IV. The Fourth General Council met at Chalcedon during the reign of the Emperor Marcian, A.D. 451. Six hundred and thirty Bishops assembled at it and condemned the false teaching of Eutyches, who asserted that our Blessed Lord was God only, and not Man also.
V. Council.
V. The Fifth General Council was summoned at Constantinople by the Emperor Justinian, A.D. 533, and was attended by 165 Bishops. In it the decisions of the Four First Councils were confirmed, especially against the Nestorians.
VI. Council.
VI. The Sixth General Council was also held at Constantinople, A.D. 680, by command of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, and condemned a development of Eutychianism.
Table of Councils.
Where held. Date. Emperor. Object.
I. Nicaea 325 Constantine Against the Arians.
the Great
II. Constantinople 38l Theodosius Against the
the Great Macedonians.
III. Ephesus 431 Theodosius Against the
the Younger Nestorians.
IV. Chalcedon 451 Marcian Against the
Eutychians.
V. Constantinople 553 Justinian Against a
development of
Nestorianism.
VI. Constantinople 680 Constantine Against a
Pogonatus development
of Eutychianism.
Section 4. Intellectual Development in the Church.
Christian learning developed in peace.
This portion of the History of the Church, comprising as it does the first period in which the master-minds within her fold were left free by the cessation of outward persecution to resist the increasing attacks of heresy, may be looked upon as offering to our view the greatest intellectual development which the Church has experienced since the times of the Apostles. The Fathers. Learned and eloquent men abounded, "mighty in the Scriptures" and "steadfast in the Faith," and their commentaries and sermons have come down to us as an abiding heritage and a continual witness to the teaching of the Church in early times. St. Athanasius, St. Ambrose, St. Chrysostom, and St. Augustine, are but a few out of many whose writings are still held in honour by our own as well as by every other branch of the Catholic Church.