CALBULO. – African Christian poet, perhaps a bishop, who lived at the beginning of the sixth century. The Latin Anthology (no. 378, ed. A. Riese) preserves one poem by him for a baptistery that he had decorated with marble. It is preceded by four epigrams describing the various stages of the baptismal rite.
Antonio Ferrua
CHALCEDON. – Today Kadıköy, founded by the Megarians in the 7th century B.C., lies on the coast of Bithynia opposite Byzantium. In 74 B.C. it passed to the Romans but remained a free city. It was destroyed by the Goths under the emperor Gallienus; in 616 it suffered an invasion by the Persians, but it always remained part of the Byzantine Empire. Christianity in C. must have been introduced from its earliest beginnings; nevertheless, the year in which it became an episcopal see cannot be specified. Venerated throughout the world was its martyr St. Euphemia, in whose basilica the celebrated Ecumenical Council of 451 was held (v. below). Among its bishops C. counts Mari, one of the first and most tenacious Arians, and Heraclian, in the 6th century, author of works against the Manichaeans and Monophysites. With the establishment of the Latin Empire of the East, C. too had its Latin bishops. The present titular see also has a metropolitan for the Armenians and an archbishop for the Syrians, likewise titular. Within the boundaries of the diocese of C. lies Chrysopolis (today Üsküdar), where Licinius was defeated by Constantine (324) and where St. Maximus the Confessor (580–662) lived; he steadfastly defended orthodoxy against the threats of Monothelitism upheld by nearby Constantinople. The population numbers approximately 30,000, half of them Greeks; the remainder are Armenians, Muslims, and Jews; the Catholics (Latin and Armenian) number approximately 5,000; the Protestant colony is small.
THE COUNCIL of C. –
I. PRELIMINARIES
The Council of C. (Fourth Ecumenical Council, 8 October–1 November 451) was convened to remedy the scandal of the Second Council of Ephesus (August 449), which Pope Leo I called the “Latrocinium.”The assembly presided over by Dioscorus, patriarch of Alexandria, had rehabilitated Eutyches, condemned as a heretic by the Synod of Constantinople of 448, and had anathematized anyone who asserted two natures (8/10 epiceic) in Jesus Christ after the union. Dioscorus had sought to impose Monophysite terminology on the whole Church, excluding every other terminology, with the risk of opening the way to the strangest errors concerning the mystery of the Incarnation: Eutychianism (v. EPHESUS, ROBBERY of; EUTYCHES). By deceit and violence he had succeeded in extorting the vote of almost the entire Eastern episcopate present at the Council and had indirectly condemned not only the Easterners of the patriarchate of Antioch but also Pope St. Leo himself, whose Letter to Flavian he had not even wished to read.
When St. Leo learned what had happened, he annulled the decision of the assembly and insistently requested the emperor Theodosius II to convene a new Ecumenical Council to be held in Italy, at which the appeal of Flavian and of the other Eastern bishops unjustly deposed by Dioscorus would be examined.
Despite the intervention of his Western colleague, Valentinian III, the emperor refused and had the sentences of the assembly carried out. An unforeseen event soon completely altered the situation. On 28 July 450, Theodosius II died after falling from his horse; since he had no heirs, his sister Pulcheria seized power and had the elderly senator Marcian crowned, marrying him while remaining a virgin.
The new rulers favored the cause of orthodoxy and justice. Marcian approved the plan for a new council on condition that it meet in the East and not in Italy. The Pope soon received excellent news from the East. Not only had the new archbishop of Constantinople, Anatolius, who had replaced Flavian, dead shortly after the robbery of Ephesus, subscribed to the Letter (or Tome) to Flavian, but Maximus of Antioch was zealously working to have the same document signed by his suffragans.
The bishops deposed by Dioscorus were recalled from exile, and Eutyches was forced to leave his monastery. Almost everywhere, the members of the “robbery of Ephesus” were signaling their repentance and submission. In view of this unexpected change, Leo did not see an immediate need for a new council and preferred to postpone it until later, when the bishops of the West, then under the invasion of Attila’s Huns, would be able to participate. But the emperor Marcian was deeply concerned about the Council and wanted the Christological question to be resolved without delay and definitively. Therefore, without consulting the Pope and before receiving his latest letters, dated at least June, he had convened the Council as early as 17 May 451.
The bishops were to meet at Nicaea on 1 September 451. The Pope bowed before the fait accompli and accepted the Council on condition that it be presided over by one of his legates, Bishop Paschasinus (whose colleagues were Bishop Lucentius, Bishop Julian of Cos, and the priests Basil and Boniface), and that the dogmatic question, already settled by the Letter to Flavian, not be discussed further. On the appointed day, more than 500 bishops were at Nicaea. But the Council did not open at once, because the emperor, who wished to attend the opening, was occupied in fighting the barbarians. In the meantime, the Fathers dealt with preliminary measures.
It was then, apparently, that Dioscorus, whose presence at the Council was by no means auspicious, attempted a dramatic maneuver. He wanted to have Pope St. Leo excommunicated, but succeeded in rallying around himself only a few Egyptians (cf. Epist. Concilii ad imperatorem Marcianum, in Mansi, VI, 1007). This attempt only worsened his situation. Seeing that the bishops were tired of waiting, Marcian deemed it advisable to transfer the Council to C., near the capital.