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Fifth Ecumenical Council
05 Fifth Ecumenical Council The Second Council of Constantinople 553ad
Emperor.--Justinian I.
Pope.--Vigilius.
The Capitula of the Council.
I.
If anyone shall not confess that the nature or essence of the Father,
of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost is one, as also the force and the
power; [if anyone does not confess] a consubstantial Trinity, one
Godhead to be worshipped in three subsistences or Persons: let him be
anathema. For there is but one God even the Father of whom are all
things, and one Lord Jesus Christ through whom are all things, and one
Holy Spirit in whom are all things.
II.
If anyone shall not confess that the Word of God has two nativities,
the one from all eternity of the Father, without time and without body;
the other in these last days, coming down from heaven and being made
flesh of the holy and glorious Mary, Mother of God and always a virgin,
and born of her: let him be anathema.
III.
If anyone shall say that the wonder-working Word of God is one [Person]
and the Christ that suffered another; or shall say that God the Word
was with the woman-born Christ, or was in him as one person in another,
but that he was not one and the same our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word of
God, incarnate and made man, and that his miracles and the sufferings
which of his own will he endured in the flesh were not of the same
[Person]: let him be anathema.
IV.
If anyone shall say that the union of the Word of God to man was only
according to grace or energy, or dignity, or equality of honour, or
authority, or relation, or effect, or power, or according to good
pleasure in this sense that God the Word was pleased with a man, that
is to say, that he loved him for his own sake, as says the senseless
Theodorus, or [if anyone pretends that this union exists only] so far
as likeness of name is concerned, as the Nestorians understand, who
call also the Word of God Jesus and Christ, and even accord to the man
the names of Christ and of Son, speaking thus clearly of two persons,
and only designating disingenuously one Person and one Christ when the
reference is to his honour, or his dignity, or his worship; if anyone
shall not acknowledge as the Holy Fathers teach, that the union of God
the Word is made with the flesh animated by a reasonable and living
soul, and that such union is made synthetically and hypostatically, and
that therefore there is only one Person, to wit: our Lord Jesus
Christ, one of the Holy Trinity: let him be anathema. As a matter of
fact the word "union" (tes henoseos) has many meanings, and the
partisans of Apollinaris and Eutyches have affirmed that these natures
are confounded inter se, and have asserted a union produced by the
mixture of both. On the other hand the followers of Theodorus and of
Nestorius rejoicing in the division of the natures, have taught only a
relative union. Meanwhile the Holy Church of God, condemning equally
the impiety of both sorts of heresies, recognises the union of God the
Word with the flesh synthetically, that is to say, hypostatically. For
in the mystery of Christ the synthetical union not only preserves
unconfusedly the natures which are united, but also allows no
separation.
V.
If anyone understands the expression "one only Person of our Lord Jesus
Christ" in this sense, that it is the union of many hypostases, and if
he attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of Christ two
hypostases, or two Persons, and, after having introduced two persons,
speaks of one Person only out of dignity, honour or worship, as both
Theodorus and Nestorius insanely have written; if anyone shall
calumniate the holy Council of Chalcedon, pretending that it made use
of this expression [one hypostasis] in this impious sense, and if he
will not recognize rather that the Word of God is united with the flesh
hypostatically, and that therefore there is but one hypostasis or one
only Person, and that the holy Council of Chalcedon has professed in
this sense the one Person of our Lord Jesus Christ: let him be
anathema. For since one of the Holy Trinity has been made man, viz.:
God the Word, the Holy Trinity has not been increased by the addition
of another person or hypostasis.
VI.
If anyone shall not call in a true acceptation, but only in a false
acceptation, the holy, glorious, and ever-virgin Mary, the Mother of
God, or shall call her so only in a relative sense, believing that she
bare only a simple man and that God the word was not incarnate of her,
but that the incarnation of God the Word resulted only from the fact
that he united himself to that man who was born [of her]; [309] if he
shall calumniate the Holy Synod of Chalcedon as though it had asserted
the Virgin to be Mother of God according to the impious sense of
Theodore; or if anyone shall call her the mother of a man
(anthropotokon) or the Mother of Christ (Christotokon), as if Christ
were not God, and shall not confess that she is exactly and truly the
Mother of God, because that God the Word who before all ages was
begotten of the Father was in these last days made flesh and born of
her, and if anyone shall not confess that in this sense the holy Synod
of Chalcedon acknowledged her to be the Mother of God: let him be
anathema.
VII.
If anyone using the expression, "in two natures," does not confess that
our one Lord Jesus Christ has been revealed in the divinity and in the
humanity, so as to designate by that expression a difference of the
natures of which an ineffable union is unconfusedly made, [a union] in
which neither the nature of the Word was changed into that of the
flesh, nor that of the flesh into that of the Word, for each remained
that it was by nature, the union being hypostatic; but shall take the
expression with regard to the mystery of Christ in a sense so as to
divide the parties, or recognising the two natures in the only Lord
Jesus, God the Word made man, does not content himself with taking in a
theoretical manner [310] the difference of the natures which compose
him, which difference is not destroyed by the union between them, for
one is composed of the two and the two are in one, but shall make use
of the number [two] to divide the natures or to make of them Persons
properly so called: let him be anathema. [311]
VIII.
If anyone uses the expression "of two natures," confessing that a union
was made of the Godhead and of the humanity, or the expression "the one
nature made flesh of God the Word," and shall not so understand those
expressions as the holy Fathers have taught, to wit: that of the
divine and human nature there was made an hypostatic union, whereof is
one Christ; but from these expressions shall try to introduce one
nature or substance [made by a mixture] of the Godhead and manhood of
Christ; let him be anathema. For in teaching that the only-begotten
Word was united hypostatically [to humanity] we do not mean to say that
there was made a mutual confusion of natures, but rather each [nature]
remaining what it was, we understand that the Word was united to the
flesh. Wherefore there is one Christ, both God and man, consubstantial
with the Father as touching his Godhead, and consubstantial with us as
touching his manhood. Therefore they are equally condemned and
anathematized by the Church of God, who divide or part the mystery of
the divine dispensation of Christ, or who introduce confusion into that
mystery.
IX.
If anyone shall take the expression, Christ ought to be worshipped in
his two natures, in the sense that he wishes to introduce thus two
adorations, the one in special relation to God the Word and the other
as pertaining to the man; or if anyone to get rid of the flesh, [that
is of the humanity of Christ,] or to mix together the divinity and the
humanity, shall speak monstrously of one only nature or essence (phusin
egoun ousian) of the united (natures), and so worship Christ, and does
not venerate, by one adoration, God the Word made man, together with
his flesh, as the Holy Church has taught from the beginning: let him
be anathema.
X.
If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified
in the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy
Trinity: let him be anathema.
XI.
If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius,
Apollinaris, Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, as well as their impious
writings, as also all other heretics already condemned and
anathematized by the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church, and by the
aforesaid four Holy Synods and [if anyone does not equally
anathematize] all those who have held and hold or who in their impiety
persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those heretics just
mentioned: let him be anathema.
XII.
If anyone defends the impious Theodore of Mopsuestia, who has said that
the Word of God is one person, but that another person is Christ, vexed
by the sufferings of the soul and the desires of the flesh, and
separated little by little above that which is inferior, and become
better by the progress in good works and irreproachable in his manner
of life, as a mere man was baptized in the name of the Father, and of
the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, and obtained by this baptism the grace
of the Holy Spirit, and became worthy of Sonship, and to be worshipped
out of regard to the Person of God the Word (just as one worships the
image of an emperor) and that he is become, after the resurrection,
unchangeable in his thoughts and altogether without sin. And, again,
this same impious Theodore has also said that the union of God the Word
with Christ is like to that which, according to the doctrine of the
Apostle, exists between a man and his wife, "They twain shall be in one
flesh." The same [Theodore] has dared, among numerous other
blasphemies, to say that when after the resurrection the Lord breathed
upon his disciples, saying, "Receive the Holy Ghost," he did not really
give them the Holy Spirit, but that he breathed upon them only as a
sign. He likewise has said that the profession of faith made by Thomas
when he had, after the resurrection, touched the hands and the side of
the Lord, viz.: "My Lord and my God," was not said in reference to
Christ, but that Thomas, filled with wonder at the miracle of the
resurrection, thus thanked God who had raised up Christ. And moreover
(which is still more scandalous) this same Theodore in his Commentary
on the Acts of the Apostles compares Christ to Plato, Manichaeus,
Epicurus and Marcion, and says that as each of these men having
discovered his own doctrine, had given his name to his disciples, who
were called Platonists, Manicheans, Epicureans and Marcionites, just so
Christ, having discovered his doctrine, had given the name Christians
to his disciples. If, then, anyone shall defend this most impious
Theodore and his impious writings, in which he vomits the blasphemies
mentioned above, and countless others besides against our Great God and
Saviour Jesus Christ, and if anyone does not anathematize him or his
impious writings, as well as all those who protect or defend him, or
who assert that his exegesis is orthodox, or who write in favour of him
and of his impious works, or those who share the same opinions, or
those who have shared them and still continue unto the end in this
heresy: let him be anathema.
XIII.
If anyone shall defend the impious writings of Theodoret, directed
against the true faith and against the first holy Synod of Ephesus and
against St. Cyril and his XII. Anathemas, and [defends] that which he
has written in defence of the impious Theodore and Nestorius, and of
others having the same opinions as the aforesaid Theodore and
Nestorius, if anyone admits them or their impiety, or shall give the
name of impious to the doctors of the Church who profess the hypostatic
union of God the Word; and if anyone does not anathematize these
impious writings and those who have held or who hold these sentiments,
and all those who have written contrary to the true faith or against
St. Cyril and his XII. Chapters, and who die in their impiety: let him
be anathema.
XIV.
If anyone shall defend that letter which Ibas is said to have written
to Maris the Persian, in which he denies that the Word of God incarnate
of Mary, the Holy Mother of God and ever-virgin, was made man, but says
that a mere man was born of her, whom he styles a Temple, as though the
Word of God was one Person and the man another person; in which letter
also he reprehends St. Cyril as a heretic, when he teaches the right
faith of Christians, and charges him with writing things like to the
wicked Apollinaris. In addition to this he vituperates the First Holy
Council of Ephesus, affirming that it deposed Nestorius without
discrimination and without examination. The aforesaid impious epistle
styles the XII. Chapters of Cyril of blessed memory, impious and
contrary to the right faith and defends Theodore and Nestorius and
their impious teachings and writings. If anyone therefore shall defend
the aforementioned epistle and shall not anathematize it and those who
defend it and say that it is right or that a part of it is right, or if
anyone shall defend those who have written or shall write in its
favour, or in defence of the impieties which are contained in it, as
well as those who shall presume to defend it or the impieties which it
contains in the name of the Holy Fathers or of the Holy Synod of
Chalcedon, and shall remain in these offences unto the end: let him be
anathema.
The Anathemas Against Origen.
I.
If anyone asserts the fabulous pre-existence of souls, and shall assert
the monstrous restoration which follows from it: let him be anathema.
II.
If anyone shall say that the creation (teu paragogen) of all reasonable
things includes only intelligences (noas) without bodies and altogether
immaterial, having neither number nor name, so that there is unity
between them all by identity of substance, force and energy, and by
their union with and knowledge of God the Word; but that no longer
desiring the sight of God, they gave themselves over to worse things,
each one following his own inclinations, and that they have taken
bodies more or less subtile, and have received names, for among the
heavenly Powers there is a difference of names as there is also a
difference of bodies; and thence some became and are called Cherubims,
others Seraphims, and Principalities, and Powers, and Dominations, and
Thrones, and Angels, and as many other heavenly orders as there may
be: let him be anathema.
III.
If anyone shall say that the sun, the moon and the stars are also
reasonable beings, and that they have only become what they are because
they turned towards evil: let him be anathema.
IV.
If anyone shall say that the reasonable creatures in whom the divine
love had grown cold have been hidden in gross bodies such as ours, and
have been called men, while those who have attained the lowest degree
of wickedness have shared cold and obscure bodies and are become and
called demons and evil spirits: let him be anathema,.
V.
If anyone shall say that a psychic (psuchiken) condition has come from
an angelic or archangelic state, and moreover that a demoniac and a
human condition has come from a psychic condition, and that from a
human state they may become again angels and demons, and that each
order of heavenly virtues is either all from those below or from those
above, or from those above and below: let him be anathema.
VI.
If anyone shall say that there is a twofold race of demons, of which
the one includes the souls of men and the other the superior spirits
who fell to this, and that of all the number of reasonable beings there
is but one which has remained unshaken in the love and contemplation of
God, and that that spirit is become Christ and the king of all
reasonable beings, and that he has created [318] all the bodies which
exist in heaven, on earth, and between heaven and earth; and that the
world which has in itself elements more ancient than itself, and which
exists by themselves, viz.: dryness, damp, heat and cold, and the
image (idean) to which it was formed, was so formed, and that the most
holy and consubstantial Trinity did not create the world, but that it
was created by the working intelligence (Nous demirurgos) which is more
ancient than the world, and which communicates to it its being: let
him be anathema.
VII.
If anyone shall say that Christ, of whom it is said that he appeared in
the form of God, and that he was united before all time with God the
Word, and humbled himself in these last days even to humanity, had
(according to their expression) pity upon the divers falls which had
appeared in the spirits united in the same unity (of which he himself
is part), and that to restore them he passed through divers classes,
had different bodies and different names, became all to all, an Angel
among Angels, a Power among Powers, has clothed himself in the
different classes of reasonable beings with a form corresponding to
that class, and finally has taken flesh and blood like ours and is
become man for men; [if anyone says all this] and does not profess that
God the Word humbled himself and became man: let him be anathema.
VIII.
If anyone shall not acknowledge that God the Word, of the same
substance with the Father and the Holy Ghost, and who was made flesh
and became man, one of the Trinity, is Christ in every sense of the
word, but [shall affirm] that he is so only in an inaccurate manner,
and because of the abasement (kenosanta), as they call it, of the
intelligence (nous); if anyone shall affirm that this intelligence
united (sunemmenon ) to God the Word, is the Christ in the true sense
of the word, while the Logos is only called Christ because of this
union with the intelligence, and e converso that the intelligence is
only called God because of the Logos: let him be anathema.
IX.
If anyone shall say that it was not the Divine Logos made man by taking
an animated body with a psuche logike and noera, that he descended into
hell and ascended into heaven, but shall pretend that it is the Nous
which has done this, that Nous of which they say (in an impious
fashion) he is Christ properly so called, and that he is become so by
the knowledge of the Monad: let him be anathema.
X.
If anyone shall say that after the resurrection the body of the Lord
was ethereal, having the form of a sphere, and that such shall be the
bodies of all after the resurrection; and that after the Lord himself
shall have rejected his true body and after the others who rise shall
have rejected theirs, the nature of their bodies shall be annihilated:
let him be anathema.
XI.
If anyone shall say that the future judgment signifies the destruction
of the body and that the end of the story will be an immaterial psusis,
and that thereafter there will no longer be any matter, but only spirit
nous): let him be anathema.
XII.
If anyone shall say that the heavenly Powers and all men and the Devil
and evil spirits are united with the Word of God in all respects, as
the Nous which is by them called Christ and which is in the form of
God, and which humbled itself as they say; and [if anyone shall say]
that the Kingdom of Christ shall have an end: let him be anathema.
XIII.
If anyone shall say that Christ [i.e., the Nous] is in no wise
different from other reasonable beings, neither substantially nor by
wisdom nor by his power and might over all things but that all will be
placed at the right hand of God, as well as he that is called by them
Christ [the Nous], as also they were in the feigned pre-existence of
all things: let him be anathema.
XIV.
If anyone shall say that all reasonable beings will one day be united
in one, when the hypostases as well as the numbers and the bodies shall
have disappeared, and that the knowledge of the world to come will
carry with it the ruin of the worlds, and the rejection of bodies as
also the abolition of [all] names, and that there shall be finally an
identity of the gnosis and of the hypostasis; moreover, that in this
pretended apocatastasis, spirits only will continue to exist, as it was
in the feigned pre-existence: let him be anathema.
XV.
If anyone shall say that the life of the spirits (noon) shall be like
to the life which was in the beginning while as yet the spirits had not
come down or fallen, so that the end and the beginning shall be alike,
and that the end shall be the true measure of the beginning: let him
be anathema.
The Anathematisms of the Emperor Justinian Against Origen.
I.
Whoever says or thinks that human souls pre-existed, i.e., that they
had previously been spirits and holy powers, but that, satiated with
the vision of God, they had turned to evil, and in this way the divine
love in them had died out (appsugeisas) and they had therefore become
souls (psuchas) and had been condemned to punishment in bodies, shall
be anathema.
II.
If anyone says or thinks that the soul of the Lord pre-existed and was
united with God the Word before the Incarnation and Conception of the
Virgin, let him be anathema.
III.
If anyone says or thinks that the body of our Lord Jesus Christ was
first formed in the womb of the holy Virgin and that afterwards there
was united with it God the Word and the pre-existing soul, let him be
anathema.
IV.
If anyone says or thinks that the Word of God has become like to all
heavenly orders, so that for the cherubim he was a cherub, for the
seraphim a seraph: in short, like all the superior powers, let him be
anathema.
V.
If anyone says or thinks that, at the resurrection, human bodies will
rise spherical in form and unlike our present form, let him be
anathema.
VI.
If anyone says that the heaven, the sun, the moon, the stars, and the
waters that are above heavens, have souls, and are reasonable beings,
let him be anathema.
VII.
If anyone says or thinks that Christ the Lord in a future time will be
crucified for demons as he was for men, let him be anathema.
VIII.
If anyone says or thinks that the power of God is limited, and that he
created as much as he was able to compass, let him be anathema.
IX.
If anyone says or thinks that the punishment of demons and of impious
men is only temporary, and will one day have an end, and that a
restoration (apokatastasis) will take place of demons and of impious
men, let him be anathema.
Anathema to Origen and to that Adamantius, who set forth these opinions
together with his nefarious and execrable and wicked doctrine [320] and
to whomsoever there is who thinks thus, or defends these opinions, or
in any way hereafter at any time shall presume to protect them.
(Gleaned from: http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.txt)
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