An Essay on the Development of Christian DoctrineNewman, John Henry
Religion
An Essay on the Development of Christian Doctrine
Newman, John Henry
Catholic Church -- Doctrines; Dogma, Development of
Notwithstanding, the Pope's Legates gained their point through the
support of the Emperor Marcian, who had succeeded Theodosius. A fresh
committee was obtained under the threat that, if they resisted, the
Council should be transferred to the West. Some voices were raised
against this measure; the cries were repeated against the Roman party,
"They are Nestorians; let them go to Rome." The Imperial officers
remonstrated, "Dioscorus said, 'Of two natures;' Leo says, 'Two
natures:' which will you follow, Leo or Dioscorus?" On their answering
"Leo," they continued, "Well then, add to the definition, according to
the judgment of our most holy Leo." Nothing more was to be said. The
committee immediately proceeded to their work, and in a short time
returned to the assembly with such a definition as the Pope required.
After reciting the Creed of Nicæa and Constantinople, it observes, "This
Creed were sufficient for the perfect knowledge of religion, but the
enemies of the truth have invented novel expressions;" and therefore it
proceeds to state the faith more explicitly. When this was read through,
the Bishops all exclaimed, "This is the faith of the Fathers; we all
follow it." And thus ended the controversy once for all.
The Council, after its termination, addressed a letter to St. Leo; in it
the Fathers acknowledge him as "constituted interpreter of the voice of
Blessed Peter,"[311:1] (with an allusion to St. Peter's Confession in
Matthew xvi.,) and speak of him as "the very one commissioned with the
guardianship of the Vine by the Saviour."
15.
Such is the external aspect of those proceedings by which the Catholic
faith has been established in Christendom against the Monophysites. That
the definition passed at Chalcedon is the Apostolic Truth once delivered
to the Saints is most firmly to be received, from faith in that
overruling Providence which is by special promise extended over the acts
of the Church; moreover, that it is in simple accordance with the faith
of St. Athanasius, St. Gregory Nazianzen, and all the other Fathers,
will be evident to the theological student in proportion as he becomes
familiar with their works: but the historical account of the Council is
this, that a formula which the Creed did not contain, which the Fathers
did not unanimously witness, and which some eminent Saints had almost in
set terms opposed, which the whole East refused as a symbol, not once,
but twice, patriarch by patriarch, metropolitan by metropolitan, first
by the mouth of above a hundred, then by the mouth of above six hundred
of its Bishops, and refused upon the grounds of its being an addition to
the Creed, was forced upon the Council, not indeed as being such an
addition, yet, on the other hand, not for subscription merely, but for
acceptance as a definition of faith under the sanction of an
anathema,--forced on the Council by the resolution of the Pope of the
day, acting through his Legates and supported by the civil power.[312:1]
16.
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