Second Council of Nicaea
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Second Council of Nicaea | |
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Date | 787 |
Accepted by |
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Convoked by | Iconoclasm |
Documents and statements | veneration of icons approved |
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The Second Council of Nicaea is recognized as the last of the first seven ecumenical councils by the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Catholic Church. In addition, it is also recognized as such by the Old Catholics, and others. Protestant opinions on it are varied.
It met in AD 787 in Nicaea (site of the First Council of Nicaea; present-day İznik, Bursa, in Turkey), to restore the use and veneration of icons (or holy images),[1] which had been suppressed by imperial edict inside the Byzantine Empire during the reign of Leo III (717–741). His son, Constantine V (741–775), had held the Council of Hieria to make the suppression official.
Background
The veneration of icons had been banned by Byzantine Emperor
In 784 the imperial secretary
Pope Adrian I was invited to participate, and gladly accepted, sending an archbishop and an abbot as his legates.
In 786, the council met in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. However, soldiers in collusion with the opposition entered the church, and broke up the assembly.[4] As a result, the government resorted to a stratagem. Under the pretext of a campaign, the iconoclastic bodyguard was sent away from the capital—disarmed and disbanded.
The council was again summoned to meet, this time in Nicaea, since Constantinople was still distrusted. The council assembled on 24 September 787 at the church of Hagia Sophia. It numbered about 350 members; 308 bishops or their representatives signed. Tarasius presided,[5] and seven sessions were held in Nicaea.[4]
Proceedings
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- First Session (24 September 787) – There was debate over whether bishops who had accepted iconoclasm when under iconoclast rule could remain in office.
- Second Session (26 September 787) – Letters from Church Fathers;[1] and from hagiography.(754) and a long refutation of the same (probably by Tarasius) were read.
- Fifth Session (4 October 787) – A further florilegium was read out, "proving" that iconoclasm originated from pagans, Jews, Muslims, and heretics.
- Sixth Session (7 October 787) – The definition of the pseudo-Seventh council
- Seventh Session (13 October 787) – The council issued a declaration of faith concerning the veneration of holy images.
It was determined that
This definition of the proper religious veneration of images centers on the distinction between timētikē proskynēsis, meaning the "veneration of honour", and "alēthinē latreia", meaning "true adoration". The former is permitted to images in the same way as to other holy things, notably the cross and the gospel-book, while the latter, "latreia", is reserved for God alone. But the statement that follows, to the effect that the honor paid to the image passes over to its prototype implies on the contrary that there are not two different degrees of veneration, but a single veneration that is not idolatrous since it treats the image as a door or window through which the person praying to the image perceives and adores the heavenly personage who is depicted in it. This could not lead to a worship of images of the Godhead in Byzantium, since no attempt was made to represent Godhead in art. But a problem remains over the human nature of Christ, which is certainly represented in art and which at the same time shares fully in the adoration paid to Christ as God: it would be heretical to worship Christ's Godhead but only honour his humanity.As the sacred and life-giving cross is everywhere set up as a symbol, so also should the images of
and other pious and holy men be embodied in the manufacture of sacred vessels, tapestries, vestments, etc., and exhibited on the walls of churches, in the homes, and in all conspicuous places, by the roadside and everywhere, to be revered by all who might see them. For the more they are contemplated, the more they move to fervent memory of their prototypes. Therefore, it is proper to accord to them a fervent and reverent veneration, not, however, the veritable adoration which, according to our faith, belongs to the Divine Being alone—for the honor accorded to the image passes over to its prototype, and whoever venerate the image venerate in it the reality of what is there represented. - The so-called "Eighth Session" (23 October 787) held in Constantinople at the Magnaura Palace supposedly in the presence of the emperors Constantine IV and Irene. Erich Lamberz has proved that this "session" is a late ninth-century forgery (see Price, The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea, 655–56). The purpose of the addition was to do justice to the role of the emperors at this ecumenical council as at its predecessors.
The twenty-two canons[6] drawn up in Constantinople also served ecclesiastical reform. Careful maintenance of the ordinances of the earlier councils, knowledge of the scriptures on the part of the clergy, and care for Christian conduct are required, and the desire for a renewal of ecclesiastical life is awakened.
The council also decreed that every altar should contain a relic, which remains the case in modern Catholic and Orthodox regulations (Canon VII), and made a number of decrees on clerical discipline, especially for monks when mixing with women.
Acceptance by various Christian bodies
The papal legates voiced their approval of the restoration of the veneration of icons in no uncertain terms, and the patriarch sent a full account of the proceedings of the council to
The council, or rather the final defeat of iconoclasm in 843, is celebrated in the
Many
Bishops of Dalmatia
Particularly interesting that four Dalmatian bishops are among the signatories of the synod, whose cities were no longer under Byzantine rule.[9][10] These Dalmatian bishoprics had been dissolved earlier. So the question arises when were these bishoprics re- established in these medieval Dalmatia cities?[10][9]
The four Dalmatian bishops who signed the synod, in order:
- “Ioannes episcopus sanctae ecclesiae Salonentianae” (John of Salona-Split)
- “Laurentius episcopus sanctae Absartianensis ecclesiae” (Lawrence of Osor)
- “Ursus episcopus Avaritianensium ecclesiae” (Ursus of Rab)
- “Ioannes episcopus Decateron” (John of Kotor)[10][9]
This suggests that new bishoprics was founded or old (Early Christian) episcopal seats were re-established in this area.[10][9]
Critical edition of the Greek text
- Concilium universale Nicaenum Secundum, in Acta Conciliorum Oecumenicorum, ser. 2, vol. 3, in 3 parts, ed. Erich Lamberz, Berlin 2008-2016. Also includes the Latin translation by Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
Translations
There are only a few translations of the above Acts in the modern languages:
- English translation made in 1850 by an Anglican priest, John Mendham; with notes taken largely from the attack on the council in the Libri Carolini. The aim of the translation was to show how the Catholic veneration of images is based on superstition and forgery.
- The Canons and excerpts of the Acts in The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, translated by Henry R. Percival and edited by Philip Schaff(1901).
- Translation made by Kazan Theological Academy (published from 1873 to 1909) – a seriously corrupted translation of the Acts of the Councils into Russian.[11]
- A relatively new Vatican's translation (2004) into Italian language. Publishers in Vatican mistakenly thought[12] that they made the first translation of the Acts into European languages.[13]
- The new (2016) Russian version of the Acts of the Council is a revised version of the translation made by Kazan Theological Academy, specifying the cases of corruption by the Orthodox translators.[14] There are several dozens of such cases, some of them are critical.
- Price, Richard, ed. (2018a). The acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Vol. 1. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781802071023.
- Price, Richard, ed. (2018b). The acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (787). Vol. 2. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. ISBN 9781786941275.
See also
- Plato of Sakkoudion
- Sabas of Stoudios
- Fourth Council of Constantinople (Eastern Orthodox)
- Proskynesis – Expression of respect
References
- ^ a b Gibbon, p. 1693
- ^ Council of Hieria, Canon 19, "If anyone does not accept this our Holy and Ecumenical Seventh Synod, let him be anathema from the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, and from the seven holy Ecumenical Synods!" http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/source/icono-cncl754.asp
- ^ Treadgold 1997, p. 388.
- ^ a b Ostrogorsky 1969, p. 178.
- ^ Gibbon, p. 1693.
- ^ "NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils – Christian Classics Ethereal Library". www.ccel.org.
- ^ Hussey 1986, pp. 49–50.
- ^ cf. John Calvin, Institutes of the Christian Religion 1.11
- ^ a b c d Škegro, Ante. The Sarnian diocese (Sarniensis Ecclesia) (PDF).
- ^ ISBN 978-1-138-22594-7.
- ^ See: http://www.knigafund.ru/books/12281/read Archived 2016-10-26 at the Wayback Machine
- ^ See: N. Tanner, "Atti del Concilio Niceno Secondo Ecumenico Settimo, Tomi I–III, introduzione e traduzione di Pier Giorgio Di Domenico, saggio encomiastico di Crispino Valenziano", in "Gregorianum", N. 86/4, Rome, 2005, p. 928.
- ISBN 9788820976491
- ISBN 9785446908912.
Sources
- Calvin, John, Institutes of the Christian Religion (1559), translated by Henry Beveridge (1845). Peabody: Hendrickson, 2008.
- ISBN 0-679-60148-1
- ISBN 978-0-19-826901-4.
- Komatina, Predrag (2017). "Dalmatian bishops at the Council of Nicaea in 787 and the status of the Dalmatian church in the eighth and ninth centuries". Imperial Spheres and the Adriatic. Byzantium, the Carolingians and the Treaty of Aachen (812). London; New York: Routledge. pp. 253–260. ISBN 9781351614290.
- ISBN 9780913836811.
- ISBN 9781586172824.
- ISBN 9780813505992.
- Siecienski, Anthony Edward (2010). The Filioque: History of a Doctrinal Controversy. Oxford-New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-537204-5.
- ISBN 9780804726306.
- This article incorporates text from a publication now in the New Schaff–Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (third ed.). London and New York: Funk and Wagnalls.)
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Further reading
There is no up-to-date English monograph on either the council or the iconoclast controversy in general. But see L. Brubaker and J. Haldon, Byzantium in the Iconoclast Era c. 680 to 850: A History (Cambridge 2011).