Church Councils Guide & Historical Chart
- Tertullian, Christian Author & Apologist (200 A.D.)
For years people spoke about the Churches and their positions on…
Marriage
Divorce
Remarriage
Celibacy
Adultery
Many insist that the traditions and “historic” teachings of the Churches are “…all that’s necessary for these issues to be ‘settled’…”
Did you ever wonder where the churches got their interpretations concerning sexual conduct, marriage, divorce, celibacy, remarriage and other issues?
NOW you can read for yourself. This Guide (no obligation!) is designed to show in CHART FORM the famous (infamous?) decisions of Church Councils and Leaders in the early to late Middle Ages?
See where churches today got many of their views of …
- Marriage: “We don’t reject marriage. We abstain from it.” – Tertullian, the famous church apologist and Christian writer (200 A.D.).
- No remarriage for widowers who are Church officers:
- “We decree that bishops shall not live with women; nor shall a presbyter (elder) who is a widower…” -Council of Nicea (325 A.D.)
- Clergy Celibacy: “If any ordained person contracts matrimony, let him be deposed.” – Council of Trullo (692 A.D.)
- Enforced celibacy & Invented “callings”: “Monks or nuns shall not contract marriage, and if they do so let them be excommunicated.” – Council of Chalcedon (451 A.D.)
- Forced Divorce when a man becomes “Bishop” : “The wife of the man who is advanced to the Episcopal dignity shall be separated from her husband… she shall enter a monastery situated at a distance from the …bishop… – Council of Trullo ( 692 A.D.)
These are just a few of the divided counsels of the Churches as they were entering the Middle Ages. This Guide gives you a summary of major decisions – good and bad – in Chart form (illustrated below), to show what the churches were thinking… and how they moved away from the Word of God as the centuries progressed.
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Church Councils & Church Positions Historical Summary Chart Marriage, Divorce, Remarriage… and Views on Sex
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Get Your Free Copy NOW! Former Chaplain says of Summary Chart Great summary Guide for raising questions so that I could see HOW BIG this issue really is.
And much is due to our unwillingness to even become aware HOW DEEP this issue REALLY goes… and HOW extensive this problem is in the History of Christendom. This valuable reference Chart gives me a quick glance at the departure of the Churches as they entered the Middle Ages. Thank you so very much! - David Paul |
Sample of the (Extensive) Summary Chart found in this Free Guide:
| Council | Year A.D. | Canon | Citation | Explanation | Scriptural View |
| Nicea | 325 | IV | The cohabitation of women with bishops, presbyters and deacons is prohibited on account of their celibacy. We decree that bishops shall not live with women; nor shall a presbyter who is a widower; neither shall they escort them; nor be familiar with them, nor gaze upon them persistently…The same degree is made with celibate priests or deacons as have no wives. And this is to be the case whether the woman is beautiful or ugly… For with such arms slays religious, bishops, presbyters, and deacons and incites them to the fires of desire. | If an officer is celibate, he may not live with a woman (marriage) nor find some excuse to dwell in the same home with one (exceptions included mothers, sisters, grandmothers or aunt or elderly women).
{This Council did not quite get the position passed which would forbid marriage outright to all officers of the churches. It was defeated as a proposal. Nonetheless, they did get remarriages forbidden in most, if not all cases. } |
St. Paul’s prophetic announcement that there would come a time in which the demonic doctrine of “forbidding to marry” would develop in the churches. Here the officer corps is setting the example that marriage is a “second rate” spirituality in the kingdom of God. Despite this Council’s concern with the devil’s wiles, the members would have done better obeying the Scripture and allowing clergy to marry or remarry as the case may be.
They did manage however to block marriage among those who secretly disagreed with the “no marriage” proscription and who would claim they were dwelling only with such women (as opposed to a concubine estate secretly undertaken). |
| Nicea | 325 | XXI | Of incestuous marriages contrary to the law of spiritual relationship, and of the penance of such as are in such marriages. (see Explanation next column. This has nothing to do with incest as we know it.) | This Council is developing a theme found in greater detail later. So called incestuous relationships deemed as spiritual in nature (such as godmother, and godfather which were mentioned in the Canon later). | This is thoroughly unbiblical. The only incestuous relationships is found in Leviticus 18. No adding to the prophetic writings is needed or faithful to God. Godmother and godfather don’t exist in Scripture, so “rules” are deemed to be needed for such ‘spiritually close” relationships. This is the kind of “adding to Scripture” that is condemned elsewhere in the Bible. |
| Council of Chalcedon | 451 | XVI | Monks or nuns shall not contract marriage, and if they do so let them be excommunicated. | Those who espouse a vow of celibacy may not without sin, turn back on their vow and single estate. | This is a good example of an unlawful vow. The authoritative forbidding of marriage, herein illustrated, is an example of a doctrine of a devil as specified by St. Paul in I Tim. 4:3. |
| Trullo | 692 | III | “Priests who shall have contracted second marriages and will not give them up are to be deposed. But those who leave off the wickedness let them cease for a fixed period. For he that is himself wounded does not bless. But who are implicated in nefarious marriage, and who after ordination have contracted marriage, after a definite time they shall be restored to their grade, provided they remain without offence, having plainly broken off the marriage. But if after it shall have been prohibited by this decree they attempt to do so they shall remain deposed.” | As the churches head into the Middle Ages, the issue of clergy marriage is repeatedly a matter of discipline, as here. Here, if they are married, they are to institute divorce. Such marriages are called “wickedness”. | Control of marriage is a power coveted by churches (such as Rome) and the state. Control of the institution means power to control its course, purposes, assets (at times) and ultimately, its people. |
| Trullo | 692 | VI | If any ordained person contracts matrimony, let him be deposed. If he wishes to be married he should become so before his ordination. | Again, clergy cannot be married. If they marry before ordination, then they do not go through ordination for office. | The churches simply were willfully ignoring the Scriptures at this point, especially the laws of the Lord. However, the churches refused to see that a sound union of husband and wife can create a more powerful unity to face life together and fulfill calling, |
Get your Free Guide … and read through at your leisure some of the surprising (YOU WILL be surprises!) decisions made by churchmen for all of their people.
Yours in Faithfulness,
-ICHR
Further Help
“Quick” Guide Series: Answers to Specific Issues about Marriage, Divorce, & Remarriage:
Find these fascinating, Biblically faithful books at Gateway to Discovery. Each Book handles some aspect of the 2000 year Problem of Divorce, answering with reasons as to why this plague has been so difficult for the churches to discern … much less stop.
The Marriage Plague
The Most Comprehensive View of Christian Views, History and Biblical Principles
Designed for Easy Reference, Research or Just Thought-Provoking Reading … about Marriage, Divorce, and Remarriage.
See comprehensive answers to Marriage, Divorce and Remarriage in
The Marriage Plague found at the following location: Gateway to Discovery
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