It seems appropriate after
considering papal claims to review what various ecumenical councils have said on the subject. Let us begin with a speech delivered to the Council Fathers by a priest at the Council of Ephesus (431 AD) who was there as the legate of Pope Celestine I:
For no one can be in doubt, indeed it was known in every age that the holy and most blessed Peter, prince and head of the apostles, the pillar of faith and the foundation of the catholic church, received the keys of the kingdom from our lord Jesus Christ, the saviour and redeemer of the human race, and that to this day and for ever he lives and presides and exercises judgment in his successors the bishops of the holy Roman see, which he founded and consecrated with his blood.{1}
Moving on to the Council of Chalcedon, the following can be found in the acts of that synod:
After the reading of the foregoing epistle, the most reverend bishops cried out: This is the faith of the fathers, this is the faith of the Apostles. So we all believe, thus the orthodox believe. Anathema to him who does not thus believe. Peter has spoken thus through Leo. So taught the Apostles. Piously and truly did Leo teach, so taught Cyril. Everlasting be the memory of Cyril. Leo and Cyril taught the same thing, anathema to him who does not so believe. This is the true faith. Those of us who are orthodox thus believe. This is the faith of the fathers.{2}
From Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (451), we move to Constantinople III (680-81) where in a letter to the Emperor on the proceedings of the Council, the Fathers stated the following:
[B]eing inspired by the Holy Ghost, and all agreeing and consenting together, and giving our approval to the doctrinal letter of our most blessed and exalted pope, Agatho, which he sent to your mightiness...[t]he highest prince of the Apostles fought with us: for we had on our side his imitator and the successor in his see, who also had set forth in his letter the mystery of the divine word (θεολογίας). For the ancient city of Rome handed you a confession of divine character, and a chart from the sunsetting raised up the day of dogmas, and made the darkness manifest, and Peter spoke through Agatho.{3}
One of the most significant statements comes from an unexpected source. Nicaea II (787) was an ecumenical council called to discuss religious images and iconoclasm. In the second session, the papal legates presented a letter from Pope Hadrian. While this does involve papal claims, I am putting it here because Pope Hadrian's letter was approved by the Nicaea II council. Among the passages pertaining to papal primacy claims were this lengthy extract:
If you persevere in that orthodox Faith in which you have begun, and the sacred and venerable images be by your means erected again in those parts, as by the lord, the Emperor Constantine of pious memory, and the blessed Helen, who promulgated the orthodox Faith, and exalted the holy Catholic and Apostolic Roman Church your spiritual mother, and with the other orthodox Emperors venerated it as the head of all Churches, so will your Clemency, that is protected of God, receive the name of another Constantine, and another Helen, through whom at the beginning the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church derived strength, and like whom your own imperial fame is spread abroad by triumphs, so as to be brilliant and deeply fixed in the whole world. But the more, if following the traditions of the orthodox Faith, you embrace the judgment of the Church of blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, and, as of old your predecessors the holy Emperors acted, so you, too, venerating it with honour, love with all your heart his Vicar, and if your sacred majesty follow by preference their orthodox Faith, according to our holy Roman Church. May the chief of the Apostles himself, to whom the power was given by our Lord God to bind and remit sins in heaven and earth, be often your protector, and trample all barbarous nations under your feet, and everywhere make you conquerors. For let sacred authority lay open the marks of his dignity, and how great veneration ought to be shown to his, the highest See, by all the faithful in the world. For the Lord set him who bears the keys of the kingdom of heaven as chief over all, and by Him is he honoured with this privilege, by which the keys of the kingdom of heaven are entrusted to him. He, therefore, that was preferred with so exalted an honour was thought worthy to confess that Faith on which the Church of Christ is founded. A blessed reward followed that blessed confession, by the preaching of which the holy universal Church was illumined, and from it the other Churches of God have derived the proofs of Faith. For the blessed Peter himself, the chief of the Apostles, who first sat in the Apostolic See, left the chiefship of his Apostolate, and pastoral care, to his successors, who are to sit in his most holy seat forever. And that power of authority, which he received from the Lord God our Saviour, he too bestowed and delivered by divine command to the Pontiffs, his successors.{4}
With Constantinople IV (869-70), though much of the synod was disciplinary and later repealed, a key portion of the synod was retained; namely, the incorporation of the
Formula of Hormisdas into a solemn profession of faith. The First Vatican Council explained it as follows:
So the fathers of the fourth council of Constantinople, following the footsteps of their predecessors, published this solemn profession of faith:
The first condition of salvation is to maintain the rule of the true faith. And since that saying of our lord Jesus Christ, You are Peter, and upon this rock I will build my church, cannot fail of its effect, the words spoken are confirmed by their consequences. For in the apostolic see the catholic religion has always been preserved unblemished, and sacred doctrine been held in honour. Since it is our earnest desire to be in no way separated from this faith and doctrine, we hope that we may deserve to remain in that one communion which the apostolic see preaches, for in it is the whole and true strength of the christian religion{5}
The same First Vatican Council also published the following on the Council of Lyons II (1274):
[W]ith the approval of the second council of Lyons, the Greeks made the following profession:
"The holy Roman church possesses the supreme and full primacy and principality over the whole catholic church. She truly and humbly acknowledges that she received this from the Lord himself in blessed Peter, the prince and chief of the apostles, whose successor the Roman pontiff is, together with the fullness of power. And since before all others she has the duty of defending the truth of the faith, so if any questions arise concerning the faith, it is by her judgment that they must be settled."{6}
Then there is the definition of the Council of Florence (1439) which the First Vatican Council rendered as follows:
The Roman pontiff is the true vicar of Christ, the head of the whole church and the father and teacher of all Christians; and to him was committed in blessed Peter, by our lord Jesus Christ, the full power of tending, ruling and governing the whole church.{7}
After encapsulating prior definitions of ecumenical councils, the First Vatican Council prior to issuing a solemn definition on papal infallibility{8} had this to say about the magisterial authority of popes:
"[T]heir Apostolic teaching was embraced by all the venerable fathers, and reverenced and followed by all the holy orthodox doctors, for they knew very well that this See of St. Peter always remains unblemished by any error, in accordance with the divine promise of our Lord and Savior to the prince of his disciples: ‘I have prayed for you that your faith may not fail; and when you have turned again, strengthen your brethren’.
This gift of truth and never-failing faith was therefore divinely conferred on Peter and his successors in this See so that they might discharge their exalted office for the salvation of all, and so that the whole flock of Christ might be kept away by them from the poisonous food of error and be nourished with the sustenance of heavenly doctrine. Thus the tendency to schism is removed and the whole Church is preserved in unity, and, resting on its foundation, can stand firm against the gates of hell.”{9}
Finally, we have the Second Vatican Council where this matter was refined further still.{10} The historical record is clear however one wants to try and nuance it. In a nutshell: there was an understanding in the Church from its earliest days by first the popes themselves and later on by ecumenical councils of the Magisterial prerogatives of the Roman Pontiffs over the universal church.
*Update: Though I closed Rerum Novarum nearly two years ago, I was unaware at the time this piece was first published of the papal claims of Pope Hadrian I which were read out in his Letter to the Second Council of Nicaea II. As this ecumenical council is one of the seven accepted by both the Catholic and the Orthodox Churches, it seemed appropriate upon further reflection to revisit this piece, write a brief transition paragraph, insert the pertinent material in chronological order, renumber the remaining sources, and publish an updated version. -SM (circa 11/20/23)
Notes:
{1} Philip the Roman Legate: Speech at the Council of Ephesus on Behalf of Celestine I Quoted From First Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution
Pastor Aeternus (
circa July 18, 1870)
{2} Excerpt From the
Catholic Encyclopedia Article
The Council of Chaldedon (
circa 1913)
{3} Excerpt From the
Catholic Encyclopedia Article
Third Council of Constantinople (
circa 1913)
{4} Pope Hadrian I: Excerpt from his Letter to the Second Council of Nicaea (Migne, Pat. Lat., Tom. XCVI., col. 1217) as quoted in the
Catholic Encyclopedia Article
Second Council of Nicaea (
circa 1913)
{5} Council of Constantinople IV Quoted From First Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution
Pastor Aeternus §4,2 (
circa July 18, 1870)
{6} Council of Lyons II Quoted From First Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution
Pastor Aeternus §4,2 (
circa July 18, 1870)
{7} Council of Florence Quoted From First Vatican Council Dogmatic Constitution
Pastor Aeternus §3,1 (
circa July 18, 1870)
{8} And while I am not about to go into it at this time, I will merely note in passing that the actual scope of papal infallibility is not very well understood by most Catholics today.
{9} First Vatican Council: Dogmatic Constitution
Pastor Aeternus as Quoted in a
Rerum Novarum Post
On Papal Heresy, Dissent, Argumentation Fallacies, Etc. (
circa February 9, 2019)
{10} This subject will be covered in an upcoming project.
