Canons of the One Hundred and Fifty Fathers who assembled at
Constantinople during the Consulate of those Illustrious Men, Flavius
Eucherius and Flavius Evagrius on the VII of the Ides of July.
228
The
Bishops out of different
provinces assembled by the grace of God in Constantinople, on the
summons of the most religious Emperor Theodosius, have decreed as
follows:
Canon I.
The
Faith of the Three Hundred
and Eighteen Fathers assembled at Nice in Bithynia shall not be set
aside, but shall remain firm. And every heresy shall be
anathematized, particularly that of the Eunomians or [
Anomæans,
the Arians or
] Eudoxians, and that of the Semi-Arians or
Pneumatomachi, and that of the Sabellians, and that of the Marcellians,
and that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians.
Notes.
Ancient Epitome of Canon I.
Let the Nicene faith stand firm. Anathema to
heresy.
There is a difference of reading in the list of the
heretics. The reading I have followed in the text is that given
in Beveridge’s
Synodicon
. The Greek text, however,
in Labbe, and with it agree the version of Hervetus and the text of
Hefele, reads: “the Eunomians or Anomæans, the Arians
or Eudoxians, the Semi-Arians or Pneumatomachi, the Sabellians,
Marcellians, Photinians and Apollinarians.” From this
Dionysius only varies by substituting “Macedonians” for
“Semi-Arians.” It would seem that this was the
correct reading. I, however, have followed the other as being the
more usual.
Hefele.
By the Eudoxians, whom this canon identifies with the
Arians [according to his text,
vide supra
,] is meant that
faction who, in contradistinction to the strict Arians or Anomæans
on one side, and the Semi-Arians on the other side, followed the
leadership of the Court Bishop Eudoxius (Bishop of Constantinople under
the Emperor Valens), and without being entirely Anomæan, yet very
decidedly inclined to the left of the Arian party—probably
claiming to represent the old and original Arianism. But this
canon makes the Semi-Arians identical with the Pneumatomachians, and so
far rightly, that the latter sprang from the Semi-Arian party, and
applied the Arian principle to their doctrine of the Holy Ghost.
Lastly, by the Marcellians are meant those pupils of Marcellus of
Ancyra who remained in the errors formerly propounded by him, while
afterwards others, and indeed he himself, once more acknowledged the
truth.
228
Such is the caption
in the old Greek codices. The vij
th
of the Ides is
July 9th. “From this (says Hefele) we may conclude that
this synod which according to Socrates,
H. E
., v. 8) begun May
381, lasted until July of that year.”