Introductory
Note.
The acts of this Council are found in Balsamon, page 761
of the Paris edition, with Hervetus’s translation.
Labbe
498
has taken Balsamon’s text and
inserted it into his Collection, from which the following translation
is made. There is another version extant in Leunclavius,
Jus
Græco-Roman
. p. 247.
On September the twenty-ninth of the year 394, a
magnificent church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, built by the
munificence of Rufinus the Prætoreal prefect, and situated at a
place called “the Oaks,” a suburb of Chalcedon, was
consecrated. Most scholars have adopted Tillemont’s
suggestion that this was the occasion which brought the patriarchs of
Alexandria and Antioch to Constantinople, and that occasion was taken
advantage of to hold a synod with regard to the dispute as to the see
of Bostra. At this council, in accordance with the canon of the
Second Ecumenical Council, adopted only a dozen years before,
Constantinople took the first place and its bishop presided, but so
strong was the hold of Alexandria that three centuries afterwards the
Quinisext Synod speaks of this council as held “under Nectarius
and Theophilus.” In passing it may not be amiss to remark
that St. Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Flavian were
present at this council! Well may Tillemont
499
exclaim, “It is remarkable to see
Theophilus there with Flavian, although they were not in communion with
each other.”
498
Labbe and Cossart,
Concilia
, Tom. II., col. 1151.
499
Tillemont.
Mémoires
, ix., 592.