Ancient church councils (pre-ecumenical )

Pre-ecumenical councils (also known as synods) were conferences of ecclesiastical dignitaries and theological experts of the early Christian Church that were convened to discuss and settle matters of Church doctrine and practice.[1] They were held when Christianity was still illegal in the Roman Empire. Until the Edict of Milan, councils did not have a civil, legal status. They must be distinguished from Ecumenical Councils which are seen as traditional and as a continuation of previous councils or synods. Such council include the Council of Jerusalem (c. 50 AD), the Council of Rome (155 AD), the Second Council of Rome (193 AD), the Council of Ephesus (193 AD), the Council of Carthage (251 AD), the Council of Iconium (258 AD),[2] the Council of Antioch (264 AD), the Councils of Arabia (246-247 AD), the Council of Elvira (306 AD), the Council of Carthage (311 AD), the Synod of Neo-Caesarea (c.314 AD), the Council of Ancyra (314 AD) and the Council of Arles (314 AD).[3]

Council of Jerusalem

The Acts of the Apostles records the Council of Jerusalem, which addressed the question of observation of biblical law in the early Christian]] community which included Gentile converts. Although its decisions are accepted by all Christians, and still observed in full by the Greek Orthodox,[4] and later definitions of an ecumenical council appear to conform to this sole biblical Council, no Christian church calls it a mere ecumenical council, instead it is called the "Apostolic Council" or "Council of Jerusalem".

See also

References

  1. ^ "Catholic Encyclopedia". http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04423f.htm. 
  2. ^ [1]
  3. ^ [2]
  4. ^ Karl Josef von Hefele's commentary on canon II of Gangra notes: "We further see that, at the time of the Synod of Gangra, the rule of the Apostolic Synod with regard to blood and things strangled was still in force. With the Greeks, indeed, it continued always in force as their Euchologies still show. Balsamon also, the well-known commentator on the canons of the Middle Ages, in his commentary on the sixty-third Apostolic Canon, expressly blames the Latins because they had ceased to observe this command. What the Latin Church, however, thought on this subject about the year 400, is shown by St. Augustine in his work Contra Faustum, where he states that the Apostles had given this command in order to unite the heathens and Jews in the one ark of Noah; but that then, this command concerning things strangled and blood had lost its meaning, and was only observed by few. But still, as late as the eighth century, Pope Gregory the Third 731 forbade the eating of blood or things strangled under threat of a penance of forty days. No one will pretend that the disciplinary enactments of any council, even though it be one of the undisputed Ecumenical Synods, can be of greater and more unchanging force than the decree of that first council, held by the Apostles at Jerusalem, and the fact that its decree has been obsolete for centuries in the West is proof that even Ecumenical canons may be of only temporary utility and may be repealed by disuser, like other laws."