DECRETUM AD ARMENOS. - Bull Exultate Deo, for the union of the Armenians with the Catholic Church, published at the Council of Florence on November 22, 1439.

HISTORY

The first contacts aimed at leading the dissident Armenians to the unity of the Church go back to 1433-34 and are due to the legates of the Council of Basel and to Pope Eugene IV, who on 13 July 1434 invited the Armenian patriarch Constantine VI to union and charged Christopher Garatoni, his nuncio in the East, to act in the same sense. In August 1439 the 4 legates of the Armenian patriarch arrived in Florence. Received promptly by the Pope, they discussed the disputed points with the Catholic theologians. On 22 Nov. 1439 the bull Exultate Deo definitively sanctioned the union.

DECRETUM AD ARMENOS - Bull Exultate Deo, Florence, 22 Nov. 1439 - Vatican Library, cod. Reg. lat. 350, f. 5r (15th century).

In facilitating the union, particular merit was acquired by the Republic of Genoa (G. Hofmann, De Unione Armenorum, Rome 1935 [documents]; id., Die Einigung der armenischen Kirche mit der katholischen Kirche auf dem Konzil von Florenz, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 5 [1939], pp. 149-85 and passim; Concilium Florentinum, Documenta et scriptores [Pont. Inst. Orient., series A]; Epistolae pontificiae, part 2, ed. G. Hofmann [Rome 1944], no. 226, pp. 139-40).

CONTENT

The D. ad A. contains the doctrine and the prescriptions that the Pope and the council imposed on the Armenians in accepting them into the unity of the Church.

It consists of 8 parts: 1) the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed; 2) the profession of faith of the Council of Chalcedon; 3) the definition of the Council of Constantinople on the two wills and the two operations in Jesus Christ; 4) the order to accept the Council of Chalcedon and all the following councils celebrated under the authority of the pope, and to venerate Pope Leo the Great as a saint; 5) a compendium of doctrine on the Sacraments; 6) the Athanasian Creed; 7) the decree of union with the Greeks promulgated by the Council on 6 July 1439; 8) the decree on the date of certain feasts.

VALUE

Before proceeding to the union, the two parties wished to reach a precise understanding on the doctrine to be held "both concerning the unity of the divine essence and the Trinity of Persons, and concerning the human nature of Jesus Christ, the seven Sacraments of the Church and other things regarding right faith and the rites of the universal Church." The D. ad A. is drafted so as to offer a "brief compendium" of the Church's doctrine on these same points. The D., however, is not merely doctrinal. It also contains "precepts and statutes," for example, it fixes the date of certain feasts (bull Exultate Deo, ed. cit. of the Concilium Florentinum, loc. cit., pp. 125, 135, 134, 125).

Point 8 has a disciplinary character; points 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7 have a dogmatic character, although even in them not everything is strictly dogmatic (for example, point 4 contains the precept of singing the "Credo" with the "Filioque" at the solemn Masses of Sundays and major feasts). The value of point 5 is disputed. Some theologians regard it as an official exposition, because made by an ecumenical Council, of Catholic doctrine on the Sacraments. Others see in it an act of the ordinary magisterium, in which the infallibility of the Church would not be engaged. Others think it is a practical instruction for the use of the Armenians, to whom it imposes the ceremonies and rites of ordination already in use among Catholic Armenians. The reason for the differing assessments is what the decree says about the matter and form of the sacraments of Confirmation and of Order and its having as its basis the opuscule of St. Thomas: De articulis Fidei et Sacramenti Ecclesiae, with additions and variations suited to the needs of the Armenians. The apostolic constitution Sacramentum Ordinis of 30 Nov. 1947 does not fix the value of this part of the D. ad A.

As a whole, the D. ad A. is a conciliar decree, having full juridical value because promulgated in a solemn session of the council. But it is not imposed on the whole Church and does not establish for the whole Church the matter and form of every Sacrament (F. Hürth, Commentarius ad Const. Apost. [Sacramentum Ordinis], in Periodica de re morali et canonica, 27 [1948], pp. 17-18).

Bibliography10 works

BIBL.: Documenti: Concilium Florentinum, Documenta et scriptores [Pont. Inst. Studiorum Orientalium, series A] Epistolae pontificiae, ed. G. Hofmann, parti 1° e 2° (nella parte 2°, a pp. 124-138, il testo del D. ad A. secondo l'originale conservato alla Laurenziana di Firenze), Roma 1940-46; G. Hofmann, De unione Armenorum [Textus et documenta, series theol., n. 19], Roma 1935. Studi: J. de Guibert, Le décret du Concile de Florence pour les Arméniens, sa valeur dogmatique, in Bull. de littérature ecclésiastique, 10 (Roma 1919), pp. 81-95, 150-62, 195-215; G. M. Van Rossum, De Essentia Sacramenti Ordinis, 2° ed., Roma s. d., pp. 173-208; M. Quera, El decreto de Eugenio IV para los armenios, y el Sacramento del Orden, in Estudios eclesiásticos, 4 (1921), pp. 138-53, 237-50; id., Más acerca del decreto de Eugenio IV para los armenios y el sacramento del Orden, ibid., 6 (1927), pp. 54-78; 157-70; G. M. Perrella, Il decreto di Eugenio IV pro Armenio relativo al Sacramento dell'Ordine, in Divus Thomos, 13 (Piacenza 1936), pp. 448-485; G. Hofmann, Die Einigung der armenischen Kirche mit der katholischen Kirche auf dem Konzil von Florenz, in Orientalia christiana periodica, 5 (1939), pp. 151-85; P. Galtier, Encore un mot sur la nature du décret « pro Armenio », in Gregorianum, 25 (1944), pp. 171-85; M. Quera, Una palabra más sobre el decreto « pro Armenio », in Estudios eclesiásticos, 21 (1947), pp. 187-207; F. Hürth, Commentarius ad Constit. Apost. [Sacramentum Ordinis], in Periodica de re morali et canonica, 27 (1948), pp. 16-18.

Giuseppe Rambaldi

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Decretum Ad Armenos

HISTORY

CONTENT

VALUE

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