A council held in 381, presided over by St. Valerian of Aquileia, and attended by thirty-two bishops, among them St. Philastrius of Brescia and St. Justus of Lyons, deposed from their offices certain stubborn partisans of Arius. This council also requested the Emperors Theodosius and Gratian to convene at Alexandria a council of all Catholic bishops in order to put an end to the Meletian Schism at Antioch, since 362 the source of the greatest scandal in the Christian Orient. The council of 553 inaugurated the schism that for nearly a century separated many churches of Northern Italy from the Holy See ; in it the Bishops of Venetia, Istria, and Liguria refused to accept the decrees of the Fifth General Council (553) on the plea that by the condemnation of the Three Chapters it had undone the work of the Council of Chalcedon (451). The Council of 1184 was held against incendiaries and those guilty of sacrilege. In 1409 a council was held by Gregory XII against the pretensions of the rival popes, Benedict XIII (Peter de Luna) and Alexander V (Peter of Candia). He declared them schismatical, but promised to renounce the papacy if they would do the same. In 1596 Francesco Barbaro, Patriarch of Aquileia, held a council at which he renewed in nineteen decrees the legislation of the Council of Trent.

The Catholic Encyclopedia is the most comprehensive resource on Catholic teaching, history, and information ever gathered in all of human history. This easy-to-search online version was originally printed in fifteen hardcopy volumes.

Designed to present its readers with the full body of Catholic teaching, the Encyclopedia contains not only precise statements of what the Church has defined, but also an impartial record of different views of acknowledged authority on all disputed questions, national, political or factional. In the determination of the truth the most recent and acknowledged scientific methods are employed, and the results of the latest research in theology, philosophy, history, apologetics, archaeology, and other sciences are given careful consideration.

No one who is interested in human history, past and present, can ignore the Catholic Church, either as an institution which has been the central figure in the civilized world for nearly two thousand years, decisively affecting its destinies, religious, literary, scientific, social and political, or as an existing power whose influence and activity extend to every part of the globe. In the past century the Church has grown both extensively and intensively among English-speaking peoples. Their living interests demand that they should have the means of informing themselves about this vast institution, which, whether they are Catholics or not, affects their fortunes and their destiny.

Copyright © Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company New York, NY. Volume 1: 1907; Volume 2: 1907; Volume 3: 1908; Volume 4: 1908; Volume 5: 1909; Volume 6: 1909; Volume 7: 1910; Volume 8: 1910; Volume 9: 1910; Volume 10: 1911; Volume 11: - 1911; Volume 12: - 1911; Volume 13: - 1912; Volume 14: 1912; Volume 15: 1912

Catholic Online Catholic Encyclopedia Digital version Compiled and Copyright © Catholic Online