About the Author

Richard Price is Professor Emeritus of the History of Christianity, Heythrop College and Honorary Research Fellow, Royal Holloway, University of London. His many previous publications include The Acts of the Lateran Synod of 649 (with P. Booth & C. Cubitt, Liverpool 2014), The Acts of the Second Council of Nicaea (Liverpool 2018), The Council of Ephesus of 431 (with T. Graumann, Liverpool 2020), Canons of the Quinisext Council (691/2) (Liverpool 2020) and The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 869-70 (with Federico Montinaro, Liverpool 2022). Michael Gaddis is assistant professor of History at the Maxwell School of Syracuse University. He specializes in the Late Antique and Early Medieval History.

Reviews

What a pleasure to take up this wonderful three volume edition of the Acts of the Council. There is much more of interest in these volumes and they will be useful sources for reflecting on our own Oriental Orthodox response to Chalcedon. A new paperback edition has now been produced by the Liverpool University Press and this will make this valuable resource even more affordable. ... these volumes should be present in all libraries of theological institutes and seminaries... On the shelf of every one engaged in the study of the Early Church and its theology. Chalcedon in Context: Church Councils 400-700. Edited by Richard Price and Mary Whitby. Translated Texts for Historians, Contexts 1. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2009. vii + 205 pp. GBP65. ISBN 978 1 84631 177 2. The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553 with Related Texts on the Three Chapters Controversy. Translated with an introduction and notes by Richard Price. Translated Texts for istorians 51. Liverpool: Liverpool University Press. 2009. xiv + 717 pp. GBP120. ISBN 978 1 84631 178 9. The welcome debt historians owe to Richard Price and his collaborators continues to grow. The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon (2006), which he prepared with Michael Gaddis, disappeared quickly from conference book displays and was reissued again in paperback. Its three volumes include, not only a clear and reliable translation of the acts with commentary, but an excellent introduction, supporting documents, and useful maps, glossary, and indices. Now scholars may add a complete translation of The Acts of the Council of Constantinople of 553 to their personal libraries. Once again Price's extra labour in supplying detailed indices and an up-to-date bibliography makes this volume a valuable aid to research as well as an accessible introduction to the doctrinal and political issues surrounding the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Roughly a third of its contents consists of translations of important documents that helped to set the stage for the council, including letters from western clergy in reaction to Justinian's 544/5 edict against the so-called Three Chapters and the emperor's own follow-up edict On the Orthodox Faith from 551, and the two Constituta issued by the unfortunate Pope Vigilius, the first rejecting and the second accepting the emperor's position. The lengthy introduction situates the acts in their historical context 'on the road from Chalcedon'. Here Price also probes deeply into the politics constraining the bishops' deliberations and especially into the evolution of Justinian's strategy across the 540s and 550s: from first attempting to win over the eastern opponents to Chalcedon, the emperor shifted to muscling through a consensus among all its supporters in the east and west. Ironically, it would be the 'losers', those who refused to join the consensus, whose pejorative narrative would dominate the legacy of Constantinople. Price encourages historians to return to the documents themselves, which preserve voices on both sides of the contest. Doing so requires sensitivity to both their historical context and their 'literary character'. The acts, in particular, 'remain a credible record of a council whose proceedings, choreographed in advance, were more akin to liturgy than to a modern parliamentary debate'. Scholars and students could not have a better entry into those proceedings than this volume. Yet Price offers more. Many of the literary and textual issues he raises in the translations of Chalcedon and Constantinople are explored at length by the essays collected in Chalcedon in Context, which Price edited together with Mary Whitby. It is the first volume in a new companion series to Translated Texts for Historians, called Contexts. The purpose of the new series is to situate translation volumes 'in the framework of the latest scholarly debate with edited papers by leading researchers who have met to discuss problems and prospects'. The essays indeed provide an informative context that also serves as an introduction to key issues for the historical interpretation of church councils and their records. Several authors are drawing on their own previously published or forthcoming work, including a translation of the Lateran Council of 649 by Price and Catherine Cubitt. Most focus to varying degrees on ancient editorial practices, the importance of translation, and the influence of both ecclesiastical and secular politics on council proceedings. Together they give a good sense of the dynamic state of the field and point to numerous areas of ongoing investigation. The first essay is by David Gwynn on 'the definition of Christian tradition' between the Council of Nicaea (325) and the issue of the Henotikon (482). No one before 451 seems to have known of any 'Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed' as such but that did not stop the bishops at Chalcedon from taking it up as an authoritative complement to the Nicene Creed. Along with approving some of Cyril of Alexandria's writings and Leo the Great's Tome, they expanded Christian authoritative tradition to include more than Scripture alone. Focusing on the Council of Ephesus (431), Thomas Graumann addresses two related challenges that other essays also will tackle. First, it is often important but difficult to tell when texts were read aloud in the council and to what effect; the most consequential instance of this is Cyril's third letter to Nestorius. Second, editors made interventions in the record, not only for the sake of concision and clarity, but to shape the appearance of the proceedings, with the emperor not least envisioned among their audience. Fergus Millar picks up on the problem of editorial activity and even more on issues of language and translation in his detailed study of a Syriac translation of the acts of the second Council at Ephesus (449) from a manuscript dated to 535. With the aid of chronological tables of texts and events, he demonstrates how this translation fits into a moment of imperial goodwill toward non-Chalcedonian theology and into the early rise of a Christian Syriac literary culture. Andrew Louth returns to the Syrian perspective when he asks why, if Chalcedon was the culmination of conflict between Alexandrian and Antiochene schools of doctrine, did Syrian bishops come to reject Chalcedon along with the Egyptians? Louth argues that Cyril represented not an Alexandrian school but 'the broad consensus', which he went outside of his philosophical comfort zone to defend against Nestorius in the Twelve Chapters. One effect was to rouse the anger of Syrian bishops, who themselves had never constituted a school and whom the Henotikon later helped push to decisive renunciation by affirming the Twelve Chapters but not Chalcedon. Chalcedon is centre stage in two essays by Price. The first is a narrative that highlights, among other things, the presiding role of the imperial representative who, 'it is clear, thoroughly enjoyed his work', and how dynamics changed over successive sessions. In what might be read as a variation of Gwynn's argument, he characterizes the reception of Chalcedon's acts as a 'new conciliar fundamentalism', whereby the 'honest disclosure of tensions and agreements' became fodder for future disagreements. In the next chapter, Price goes on to test the honesty of those acts under three rubrics: truth, omission and fiction. Variations between the two extant versions of the acts, as well as close attention to subscription lists, are shown to reveal some cases of omission or fiction. Although unanimity was required of verdicts, the record of some disagreement might have been intended to validate the proceedings to non-participants or future generations (Graumann made a similar point in his essay). Three essays focus on later councils and their relationship to the 451 council. Chalcedon's authoritative status was made certain only in Justinian's reign, when first the emperor and then the second Council of Constantinople 'rewrote history with a will', trying to dispel ambiguity and resolve contradiction. According to Price, this 'reshaping of the historical record' was 'more the fruit of wishful thinking than deceit'. Catherine Cubitt's essay on the Lateran Council of 649 addresses key themes in this volume, especially the contest between imperial and Episcopal authority, the use of acts from earlier councils as proof texts, and the importance of language - the Lateran acts were issued in both Latin and Greek. If there is a big jump from Chalcedon to Constantinople to Rome, Judith Herrin demonstrates the immediacy of issues raised at Chalcedon for bishops assembled during 692 in what was called the Council in Trullo as well as the Quinisext Council. Herrin first traces the legacy of Chalcedon's canon 28, on the ecclesiastical status of Constantinople, in the context of canon lists and other collections circulating in the Greek east and Latin west. She then looks more closely at the form and function of such lists as the background to comparing the canons of Chalcedon and the Quinisext Council. The final two essays by Charlotte Roueche and Price return to scrutinizing the acts of Chalcedon in order to address two important subjects: the role as well as the recording of acclamations during council proceedings; and the degree to which those proceedings allowed room for 'bishops behaving badly'. Naturally, there is much overlap between these essays. The editors might have imposed more consistency and provided a fuller introduction or conclusion, one which highlights the common themes running through the volume. The maps and glossaries found in Price's translation volumes are missed and some considerable knowledge on the part of readers is occasionally taken for granted. Those who forget their Three Chapters may have trouble figuring out why Ibas of Edessa and Theodore of Mopsuestia are mentioned so often. Some may wonder why one contributor denounces the term miaphysite as a 'barbarity', when all other contributors prefer it to monophysite. In summary, more volumes in the Contexts series are most welcome. But they would be more broadly useful and long-lasting if they enjoyed the same editorial care that goes into the Translated Texts. For now, Price and his colleagues have supplied a wealth of ideas and resources for investigating the history of church councils. Price and his colleagues have supplied a wealth of ideas and resources for investigating the history of church councils.