[NYer]

Assisted by two papal priest-legates, Vito and Vincentius, Hosius of Cordova presided at the Council of Nicaea. It is reasonably certain that Pope Sylvester had designated Hosius, as well as the two legates, to represent him. Hosius and the legates were the first to sign the decrees of the Council. In fact, says historian Luke Rivington, the Graeco-Russian liturgy, in the office for Pope Sylvester, speaks of him as actual head of the Council of Nicaea: "Thou hast shown thyself the supreme one of the Sacred Council, O Initiator into the sacred mysteries, and hast illustrated the Throne of the Supreme One of the Disciples."

The Council of Nicaea condemned the teachings of Arius as blasphemy and accepted the word homoousios ("of one substance") as the appropriate term for the relation of God the Father and God the Son. The result of the council, according to Gillquist, was that "the Orthodoxy of Athanasius had prevailed at the Council." The orthodoxy of whom? Where did Athanasius get his "Orthodoxy"? From Pope Victor, who a century and a half earlier had condemned the teaching of Theodotus, a doctrinal ancestor of Arius, and from Pope Dionysius, who sixty years earlier had condemned what was called later the Arian heresy and who fixed the term homoousios as a key to authentic Christology.

Meyendorff ignores the repeated, clearly attested exercise of papal universal jurisdiction which we have seen in the first, second, third, and fourth centuries. He declares that, except for the Council of Chalcedon in 451, the papacy "had no decisive influence upon the trinitarian and christological debates raging in the East" in the early centuries. Instead, the ultimate ecclesial authority was "the conciliar agreement of the episcopate." The facts are otherwise. Only the successor of Peter could and did "strengthen the brethren" and bring about the triumph of orthodox christology.

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[Kolokotronis]

Orthodox ping. Take a look at post #9. It appears that the Catholic/Orthodox Caucus thread on the "Early Church Fathers" will be using post schism Latin polemics and apologetics to advance the claims of the papacy to universal immediate jurisdiction to which we are expected to "submit". Anyone care to have a chat with them about this?

[Kolokotronis]

Written by a convert from TEC I see.

[TexConfederate1861]

The Pope has no "universal" jurisdiction. He is primus inter pares, nothing more.

[Enosh]

(Peacemaker/humorist role on)

Sometimes when I'm feeding the birds, several crows will assemble.

They will size each other up by pointing their beaks straight into the sky whilst unfurling their feathers.

The largest of them will then triumphantly announce, "Kwawawaawaaawaaaaa Ki-Ki-Ki!"

Sometimes this annoys the second largest, who then pokes the largest with his beak. Big Bird usually squawks something unprintable here, and trots off.

Moral of the story?

(Cliché time!)

"Can't we all just get along?"

:^D