§ 133. The Preservation of the Faithful From False Teachings

In order that the revealed teaching might be kept pure and inviolate, and that the faithful might be preserved from infection by any false teaching, the Church, from the very beginning of her existence, took care to compose symbols, or short formulas of the true faith, for general use among the faithful, and these symbols they had to read at every liturgical gathering of theirs. Several such symbols have come down to us from the older times of the Church,[1] the most well-known being: the Niceno-Constantinopolitan symbol, then the symbol of Gregory of Neocaesarea, and the symbol known under the name of Athanasius the Great.[2] The Niceno-Constantinopolitan symbol was confirmed at all the ecumenical councils held beginning from the fifth century; and the Third Ecumenical Council forbade for all time the introduction of any new symbol in place of this symbol, or the adding to or subtracting anything from it.[3]

In connection with this symbol, whenever some new teaching arises, the Church, so that the faithful might be kept from infection by that new teaching, issues more detailed expositions of the faith, as a guide for her children. Among such expositions of the faith, which are unconditionally binding on all members of the Orthodox Church, two are chief: Ὀρθόδοξος ὁμολογία τῆς πίστεως τῆς καθολικῆς καὶ ἀποστολικῆς ἐκκλησίας ἀνατολικῆς (Orthodox Confession of the Faith of the Catholic and Apostolic Eastern Church) of the mid-seventeenth century, and Ὁμολογία τῆς ὀρθοδόξου πίστεως τῆς ἀνατολικῆς ἐκκλησίας (Confession of the Orthodox Faith of the Eastern Church), set forth at the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 and known under the name of the “Epistle of the Patriarchs of the Orthodox-Catholic Church concerning the Orthodox Faith.”[4] Here also belongs the “Detailed Christian Catechism of the Orthodox Catholic Eastern Church,” as well as all the catechisms issued by church authority for the instruction of the young in the schools.[5]

The chief guardian of the true Orthodox teaching in the Church is the bishop. As a guarantee that the bishop will be a reliable guardian of that teaching and that he will not allow any of the faithful to be infected by some new teaching, the Church requires of him, before his ordination, that he solemnly confess his belief before the Church, and that he swear that he will keep it holy and will strive with all his powers that it also be kept by those entrusted to his care. This is the well-known episcopal oath.[6] In the bishop’s name, the priests in the districts entrusted to them perform this same duty, and so that the Church might have assurance that they will fully perform this duty, she likewise requires of them, before their ordination, a similar oath.[7]

Despite the exactness of the teaching set forth in the symbols and other symbolic books, and despite all the bishops’ care to preserve the purity of that teaching, various doubts have nevertheless arisen in the Church—just as they can still arise today—concerning certain questions of faith, which the bishops themselves are not able to resolve. For this reason, and with the intention that nothing false should creep into the revealed teaching, it was established from the very beginning of the Church that there should be, every year, in every district, councils of bishops, at which such questions would be examined and the correct teaching of the faith would be conciliarly declared.[8] To this conciliar authority, and, in its name, to the bishops, belongs, for this same purpose, the right to supervise editions and translations of Holy Scripture, to give their approval, before printing, to books touching on spiritual matters, and finally to forbid books which are contrary to the faith and to morals.

The number of the books of Holy Scripture which every Orthodox Christian must acknowledge and honor is canonically fixed.[9] But besides preserving the fixed number of these books, the Church takes care that the text of these same books also be kept inviolate, that their publication be carried out under the immediate supervision of church authority, and likewise that their translation be permitted only with the approval of that same authority. The norm serving the Church in this regard is canon 2 of the Council in Trullo, which prescribes that every edition must be condemned “into which the non-Orthodox, to the harm of the Church, have inserted some spurious and impious thing, so as to obscure the sublime beauty of the divine commandments.” On the occasion of the Protestant movement concerning the editions and reading of Holy Scripture, the Synod of Jerusalem in 1672 solemnly condemned this movement and unconditionally subjected every edition, and likewise the interpretation, of Holy Scripture, to church authority.[10] This decision of the synod subsequently entered into the symbolic books of the Orthodox Church.[11] The Church has likewise given attention to the translations of Holy Scripture, which had begun to spread ever more widely, and by an ordinance of the Synod of Constantinople in the time of Patriarch Gabriel III (1702–1709), the standpoint of the Orthodox Church on this matter was clarified.[12] This was later renewed by an ordinance of the Patriarch of Constantinople Gregory VI, of 1 March 1839.[13]

Just as no edition of Holy Scripture may be published without the approval of church authority, so too the Church requires that all books touching on faith and morals be submitted for review to that authority before they are printed, so as thereby to prevent the publication of harmful books. The expression of this concern of the Church was spiritual censorship. We find the canonical basis of censorship in the canons of the Council of Carthage.[14] Afterward, the censorship of books was organized at every principal church, and the work of censorship was usually entrusted to a committee of learned and pious men, who would report on the books in question to the episcopal council, on which the final judgment in the matter chiefly depended. Today spiritual censorship covers all editions of Holy Scripture, whether of the whole or in parts, then all liturgical books, and all books of theological content, as well as those intended for the people in which something is said concerning the faith or Christian morals; icons and other images representing something from sacred or church history are likewise subject to censorship.[15] A book of such content, or likewise an image, which has not passed censorship and has not been expressly approved by the competent church authority, may not, under pain of punishment, be used.[16]

Lastly, so that the faithful might be preserved from false teachings preached in various books, the Church has at its disposal one further means, namely, the public condemnation of anti-religious and harmful books. In establishing at the ecumenical councils what constitutes the true belief, the Church at the same time condemned the heresiarchs in question and their teaching, and forbade, under threat of anathema, the reading of the books of those heresiarchs. The first example of this is given us by the First Ecumenical Council, which, having set forth the symbol of faith in question, condemned and forbade the reading of one of the principal writings of Arius, in which he had sought to justify his false teaching.[17] In connection with this decision of the council, the Emperor Constantine issued a general edict, by which all the books written by Arius and his followers were to be burned.[18] The Emperor Arcadius did likewise in the last years of the fourth century with the books of the Eunomians and Montanists,[19] and all the heretical books of the fifth century were treated in the same way.[20] In that same century, the bishop of Rome, Gelasius, issued a special list of forbidden books, which list was promulgated in the year 496 at a council in Rome under the title: Decretum Gelasii P. de libris recipiendis et non recipiendis.[21] The burning of evil books is prescribed in the Orthodox Church by a particular canon;[22] and for the secret keeping of such books after their public condemnation by church authority, the Seventh Ecumenical Council pronounces excommunication if this is done by a layman, and deposition if it is done by a person in holy orders.[23] This old practice of the Church concerning the condemnation of anti-religious and harmful books remains today in full force; and just as the civil authority formerly gave the Church assistance in this, so it does the same today in Christian states.[24]

CHAPTER TWO. The power of the performance of sacred acts.