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| Extracts from the Acts. Session IV.
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Extracts from
the Acts.
Session IV.
[Among numerous passages of the Fathers one was read
from a sermon by St. Gregory Nyssen in which he describes a painting
representing the sacrifice of Isaac and tells how he could not pass it
“without tears.”]
The most glorious princes said: See how our father
grieved at the depicted history, even so that he wept.
Basil, the most holy bishop of Ancyra, said: Many
times the father had read the story, but perchance he had not wept; but
when once he saw it painted, he wept.
John the most reverend monk and presbyter and
representative of the Eastern high priests, said: If to such a
doctor the picture was helpful and drew forth tears, how much more in
the case of the ignorant and simple will it bring compunction and
benefit.
The holy Synod said: We have seen in several
places the history of Abraham painted as the father says.
Theodore the most holy bishop of Catanea, said: If
the holy Gregory, vigilant526
| 526 It is impossible in
English to reproduce the play upon the words Γρηγόριος ὁ
γρηγορῶν εἰς
τὰ θεῖα
νοήματα,
κ.τ.λ. | in divine
cogitation, was moved to tears at the sight of the story of Abraham,
how much more shall a painting of the incarnation of our Lord Christ,
who for us was made man, move the
beholders to their profit and to tears?
Tarasius the most holy Patriarch said: Shall we
not weep when we see an image of our crucified Lord?
The holy Synod said: We shall indeed—for in
that shall be found perfectly the profundity of the abasement of the
incarnate God for our sakes.
[Post nonnulla a passage is read from St. Athanasius
in which he describes the miracles worked at Berytus, after which there
is found the following (col. 224),]
Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch, said: But
perhaps someone will say, Why do not the images which we have work
miracles? To which we answer, that as the Apostle has said, signs
are for those who do not believe, not for believers. For they who
approached that image were unbelievers. Therefore God gave them a
sign through the image, to draw them to our Christian faith. But
“an evil and adulterous generation that seeketh after a sign and
no sign shall be given it.”
[After a number of other quotations, was read the
Canon of the Council in Trullo as a canon of the Sixth Synod (col.
233).]
Tarasius, the most holy Patriarch said: There are
certain affected with the sickness of ignorance who are scandalized by
these canons [viz. of the Trullan Synod] and say, And do you really
think they were adopted at the Sixth Synod? Now let all such know
that the holy great Sixth Synod was assembled at Constantinople
concerning those who said that there was but one energy and will in
Christ. These anathematized the heretics, and having expounded
the orthodox faith, they went to their homes in the fourteenth year of
Constantine. But after four or five years the same527
| 527 We have seen that this
is an error. Vide Introduction to Trullan Canons. | fathers came together under Justinian, the
son of Constantine, and set forth the before-mentioned canons.
And let no one doubt concerning them. For they who subscribed
under Constantine were the same as they who under Justinian signed the
present chart, as can manifestly be established from the unchangeable
similarity of their own handwriting. For it was right that they
who had appeared at an ecumenical synod should also set forth
ecclesiastical canons. They said that we should be led as (by the
hand) by the venerable images to the recollection of the incarnation of
Christ and of his saving death, and if by them we are led to the
realization of the incarnation of Christ our God, what sort of an
opinion shall we have of them who break down the venerable images?
[At the close of the Session, after a number of
anathematisms had been pronounced, the following was read, to which all
the bishops subscribed (col. 317).]
Fulfilling the divine precept of our God and Saviour
Jesus Christ, our holy Fathers did not hide the light of the divine
knowledge given by him to them under a bushel, but they set it upon the
candlestick of most useful teaching, so that it might give light to all
in the house—that is to say, to those who are born in the
Catholic Church; lest perchance anyone of those who piously confess the
Lord might strike his foot against the stone of heretical evil
doctrine. For they expelled every error of heretics and they cut
off the rotten member if it was incurably sick. And with a fan
they purged the floor. And the good wheat, that is to say the
word which nourisheth and which maketh strong the heart of man, they
laid up in the granary of the Catholic Church; but throwing outside the
chaff of heretical evil opinion they burned it with unquenchable
fire. Therefore also this holy and ecumenical Synod, met together
for the second time in this illustrious metropolis of Nice, by the will
of God and at the bidding of our pious and most faithful Emperors,
Irene a new Helena, and a new Constantine, her God-protected offspring,
having considered by their perusal the teachings of our approved and
blessed Fathers, hath glorified God himself, from whom there was given
to them wisdom for our instruction, and for the perfecting of the
Catholic and Apostolic Church: and against those who do not
believe as they did, but have attempted to overshadow the truth through
their novelty, they have chanted the words of the psalm:528
| 528 The reference is to
Ps. lxxiv. 3, but the text is quite different from
ours. | “Oh how much evil have thine
enemies done in thy sanctuary; and
have glorified themselves, saying, There is not a teacher any more, and
they shall not know that we treated with guile the word of
truth.” But we, in all things holding the doctrines and
precepts of the same our God-bearing Fathers, make proclamation with
one mouth and one heart, neither adding anything, nor taking anything
away from those things which have been delivered to us by them.
But in these things we are strengthened, in these things we are
confirmed. Thus we confess, thus we teach, just as the holy and
ecumenical six Synods have decreed and ratified. We believe in
one God the Father Almighty, maker of all things visible and invisible;
and in one Lord Jesus Christ, his only-begotten Son and Word, through
whom all things were made, and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of
life, consubstantial and coeternal with the same Father and with his
Son who hath had no beginning. The unbuilt-up, indivisible,
incomprehensible, and non-circumscribed Trinity; he, wholly and alone,
is to be worshipped and revered with adoration; one Godhead, one
Lordship, one dominion, one realm and dynasty, which without division
is apportioned to the Persons, and is fitted to the essence
severally. For we confess that one of the same holy and
consubstantial Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ the true God, in these
last days was incarnate and made man for our salvation, and having
saved our race through his saving incarnation, and passion, and
resurrection, and ascension into heaven; and having delivered us from
the error of idols; as also the prophet says, Not an ambassador, not an
angel, but the Lord himself hath saved us. Him we also follow,
and adopt his voice, and cry aloud; No Synod, no power of kings, no
God-hated agreement hath delivered the Church from the error of the
idols, as the Jewdaizing conciliabulum hath madly dreamed, which raved
against the venerable images; but the Lord of glory himself, the
incarnate God, hath saved us and hath snatched us from idolatrous
deceit. To him therefore be glory, to him be thanks, to him be
eucharists, to him be praise, to him be magnificence. For his
redemption and his salvation alone can perfectly save, and not that of
other men who come of the earth. For he himself hath fulfilled
for us, upon whom the ends of the earth are come through the economy of
his incarnation, the words spoken beforehand by his prophets, for he
dwelt among us, and went in and out among us, and cast out the names of
idols from the earth, as it was written. But we salute the voices
of the Lord and of his Apostles through which we have been taught to
honour in the first place her who is properly and truly the Mother of
God and exalted above all the heavenly powers; also the holy and
angelic powers; and the blessed and altogether lauded Apostles, and the
glorious Prophets and the triumphant Martyrs which fought for Christ,
and the holy and God-bearing Doctors, and all holy men; and to seek for
their intercessions, as able to render us at home with the all-royal
God of all, so long as we keep his commandments, and strive to live
virtuously. Moreover we salute the image of the honourable and
life-giving Cross, and the holy reliques of the Saints; and we receive
the holy and venerable images: and we salute them, and we embrace
them, according to the ancient traditions of the holy Catholic Church
of God, that is to say of our holy Fathers, who also received these
things and established them in all the most holy Churches of God, and
in every place of his dominion. These honourable and venerable
images, as has been said, we honour and salute and reverently
venerate: to wit, the image of the incarnation of our great God
and Saviour Jesus Christ, and that of our spotless Lady the all-holy
Mother of God, from whom he pleased to take flesh, and to save and
deliver us from all impious idolatry; also the images of the holy and
incorporeal Angels, who as men appeared to the just. Likewise
also the figures and effigies of the divine and all-lauded Apostles,
also of the God-speaking Prophets, and of the struggling Martyrs and of
holy men. So that through their representations we may be able to
be led back in memory and recollection to the prototype, and have a
share in the holiness of some one of them.
Thus we have learned to think of these things, and we
have been strengthened by our holy Fathers, and we have been
strengthened by their divinely handed down teaching. And thanks
be to God for his ineffable gift, that he hath not deserted us at the
end nor hath the rod of the ungodly come into the lot of the righteous,
lest the righteous put their hands, that is to say their actual deeds,529
| 529 This obscure phrase
Mendham omits altogether. |
unto wickedness. But he doeth well unto those who are good and
true of heart, as the psalmist David melodiously has sung; with whom
also we sing the rest of the psalm: As for such as turn back unto
their own wickedness, the Lord shall lead them forth with the evil
doers; and peace shall be upon the Israel of God.
[The subscriptions follow immediately and close the
acts of this session (col. 321–346).] E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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