First Council of Constantinople (381 AD)

❦

Background

After Nicaea, the Arian controversy did not end. For decades, emperors swung between the two parties, and bishops were exiled and restored. Gradually the debate shifted. Many who now accepted that the Son is God denied the same of the Holy Spirit. They were called Pneumatomachians, "fighters against the Spirit," and also Macedonians, after Macedonius, a bishop of Constantinople.

The champions of the Nicene faith in the East were the Cappadocian Fathers: Basil of Caesarea, his brother Gregory of Nyssa, and their friend Gregory of Nazianzus. Basil's treatise On the Holy Spirit argued that the Spirit shares the worship and glory of the Father and the Son [1].

The Council

Emperor Theodosius I convened about 150 bishops in Constantinople in 381. Meletius of Antioch presided at first. After his death, Gregory of Nazianzus presided, and when Gregory resigned amid disputes, Nectarius, the newly appointed bishop of the capital, took over [2].

What Was Decided

The council reaffirmed Nicaea and gave the creed its fuller third article, now known as the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed:

"And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord and Giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son together is worshipped and glorified, who spoke through the prophets."

The council also condemned Apollinarianism, which taught that Christ had a divine mind in place of a human one. Its canons reorganized church governance and, in Canon 3, gave Constantinople honor second only to Rome, a decision that would cause friction for centuries [2].

Scripture Behind the Decision

• The Spirit is a person. Jesus said, "But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which proceedeth from the Father, he shall testify of me" (John 15:26). A "he" who testifies, speaks, teaches, and grieves is not an impersonal force (John 16:13; Ephesians 4:30).
• The Spirit is God. Peter said to Ananias, "Why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Ghost?" and then, "Thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God" (Acts 5:3-4).
• The Spirit knows the mind of God. "For what man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him? even so the things of God knoweth no man, but the Spirit of God" (1 Corinthians 2:11).
• The Spirit is named with Father and Son. "Baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost" (Matthew 28:19), and "The grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all" (2 Corinthians 13:14).

Heresy Spotlight: Pneumatomachianism

The denial of the Spirit's full divinity argued that the Spirit was a creature or servant, even if exalted. The Cappadocians replied that if the Spirit sanctifies, gives life, and is worshipped with the Father and Son, then the Spirit cannot be less than God. The language they gave the Church, *one essence (ousia) in three persons (hypostases)*, became the standard way to describe the Trinity [1].

A Later Dispute: The *Filioque*

The original Greek text says the Spirit "proceeds from the Father." In 589 a Spanish council in the West added filioque ("and from the Son"), and the phrase spread. The East objected both to the theology and to the unilateral change to an ecumenical creed. This remains a central point of difference between Catholics and Orthodox [3].

CHAPTER 3