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300 THE HISTORY OF HERESIES,
tinoplc, celebrated under the Emperor Copronimus, regarding
the Veneration of
Images, which the Constantinopolitan Council
prohibited. We answer that this Council was neither a lawful
nor a General one ; it was held by only a few Bishops, without
the intervention of the Pope s Legates, or of the three Patriarchs
of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem, who should, according to
the discipline of those times, be present.
84. They object, eleventhly, that the Second Council of Nice
was rejected by the Council of Frankfort. But we reply, with
Bellarmin, that this was all by mistake, for the Frankfort
Council supposed that it was decided in the Nicene Council,
that Images should receive supreme worship (Cultus Latrice),
and that it was held without the Pope s consent ; but both these
suppositions were incorrect, as appears from the Acts of the
Nicene Council itself. They object, twelfthly, that, in the
Fourth Council of Lateran, the transubstantiation of the bread
and wine into the body and blood of Christ was defined as an
Article of Faith, while an anathema was fulminated by the
Council of Ephesus against all who would promulgate any other
Symbol besides that established by the First Council of Nice.
We answer, first, that the Lateran Council did not compose any
new Symbol, but merely defined the question then debated.
Secondly, that the Council of Ephesus anathematized any one
publishing a Symbol opposed to the Nicene one, but not a new
Symbol, declaratory of some point not previously defined.
They object, thirteenthly, that as in Councils the points of
Faith are defined by the majority of votes, it might so happen
that one vote might incline the scale to the side of error, and
thus the better part be put down by the major part of the
Synod. We answer that, in purely secular affairs, such might
be the case, that the majority might, in a worldly meeting, put
down the more worthy ; but, as the Holy Ghost presides in
General Councils, and as Jesus Christ has promised, and does not
fail to assist his Church, such can never be the case.
85. They object, fourtcenthly, that it is the business of the
but the Scripture must decide
Council merely to seek the truth ;
it, and hence, then, the decision does not depend on the majority
of votes, but on that judgment which is most in conformity with
the Scripture, and hence, say they, every one has a right to