§ 65, TUE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. 335
and the contemporarj Latin sources. Upon this Byzantine precedent, and upon the example of the kings of Israel, the Kussian Czars and the Protestant princes of Germany, Scandinavia, and England — be it justly or unjustly — ^build theif claim to a similar and still more extended supervision of the church in their dominions.
In the first place, the call of the ecumenical councils emanated from the emperors.' They fixed the place and time of the assembly, summoned the metropolitans and more distinguished bishops of the empire by an edict, provided the means of transit, and paid the cost of travel and the other expenses out of the public treasury. In the case of the council of Nicaea and the first of Constantinople the call was issued without previous advice or consent of the bishop of Ilouie." In the council of Chalcedon, in 451, the papal influence is for the first time decidedly prominent ; but even there it appears in virtual subordination to the higher authority of the council, which did not suffer itself to be disturbed by the protest of Leo against its twenty-eighth canon in reference to the rank of the patriarch of Constantinople, l^ot only ecumenical, but also provincial councils were not rarely called together by Western princes ; as the council of Aries in 314 by Constantino, the council of Orleans in 549 by Childebert, and — to anticipate an instance — the synod of Frankfort in 794 by Charlemagne. Another remarkable fact has been already
' This is conceded even by the Roman Catholic church historian Hefele (i. p. 7), in opposition to Bellarmine and other Romish divines. " The first eight general councils," says he, "were appointed and convoked by the emperors ; all the subsequent councils, on the contrary [i. e. all the Roman Catholic general councils], by the popes •, but even in those first councils there appears a certain pariidpafion of the popes in their convocation, more or leas prominent in particular instances." The latter assertion is too sweeping, and can by no means be verified in the history of the first two of these councils, nor of the fifth.
" As regards the council of Nic;Ea : according to Eusebius and all the ancient authorities, it was called by Constantine alone ; and not till three centuries later, at the council of 680, was it claimed that Pope Sylvester had any share in the convocation. As to the council of Constantinople in 881 : the Roman theory, that Pope Damasus summoned it in conjunction with Theodosius, rests on a confusion of thia touncil with another and an unimportant one of 382. Comp. the notes of VaMsius to rheodoret. Hist. Eccl. v. 9 ; and Hefele (who here himself corrects his earlier view), rol. i. p. 8, and vol. ii. p. 36.
83G THreD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
mentioned : that in the beginning of the sixth century several orthodox synods at Rome^ for the purpose of deciding the contested election of Symmachus, were called by a secular prince, and he the heretical Theodoric ; yet they were regarded as valid.
In the second place, the emperors, directly or indirectly, took an active part in all but two of the ecumenical councils summoned by them, and held the presidency. Constantine the Great, Marcian, and his wife Pulcheria, Constantine Progonatus, Irene, and Basil the Macedonian, attended in person : but generally the emperors, like the Roman bishops (who were never present themselves), were represented by delegates or commissioners, clothed with full authority for the occasion. These deputies opened the sessions by reading the imperial edict (in Latin and Greek) and other documents. They presided in conjunction with the patriarchs, conducted the entire course of the transactions, preserved order and security, closed the council, and signed the acts either at the head or at the foot of the signatures of the bishops. In this prominent position they sometimes exercised, when they had a theological interest or opinion of their own, no small influence on the discussions and decisions, though they had no vottim / as the presiding officers of deliberative and legislative bodies generally have no vote, except when the decision of a question depends upon their voice.
To this presidency of the emperor or of his commissioners the acts of the councils and the Greek historians often refer. Even Pope Stephen Y. (a. d. 817) writes, that Constantine the Great presided in the council of Nice. According to Eusebius, lie introduced the principal matters of business with a solemn discourse, constantly attended the sessions, and took the place of honor in the assembly. His presence among the bishops at the banquet, which he gave them at the close of the council, seemed to that panegyrical historian a type of Christ among his saints ! ' This prominence of Constantine in the most celebrated and the most important of all the councils is the
' Euseb., Vita Const, iii. 15; Xpiffrov ^aaiKfias ^So^ty &v nt (pavraa-oiffdct tiKoya, ovap r' eZrai aAA.* oux virap rh yivS/xevoi/.