Second Council of Constantinople

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2nd Council of Constantinople
May 5 - June 2, 553
Constantinople
Accepted by
Convened by Emperor Justinian
Bureau
Attendees over 150 bishops
subjects
Documents

Anathematisms over the three chapters

The Second Council of Constantinople (the fifth ecumenical council ) was held in 553 under the presidency of Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople , to resolve issues arising from the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon (451), centered around the issue rotated according to the relationship between the divine and human nature of Christ and have now divided Christians for a full century (see Monophysitism ). The specific occasion of the meeting was the so-called three - chapter dispute . The council rejected three older Christian writings as being in error, since they were essentially Nestorian in nature; as part of a compromise, however, it was expressly decided not to call their authors heretics .

It was convened in 552 by the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I , who also intervened personally in the discussion, but was not present himself. It took place in eight sessions between May 5 and June 2, 553. The most prominent participants were the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria . The number of participating bishops from the West among the total of about 150 participating bishops was small. The Roman Pope Vigilius was in Constantinople, but was not present at the meeting, but, like the Patriarch of Jerusalem, was represented by legates. Vigilius, who was unable to cope with the imperial pressure and the superior Eastern Roman diplomacy, gave his judgment separately ( Constitutum I of May 14, 553). It contained no condemnation of the three chapters under discussion; However, after the emperor's intervention, the council took the position that Vigilius had secretly agreed to a condemnation earlier. In the eighth session of the council, some dogmatic doctrinal points were condemned in 14 canons , which essentially took up the statements of Emperor Justinian in the "Three Chapter Edict" of 551. Pope Vigilius finally accepted the condemnation ( Constitutum II , February 23, 554) and was allowed to return to Rome.

The Greek acts of the council are only preserved in a Latin translation. From this a clean version was created, which Pope Vigilius did not incriminate. Viglius' successor Pelagius I , who supported Vigilius as a papal legate and initially defended the “three chapters” in a petition, also took over the statements of the council. The decisions of the council led to disputes to the verge of a schism , especially in northern Italy . Pope Pelagius got the opponents to give in, and the synod retained ecumenical status. However, the adoption of the Council decisions in the West was mostly only formal and was subject to the proviso that the decisions of the Council of Chalcedon were not diminished. The resolutions of the Council of Constantinople are now recognized by the Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant churches.

In the research literature of the 19th century it was assumed that the council condemned theological doctrines that went back to the church writer Origen , and that he himself was condemned as a heretic. The statements allegedly condemned by the council are in particular the idea of ​​the pre-existence of the soul and the doctrine of the apocatastasis , the ultimate reconciliation of the gracious God with all creatures, including unrepentant sinners and unbelievers. In non-scientific literature it is also claimed in more recent times that the council condemned a doctrine of immigration ascribed to Origen and also made changes to the Bible text in order to remove the biblical basis from the doctrine of immigration. However, the sources offer no evidence or evidence for this. According to the current state of research, which is essentially based on the results of Franz Diekamp , it can be assumed that the traditional condemnation of fifteen theses of Origen or his followers was not decided by the ecumenical council, but by a synod held before its opening, to which some of the bishops who subsequently participated in the ecumenical council had gathered. The resolutions of this synod did not have the status of documents of a general council. The fifteen theses condemned as heretical by the synod contain no reference to a doctrine of reincarnation.

literature

  • Florian Bruckmann: Henōsis kath hypostasin - the first ten anathematisms of the fifth ecumenical council (Constantinople 553) as a document of neo-Chalcedonian theology. In: Annuarium Historiae Conciliorum. 36, 2004, ISSN  0003-5157 , pp. 1–166, 259–388 (also special print, 2 parts, Schöningh, Paderborn 2004).
  • Evangelos Chrysos: The lists of bishops of the 5th Ecumenical Council (553) . Habelt, Bonn 1966 ( online )
  • James AS Evans: The Age of Justinian. The Circumstances of Imperial Power. Routledge, London et al. 1996, ISBN 0-415-02209-6 .
  • Mischa Meier : The other age of Justinian. Experience of contingency and coping with contingency in the 6th century AD (= Hypomnemata 147). Vandenhoeck and Ruprecht, Göttingen 2003, ISBN 3-525-25246-3 (also: Bielefeld, Universität, habilitation thesis, 2002).
  • Richard Price (Übers. & Komm.): The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553. With Related Texts on the Three Chapters Controversy (= Translated Texts for Historians 51). 2 volumes. Liverpool University Press, Liverpool 2009, ISBN 978-1-84631-178-9 .

Web links

Remarks

  1. Jakob Speigl : Constantinople. 5) Ecumenical Councils. 2nd council of 553 . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 313 f .
  2. Jakob Speigl: Constantinople. 5) Ecumenical Councils. 2nd council of 553 . In: Walter Kasper (Ed.): Lexicon for Theology and Church . 3. Edition. tape 6 . Herder, Freiburg im Breisgau 1997, Sp. 313 f .
  3. Franz Diekamp: The Origenistic Disputes in the Sixth Century and the Fifth General Concil , Münster 1899, pp. 129-138; Hermann Josef Vogt : Why was Origen declared a heretic? In: Lothar Lies (ed.): Origeniana Quarta , Innsbruck / Vienna 1987, pp. 78–111, here: 78; Rowan Williams : Origenes / Origenism. In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie , Vol. 25, Berlin 1995, pp. 397-420, here: 417.