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AFTER these transactions, Nectarius and the other priests
assembled together, and decreed that the faith established by the
council of Nicaea should remain dominant, and that all heresies should
be condemned; that the churches everywhere should be governed according
to the ancient canons; that each bishop should remain in his own
church, and not go elsewhere under any light pretext; or, without
invitation, perform ordinations in which he had no right to interfere,
as had frequently been the case in the Catholic Church during the
times of persecution. They likewise decreed that the affairs of each
church should be subjected to the investigation and control of a council
of the province; and that the bishop of Constantinople should rank
next in point of precedence to the bishop of Rome, as occupying the
see of New Rome; for Constantinople was not only already favored
with this appellation, but was also in the enjoyment of many
privileges, such as a senate of its own, and the division of the
citizens into ranks and orders; it was also governed by its own
magistrates, and possessed contracts, laws, and immunities in equal
degree with those of Rome in Italy.
The council also decreed that Maximus had not been nor was now a
bishop; and that those individuals whom he had ordained were not of the
clergy; and that all that had been done by him, or in his name, was
null and void. Maximus was a native of Alexandria, and, by
profession, a cynical philosopher. He was zealously attached to the
Nicene doctrines, and had been secretly ordained bishop of
Constantinople by bishops who had assembled in that city from Egypt.
Such were the decrees of the council. They were confirmed by the
emperor, who enacted that the faith established at Nicaea should be
dominant, and that the churches everywhere should be placed in the
hands of those who acknowledged one and the same Godhead in the
hypostasis of three Persons of equal honor and of equal power;
namely, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. To designate
them still more precisely, the emperor declared that he referred to
those who held communion with Nectarius, at Constantinople, and with
Timothy, bishop of Alexandria, in Egypt; in the churches of the
East with Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, and in Syria with
Pelagius, bishop of Laodicea and in Asia with Amphilochius,
president of the churches in Iconium; to those in the cities by the
Pontus, from Bithynia to Armenia, who held communion with
Helladius, bishop of the church of Caesarea in Cappadocia; with
Gregory, bishop of Nyssa; and with Otreinus, bishop of Melitine;
and to the cities of Thrace and Scythia, who held communion with
Terentius, bishop of Tomi, and with Martyrius, bishop of
Marcianopolis. The emperor was personally acquainted with all these
bishops, and had ascertained that they governed their respective
churches wisely and piously. After these transactions, the council
was dissolved, and each of the bishops returned homewards.
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