“So the Council of Hippo, followed by Carthage, Trent and a second Carthage (over which Augustine presided) weren’t binding?”
No, in fact they weren’t binding, except locally, MBS.
“The term Catholic first is documented about 100 AD. The early Christians called themselves a lot of things. They most certainly didn’t call themselves Baptists or Presbyterians or Anglicans or...”
The term was first used by +Ignatius of Antioch. Its alternately amusing and irritating the way the Roman Church has used this historical fact. When +Ignatius used the term, he meant that the Church was the universal church. His use of the term had nothing to do with the Church of Rome any more than with the Churchs of Alexandria, Jerusalem or Antioch. Its amusing because it bespeaks a funny lack of understanding of basic Greek and irritating in that it demonstrates a presumption which The Church in the East has decried for nearly 1000 years now. From a purely neutral standpoint, it speaks volumes about the inflated view Rome has had of itself ever since the seat of the Empire moved east.
BTW, Antioch is where people first started calling themselves Christians, but not Catholics.
Here in the west we are observing Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday/Easter this weekend. God Bless all of you.
we have a lot of differences, but we are united by our FAITH in our risen SAVIOUR.
When does the East observed Good Friday and Resurrection Sunday/Easter?
When I was a child in the Anglican Church, we recited the Nicene Creed ...
The word “Catholic” is in the Nicene Creed...
“I believe in one Catholic and Apostolic Church”
We were taught then that it merely means “universal”...