Summa de Ecclesia

It remains to be seen, in consequence, concerning the time at which the celebration of councils began in the Church. For the fuller knowledge of this, the distinction of universal councils which we marked out in the preceding chapter must be recalled. We said, moreover, that the universal council is in one way so called from the universality of the world, namely that which the Pope celebrates with the bishops of the whole Christian world, which we have called, after blessed Aug., the plenary universal council. In another way a council is called universal from the universality of its authority, since it is of so great authority that it treats of universal matters and binds all the faithful to the observance of its laws, and this is what the Pope celebrates with the prelates of some province or provinces, even if they are not convoked from the whole entire Christian world. With this distinction recalled, it seems that we must say that, if the discussion here concerns universal councils in the first sense, which are called plenary, and at what time they began, then we must say that the celebration of such councils began from the time of the Emperor Constantine, since in no earlier time is any council read to have celebrated to which all the bishops of the world came together or were convoked, although some likeness preceded in certain synods celebrated by the apostles, whence blessed Isidore, book 6, ch. 17, and as is had in ch. Canones dist. 15, speaking of this, says thus: The canons of councils began from the time of the Emperor Constantine, for in preceding times, with persecutions raging, the faculty of teaching the peoples was scarcely given at all. Whence Christianity was split into diverse heresies, since the bishops had no license to assemble together except from the time of the aforesaid Emperor. For he gave Christians the faculty of assembling freely. Thus far he. But if the discussion here concerns universal councils in the second sense, then we must say that they did not begin from the time of the Emperor Constantine but began to be celebrated much earlier, as we showed above partly in ch. 2 concerning the time of the apostles. Even after the times of the apostles, before the time of the Emperor Constantine, ancient histories teach us that many councils were celebrated, whence in the time of Pope Victor, concerning the question of on what day the paschal solemnity should be celebrated, as is gathered from the ecclesiastical history, book 5, we read that three synods were celebrated. One in Asia, in which at the command of the same Pope a very great multitude of bishops was assembled, as Polycrates, bishop of Ephesus, intimates through his letter to Pope Victor, saying thus: we observe the unchangeable Passover, he says, neither adding nor taking away anything, and below. I could also make mention of the bishops present whom thou didst not wish me to summon, as I did, whose names, if I should write them, are a very great multitude, who, knowing my littleness, all confirm with their judgment the things we have written. The second synod in the time of the same pontiff was also celebrated at Rome under his presidency concerning the same matter, of which synod is written that canon Celebritatem, On Consecration, dist. 3. The third synod is said to have been celebrated in Caesarea in Palestine, as is had in the same book of ecclesiastical history, at which brother Martin in his history of the supreme pontiffs says that the same Pope Victor was present. Moreover, in the time of Pope Cornelius, who preceded the times of the aforesaid Emperor Constantine, two councils are read to have been celebrated against Novatus the priest, who denied that the lapsed could attain salvation through penance: one of which was celebrated at Rome, which is said to have been most celebrated, as Eusebius of Caesarea relates, book 6 of ecclesiastical history, in which the aforesaid Novatus was condemned and it was defined, among other things, that those who had lapsed could attain the healing remedy of salvation through the sacrament of penance. The second council concerning the same matter was celebrated by the authority of the same Pope Cornelius, of which Dionysius of Alexandria of most flourishing memory makes mention in his letter to the aforesaid Pope Cornelius, as the same Eusebius relates in the above-written book, saying that he was invited to it by many bishops, since certain men there attempted to assert the dogma of Novatus. Further, in the time of Pope Dionysius two famous councils are read to have been celebrated against Paul of Samosata, who asserted that Christ was only man. The first was celebrated at Antioch, at which the legate of the apostolic see was the bishop of Ostia, as is had from book 6 of ecclesiastical history. The second was also celebrated at Antioch, in which the aforesaid Paul was refuted and manifestly convicted. Likewise in the time of Pope Marcellinus, who, compelled by the command of the Emperors Diocletian and Maximian, entered the temple of the gods and from fear of punishment offered incense to idols, a solemn synod was assembled at Rome, of which in ch. Nunc autem distinct. 21. These things suffice to show which general councils began, and which did not begin, from the time of the Emperor Constantine.