THE ANATHEMAS OF THE SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE (553 AD)

The Second Council of Constantinople was called to resolve certain
questions that were raised by the Definition of Chalcedon, the most
important of which had to do with the unity of the two natures, God and
man, is Jesus Christ. The Second Council of Constantinople confirmed the
Definition of Chalcedon, while emphasizing that Jesus Christ does not just
embody God the Son, He _is_ God the Son.

I.

If anyone does not confess that the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit
are one nature or essence, one power or authority, worshipped as a trinity
of the same essence, one deity in three hypostases or persons, let him be
anathema. For there is one God and Father, of whom are all things, and one
Lord Jesus Christ, through whom are all things, and one Holy Spirit, in
whom are all things.

II.

If anyone does not confess that God the Word was twice begotten, the first
before all time from the Father, non- temporal and bodiless, the other in
the last days when he came down from the heavens and was incarnate by the
holy, glorious, God-bearer, ever-virgin Mary, and born of her, let him be
anathema.

III.

If anyone says that God the Word who performed miracles is one and Christ
who suffered is another, or says that God the Word was together with
Christ who came from woman, or that the Word was in him as one person is
in another, but is not one and the same, our Lord Jesus Christ, the Word
of God, incarnate and become human, and that the wonders and the suffering
which he voluntarily endured in flesh were not of the same person, let him
be anathema.

IV.

If anyone says that the union of the Word of God with man was only
according to grace or function or dignity or equality of honor or
authority or relation or effect or power or according to his good
pleasure, as though God the Word was pleased with man, or approved of him,
as the raving Theodosius says; or that the union exists according to
similarity of name, by which the Nestorians call God the Word Jesus and
Christ, designating the man separately as Christ and as Son, speaking thus
clearly of two persons, but when it comes to his honor, dignity, and
worship, pretend to say that there is one person, one Son and one Christ,
by a single designation; and if he does not acknowledge, as the holy
Fathers have taught, that the union of God is made with the flesh animated
by a reasonable and intelligent soul, and that such union is according to
synthesis or hypostasis, and that therefore there is only one person, the
Lord Jesus Christ one of the holy Trinity -- let him be anathema. As the
word "union" has many meanings, the followers of the impiety of
Apollinaris and Eutyches, assuming the disappearance of the natures,
affirm a union by confusion. On the other hand the followers of Theodore
and of Nestorius rejoicing in the division of the natures, introduce only
a union of relation. But the holy Church of God, rejecting equally the
impiety of both heresies, recognizes the union of God the Word with the
flesh according to synthesis, that is according to hypostasis. For in the
mystery of Christ the union according to synthesis preserves the two
natures which have combined without confusion and without separation.

V.

If anyone understands the expression -- one hypostasis of our Lord Jesus
Christ -- so that it means the union of many hypostases, and if he
attempts thus to introduce into the mystery of Christ two hypostases, or
two persons, and, after having introduced two persons, speaks of one
person according to dignity, honor or worship, as Theodore and Nestorius
insanely have written; and if anyone slanders the holy synod of Chalcedon,
as though it had used this expression <one hypostasis> in this impious
sense, and does not confess that the Word of God is united with the flesh
hypostatically, and that therefore there is but one hypostasis or one
person, and that the holy synod of Chalcedon has professed in this sense
the one hypostasis of our Lord Jesus Christ; let him be anathema. For the
Holy Trinity, when God the Word was incarnate, was not increased by the
addition of a person or hypostasis.

VI.

If anyone says that the holy, glorious, and ever-virgin Mary is called
God-bearer by misuse of language and not truly, or by analogy, believing
that only a mere man was born of her and that God the Word was not
incarnate of her, but that the incarnation of God the Word resulted only
from the fact that he united himself to that man who was born of her; if
anyone slanders the Holy Synod of Chalcedon as though it had asserted the
Virgin to be God-bearer according to the impious sense of Theodore; or if
anyone shall call her manbearer or Christbearer, as if Christ were not
God, and shall not confess that she is truly God-bearer, because God the
Word who before all time was begotten of the Father was in these last days
incarnate of her, and if anyone shall not confess that in this pious sense
the holy Synod of Chalcedon confessed her to be God-bearer: let him be
anathema.

VII.

If anyone using the expression, "in two natures," does not confess that
our one Lord Jesus Christ is made known in the deity and in the manhood,
in order to indicate by that expression a difference of the natures of
which the ineffable union took place without confusion, a union in which
neither the nature of the Word has changed into that of the flesh, nor
that of the flesh into that of the Word (for each remained what it was by
nature, even when the union by hypostasis had taken place); but shall take
the expression with regard to the mystery of Christ in a sense so as to
divide the parties, let him be anathema. Or if anyone recognizing the
number of natures in the same our one Lord Jesus Christ, God the Word
incarnate, does not take in contemplation only the difference of the
natures which compose him, which difference is not destroyed by the union
between them -- for one is composed of the two and the two are in one --
but shall make use of the number two to divide the natures or to make of
them persons properly so called, let him be anathema.

VIII.

If anyone confesses that the union took place out of two natures or speaks
of the one incarnate nature of God the Word and does not understand those
expressions as the holy Fathers have taught, that out of the divine and
human natures, when union by hypostasis took place, one Christ was formed;
but from these expressions tries to introduce one nature or essence of the
Godhead and manhood of Christ; let him be anathema. For in saying that
the only-begotten Word was united by hypostasis personally we do not mean
that there was a mutual confusion of natures, but rather we understand
that the Word was united to the flesh, each nature remaining what it was.
Therefore there is one Christ, God and man, of the same essence with the
Father as touching his Godhead, and of the same essence with us as
touching his manhood. Therefore the Church of God equally rejects and
anathematizes those who divide or cut apart or who introduce confusion
into the mystery of the divine dispensation of Christ.

IX.

If anyone says that Christ ought to be worshipped in his two natures, in
the sense that he introduces two adorations, the one peculiar to God the
Word and the other peculiar to the man; or if anyone by destroying the
flesh, or by confusing the Godhead and the humanity, or by contriving one
nature or essence of those which were united and so worships Christ, and
does not with one adoration worship God the Word incarnate with his own
flesh, as the Church of God has received from the beginning; let him be
anathema.

X.

If anyone does not confess that our Lord Jesus Christ who was crucified in
the flesh is true God and the Lord of Glory and one of the Holy Trinity;
let him be anathema.

XI.

If anyone does not anathematize Arius, Eunomius, Macedonius, Apollinaris,
Nestorius, Eutyches and Origen, together with their impious, godless
writings, and all the other heretics already condemned and anathematized
by the holy catholic and apostolic Church, and by the aforementioned four
Holy Synods and all those who have held and hold or who in their
godlessness persist in holding to the end the same opinion as those
heretics just mentioned; let him be anathema.