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First Council of Constantinople(381) Although the First
Council of Nicaea had condemned the Arian belief and reasserted the dogma
that the Father and the Son were of the same substance, some theologians
believed that the Holy Spirit, the third Person of the Trinity, differed
in substance from the other two Persons, being a kind of 'creature' of the
second Person. This heresy was called Macedonianism.
In May 381 a second Ecumenical Councils was summoned by Theodosius I
(37895) to meet in Constantinople in the church of St. Irene to define
the nature of the Holy Spirit. He had recognized Christianity as the
official religion of his empire a year before. The emperor had done his
homework carefully and already instructed the Churches that the object of
the council would be the reconfirmation of the Nicene Creed. This time no
representatives came from Rome.
The council reaffirmed the Nicene faith in the sense that it reasserted
the keywords 'of the same substance', or homoousios and that the Holy
Spirit was of the same substance with the Father and the Son. This council
brought an end to Arianism, which had already been split into smaller
dissensions, within the empire. It continued on among the Goths, who were
converted among many other Arian missionaries by Ulfila (311-83),
translator of the Gothic Bible, and among Vandals and Lombards.
The most important decision which concerned the Church hierarchy was that
to the vexation of Alexandria- 'the bishop of Constantinople should have
rank after the bishop of Rome because it is New Rome.' Thus Constantinople
replaced Alexandria which until then had held the second place after Rome
and also moved above Antioch and Jerusalem.
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