Chalcedon

“ Of the Letters: these are mostly rather later (i.e. about 12th or 13th century) : but (1) 1322 is of an older date, and contains besides the epistles, all the acts of the Council of Chalcedon: (2) 5759 is earlier than the 9th century ”

“ Somewhat more than a hundred years after the Council of Chalcedon, Evagrius copied its decree concerning the faith in extenso into his Church History (lib. ii., 4) , and, in fact, with the words: ἐν δύο φύσεσιν ἀσυγχύτως κ.τ.λ. (ed. Mog., p. 294) . (4) In the conference on religion held between the Severians and the orthodox at Constantinople, a.d. 553, the former reproached the Synod of Chalcedon with having put in duabus naturis, instead of ex duabus naturis, as Cyril and the old fathers had taught (Mansi, t. viii., p. 892; Hardouin, t. ii., p. 1162) . ”

“ It occurs in combination with στρατεία in a petition of an Alexandrian deacon named Theodore, which was read in the third session of Chalcedon: he says, “ ̓Εστρατευσάμεν for about twenty-two years in the Schola of the magistrians” (under the Magister officionum, or chief magistrate of the palace) , “but I disregarded στρατείας τοσούτον χρόναυ in order to enter the ministry” (Mansi, vi. 1008) . ”

“ And his unrestrained madness and blind wickedness has deservedly brought contempt and disrepute on himself, so that while he rages against the holy church of Alexandria with diabolical purpose, men may learn the character of those who desire to reconsider the Synod of Chalcedon. ”

“ The Synod of Chalcedon, when Marcian was emperor, declared that Christ existed in two natures, and this wicked heresy is still held by the priests of Rome, and sends many souls to hell. Dangers and pitfalls of false doctrine surround us, and the only safety from them is in monastic seclusion. ”

“ Chrysostom was still the idol of the common people. The news spread that Severian had insulted their bishop, and Severian's life would have been in danger had he not speedily fled to Chalcedon, and put the Bosphorus between himself and the enraged mob. All the authority of the emperor and the passionate entreaties of the empress, who even placed her infant son on Chrysostom's knees in the church of the Apostles as an irresistible plea for yielding to her petition, were needed to extort forgiveness for Severian. ”

“ It need hardly be said that all the dogmatic decrees of the Second Council of Constantinople entirely agree with the faith of Ephesus and Chalcedon. No one has disputed its orthodoxy. The question about which Vigilius could not make up his mind was whether it was expedient to condemn men who had died a century ago, whose names, in the West at any rate, were hardly known, for the chance of conciliating these Monophysites. The Western bishops were angry at the Emperor's interference, at their Pope being taken to Constantinople and ill-treated there. ”

“ After this success Alcibiades set off to the Hellespont and the Chersonese to raise money, and the remaining generals came to terms with Pharnabazus in respect of Chalcedon; according to these, the Persian satrap agreed to pay the Athenians twenty talents (3) in behalf of the town, and to grant their ambassadors a safe conduct up country to the king. It was further stipulated by mutual consent and under oaths provided, that the Chalcedonians should continue the payment of their customary tribute to Athens, being also bound to discharge all outstanding debts. ”

“ Unfortunately an immaculate character even when joined to an amiable disposition will not secure success in a ruler who lacks discernment and vigour. The emperor's spirit of toleration was intolerable to a society which clamours for violent polemics. Gradually he was driven to lean more and more to the Monophysite side. Wild stories were told of how monks and priests, archimandrites and patriarchs, behaved like dancing dervishes round the old man, some shouting "Anathema to the council of Chalcedon!" others, "Anathema to Eutyches—to Zeno—to Acacius!" ”

“ There they laid waste many populous cities and set fire to the renowned temple of Diana at Ephesus, which, as we said before, the Amazons built. Being driven from the neighborhood of Bithynia, they destroyed Chalcedon, which Cornelius Avitus afterwards restored to some extent. ”

“ This material was then systematically drafted into canons, which were embodied in a formal requisition from the Emperor to the Patriarch that Origen should be anathematized in a council of bishops. [662] In the meantime Theodore, anxious to retaliate against Pelagius, and to disturb the convictions of the Orthodox in general, as well as to divert attention from Origen to a greater issue, had devised a skilful attack on the Council of Chalcedon. The action of the Roman legate had created a precedent for reviewing and censuring the opinions of ecclesiastics long since dead ”

“ The sentiments of Eutyches, even as they are recorded by the party who charged him with heresy, seem to imply so much of soundness in his principles, and of moderation in his maintenance of those principles, that one must feel sorrow on finding such a man maintaining error at any time. The following is among the records of transactions rehearsed at Chalcedon: "He, Eutyches, professed that he followed the expositions of the holy and blessed Fathers who formed the Councils of Nicæa and Ephesus, and was ready to subscribe to them. ”

“ See Chair.]
Chal, chal, n. fellow: person:—fem. Chai. [Gipsy.]
Chalcedony, kal-sed′ō-ni, or kal′-, n. a beautiful mineral of the quartz family, consisting of quartz with some admixture of opal—it is generally translucent, has a somewhat waxy lustre, and is in colour generally white or bluish-white.—adj. Chalcedon′ic.—n. Chalced′onyx, an agate formed of a white opaque chalcedony alternating with a grayish translucent chalcedony. ”

“ To these he added the canons of Chalcedon with those that council had accepted, viz., those of Sardica, and a large number passed by African Synods, and lastly the Papal Decretals from Siricius to Anastasius II.
The next collection is that of St. Isidore of Seville, or which is supposed to have been made by him, early in the seventh century.
About the middle of the ninth century there appeared a collection bearing the name of Isidore Mercator, and containing the “false decretals” which have been so fruitful a theme of controversial writing. ”

“ The Council satisfied nobody. Pope Vigilius, detained at Constantinople and Marmora with something of the same violence with which Napoleon I. detained Pius VI. at Valence, declined to preside over a gathering so exclusively oriental. The West was outraged by the constitution of the synod, irrespective of its decisions. The Monophysites were disappointed that the credit of Chalcedon should be even nominally saved by the nice distinction which damaged the writings, but professed complete agreement with the council which had refused to damn the writers. ”

“ For, if we did not through Adam die in the soul, we were redeemed unreally, which it were impious to say. Further, having examined the acts of the synod of Ephesus, we find nothing at all about Adelphius and Sava, and the others who are said to have been condemned there, and we think that, as the synod of Chalcedon was in one place falsified by the Constantinopolitan Church, [3] so something of the kind has been done with regard to the synod of Ephesus. ”

“ Baron. ad. ann. 451, n. 152 sq.) . We still have a judgment of his which he gave respecting the decree of Chalcedon concerning the faith, and in which he repeats the leading doctrine in the words of the Synod itself. At our passage he remarks: ἐν δύο φύσεσι γνωρίζεσθαι ὁμολογεῖ τὸν ἕνα Χριστὸν κ.τ.λ. The fragment of his writings on the subject is found in the Vita S. Euthymii Abbatis, written by his pupil Cyril in the Analecta Græca of the monks of St. Maur, t. i., p. 57, printed in Mansi, t. vii., p. 774 sq. (2) The second ancient witness is Severus, from a.d. ”

“ One constantly finds this feeling that the cause of Cæsar is the cause of Christ, [170] and the more the Eastern bishops began to look upon the Emperor as their chief, the more obvious it must have seemed. But gradually Old Rome was falling away from the Empire. The Fathers of Chalcedon had pretended that she held the primacy because she was the capital of the Empire, and now the very city that had given her name to the Roman world could hardly be counted any longer as part of that world. In 401 the Goths had poured into Italy; in 410 they had plundered Rome ”

“ Your Majesty should understand beforehand, most venerable Emperor, that those whom I undertake to send will come from the Apostolic See, not to fight with the enemies of the Faith nor to strive against any, because of matters already settled as it has pleased God both at Nicæa and at Chalcedon we dare not enter upon any discussion, as if what so great an authority has fixed by the Holy Spirit were doubtful or weak.
IV. The heretics must be forced to give up their usurpations and left to the judgment of God. ”

“ The martyr, Euphemia, seems to have been a sort of patron saint of Chalcedon.↑ ἐπισφραγίσασα; others ἐπιψηφίσασα, which seems meaningless here.↑ The reference (acc. to Ball.) is to the dispute about the bishopric between Bassian and Stephen, in which Leo interfered, though the letter is not extant.↑ One of the Latin versions adds the names and titles of the subscribing bishops here. ”

“ For if any one is so forgetful of the Christian hope and his own salvation as to venture by any dispute to assail the Evangelical and Apostolical decrees of the holy Synod of Chalcedon, thus overthrowing the most sacred Council of Nicæa also, him with all heretics who have held blasphemous and abominable views on the Incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ we condemn by a like anathema and equal curse, so that, without refusing the remedy of repentance to those who make full and legitimate atonement, the sentence of the Synod, which is based on truth, may rest upon those who still resist. ”

“ Where the Illyrian bishops, and others who before that examination had expressed their acclamations to the letter, again cry out, “We all say the same thing, and agree with this.” So that, indeed, it is evident that, in the council itself, and before it their agreement is based on this that, after weighing the matter, they considered, they judged, they were persuaded, that all agreed with the Fathers, and perceived that the common faith of all and each had been set forth by Leo. This is that examination of Leo’s letter, synodically made at Chalcedon, and placed among the acts. ”

“ Still later, he was induced by the machinations of some of the prelates who haunted his court, and by the influence of Theodora, herself much interested in theological questions, and more than suspected of Monophysitism, to raise a needless, mischievous, and protracted controversy. The Monophysites sometimes alleged that they could not accept the decrees of the council of Chalcedon because that council had not condemned, but (as they argued) virtually approved, three writers tainted with Nestorian principles, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret, and Ibas, bishop of Edessa. ”

“ Footnotes ↑ This was the Emperor Theodosius the younger’s sister, a woman of noted zeal in the cause of the Church: for many years she had practically ruled the empire owing to her brother’s youthfulness. When the intrigues of Chrysaphius had brought about a quarrel between brother and sister, she retired for a time from public life. But becoming the virgin wife of Marcian, she, through him, helped to effect the victory of the Catholic cause at the Council of Chalcedon (451) .↑ Quod nostri similis fuit atque conformis.↑ S. Matt. ”

“ But the internal structure retains traces of all its tubes and fibres, most delicately preserved in a reddish chalcedony. The introduction of this chalcedony appears to have been subsequent to the first incasing of the body by the coarse siliceous crust, and contemporaneous with the gradual decay of the animal matter inclosed, the particles of chalcedony being successively introduced into the space vacated by the animal particles as they successively perished, till the result was an entire substitution of chalcedony bearing the form of the organization of the animal. ”

“ They specified in the same letter, that he was manifestly guilty of having broken a mystical chalice, and that this fact was attested by Theognis, bishop of Nicæa; by Maris, bishop of Chalcedonia; by Theodore, bishop of Heraclea; by Valentinus and Ursacius; and by Macedonius, who had been sent to the village in Egypt, where the chalice was said to have been broken, in order to ascertain the truth. ”

“ The solution of the latter question may be, that different genera of organic remains afforded centers that attracted the silex with unequal force, and that this will in some degree explain the phenomenon so common in the chalk formation, that bodies allied to the genus spunge and alcyonium, are most frequently preserved in flint and chalcedony, whilst shells and other bodies, which in their natural state were more calcareous, generally have their form retained by chalk or calcareous spar. ”

“ Chalcedonius maketh the bearer luckie in lawe, quickeneth the power of the bodie, and is of force also against the illusions of the divell, and phantasticall cogitations arising of melancholie. Corneolus mitigateth the heate of the mind, and qualifieth malice, it stancheth bloudie fluxes. Iris helpeth a woman to speedie deliverance, and maketh rainebowes to appeere. A Saphire preserveth the members, and maketh them livelie, and helpeth agues and gowts, and suffereth not the bearer to be afraid: it hath vertue against venome, and staieth bleeding at the nose, being often put thereto. ”

“ And utterly unbearable grief surged over Chalciope’s soul for fear at what she heard; and then she replied: “Yea, I myself too have come to thee in eager furtherance of this purpose, if thou wouldst haply devise with me and prepare some help. But swear by Earth and Heaven that thou wilt keep secret in thy heart what I shall tell thee, and be fellow-worker with me. I implore thee by the blessed gods, by thyself and by thy parents, not to see them destroyed by an evil doom piteously; or else may I die with my dear sons and come back hereafter from Hades an avenging Fury to haunt thee.” ”