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Constantia, St. - Czechowitzky, Martin
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Constantia, Saint
a martyr at Nuceria, under Nero, is commemorated September 19 in
Usuard's Martyrology.
Constantianus, Saint
abbot and recluse, was born in Auvergne in the beginning of the 6th century, and died A.D. 570. He is commemorated December 1 (Le Cointe,
Ann. Eccl. Fran. 1:398, 863).
Constantin, Boniface
a French theologian, belonging to the Jesuit order, was born at Magni (near Geneva) in 1590, was professor of rhetoric and philosophy at Lyons, and died at Vienne, Dauphine, November 8, 1651. He wrote, Vie de Cl. de
Granger Eveque et Prince dae Geneve (Lyons, 1640): — Historiae
Sanctorum Angelorum Epitome (ibid. 1652), a singular work upon the history of angels. He also-wrote some other works on theology. See
Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.; Jocher, Allgemeines Gelehrten- Lexikon, s.v.
Constantine (or Constantius), Saint
is represented as a bishop, whose deposition occurred at Gap, in France. He is commemorated April 12 (Gallia Christiana 1:454). SEE
CONSTANTINIUS.
Constantine Of Constantinople
deacon and chartophylax of the metropolitan Church of Constantinople, lived before the 8th century. There is a MS. in the library of the Escurial, a Greek discourse upon the holy martyrs, entitled Oratio Encomiastica in
Onnes Sanctos Martyres. This discourse is often cited in the Acta of the
second Council of Nice, which proves that Constantine lived before the holding of this council, or before the 8th century. See Hoefer, Nouv. Biog.
Generale, s.v.; Smith, Dict. of Gr. and Rom. Biog. s.v.
Constantino, Manoel
a Portuguese scholar, was born at Funchal, Madeira. He became established at Rome, and taught philosophy there. Later he was appointed clerk of the sacred college and professor of theology in the Roman
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gymnasium. He had acquired a rare facility for writing Latin, without, however, neglecting the study of history, to which he devoted himself closely. He died at Rome in 1614. He wrote, Insulae Matersiae Historia,
connected with Orationes Duae Habitae Cotam Clemnente VIII et Gregorio XIII (Rome, 1599): — Historia de Origine atque Vita Regum Lusitanice (ibid. 1601): — Carmina Varia (ibid.). These poems were
published separately at different dates. He also published at Rome a remarkable work on the origin and history of the kings of Portugal. See
Hoefer, Nouv. Biog. Generale, s.v.
Constantinople, Councils OF
(Concilium Constantinopolitanum). The large number of these, and the
great importance of several of them, justify a fuller treatment, which we
give from Landon, Man. of Councils, s.v., and Smith, Dict. of Christ. Antiq. s.v.
I. Held A.D. 336, by the Eusebians, under Eusebius of Nicomedia, at which Athanasius was exiled to Treves, Marcellus of Ancyra, with several other bishops, deposed, and Arius ordered to be received into communion by the Alexandrian Church. According to Ruffinus (Hist. 1:12) it was convened by order of the emperor, viz. Constantine the Great; and according to Emusebins, the historian (Confra Marcell. 1:4), it was exclusively gathered together from the neighborhood of the capital. It seems to have met in February, and not separated till the end of July. See Mansi, Concil. 2:1167-1170.
II. Held A.D. 339 or 340, by order of the emperor Constantius II, to depose Paul, the newly elected bishop there, whose orthodoxy displeased him, and translate Eusebilus, his favorite, from Nicomedia to the imperial see. See Mansi, Concil. 2:1275.
III. Held A.D. 360, composed of deputies from the Council of Seleucia, just ended, with some bishops summoned from Bithynia to meet them, about fifty in all. Most of the former were partisans of the metropolitan of Csesarea, whose name was Acacius, and semi-Arians. A creed was published by them, being the ninth, says Socrates, that had come out since that of Nicea. It was, in fact, what had been rehearsed at Rimini, with the further declaration that neither substance nor hypostasis were permissible terms in speaking of God. The Son was pronounced to be like the Father,
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according to the Scriptures, and Aetins, who maintained the contrary opinion, was condemned. A synodical epistle to George, bishop of Alexandria, whose presbyter he was, conveyed the sentence passed upon him and his followers. Several bishops were deposed at the same time, among them Cyril of Jerusalem — all for various causes. Ten bishops, who declined subscribing to these depositions, were to consider themselves deposed till they subscribed. Ulphilas, bishop of the Goths, who had hitherto professed the Nicene faith, was one of those present, and joined in their creed. See Mansi, Concil. 3:325.
IV. Held A.D. 362 or 360, in which sixty-two bishops excommunicated and deposed Macedonius, bishop of Constantinople, for his errors in faith concerning the Holy Spirit. See Mosheim, Eccl. Hist. cent. 4, part 1, chapter 5.
V. The second general council, met in May, A.D. 381, to reassemble the following year, for reasons explained by the bishops in their synodical letter. Owing to this circumstance, and to the fact that its acts have been lost, its proceedings are not easy to unravel. Socrates begins his account of it (Hist. 5:8) by saying that the Emperor Theodosius convened a council of bishops of the same faith as himself, in order that the creed settled at Niczea might prevail, and a bishop be appointed to the see of Constantinople. That the bishops met at his bidding is testified by themselves in their short address to him subsequently, to confirm what they had decreed. Whether they reassembled at his bidding we are not told. Of their number there has never been any dispute, this council having, in fact, gone by the name of that of "the one hundred and fifty fathers" ever since. There were thirty-six bishops of the Macedonian party likewise invited, but they quitted Constantinople in a body when they found that it was the faith of the Nicene fathers to which they would be called upon to subscribe. Of those present, Timothy, bishop of Alexandria, Meletius of.Antioch, who presided at first, Cyril of Jerusalem, with the two Gregories, of Nazianzum and Nyssa, were the most considerable, Nectarius and Flavian being added to their number before they separated. The names of all who subscribed have been preserved (Dionys. Exig. ap Justell. Bibl. Jur. Canon. 2:502).
The first question considered was that relating to the Church of Constantinople, and it was declared that Maximus, called the Cynic, had not been lawfully made bishop; that his ordination, and all that he had since (done in his pretended character of bishop, was null and void, and that, in
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fine, he was a usurper of the see of Constantinople. Then they proceeded to elect to the see Gregory Nazianzen, and eventually, notwithstanding his entreaties and tears, obliged him to accept the office. During these proceedings Meletius died, and Gregory of Nazianzum succeeded him as president of the council. He endeavored with all his powers to induce them to leave Panlinus in the see of Antioch. with the view of appeasing the divisions of that Church; but his efforts were ineffectual. The bishops of Macedonia and of Egypt (who had now arrived) vehemently opposed his designs, objecting also to his election, upon the ground that, being already bishop of another see, he ought not to have been translated to that of Constantinople. In consequence of this, Gregory formed the resolution to entreat the fathers to permit him to resign the see of Constantinople, which he in the end did, and Nectarius was elected in his room. During this interval Timothy, bishop of Alexandria, presided over the council; but Nectarius, immediately after his election, took that office upon himself. Now, Nectarius had been a priest in the latter city, but so far from having passed through the inferior degrees, as the canons direct, he had not been even baptized. Seven canons and a creed appear to have been submitted to the emperor by the assembled fathers for confirmation, at the close of their labors. Whether any canons have been lost seems to admit of some doubt. Socrates speaks of the establishment of patriarchs as one of the things done by this council; and the Arabic paraphrase, under a separate heading, "concerning the order of the prelates, and their rank and place," explains this as follows: "Honor besides, and the primacy, was granted in this council to the bishop of Rome, and he was made first, the bishop of Constantinople second, the bishop of Alexandria third, the bishop of Antioch fourth, and the bishop of Jerusalem fifth" which is the more remarkable as neither it nor Socrates omits the canon ordaining special prerogatives for new Rome. It is one difficulty connected with these canons, that in all probability they were not all passed. at the same council.
1. Confirms the faith of the council of Nicea, and anathematizes ("extrema execratione ac detestationem") all who deny it, especially the Arians, Eunomians, Eudoxians, Sabellians, Apollinarian, and others.
2. Forbids bishops to go beyond their borders, and to trouble other dioceses. Orders that the bishop of Alexandria shall have the sole administration of Egypt, and that the privileges given to the Church of Antioch by the Nicene canons shall be preserved. Orders that the affairs of the Asian, Politic, and Thracianu dioceses shall be severally administered
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by their respective bishops, and that the synod of each province shall administer the affairs of the province, according to the cannon of Nicaea.
3. By this canon the primacy of honor is given to the bishop of Constantinople after the bishop of home, on account, as it states, of the former being "the new Rome."
4. Declares the nullity of the consecration and of the episcopal acts of Maximus.
5. As regards the books of the Western Church, we have also received those in Antioch, who confess one and the same divinity in the three persons of the Holy Trinity.
6. Lays down a rule for ecclesiastical judgments, and permits all persons whatever to bring an accusation against a bishop or any other ecclesiastic on account of any private injury or wrong said to have been received: but in Church matters it directs that no accusation shall be received coming from heretics or schismatics, or from persons excommunicated or deposed, or accused of any crime, before they shall have justified themselves.
7. Gives direction as to the manner in which heretics ought to be received into the Church; Arians, Macedonians, Sabblatians, Novatians, Qnartodecimani, and Apollinarians were simply to be required to renounce their errors in writing, to anathematize all heresies, and to be anointed witi the holy chrism on the forehead, eyes, nose, mouth, and ears, that they might receive the Holy Spirit. Others, such as the Eunrmians (who baptized with one immersion), Montanists, Sabellians, etc., were to be received as heathens, i.e., to be catechised, exorcised, and baptized. See Labbe, Concil. 2:911. Of the heretics named in canon 1 the Semi-Arians engaged most attention by far here, from the further error into which they had fallen of late respecting the divinity of the Holy Ghost. All that was ruled by this council on doctrine was directed against them exclusively. By the word "diocese," in canon 2, is meant a tract embracing several provinces.
Most probably, the third canon, ordaining that in future the see of Constantinople should take honorary precedence next after Rome, was intended to prevent the bishops of Antioch and Alexandria from ever attempting to take such liberties with it again.
Dionysius Exigunus ends his canons of this council with the fourth. Traces of a new series appear with the fifth. It runs as follows: "Concerning the
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tome of the Westerns, we, too, have received those who professed their belief, at Antioch, in one Godhead of the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost." What was this tome of the Westerns? Some think it was the synodical epistle received from pope Damasmus by the Easterns at their second meeting, A.D. 182, to which they wrote their own in reply. Others, with better reason, hold that it was a synodical letter of pope Damasus, addressed to the synod. Of Antioch A.D. 378 or 379. A third view is, that it was another of his to Paulinus of Antioch some years before. Athanasius sent a letter, in the name of his synod at Alexandria, A.D. 362, to the Church of Antioch, which he calls "a tome" himself, to which Panlinus is expressly said to have subscribed, and in which the indivisibility of the Holy Ghost from the substance both of the Father and the Son is as distinctly set forth as it ever was afterwards. Through Eusebius of Vercelli, to whom it was addressed, and by whom it was in due time subscribed, it would find its way into the West and to Rome, as the rallying-point of the orthodox, and a boiad of union, under existing circumstances, between the sees of Alexandria, Antioch, and Rome, whose acceptance of its doctrine can scarce have become known to each other before Macedonimus, the expatriarch of Constantinople, commenced assailing the divinity of the third person in the Godhead. On this, it would immediately give rise to, and be the foundation of, a series of "tomes" or epistles of the same kind between them, in which Constantinople, being in Arian hands, would take no part, nor Alexandria much, owing to the banishment of its orthodox prelate, Peter, from A.D. 373 to 378, under Valens. Meletius had also been driven from Antioch a year earlier; but his orthodox rival, Paulin us, was allowed to remain; and this would account for the correspondence that went on between him and pope Damasus uninterruptedly while Meletins was away, and of which the prominent topic was the divinity of the Holy Ghost. Now, the synods of Antioch and Rome are confusedly given about this time, yet several were probably held at each place. One thing, may well be thought to have been agreed upon at the first synod of Antioch, and possibly Rome too, which was afterwards confirmed in the second, and is evidently referred to by the Constantinopolitan fathers in their synodical letter, namely, the creed, in its enlarged form. Admit this form to have been agreed upon at the synod of Autioch, in conjunction, or not, with that of Rome,: A.D. 372, and the use of it in the year following by Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis in Cyprus, as the authorized creed of the Church, is explained; nor is there any reason why Gregory Nyssen, if he composed it at all — as stated by Nicephorus alone — should not have composed it
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there. But Valens coming to Antioch in April, to persecute the orthodox, the probability would be that this synod was hastily broken up, and remained in abeyance till A.D. 378 or 379, when its proceedings were resumed under Meletius, and confirmed by one hundred and sixty-three bishops, and with its proceedings this creed. All, at tine same time, then and there subscribed to the Western tome or letter of pope Damasus. Hence, both the language of the fifth Constantinopolitain canon above mentioned, and of the fathers who framed it, in their synodical letter, where they say that "this, their faith, which they had professed there summarily, might be learned more fully by their Western brethren, on their being so good as to refer to 'the tome' that emanated from the synod of Antioch, and that set forth by the ecniumenicail council of Constantinople the year before, in which documents they had professed their faith at greater length." Now, what they had set forth themselves was their adherence to, the Nicene faith and reprobation of the heresies enumerated in their first canon; what they had received from Antioch and accepted must have been the creed which has since gone by their name, but was certainly most their composition; and whatever else was confirmed there, A.D. 378, including the Western tome. The letter of pope Damasus to Paulinus was written A.D. 372, when there was nobody left at Antioch but Panlinus to write to. The letter addressed in his own name and that of the ninety-three bishops with him, "to the Catholic bishops of the East,” was "the men" received by the synod at Antioch A.D. 378-9; to which they replied the same year. Both letters being on the same subject-as were the synods of 372 and 37 — it was easy to confuse them.
We now come to the synodical letter of the reassembled Council of Constantinople, A.D. 382, and their proceedings generally. Most of the bishops who hard met at Constantinople, A.D. 381. returned thither the following summer.
One of their number, Ascholius, bishop of Thessalonica, and Epiphanius and Jerome with him, had gone meanwhile to Rome. Being at Constantinople, they received a synodical letter from the West, inviting them to Rome, where a large gathering was in contemplation. This letter having been lost, we can only guess at its contents from what they say in reply to it, coupled with their fifth canon, which was evidently framed in consequence. The affairs of the East being in imminent peril and confusion, they beg to be excused from going rawty so far from their sees. The most they could do, would be to send deputies into the West Cyriacrus,
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Euisebiru, and Priscianus are named, to explain their proceeding's, which they then epitomize, commencing with what has been anticipated above about their faith, and ending with the statement that Nectarins and Flavianus had been appointed canonically to their respective sees, while Cyril was recognised by them as bishop of Jerusalem for the same reason. Thus this letter explains the framing of their fifth canon, and attests its date. The same date is assigned to canon 6, restricting the manner of instituting proceedings against bishops, and reprobating appeals to the secular power. But canon 7, prescribing the distinctions to be observed in admitting heretics into communion, is shown not to belong to this camncil at all. It is almost identical with the ninety-fifth Trullan canon. Of the creed, little more need be hadded. It was in existence A.D. 373, having probably been framed at Antioch, in conformity with the synodical letter of Athanasius, A.D. 372, where it was doubtless confirmed A.D. 378-9, and received more probably by the fifth canon of this council A.D. 382, than promulgated separately by the council of the year preceding. Possibly this may have been the creed called by Cassian, as late as A.D. 430, "peculiarly the creed of the city and Church of Antioch." From the portion of it given by him it is as likely to have been this as that of A.D. 363, or any other between them. That there is a family likeness between it and the creed of the Church of Jerusalem, commented on by Cyril, will be seen on comparing them. On this hypothesis alone we can understand why no notice should have been taken of it at the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431, and in the African code, namely, because it had originated with a provincial, and only been as yet received by a general council. It was promulgated as identical with that of Nicaea for the first time by the fathers of the fourth council.
The dogmatic professions of the council of 81 were confirmed by Theodosius in a constitution dated July 30 of the same year, and addressed to Antouinius, proconsul of Asia, by which the churches are ordered to be handed over to the bishops in communion with Nectarins and others who composed ft, the Eunosmians, Arians, and others having been deprived of their churches by a constitution issued ten days earlier. It was also received by pope Damasus, and has been regarded in the West ever since, so far, as oecumenical. Its first four canons, in the same way, have always been admitted into Western collections. But what passed at the supplemental council of 382 never seems to have been confirmed or received equally. It was in declining to come to this last council thrat Gregory Nazianzen said,
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in his epistle to Procspius, "that he had come to the resolution of avoiding every meeting of bishops, for he had never seen any synod end well, or assuage rather than aggravate disorders." His celebrated oration, known as his "farewell" to the council of 381, is inspired by a very different spirit. See Mansi, Concil. 3:583.
VI. Held A.D. 382, in order to appease the divisions of Antioch, to which see Flavianus had been nominated in the preceding council. during the lifetime of the actual bishop, Paulinus. Most of the bishops who were present at that council also attended here. Nothing certain is known of the proceedings, except that the election of Flavianus was confirmed, and a letter to the Western Church written, to excuse the Orientals from attending the council at Rome held at the same time. A declaration of faith was added on the subject of the Blessed Trinity as well as of the Incarnation.' This council further declared that Nectarius had been duly elected to the see of Constantinople, according to the Nicene canons, and it also recognised the election of Flavianus to Antioch. See Labbe, Concil. 2:1014.
VII. There was a meeting of bishops held at Constautinople, by command of Theodosius, A.D. 383, under Nectarius, to devise remedies for the confusion created by so many sees passing out of the hands of the heterodox into those of the orthodox party. The Arian, Eunomian, and Macedonian bishops were required to attend there with confessions of their faith, which the emperor, after examining carefully, rejected in favor of Nicera. The Novatians alone, receiving this, were placed by him upon equal terms with the orthodox. It is said to have been on this occasion that Amphilochius, bishop of Iconium, on entering the palace, made the usual obeisance to Theodosius, but took no notice of Arcadius, his son, standing at his side (Socrates, Hist. 5:10).
VIII. Held A.D. 394, Sept. 29, on occasion of the dedication of the church of the Apostles Peter and Paul, built by Ruffinus, praefect of the Prmetorium. The dispute concerning the bishopric of Bostra was brought before this council. Nectarius of Constantinople presided, in the presence of Theophilus of Alexandria, Flaviansus of Antioch, Gregory of Nyssa, Palladius of Cresarea in Cappadocia, and many other bishops of note. It was determined, that although three bishops are sufficient to consecrate, a larger number is required in order to depose. See Labbe, Concil. 2:1151.