14. The Fifth holy Ecumenical
Synod was held in Constantinople itself and was attended by 165 prelates. Its
distinguished leaders were Menas at first and then Eutychios, who succeeded the
former as patriarch of the imperial city. Vigilius, the bishop of Rome, was
present in the city but not at the synod. Even if he was reluctant to attend
the synod, he still confirmed the common faith of the Fathers in a small book.
Along with them were Apollinarios of Alexandria and Domnos of Antioch, both
illustrious patriarchs, as well as Didymos and Evagrios, who represented
Eustochios, the patriarch of Jerusalem. At that time Justinian, the mightiest
of Roman emperors, managed the concerns of the state and agreed with the
decisions of the Church. This holy ecumenical synod uprooted the dire offshoots
of Nestorios’ teachings along with the sower of these tares. It also condemned
Theodore and Diodoros, the one from Tarsus, the other from Mopsuestia. Even
before Nestorios they had given birth to this kind of heresy, but left no
record of their activity in siring strange and illegitimate embryos of their
illegitimate thought. It also condemned and anathematized Origen, Didymos, and
Evagrios, ancient plagues of the faithful, men who contentiously strove to
introduce Greek mythology into the Church of God. They babbled that souls
survive bodies and that the same soul enters many bodies in succession. A dire
and contemptible teaching, fit for their souls alone. They held, too, that
there would be an end of eternal punishment. This is another invitation to all
kinds of sin and destruction. They bestowed their ancient prestige upon the
evil angels, since they imagined that they would return to the glory of heaven,
from which they had fallen. They did not want bodies to join their souls in
resurrection, but they had the souls rise again, free from their bodies. |
don’t know what they mean by resurrection, since it involves what has fallen
and died, not what is everlasting and immortal, i.e., the soul. These wretches,
in their shamelessness, even accuse the Just Judge as they babble. What an
injustice! For how do they not bring the most extreme of charges against him
when in their blasphemy they contend that he deprives the bodies, which along
with their souls had endured sufferings in the pursuit of virtue, of their
common rewards, and leaves the bodies, which had shared the guilt and evil
deeds, free of all charges? Is it:not the ultimate injustice for him to set the
bodies aside and either exact a double punishment upon the souls or heap a
double reward upon them?
15. The holy assembly of the
Fathers not only condemned these men for their impiety, but a little earlier it
cut down and outlawed Anthimos of Trebizond, who cherished the thought of
Eutyches, as well as Severos, Peter of Apameia and Zoora, and that whole evil,
many-headed, and dispersed company. Agapetos of Rome took the lead in this
glorious affair, but the renowned prelates supported him with their votes and
their efforts. Among them the famous Ephraimios of Antioch and the holy Peter
of Jerusalem led the way. The sacred synod of prelates rejected and expelled
them all as it confirmed and consolidated the sacred teachings of the catholic
and apostolic Church. These were the concerns of the Fifth Ecumenical Synod. (The
Patriarch and the Prince: The Letter of Patriarch Photios of Constantinople to
Khan Boris of Bulgaria [trans. Despina Stratoudaki White and Joseph R.
Berrigan, Jr.; Brookline, Mass.: Holy Cross Orthodox Press, 1982], 47-48)
