The Library
1780 works catalogued century by century, from the literature the Bible was written among to the present — each with a note on what it is, why it lasted, and where to read it.
201–300
1 work
1 September 256
Latin
Sententiae Episcoporum
The Council of Carthage
The minutes of a council on whether converts baptised by heretics must be baptised again. Each bishop speaks in turn and is recorded by name and see, and Cyprian opens by saying that no one sets himself up as a bishop of bishops or compels his colleagues by terror.
301–400
3 works
325; revised 381
Greek
The Council of Nicaea
The confession drawn up by the first ecumenical council, declaring the Son to be of one substance with the Father, and anathematising those who said there was a time when he was not.
381
Greek
The Council of Constantinople
The Nicene confession expanded to state the Spirit's divinity and lordship, and to add clauses on the church, baptism, and the life of the world to come.
397
Latin
The Council of Carthage
Rulings of a North African synod on clergy, discipline, and the books that may be read in church as divine scripture.
401–500
2 works
431
Greek
The Council of Ephesus
The record of a council that opened before the Syrian bishops had arrived, deposed Nestorius in a single day, and was then countered by a rival council that deposed Cyril. Eight canons, the reading of Cyril's second letter into the record, and the crowd of Ephesus escorting the bishops home by torchlight.
451
Greek
The Council of Chalcedon
One Christ in two natures, without confusion, without change, without division, without separation — four negatives marking the boundaries beyond which speech about Christ goes wrong.
501–600
3 works
529
Latin
The Council of Orange
Twenty-five canons settling the long quarrel over grace: the beginning of faith is itself God's gift, but the council pointedly declines to teach predestination to damnation.
553
Greek
The Second Council of Constantinople
Fourteen anathemas condemning the Three Chapters and clarifying Chalcedon in Cyrilline terms, with Origenism condemned in the same period.
589
Latin
The Third Council of Toledo
King Reccared and the Visigothic nobility renounce Arianism before seventy-two bishops, the Arian books are ordered burned, and the creed is to be sung at every mass — recited, in the Spanish text, with the Spirit proceeding from the Father and the Son.
601–700
4 works
633
Latin
The Fourth Council of Toledo
Seventy-five canons standardising the Spanish liturgy and clerical education, and regulating the status of Jews and of forcibly baptised converts.
October 649
Greek and Latin
Martin I and the Lateran Synod · Martin I, d. 655
A hundred and five bishops at Rome condemn the Ecthesis, the Typos, and the patriarchs who framed them, and define two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ. The Greek text is the original; Maximus and his circle almost certainly wrote it.
680–681
Greek
The Third Council of Constantinople
The sixth ecumenical council declares two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ, the human will always freely following the divine.
692
Greek
The Quinisext Council
A hundred and two canons on clerical marriage, fasting, the depiction of Christ as a man rather than a lamb, and a long list of practices to be abandoned.
701–800
4 works
754; survives in refutation
Greek
The Council of Hieria
The iconoclast council's ruling that any image of Christ either divides his natures or confuses them, and that the only permitted image is the eucharist.
787
Greek
The Second Council of Nicaea
The full record behind the Definition: bishops who had signed at Hieria being examined and received back, patristic testimonies read aloud one by one, and the iconoclast florilegium taken apart citation by citation, several proving to be forged or truncated.
787
Greek
The Second Council of Nicaea
The seventh ecumenical council restores images, distinguishing the honour offered to an icon, which passes to its subject, from the worship due to God alone.
794
Latin
The Council of Frankfurt
Charlemagne summons the bishops of his empire, condemns Spanish Adoptionism, and rejects the council of 787 as well — having read Nicaea II in a translation so bad that it appeared to say images should be adored as the Trinity is.
801–900
2 works
869–870
Greek and Latin
The Council of Constantinople
Photius is deposed and anathematised, his ordinations annulled, and the Roman position upheld — with only a hundred and two bishops present at the close, most of the East having stayed away. Its Greek acts were destroyed and it survives chiefly in Anastasius Bibliothecarius's Latin.
879–880
Greek
The Council of Constantinople
Three hundred and eighty-three bishops, with Roman legates present and consenting, restore Photius, annul the council of 869, and forbid any addition to the creed of 381 — which the Franks had already made and Rome would eventually adopt.
901–1000
1 work
989 onward
Latin
The Councils of Charroux and Le Puy
Councils of bishops, backed by crowds and relics, excommunicate anyone who robs a church, strikes an unarmed cleric, or seizes a peasant's livestock.
1101–1200
1 work
1179
Latin
The Third Lateran Council
Twenty-seven canons requiring a two-thirds majority for papal elections, a free school in every cathedral, and measures against usury, Cathars, and lepers' exclusion from churches.
1201–1300
2 works
1215
Latin
The Fourth Lateran Council
Seventy canons defining transubstantiation, requiring annual confession and communion, forbidding clergy to take part in ordeals, and imposing distinguishing dress on Jews and Muslims.
1274
Latin
The Second Council of Lyon
A statement accepting the filioque and papal primacy, submitted by a Byzantine emperor's envoys to secure Western military protection.
1301–1400
3 works
1311–1312
Latin
The Council of Vienne
The council that suppressed the Templars, ruled on Franciscan poverty, condemned propositions attributed to the beguines, and ordered chairs of Hebrew, Arabic, and Aramaic in the universities.
1380
Latin
Epistola Concordiae
Conrad of Gelnhausen · c. 1320–1390
An argument that a general council may be summoned without a pope's consent when the church's welfare requires it, since the church is greater than any officer of it.
1379–1381
Latin
Henry of Langenstein · c. 1325–1397
A call for a general council to judge both claimants, arguing that neither obedience can be certain and that the faithful must not be left in doubt about their own sacraments.
1401–1500
5 works
1410
Latin
Dietrich of Niem · c. 1345–1418
A distinction between the universal church, which cannot err, and the Roman church, which plainly can — with the conclusion that a council may depose both claimants.
6 April 1415
Latin
The Council of Constance
A decree declaring that a general council holds authority immediately from Christ, and that everyone including the pope must obey it in matters of faith, schism, and reform.
9 October 1417
Latin
The Council of Constance
A decree requiring general councils to meet at fixed intervals — five years, then seven, then every ten — so that the church could correct itself without waiting for a crisis.
6 July 1439
Latin
The Council of Florence
The decree of union between the Greek and Latin churches, settling the filioque, purgatory, papal primacy, and the eucharistic bread — signed by all the Greek delegates but one.
22 November 1439
Latin
The Council of Florence
A summary of Catholic teaching for the Armenian church, containing the first conciliar list of exactly seven sacraments with the matter and form of each.
1501–1600
3 works
1537
German
Martin Luther · 1483–1546
Luther's own statement, written when he expected to die, of what could be negotiated at a council and what could not — the article of justification standing first and immovable.
1551
Old Church Slavonic
Stoglav
The Council of Moscow
A hundred rulings on icon painting, clerical conduct, folk customs, and liturgical practice, including the two-fingered sign of the cross and the double alleluia.
1545–1563
Latin
The Council of Trent
Doctrinal definitions on scripture and tradition, original sin, justification, and the seven sacraments, paired with reform decrees on bishops, preaching, and seminaries.
34 of 1780 works