04 — The Iconoclast and Christological Anathemas

The Synodikon’s oldest condemnations are directed at iconoclasm — first at the positions, in a carefully ordered sequence, then at the heresiarchs by name. The received printed text carries in addition a roll of the ancient Christological heretics. This section treats both, and is the place where this collection’s rule of precision does the most work.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
the-iconoclast-anathemas.md The positions condemned, quoted in order — crypto-docetism, the abuse of “uncircumscribed,” the prophetic visions, the Prophet, and the carefully conditioned clause on incorrigibility; the second block of short icon clauses; the three groups of named iconoclasts; Lauritzen’s finding that part of this material was imported after 870 from the acts of 869–870; and the fact that no iconoclast emperor is named
the-christological-roster.md The roll of ancient heresiarchs as it stands in the received text, quoted in full; its absence from the primitive Constantinopolitan witness; the compressions and imprecisions in its charges; the non-Chalcedonian names and the deferral of that whole question to the wave sibling; and a plain statement of what the stratum evidence does and does not permit

A Note on Method

Two rules are observed without exception in this section. No clause is numbered. The received English text presents the anathemas as an unnumbered sequence, and this collection will not invent numbers for them (METHODOLOGY §2). No clause is assigned to a stratum that cannot be verified. Where the evidence permits a dating — as with the material drawn from the councils of 869–870 and 920, and the eleventh-century anathemas against Jacobites, Nestorians, and the dualists — the file says so and cites it; where it does not, as with the personal Christological roster, the file says that too, and names Gouillard’s critical edition as the work that would settle it and that this collection has not consulted.

See Also