In the early church, General Councils were called to define some of the most minute of discrepancies in belief, and that is why a doctrine that St. Cyril had introduced into the church, which was considered by all bible and theological scholars to have been perhectaly Catholic, became an issue in the Second General Council of Constantinople.
The Council Defines St. Cyril and his Words
It was during the eighth sentence presented that the Monophysite situation would have to have come to grips. In the Greek, Monophytisim meant ‘One Nature.’ And it was with the rise of Monophytism that the age-old story regarding the divinity or humanity of Christ was yet again raised. Catholics believed that Christ had both a divine and human nature and Monophysites believed that he had only one nature which brought together both human elements and divine. Eutyches taught this and word spread.
Monophysitism did increase the anger and discord between the eastern and western church.
The Second General Council of Constantinople Defeats the Monophysite Heresy
As the council read through a series of sentences indicating their wishes to find unity in these disagreements, they came upon the eighth sentence. St. Cyril had been fighting Monophytisim and his response, which had been controversial at the time, was used word for word: “There is but one incarnate nature of God the Word.” And the council determined that the Catholic sense of how it is used, the sense that seems to work with Ephesians, and the sense of those who attended Chalcedon was this: “This formula, it is now said, should not be understood to mean that the unity by which Christ is one being is the effectof a fusion between the divine and the union, and the union is a union in a single person. Those who thus fuse the natures are as erroneous as those who speak them as separate beings.”
Other Issues in the Second General Council of Constantinople
But this isn’t the only argument they will encounter. Nestorianism is again condemned, although it’s been done before. They are forbidden to do a double worship including a worship to the divine in Christ and the human.
The Condemnations
Because many heresies had gone on without stop despite previous General Councils, they took the time to denounce and anathematize several heretical teachings and their followers.
A Few Benefits that Came from the Second Council of Constantinople
A few great things came out of the Second General Council of Constantninople; Chalcedon was no longer at odd with Ephesus. A little more favor was given to Alexandrian speed than only to those who spoke at Antioch.
The General Council of Chalcedon, 451 A.D.
The Third General Council of Constantinople, 680-81 A.D.
Sources: The Church in Crisis: A History of the General Councils, 325 – 1870 – By Philip Hughes, The General Councils: A History of the Twenty-One Church Councils from Nicaea to Vatican II – By Christopher M. Bellito, The Documents of Vatican II – By Walter M. Abbott, S.J. and the Very Reverend Monsignor Joseph Gallagher, A Short History of Christian Doctrine: From the First Century to the Present – By Bernard Lohse, The Reform of the Liturgy – Annibale Bugnini, www.catholicdigitalstudio.com/councils.htm
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