A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

392 A Source Book for Ancient Church HistoryState Church, corresponding to the primary divisions of the Empire.The Emperor assumed the supreme authority in the Church,and the foundation was laid for what became under JustinianCæsaropapism. By the institution of the hierarchical gradation ofauthority and jurisdiction, for the most part corresponding to thepolitical and administrative divisions of the Empire, the Churchboth assumed a rigidly organized form and came more easilyunder the control of the secular authority.(A) The Ecumenical CouncilThe Council of Nicæa was held before there was any definitionof the place of an ecumenical council. Many councils were heldduring the Arian controversy that were quite as representative. Itwas taken for granted that the councils were arranged in a scale ofauthority corresponding to the extent of the Church represented.The first clear statement of this principle is at the Council ofConstantinople A. D. 382.[359]Council of Constantinople, A. D. 382, Canon 2. Text, Hefele, §98.The so-called second general council was held in 381, but inthe next year nearly the same bishops were called togetherby Theodosius (cf. Theodoret, Hist. Ec., V. 9). In a letteraddressed to the Western bishops at a council at Rome thiscouncil speaks of their previous meeting at Constantinople in381 as being an ecumenical council. The query suggests itselfwhether, considering the fact that it actually only representedthe East and did represent more than one patriarchate, “ecumenical”might not be understood as being used in a sensesimilar to that in which the African bishops spoke of theircouncils as universalis. See Hefele, § 100, note.