that were logical, rational,
and necessary. If the Councils had not defined the faith which had
been once for all delivered to the saints, it would have been dissolved
little by little by sentimental concessions and shallow inconsistencies
of interpretation. It was the work of the Councils to develope and
apply the principles furnished by the sacred Scriptures. New questions
arose, and it was necessary to meet them: it was clear, then, that
there was a real division between those who accepted Christianity in
the full logical meaning of the Scriptures, in the full confidence of
the Church, and those who doubted, hesitated, denied; and it is clear
now that the whole future of Christendom depended upon the acceptance
by the Christian nations of a single rational and logically tenable
Creed. This involved the rejection of the Three Chapters, as it
involved equally the condemnation of Monophysitism and Monothelitism.
From the point of view of theology or philosophy the value of the work
of the Church in this age is equally great. The heresies which were
condemned in the sixth century (as in the seventh) were such as would
have utterly destroyed the logical and rational conception of the
Person of the Incarnate Son, as the Church had received it by divine
inspiration. Some Christian historians may seem for a moment to yield
a half {20} assent to the shallow opinions of those who would refuse to
go beyond what is sometimes strangely called the "primitive simplicity
of the Gospel." But it is impossible in this obscurantist fashion to
check the free inquiry of the human intellect. The truths of the
Gospel must be studied and pondered over, and set in their proper
relation to each other. There must be logical inferences from them,
and reasonable conclusions. It is this which explains that struggle
for the Catholic Faith of which historians are sometimes impatient, and
justifies a high estimate of the services which the Church of
Constantinople rendered to the Church Universal.

It is in this light that the work of the Fifth General Council, to be
truly estimated, must be regarded. It will be convenient here to
summarise the steps by which the Fifth General Council won recognition
in the Church.

In the first place, the emperor, according to custom, confirmed what
the Council had decreed; and throughout the greater part of the East
the decision of Church and State alike was accepted. In 553 there was
a formal confirm