Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: APPENDIX III ON THE PAPAL LEGATE’S VERSION OF THE SIXTH NICENE CANON BEAD AT CHALCEDON. It is certain that before the Council of Chalcedon a Codex of Canons was in use among the Easterns which contained a list distinguishing the canons by numbers carried on consecutively from Council to Council, not beginning afresh at each. We also know that in the fourth session of Chalcedon (dealing with the case of Carosus and Dorotheus) the fourth and fifth canons of the Council of Antioch were quoted by Aetius, the Archdeacon of Constantinople, as Canons 83 and 84.1 Now if we add together the 20 canons of Nicsea, the 25 of Ancyra, the 14 of Neocsesarea, the 20 of Gangra, and the first three of Antioch, we get the number 82, which exactly brings us to the numbers (viz. 83 and 84) assigned to the two canons of Antioch read from the Codex produced by Aetius on that occasion. This Codex used to be identified with that which Dionysius Exiguus translated into Latin; but the Ballerini have shown that this cannot be maintained, as also (and this is important) that the oldest Greek Codex did not contain the canons of Laodicea, Constantinople, or Antioch.3 Aetius, therefore, was not quoting from the oldest collection in existence. The question therefore arises, From what Codex did Aetius, whose copy contained the Canons of Antioch, produce the various Canons read at Chalcedon? And did the compilation used by him later on, in the sixteenth session at Chalcedon, exclude the exordium, or heading, of the sixth canon of Nicaea as read by Paschasinus, the Papal legate, about the primacy of the Church of Bome ? And, if it did, which of the two was held by the Council to be the more accurate ? 1 Mansi, vii. 84. 1 Ballerini, De Antiquis Collect. Can. Pars I. c. 2. Before answering these question…
