§ 65, THE ECUMENICAL COUNCILS. 33S
question -^liich of the two is above the other, is still a joint of controversy between the curialist or ultramontane and thti episcopal or Galilean schools.
Apart from this predominance of the emperor and hig commissioners, the character of the ecumenical councils was thoroughly hierarcJdcal. In the apostolic council at Jerusalem, the elders and the brethren took part with the apostles, and the decision went forth in the name of the whole congregation." But this republican or democratic element, so to call it, had long since given way before the spirit of aristocracy. The bishops alone, as the successors and heirs of the apostles, the ecclesia docens, were members of the councils. Hence, in the fifth canon of ISfice, even a provincial synod is termed " the general assembly of the hishojps of the province." The presbyters and deacons took part, indeed, in the deliberations, and Athanasius, though at the time only a deacon, exerted probably more influence on the council of Nice by his zeal and hig gifts, than most of the bishops ; but they had no votum decisivmn, except when, like the Roman legates, they represented their bishops. The laity were entirely excluded.
Yet it must be remembered, that the bishops of that day were elected by the popular voice. So far as that went, they really represented the Christian people, and were not seldom called to account by the people for their acts, though they voted in their own name as successors of the apostles. Eusebius felt bound to justify his vote at Nice before his diocese in Caesarea, and the Egyptian bishops at Chalcedon feared an njjro^r in their congregations.
Furthermore, the councils, m an age of absolute despotism, sanction edjhe principle of common public delibeiation, as the best means of arriving at truth and settling controversy. They revived the spectacle of the Roman senate in ecclesiastical form, and were the forerunners of representative government and parliamentary legislation.
* Acts XV. 22: Tore eSofe to7s airoffrSXois kuI toTi tt p f a Pvt tpo is avi '6Kri Tp eKKArjerio; and V. 23: Ol a-rr6crro\oi Kal ^l irpecr^vTepot (caJ o i.Se\<l)ol To7i . . . d5«A(i>oTr, »f. T. A. Comp. my Hist, of the Apostolic CI nrch g 69, aiid § 128.
340 THIED PERIOD. A.I). 311-590.
In matters of discipline the majority decided ; JmtJn. matters of faTth unanvrmiy was recLuircd, though, if necessary, it was forced by the excision of the dissentient minority. In the midst of the assembly an open copy of the Gospels lay upon a desk or table, as a symbol of the presence of Christ, whose infallible word is the rule of all doctrine. Subsequently the ecclesiastical canons and the relics of the saints were laid in similar state. The bishops — at least according to later usage— sat in a circle, in the order of the dates of their ordination or the rank of their sees ; behind them, the priests ; before or beside them, the deacons. The meetings were opened and closed with religious solemnities in liturgical style. In the ancient councils the various subjects were discussed in open synod, and the Acts of the councils contain long discourses and debates. But in the council of Trent the subjects of action were wi-ought up in separate committees, and only laid before the whole synod for ratification. The vote was always taken by heads, tiU the council of Constance, when it was taken by nations, to avoid the preponderance of the Italian prelates.
The jurisdiction of the ecumenical councils covered the entire legislation of the church, all matters of Christian faith and practice {fidei et moru7n), and all matters of organization and worship. The doctrinal decrees were called dogmata or symlola ; the disciplinary, canones. At the same time the councils exercised, when occasion required, the highest judicial authority, in excommunicating bishops and patriarchs.
^his. authority of these councils in the decision of all points of controversy was supreme, and final.
Their doctrinal decisions were early invested with infallibility ; the promises of the Lord respecting the indestructiblenesB of his church, his own perpetual presence with the ministry, and the guidance of the Spirit ("f truth, being applied in the full sense to those councils, as representing the whole church. After the example of the apostolic council, the usua^ foi-mula for a decree was : Visum est Spiritui Sancto et nobis.
' "ESole Tw -nvfiifxari ayi(fi Kal T^fxlv, Acts XV. 28. The provincial councils, too, had already used this phrase ; e. g. tlie Concil. Carthaginieiisc, of 252 (in the Open