The Council of Chalcedon - 451 A.D.

Prepared by Pastor Ray Hagins

Introduction

The council was convoked at Nicaea but later transferred to Chalcedon, so as to be close to
Constantinople and the emperor. It began on 8 October 451. The legates Paschasinus, Bishop
Lucentius and the priest Boniface presided, while Julian of Cos sat among the bishops. By their side
were the imperial commissars and those serving on the Senate, whose responsibility was simply to
keep order in the council's deliberations.

The "Definition of the faith" was passed at the council's fifth session, and was solemnly promulgated
at the sixth session in the presence of the emperor and the imperial authorities. The formula
accepted in the decree is: Christ is one in two natures. This is in agreement with Leo's letter to
Flavian of Constantinople, and Leo's letter is expressly mentioned in the Definition of the faith.

The council also issued 27 disciplinary canons (it is unclear at which session).

What is usually called canon 28 (on the honor to be accorded the see of Constantinople) is in fact a
resolution passed by the council at the 16th session. It was rejected by the Roman legates.

In the ancient Greek collections, canons 29 and 30 are also attributed to the council:
 canon 29 is an extract from the minutes of the 19th session; and
 canon 30 is an extract from the minutes of the 4th session.
Because of canon 28, which the Roman legates had opposed, the emperor Marcian and Anatolius,
patriarch of Constantinople, sought approval for the council from the pope. This is clear from a letter
of Anatolius which tries to defend the canon, and especially from a letter of Marcian which explicitly
requests confirmation. Because heretics were misinterpreting his withholding approval, the pope
ratified the doctrinal decrees on 21 March 453, but rejected canon 28 since it ran counter to the
canons of Nicaea and to the privileges of particular churches.

Definition of the faith

The sacred and great and universal synod by God's grace and by decree of your most religious and
Christ-loving emperors Valentinian Augustus and Marcian Augustus assembled in Chalcedon,
metropolis of the province of Bithynia, in the shrine of the saintly and triumphant martyr Euphemia,
issues the following decrees.

In establishing his disciples in the knowledge of the faith, our lord and saviour Christ said: "My peace
I give you, my peace I leave to you"', so that no one should disagree with his neighbour
regarding religious doctrines but that the proclamation of the truth would be uniformly presented.
But the evil one never stops trying to smother the seeds of religion with his own tares and is for ever
inventing some novelty or other against the truth; so the Master, exercising his usual care for the
human race, roused this religious and most faithful emperor to zealous action, and summoned to
himself the leaders of the priesthood from everywhere, so that through the working of the grace of
Christ, the master of all of us, every injurious falsehood might be staved off from the sheep of Christ
and they might be fattened on fresh growths of the truth.

This is in fact what we have done. We have driven off erroneous doctrines by our collective
resolution and we have renewed the unerring creed of the fathers. We have proclaimed to all the

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creed of the 318; and we have made our own those fathers who accepted this agreed statement of
religion -- the 150 who later met in great Constantinople and themselves set their seal to the same
creed.

Therefore, whilst we also stand by

 the decisions and all the formulas relating to the creed from the sacred synod which took
place formerly at Ephesus,

o whose leaders of most holy memory were Celestine of Rome and Cyril of Alexandria
we decree that
 pre-eminence belongs to the exposition of the right and spotless creed of the 318 saintly and
blessed fathers who were assembled at Nicaea when Constantine of pious memory was
emperor: and that

 those decrees also remain in force which were issued in Constantinople by the 150 holy
fathers in order to destroy the heresies then rife and to confirm this same catholic and
apostolic creed.

o The creed of the 318 fathers at Nicaea.

o And the same of the 150 saintly fathers assembled in Constantinople.

This wise and saving creed, the gift of divine grace, was sufficient for a perfect understanding
and establishment of religion. For its teaching about the Father and the Son and the holy Spirit is
complete, and it sets out the Lord's becoming human to those who faithfully accept it.
Since we have formulated these things with all possible accuracy and attention, the sacred and
universal synod decreed that no one is permitted to produce, or even to write down or
compose, any other creed or to think or teach otherwise. As for those who dare either to
compose another creed or even to promulgate or teach or hand down another creed for those who
wish to convert to a recognition of the truth from Hellenism or from Judaism, or from any kind of
heresy at all: if they be bishops or clerics, the bishops are to be deposed from the episcopacy and
the clerics from the clergy; if they be monks or layfolk, they are to be anathematised.

CANONS

1 We have deemed it right that the canons hitherto issued by the saintly fathers at each and every
synod should remain in force.

2 If any bishop performs an ordination for money and puts the unsaleable grace on sale, and
ordains for money a bishop, a presbyter or a deacon or some other of those numbered among the
clergy; or appoints a manager, a legal officer or a warden for money, or any other ecclesiastic at all
for personal sordid gain; led him who has attempted this and been convicted stand to lose his
personal rank; and let the person ordained profit nothing from the ordination or appointment he has
bought; but let him be removed from the dignity or responsibility which he got for money. And if
anyone appears to have acted even as a go-between in such disgraceful and unlawful dealings, let
him too, if he is a cleric, be demoted from his personal rank, and if he is a lay person or a monk, let
him be anathematised.

3 It has come to the notice of the sacred synod that some of those enrolled in the clergy are, for
sordid gain, acting as hired managers of other people's property, and are involving themselves in
worldly business, neglecting the service of God, frequenting the houses of worldly persons and
taking over the handling of property out of avarice. So the sacred and great synod has decreed that
in future no one, whether a bishop, a cleric or a monk, should either manage property or involve

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himself as an administrator of worldly business, unless he is legally and unavoidably summoned to
take care of minors, or the local bishop appoints him to attend, out of fear of the Lord, to
ecclesiastical business or to orphans and unprovided widows and persons in special need of
ecclesiastical support. If in future anyone attempts to transgress these decrees, he must be subject
to ecclesiastical penalties.

4 Those who truly and sincerely live the monastic life should be accorded appropriate recognition.
But since there are some who don the monastic habit and meddle with the churches and in civil
matters, and circulate indiscriminately in the cities and even are involved in founding monasteries for
themselves, it has been decided that no one is to build or found a monastery or oratory anywhere
against the will of the local bishop; and that monks of each city and region are to be subject to the
bishop, are to foster peace and quiet, and attend solely to fasting and prayer, staying set apart in
their places. They are not to abandon their own monasteries and interfere, or take part, in
ecclesiastical or secular business unless they are perhaps assigned to do so by the local bishop
because of some urgent necessity. No slave is to be taken into the monasteries to become a monk
against the will of his own master. We have decreed that anyone who transgresses this decision of
ours is to be excommunicated, lest God's name be blasphemed. However, it is for the local bishop to
exercise the care and attention that the monasteries need.

5 In the matter of bishops or clerics who move from city to city, it has been decided that the canons
issued by the holy fathers concerning them should retain their proper force.

6 No one, whether presbyter or deacon or anyone at all who belongs to the ecclesiastical order, is
to be ordained without title, unless the one ordained is specially assigned to a city or village church
or to a martyr's shrine or a monastery. The sacred synod has decreed that the ordination of those
ordained without title is null, and that they cannot operate anywhere, because of the presumption of
the one who ordained them.

7 We decree that those who have once joined the ranks of the clergy or have become monks are
not to depart on military service or for secular office. Those who dare do this, and do not repent and
return to what, in God, they previously chose, are to be anathematised.

8 Clerics in charge of almshouses and monasteries and martyrs' shrines are, in accordance with the
tradition of the holy fathers, to remain under the jurisdiction of the bishop in each city. They are not
to be self-willed and rebellious towards their own bishop. Those who dare to break a rule of this kind
in any way whatever, and are not obedient to their own bishop, are, if they are clerics, to be subject
to the canonical penalties; and if they are monks or layfolk they are to be made excommunicate.

9 If any cleric has a case to bring against a cleric, let him not leave his own bishop and take himself
off to the secular courts, but let him first air the problem before his own bishop, or at least, with the
permission of the bishop himself, before those whom both parties are willing to see act as arbiters of
their lawsuit. If anyone acts in a contrary fashion, let him be subject to canonical penalties. If a cleric
has a case to bring either against his own or against another bishop, let him bring the case to the
synod of the province. If a bishop or a cleric is in dispute with the metropolitan of the same province,
let him engage either the exarch of the diocese or the see of imperial Constantinople, and let him
bring his case before him.

10 A cleric is not allowed to be appointed to churches in two cities at the same time: to the one
where he was originally ordained, and to another more important one to which he has betaken
himself out of desire to increase a baseless reputation. Those who do this are to be sent back to
their own church in which they were ordained at the beginning, and only there are they to serve. But
if some have already been transferred from one church to another, they are not to take part in any of
the affairs of their former church, or of the martyrs' shrines or almshouses or hospices that come

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under it. The sacred synod has decreed that those who, subsequent to this decree of this great and
universal synod, dare to do anything that is now forbidden are to lose their personal rank.

11 We have decreed that, subject to examination, all paupers and needy persons are to travel with
ecclesiastical letters or letters of peace only, and not of commendation, since it befits only reputable
persons to be provided with letters of commendation.

12 It has come to our notice that, contrary to the ecclesiastical regulations, some have made
approaches to the civil authorities and have divided one province into two by official mandate, with
the result that there are two metropolitans in the same province. The sacred synod therefore
decrees that in future no bishop should dare do such a thing, since he who attempts it stands to lose
his proper station. Such places as have already been honoured by imperial writ with the title of
metropolis must treat it simply as honorary, and that goes also for the bishop who is in charge of the
church there, without prejudice of course to the proper rights of the real metropolis.

13 Foreign clerics and readers without letters of commendation from their own bishop are absolutely
forbidden to serve in another city.

14 Since in certain provinces readers and cantors have been allowed to marry, the sacred synod
decrees that none of them is permitted to marry a wife of heterodox views. If those thus married
have already had children, and if they have already had the children baptised among heretics, they
are to bring them into the communion of the catholic church. If they have not been baptised, they
may no longer have them baptised among heretics; nor indeed marry them to a heretic or a Jew or a
Greek, unless of course the person who is to be married to the orthodox party promises to convert to
the orthodox faith. If anyone transgresses this decree of the sacred synod, let him be subject to
canonical penalty.

15 No woman under forty years of age is to be ordained a deacon, and then only after close
scrutiny. If after receiving ordination and spending some time in the ministry she despises God's
grace and gets married, such a person is to be anathematised along with her spouse.

16 It is not permitted for a virgin who has dedicated herself to the Lord God, or similarly for a monk,
to contract marriage. If it is discovered that they have done so, let them be made excommunicate.
However, we have decreed that the local bishop should have discretion to deal humanely with them.

17 Rural or country parishes belonging to a church are to stay firmly tied to the bishops who have
possession of them, and especially if they have continually and peacefully administered them over a
thirty-year period. If, however, within the thirty years any dispute about them has arisen, or should
arise, those who are claiming to be wronged are permitted to bring the case before the provincial
synod. If there are any who are wronged by their own metropolitan, let their case be judged either by
the exarch of the diocese or by the see of Constantinople, as has already been said. If any city has
been newly erected, or is erected hereafter, by imperial decree, let the arrangement of ecclesiastical
parishes conform to the civil and public regulations.

18 The crime of conspiracy or secret association is entirely prohibited even by the laws of the land;
so all the more properly is this forbidden in the church of God. So if any clerics or monks are found
to be either forming a conspiracy or a secret society or hatching plots against bishops or fellow
clergy, let them lose their personal rank completely.

19 We have heard that in the provinces the synods of bishops prescribed by canon law are not
taking place, and that as a result many ecclesiastical matters that need putting right are being
neglected. So the sacred synod decrees that in accordance with the canons of the fathers, the
bishops in each province are to foregather twice a year at a place approved by the bishop of the
metropolis and put any matters arising to rights. Bishops failing to attend who enjoy good health and

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are free from all unavoidable and necessary engagements, but stay at home in their own cities, are
to be fraternally rebuked.

20 As we have already decreed, clerics who are serving a church are not permitted to join a church
in another city, but are to be content with the one in which they were originally authorised to minister,
apart from those who have been displaced from their own country and been forced to move to
another church. If subsequent to this decision any bishop receives a cleric who belongs to another
bishop, it is decreed that both the received and the receiver are to be excommunicate until such time
as the cleric who has moved returns to his own church.

21 Clerics or layfolk who bring allegations against bishops or clerics are not to be admitted to make
their charges without more ado and before any examination, but their reputation must first be
investigated.

22 It is not permitted for clerics, following the death of their own bishop, to seize the things that
belong to him, as has been forbidden even by earlier canons. Those who do this risk losing their
personal rank.

23 It has come to the notice of the sacred synod that certain clerics and monks who have no
employment from their own bishop and have sometimes even been excommunicated by him, are
frequenting imperial Constantinople and spending long periods there causing disturbances,
upsetting the ecclesiastical establishment and ruining people's homes. So the sacred synod decrees
that such people are first to be warned by the public attorney of the most holy Constantinopolitan
church to get out of the imperial city; and if they shamelessly persist in the same kinds of behaviour,
they are to be expelled by the same public attorney even against their will, and are to betake
themselves to their own places.

24 Monasteries once consecrated in accordance with the will of the bishop are to remain
monasteries in perpetuity, and the effects which belong to them are reserved to the monastery, and
they must not be turned into secular hostelries. Those who allow this to happen are to be subject to
the canonical penalties.

25 According to our information, certain metropolitans are neglecting the flocks entrusted to them
and are delaying the ordination of bishops, so the sacred synod has decided that the ordination of
bishops should take place within three months, unless the period of delay has been caused to be
extended by some unavoidable necessity. If a metropolitan fails to do this, he is to be subject to
ecclesiastical penalties. The income of the widowed church is to be kept safe by the administrator of
the said church.

26 According to our information, in some churches the bishops handle church business without
administrators; so it has been decided that every church which has a bishop is also to have an
administrator, drawn from its own clergy, to administer ecclesiastical matters according to the mind
of the bishop concerned so that the church's administration may not go unaudited, and that
consequently the church's property is not dispersed and the episcopate not exposed to serious
criticism. If he does not comply with this, he is to be subject to the divine canons.

27 The sacred synod decrees that those who carry off girls under pretext of cohabitation, or who are
accomplices or co-operate with those who carry them off, are to lose their personal rank if they are
clerics, and are to be anathematised if they are monks or layfolk.

28 [in fact a resolution passed by the council at the 16th session but rejected by the Pope]
Following in every way the decrees of the holy fathers and recognising the canon which has recently
been read out--the canon of the 150 most devout bishops who assembled in the time of the great
Theodosius of pious memory, then emperor, in imperial Constantinople, new Rome -- we issue the
same decree and resolution concerning the prerogatives of the most holy church of the same

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Constantinople, new Rome. The fathers rightly accorded prerogatives to the see of older Rome,
since that is an imperial city; and moved by the same purpose the 150 most devout bishops
apportioned equal prerogatives to the most holy see of new Rome, reasonably judging that the city
which is honoured by the imperial power and senate and enjoying privileges equalling older imperial
Rome, should also be elevated to her level in ecclesiastical affairs and take second place after her.
The metropolitans of the dioceses of Pontus, Asia and Thrace, but only these, as well as the bishops
of these dioceses who work among non-Greeks, are to be ordained by the aforesaid most holy see
of the most holy church in Constantinople. That is, each metropolitan of the aforesaid dioceses along
with the bishops of the province ordain the bishops of the province, as has been declared in the
divine canons; but the metropolitans of the aforesaid dioceses, as has been said, are to be ordained
by the archbishop of Constantinople, once agreement has been reached by vote in the usual way
and has been reported to him.

29 [an extract from the minutes of the 19th session] The most eminent and illustrious officials asked:
What does the sacred synod advise in the case of the bishops ordained by the most reverend
Bishop Photius and removed by the most reverend Bishop Eustathius and consigned to be priests
after losing the episcopacy? The most reverend Bishops Paschasinus and Lucentius and the priest
Bonifatius, representatives of the apostolic see of Rome, replied: It is sacrilege to reduce a bishop to
the rank of priest. But if whatever cause there is for removing those persons from the exercise of
episcopacy is just, they ought not to occupy the position even of a priest. And if they have been
removed from office and are without fault, they shall be restored to the episcopal dignity. The most
reverend archbishop of Constantinople, Anatolius, replied: If those who are said to have descended
from the episcopal dignity to the rank of priest have been condemned on what are reasonable
grounds, they are clearly not worthy to hold even the office of a priest. But if they have been
demoted to the lower rank without reasonable cause, then as long as they are seen to be innocent,
they have every right to resume the dignity and priesthood of the episcopacy .

30 [an extract from the minutes of the 4th session] The most eminent and illustrious officials and the
exalted assembly declared: Since the most reverend bishops of Egypt have up to now put off
subscribing to the letter of the most holy Archbishop Leo, not because they are in opposition to the
catholic faith, but because they claim that it is customary in the Egyptian diocese not to do such
things in contravention of the will and ordinance of their archbishop, and because they consider they
should be given until the ordination of the future bishop of the great city of Alexandria, we think it
reasonable and humane that, retaining their present rank in the imperial city, they should be granted
a moratorium until such time as an archbishop of the great city of Alexandria is ordained. Most
reverend Bishop Paschasinus, representative of the apostolic see, said: If your authority demands it,
and you order that some measure of kindness be shown them, let them give guarantees that they
will not leave this city before Alexandria receives its bishop. The most eminent and illustrious officials
and the exalted assembly replied: Let the resolution of the most holy Bishop Paschasinus be upheld.
So let the most reverend bishops of the Egyptians maintain their present rank and, either providing
guarantees if they can, or pledging themselves on solemn oath, let them await the ordination of the
future bishop of the great city of Alexandria

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