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To: mas cerveza por favor
St. Sylvester I was pope during the Council of Nicea in 325. No emperor ever served as pope.

That might be true but Constantine certainly did his part of the first ecumenical council in Nicaea. Constantine invited 300 bishops to attend, with all expenses paid. He also gave the Bishops their opening instructions. He was VERY involved in Nicaea. Rome and religion were working very closely together for the same end result. Keeping Rome powerful, if not by politics, then by religion. The same thing they enjoy today, a political system state, and a religious state. Each side saw the value in the other side and a pact of convenience was arranged. Never mind that Roman paganism found its way to the Catholic Church. That too was conveniently merged together. And so it's been down the years, until lately, voodoo is the new paganism finding its home in Rome.

2,215 posted on 11/15/2010 9:24:25 PM PST by smvoice (Defending the Indefensible: The Pride of a Pawn.)
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To: smvoice
He also gave the Bishops their opening instructions. He was VERY involved in Nicaea.

The Emperor Constantine's communications were recorded. He politely encouraged the bishops to make peace and end quarrels because civil war was threat to his political interests. He had neither knowledge of religion nor legitimacy to resolve the issues. There were 314 bishops in attendance, mostly from the East. They resolved many issues and condemned the growing Arian heresy which denied that Jesus was fully God and man with both a human and divine nature. After the council, the Arian heresy was reformulated as Semi-Arianism, which only accepted a partial divinity for Christ and rejected the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This development led to the civil wars that the Emperor had hoped to avoid.

Rome and religion were working very closely together for the same end result. Keeping Rome powerful, if not by politics, then by religion.

The Emperors and most of the bishops sided with the powerful Semi-Arians, but one courageous bishop, St. Athanasius, and the bulk of the people held fast to the orthodoxy that had been affirmed at Nicea. The Emperor seized Pope Liberius from Rome and held him captive in Turkey. The Catholic people defended the purity of the faith by successive bloody attacks against the heretical bishops. This went on for decades until the Emperors finally decided it was easier for them to accept the orthodox position of St. Athanasius. In the process of defending the faith, St. Athanasius removed the last apocryphal scriptures to establish the final canon of the New Testament.

Never mind that Roman paganism found its way to the Catholic Church. That too was conveniently merged together. And so it's been down the years, until lately, voodoo is the new paganism finding its home in Rome.

Syncretism is condemned by the Church but it does occur. Pope Leo XIII sent a letter to American Bishops warning them against a heresy he called "Americanism." This is the idea that "the Church should shape her teachings more in accord with the spirit of the age and relax some of her ancient severity and make some concessions to new opinions." American bishops denied the heresy but history and current events prove that Pope Leo XIII's warning was prescient. Despite infiltration, the Church maintains the "ancient severity" of her doctrines in opposition to all the world.

2,241 posted on 11/16/2010 9:17:01 AM PST by mas cerveza por favor
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