had condemned the heresy of Nestorius concerning the two persons of Christ in 431, had the opposite error of the Nestorian heresy arose. Since Nestorius so fully divided the Divine and the human in Christ that he taught a double personality or a twofold being in Christ, it became incumbent on his opponents to emphasize the unity in Christ and to exhibit the God-man, not as two beings but as one. Some of these opponents in their efforts to maintain a physical unity in Christ held that the two natures in Christ, the Divine and the human, were so intimately united that they became physically one, inasmuch as the human nature was completely absorbed by the Divine. Thus resulted one Christ not only with one personality but also with one nature.
The Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus, did not put an end to the debate over the Person of Christ, failing to reconcile those sympathetic to Nestorius with the Church. Not long afterwards, however, in the 430s, a reconciliation was attained by means of a union, i.e., a unification which, for all intents and purposes, brought an end to the division within the Church. John of Antioch [previously a follower of Nestorius], in the name of all the bishops of the region of Antioch, sent to Saint Cyril a confession of faith, the essence of which is included in the following excerpt :
We [wrote the Antiochian bishops] confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, perfect God, and perfect man of a reasonable soul and flesh consisting; begotten before the ages of the Father according to His divinity, and in the last days, for us and for our salvation, [was born] of the Virgin Mary according to His humanity; that He is consubstantial with the Father according to divinity and consubstantial with us according to humanity, for in Him there is a perfect unity of two natures. For this reason do we also confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of such an unconfused union, we confess the all-holy Virgin to be the Theotokos; because God the Word was incarnate and became man, and in His very conception He united Himself to the [bodily] temple received from her. We know the theologians make some things of the evangelical and the apostolic teaching about the Lord common as pertaining to the one Person, and other things they divide as to the two natures, and attribute the worthy ones to God on account of the Divinity of Christ, and the lowly ones to His humanity.
At the end of the epistle there is an anathematization of Nestorius and his doctrine, with a declaration to the effect that Maximian is received into communion. Cyril of Alexandria accepted this confession of John and the bishops of like mind with him as a gift from heaven, acknowledging it as wholly Orthodox. Peace began to spread throughout the ecclesiastical world, and disputes began to die down.
Those who held Saint Cyril in high respect however were the forerunners of the soon to be revealed Monophysite heresy. They considered the communion between Saint Cyril and John of Antioch to be a betrayal of Orthodoxy and perceived heresy in the teaching of Saint Cyril on the two natures in Christ. Despite their great number, they behaved with restraint while Saint Cyril was alive, for he enjoyed tremendous respect with the Church. But with his death matters changed.
In Alexandria, enemies of the union began openly and forcefully to act against it in the name of Orthodoxy, yet in actual fact in the name of their own heretical doctrine, which has become known in the history of the Church under the name Monophysism ["mono," one and "physis," "nature"] The principal representative of the Monophysite heresy was Eutyches, the abbot of one of the monasteries in Constantinople who at the time of the Third Ecumenical Council showed himself to be a zealous partisan of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in his struggle against the heresy of Nestorius.
Eutyches, only respected Saint Cyril as the champion of Orthodoxy against Nestorius. He considered his activity during and after the union a betrayal of Orthodoxy. Eutyches did not recognize the treatises authored by Cyril in preparation for the Union and in defense of it as the idea of two natures in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ was developed and forcefully maintained.
Eutyches instead proclaimed that : "After the incarnation of God the Word I worship one nature-the nature of God Who took on flesh and became man"; "I confess that our Lord consists of two natures before [their] union, and after [their] union I confess one nature." He boldly proclaimed, "He Who was born of the Virgin Mary is perfect God and perfect man, but does not have flesh which is consubstantial with ours."
The Church sought to investigate Eutyches' case. The Council of Constantinople of 448 strove mainly to ascertain whether Eutyches was in agreement with the epistle of Saint Cyril (referred to above) and with the words of the confession of John of Antioch. At the council in 448, Eutyches made the following statement : "I confess that our Lord consisted of two natures before [their] unification, and I confess one nature after [their] unification." There no longer remained any doubt that Eutyches was a heretic.
To prevent the heresy of Eutyches from resulting in grievous consequences for the Church, the fathers of the council proposed that he anathematize all that was contrary to the dogmas read out at the council. But Eutyches rejected this proposal in a bitter tone of voice. Then the fathers of the council, rising up, proclaimed : "Let Eutyches be anathema!" Later, after a conference, a statement was made regarding Eutyches, signed by Archbishop Flavian, 31 bishops and 23 archimandrites. The Council of Constantinople in 448 did not, however, bring an end to the disputes : it was not recognized by the Church of Alexandria or Egypt; or the Church of Jerusalem, which from the days of the First Ecumenical Council had gone hand in hand with the Church of Alexandria in resolving disputed questions of dogma; or even the Church of Rome, which was poorly acquainted with the details of disputes taking place in the East.
Relying on the Court's sympathetic relations with him, he determined to wage war on the council and his own archbishop : Eutyches, submitted a petition to Emperor Theodosius, in which he asked for a review of his case at a new council. He also sent a complaint to Saint Leo the Great in Rome, to the effect that among those in the East, i.e. in Constantinople, the Nestorian heresy was being resurrected anew. (the pope after having reviewed this dispute replied with the Conciliar Epistle of His Holiness Leo, Archbishop of the City of Rome, Written to Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople (Against the Heresy of Eutyches).
Eutyches did manage to convince the Emperor that a new, Church-wide council should be called to investigate contrary dogmatic views on the Person of the God-man, the manner of their uniting within Him, and a review of the decisions of the Council of Constantinople regarding his case. It was proposed that the newly convoked council would be Ecumenical, as was the council of 431. In history this council has not come to be known as the Fourth Ecumenical Council, but rather the "Robbers' Council," for the activity it directed was not for the triumph of Orthodoxy, but for heretical beliefs proposed by Eutyches.
Under such unfavorable conditions for the defenders of Orthodox Truth, the council convened in Ephesus on August 8th, 449; its sessions were held in the Church of the All-holy Virgin Mary, which had been the site of the sessions of the Third Ecumenical Council. The number of fathers participating in the council fluctuated between 122 and 130. Eutyches was summoned to the council, to set forth before the council "justifications beneficial for him." Thus was the Monophysite heresy proclaimed instead of the Truth at the unlawful council, and Orthodoxy was trampled underfoot. Eutyches, as the principal champion of the Monophysite heresy, was thereafter declared to be Orthodox and was restored to the dignity of archimandrite and the rank of priest.
Emperor Theodosius, the protector of the Monophysites, soon died; General Marcian took his place in August of 450, by the election of the army and the senate. Deeply committed to Orthodoxy, Marcian subsequently married Theodosius' sister Pulcheria, who was also renowned for her zeal for Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, the affairs of the Church thus took a turn for the better.
Leo the Great's idea for the convocation of a new Ecumenical council was realized. It was to be held in Nicæa, but later, to make it easier for the emperor to oversee its course, it was moved to Chalcedon, which is separated from Constantinople only by the width of the straits of the Bosphorus. There the council opened its sessions on October 8th, in the magnificent and vast Church of the Holy Martyr Euthymia. The number of fathers at the council was very great - between 600 and 630, more than had attended any of the other councils.
The activity of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon consisted of 1) judgment over the "Robbers' Council" of 449 and Dioscorus of Alexandria, its head; and 2) an investigation into the true teaching concerning the two natures in the Person of the God-man, Jesus the Christ.
Convinced of the abuses of the "Robbers' " Synod, the fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council pronounced their sentence, but in such a way that the majority of the men who comprised its membership would not be deposed from their episcopal rank, in view of their sincere repentance. The council also proceeded to the composition of a definition of the Faith, so as to proclaim the Orthodox doctrine of the God-man. During this there were many debates and disputes, and much distrust and dissatisfaction was expressed; yet all of this did not hinder the council from attaining the desired end : to proclaim the most pure doctrine of the God-man.
Following the holy fathers, we teach with one voice that the Son [of God] and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], that He is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, true God and true man, of a reasonable soul and [human] body consisting, consubstantial with the Father as touching His Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching His manhood; having become like us in all things save sin only; begotten of His Father before the ages according to His Godhead; but in these last days, for us men and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to His manhood. This one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably [united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets of old have spoken concerning Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us, and as the Creed of the fathers has delivered unto us.
The definition of the Faith was given its final form and read out at the council on 22 October 451. The Orthodox Church commemorates the Fourth Ecumenical Council on the 16th of July.
The Fourth Great & Holy Council was convoked in Chalcedon, a city of Bithynia in Asia Minor on October 8th, 451 under the Emperor Marcius. The Council closed on November 1st with six hundred to six hundred and thirty bishops present.
The Tasks of this Council
Assert the Orthodox doctrine against the heresy of Eutyches and the Monophysites, Address issues of ecclesiastical discipline and jurisdiction
The Monophysite Controversy
Not long after the Council of Ephesus had condemned the heresy of Nestorius concerning the two persons of Christ in 431, had the opposite error of the Nestorian heresy arose. Since Nestorius so fully divided the Divine and the human in Christ that he taught a double personality or a twofold being in Christ, it became incumbent on his opponents to emphasize the unity in Christ and to exhibit the God-man, not as two beings but as one. Some of these opponents in their efforts to maintain a physical unity in Christ held that the two natures in Christ, the Divine and the human, were so intimately united that they became physically one, inasmuch as the human nature was completely absorbed by the Divine. Thus resulted one Christ not only with one personality but also with one nature.
The Third Ecumenical Council, held at Ephesus, did not put an end to the debate over the Person of Christ, failing to reconcile those sympathetic to Nestorius with the Church. Not long afterwards, however, in the 430s, a reconciliation was attained by means of a union, i.e., a unification which, for all intents and purposes, brought an end to the division within the Church. John of Antioch [previously a follower of Nestorius], in the name of all the bishops of the region of Antioch, sent to Saint Cyril a confession of faith, the essence of which is included in the following excerpt :
We [wrote the Antiochian bishops] confess, therefore, our Lord Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son of God, perfect God, and perfect man of a reasonable soul and flesh consisting; begotten before the ages of the Father according to His divinity, and in the last days, for us and for our salvation, [was born] of the Virgin Mary according to His humanity; that He is consubstantial with the Father according to divinity and consubstantial with us according to humanity, for in Him there is a perfect unity of two natures. For this reason do we also confess one Christ, one Son, one Lord. According to this understanding of such an unconfused union, we confess the all-holy Virgin to be the Theotokos; because God the Word was incarnate and became man, and in His very conception He united Himself to the [bodily] temple received from her. We know the theologians make some things of the evangelical and the apostolic teaching about the Lord common as pertaining to the one Person, and other things they divide as to the two natures, and attribute the worthy ones to God on account of the Divinity of Christ, and the lowly ones to His humanity.
At the end of the epistle there is an anathematization of Nestorius and his doctrine, with a declaration to the effect that Maximian is received into communion. Cyril of Alexandria accepted this confession of John and the bishops of like mind with him as a gift from heaven, acknowledging it as wholly Orthodox. Peace began to spread throughout the ecclesiastical world, and disputes began to die down.
Those who held Saint Cyril in high respect however were the forerunners of the soon to be revealed Monophysite heresy. They considered the communion between Saint Cyril and John of Antioch to be a betrayal of Orthodoxy and perceived heresy in the teaching of Saint Cyril on the two natures in Christ. Despite their great number, they behaved with restraint while Saint Cyril was alive, for he enjoyed tremendous respect with the Church. But with his death matters changed.
In Alexandria, enemies of the union began openly and forcefully to act against it in the name of Orthodoxy, yet in actual fact in the name of their own heretical doctrine, which has become known in the history of the Church under the name Monophysism ["mono," one and "physis," "nature"] The principal representative of the Monophysite heresy was Eutyches, the abbot of one of the monasteries in Constantinople who at the time of the Third Ecumenical Council showed himself to be a zealous partisan of Saint Cyril of Alexandria in his struggle against the heresy of Nestorius.
Eutyches, only respected Saint Cyril as the champion of Orthodoxy against Nestorius. He considered his activity during and after the union a betrayal of Orthodoxy. Eutyches did not recognize the treatises authored by Cyril in preparation for the Union and in defense of it as the idea of two natures in the Person of the Lord Jesus Christ was developed and forcefully maintained.
Eutyches instead proclaimed that : "After the incarnation of God the Word I worship one nature-the nature of God Who took on flesh and became man"; "I confess that our Lord consists of two natures before [their] union, and after [their] union I confess one nature." He boldly proclaimed, "He Who was born of the Virgin Mary is perfect God and perfect man, but does not have flesh which is consubstantial with ours."
The Church sought to investigate Eutyches' case. The Council of Constantinople of 448 strove mainly to ascertain whether Eutyches was in agreement with the epistle of Saint Cyril (referred to above) and with the words of the confession of John of Antioch. At the council in 448, Eutyches made the following statement : "I confess that our Lord consisted of two natures before [their] unification, and I confess one nature after [their] unification." There no longer remained any doubt that Eutyches was a heretic.
To prevent the heresy of Eutyches from resulting in grievous consequences for the Church, the fathers of the council proposed that he anathematize all that was contrary to the dogmas read out at the council. But Eutyches rejected this proposal in a bitter tone of voice. Then the fathers of the council, rising up, proclaimed : "Let Eutyches be anathema!" Later, after a conference, a statement was made regarding Eutyches, signed by Archbishop Flavian, 31 bishops and 23 archimandrites. The Council of Constantinople in 448 did not, however, bring an end to the disputes : it was not recognized by the Church of Alexandria or Egypt; or the Church of Jerusalem, which from the days of the First Ecumenical Council had gone hand in hand with the Church of Alexandria in resolving disputed questions of dogma; or even the Church of Rome, which was poorly acquainted with the details of disputes taking place in the East.
Relying on the Court's sympathetic relations with him, he determined to wage war on the council and his own archbishop : Eutyches, submitted a petition to Emperor Theodosius, in which he asked for a review of his case at a new council. He also sent a complaint to Saint Leo the Great in Rome, to the effect that among those in the East, i.e. in Constantinople, the Nestorian heresy was being resurrected anew. (the pope after having reviewed this dispute replied with the Conciliar Epistle of His Holiness Leo, Archbishop of the City of Rome, Written to Flavian, Archbishop of Constantinople (Against the Heresy of Eutyches).
Eutyches did manage to convince the Emperor that a new, Church-wide council should be called to investigate contrary dogmatic views on the Person of the God-man, the manner of their uniting within Him, and a review of the decisions of the Council of Constantinople regarding his case. It was proposed that the newly convoked council would be Ecumenical, as was the council of 431. In history this council has not come to be known as the Fourth Ecumenical Council, but rather the "Robbers' Council," for the activity it directed was not for the triumph of Orthodoxy, but for heretical beliefs proposed by Eutyches.
Under such unfavorable conditions for the defenders of Orthodox Truth, the council convened in Ephesus on August 8th, 449; its sessions were held in the Church of the All-holy Virgin Mary, which had been the site of the sessions of the Third Ecumenical Council. The number of fathers participating in the council fluctuated between 122 and 130. Eutyches was summoned to the council, to set forth before the council "justifications beneficial for him." Thus was the Monophysite heresy proclaimed instead of the Truth at the unlawful council, and Orthodoxy was trampled underfoot. Eutyches, as the principal champion of the Monophysite heresy, was thereafter declared to be Orthodox and was restored to the dignity of archimandrite and the rank of priest.
Emperor Theodosius, the protector of the Monophysites, soon died; General Marcian took his place in August of 450, by the election of the army and the senate. Deeply committed to Orthodoxy, Marcian subsequently married Theodosius' sister Pulcheria, who was also renowned for her zeal for Orthodoxy. For the Orthodox, the affairs of the Church thus took a turn for the better.
Leo the Great's idea for the convocation of a new Ecumenical council was realized. It was to be held in Nicæa, but later, to make it easier for the emperor to oversee its course, it was moved to Chalcedon, which is separated from Constantinople only by the width of the straits of the Bosphorus. There the council opened its sessions on October 8th, in the magnificent and vast Church of the Holy Martyr Euthymia. The number of fathers at the council was very great - between 600 and 630, more than had attended any of the other councils.
The activity of the Fourth Ecumenical Council at Chalcedon consisted of 1) judgment over the "Robbers' Council" of 449 and Dioscorus of Alexandria, its head; and 2) an investigation into the true teaching concerning the two natures in the Person of the God-man, Jesus the Christ.
Convinced of the abuses of the "Robbers' " Synod, the fathers of the Fourth Ecumenical Council pronounced their sentence, but in such a way that the majority of the men who comprised its membership would not be deposed from their episcopal rank, in view of their sincere repentance. The council also proceeded to the composition of a definition of the Faith, so as to proclaim the Orthodox doctrine of the God-man. During this there were many debates and disputes, and much distrust and dissatisfaction was expressed; yet all of this did not hinder the council from attaining the desired end : to proclaim the most pure doctrine of the God-man.
Following the holy fathers, we teach with one voice that the Son [of God] and our Lord Jesus Christ is to be confessed as one and the same [Person], that He is perfect in Godhead and perfect in manhood, true God and true man, of a reasonable soul and [human] body consisting, consubstantial with the Father as touching His Godhead, and consubstantial with us as touching His manhood; having become like us in all things save sin only; begotten of His Father before the ages according to His Godhead; but in these last days, for us men and for our salvation, born of the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, according to His manhood. This one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed to be in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably [united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two persons, but one and the same Son and only-begotten, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ, as the prophets of old have spoken concerning Him, and as the Lord Jesus Christ has taught us, and as the Creed of the fathers has delivered unto us.
The definition of the Faith was given its final form and read out at the council on 22 October 451. The Orthodox Church commemorates the Fourth Ecumenical Council on the 16th of July.
