The first volume of the Disputationes treats of the Word of God, of Christ, and of the Pope ; the second of the authority of ecumenical councils, and of the Church, whether militant, expectant, or triumphant ; the third of the sacraments ; and the fourth of Divine grace, free will, justification, and good works.

The Oriental Orthodox Churches ( also called Old Oriental Churches ) are those eastern churches that recognize the first three ecumenical councils — Nicaea, Constantinople and Ephesus — but reject the dogmatic definitions of the Council of Chalcedon and instead espouse a Miaphysite christology.

In 325, the first ecumenical council ( First Council of Nicaea ) determined that Jesus Christ was God, " consubstantial " with the Father, and rejected the Arian contention that Jesus was a created being.

Christology was a major focus of these debates, and was addressed at every one of the first seven ecumenical councils.

The Church of the East ( accused by others of adhering to Nestorianism ) accepts as ecumenical only the first two councils.

Both the Eastern Orthodox Church and Roman Catholic Church recognise as ecumenical the first seven councils, held from the 4th to the 9th century ; but while the Eastern Orthodox Church accepts no later council or synod as ecumenical, the Roman Catholic Church continues to hold general councils of the bishops in full communion with the Pope, reckoning them as ecumenical, and counting in all, including the seven recognized by the Eastern Orthodox Church, twenty-one to date.

However, the Orthodox churches accept only the first seven general councils as genuinely ecumenical, while Roman Catholics accept twenty-one.

Only a very few Protestants believe in the infallibility of ecumenical councils, but they usually restrict this infallibility to the Christological statements of the first seven councils.

While the Russian Orthodox Church does recognize the first seven ecumenical councils as valid, some Russian Orthodox theologians believe that the infallibility of these councils ' statements derived from their acceptance by the faithful ( and thus from the infallibility of all believers ), and not from the acts of the councils themselves.

The first seven councils recognized in both East and West as ecumenical and several others to which such recognition is refused were called by the Byzantine emperors.

In the first millennium, various theological and political differences such as Nestorianism or Dyophysitism caused parts of the Church to separate after councils such as those of Ephesus and Chalcedon, but councils recognized as ecumenical continued to be held.

Others reject this theory in part because there were no patriarchs of Constantinople and Jerusalem at the time of the first ecumenical council.

The Eastern Orthodox Church accepts the first seven ecumenical councils, with the Council in Trullo considered a continuation of the sixth.

George Dragas, and the 1848 Encyclical of the Eastern Patriarchs ( which refers explicitly to the " Eighth Ecumenical Council " and was signed by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria as well as the Holy Synods of the first three ), regard other synods beyond the Seventh Ecumenical Council as being ecumenical.

The Lutheran World Federation, in ecumenical dialogues with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople has affirmed all of the first seven councils as ecumenical and authoritative.

The permanent criteria of church structure for the Orthodox Church today, outside the New Testament writings, are found in the canons ( regulation and decrees ) of the first seven ecumenical councils ; the canons of several local or provincial councils, whose authority was recognized by the whole church ; the Apostolic Canons, dating from the 4th century ); and the " canons of the Fathers " or selected extracts from prominent church leaders having canonical importance.

The First Council of Nicaea was the first ecumenical council of the Catholic Church.

It is called Nicene () because, in its original form, it was adopted in the city of Nicaea ( İznik in what is now Turkey ) by the first ecumenical council, which met there in the year 325.

In line with the " Declaration of Utrecht " of 1889, they accept the first seven ecumenical councils and doctrine formulated before 1054, but reject communion with the pope and a number of other Roman Catholic doctrines and practices.

* 1962 – Second Vatican Council: Pope John XXIII convenes the first ecumenical council of the Roman Catholic Church in 92 years.

A petition bearing the signatures of more than 1,700 Johnston taxpayers was presented to the town council last night as what is hoped will be the first step in obtaining a home rule charter for the town.

The first case recorded of the partial exemption of an abbot from episcopal control is that of Faustus, abbot of Lerins, at the council of Arles, AD 456 ; but the exorbitant claims and exactions of bishops, to which this repugnance to episcopal control is to be traced, far more than to the arrogance of abbots, rendered it increasingly frequent, and, in the 6th century, the practice of exempting religious houses partly or altogether from episcopal control, and making them responsible to the pope alone, received an impulse from Pope Gregory the Great.

Praetor Anicius Probus first gave him a place in the council and then in about 372 made him consular prefect or " Governor " of Liguria and Emilia, with headquarters at Milan, which was then ( beside Rome ) the second capital in Italy.

Athanasius ' letters include one " Letter Concerning the Decrees of the Council of Nicaea " ( De Decretis ), which is an account of the proceedings of that council, and another letter in the year 367 which was the first known listing of the New Testament including all those books now accepted everywhere as the New Testament.

It is more likely that the epistle was written some time before the Jerusalem council, and that teachers came from Jerusalem to Antioch teaching the need for it after Paul wrote his epistle to the Galatians, churches from the first missionary journey, addressing this issue.

In making their case, the council fathers argued that tradition had accorded " honor " to the see of older Rome because it was the first imperial city.

Activity for the first four months was minimal as the council failed to meet.

As head of the war council Eugene was now part of the Emperor's inner circle, and the first president since Montecuccoli to remain an active commander.

Elizabeth's first instinct was to restore her fellow monarch ; but she and her council instead chose to play safe.

For instance, if a state fatwā council made abortion acceptable in the first trimester without any medical reason, that would have direct impact on official procedures in hospitals and courts in that country.

Philipp Schaff opines that the Pope, deceived by his legates about the actual proceedings, first applauded the Emperor but later denounced the council.

Inaugurated in August 1888 by Queen Victoria, the first council meeting was held within the chambers in October 1889.

In 1964, the first elections were held for a community council, and in 1979 for the first mayor.

At first Pierre Viret was consulted, but when he refused, the council asked Calvin.

* 1920 – The League of Nations holds its first council meeting in Paris, France.

Justus became the first Bishop of Rochester in 604, and attended a church council in Paris in 614.

KAU acted as a constituency association for the first black member of Kenya's legislative council, Eliud Mathu, who had been nominated in 1944 by the governor after consulting élite African opinion.

Trotsky was one of the first Bolshevik leaders to recognize the problem and he pushed for the formation of a military council of former Russian generals that would function as an advisory body.

But her prettiness was what he had noticed first, and all the other things had come afterward: cruelty, meanness, self-will.

There was an artificial lake just out of sight in the first stand of trees, fed by a half dozen springs that popped out of the ground above the hillside orchard.

The first part of the road was steep, but it leveled off after the second bend and curled gradually into the valley.

No one was behind it, but in the rear wall of the office I noticed, for the first time, a door which had been left partially open.

The herd was watered and then thrown onto a broad grass flat which was to be the first night's bedground.

Once again, Tom Horn was the first and most likely suspect, and he was brought in for questioning immediately.

For Matilda, it was the first she had known in many a night.

Even the knowledge that she was losing another boy, as a mother always does when a marriage is made, did not prevent her from having the first carefree, dreamless sleep that she had known since they dropped down the canyon and into Bear Valley, way, way back there when they were crossing those other mountains.

Stevens was grunting over the last empty pocket when Russ abruptly rose and lunged toward Carmer's hat, which had tumbled half-a-dozen feet away when he first fell.

The Indian's arm whipped sidewise -- there was a flash of amber and froth, the crash of the bottle shattering against the side of the first car.

It was her first smile.

At first, I thought he was out of his head, talking wildly like this.

Hell, I gave him the first decent job he ever had, six, seven -- how many years ago was it, Rob ''??

Miss Langford ( her first name was Evelyn ) was an attractive girl.

School began in August, the hottest part of the year, and for the first few days Miss Langford was very lenient with the children, letting them play a lot and the new ones sort of get acquainted with one another.

It was just as well that the ignorant Dandy enjoyed himself to the hilt that first evening, for the room was to become his prison cell.

`` Bastards '', he would say, `` all I did was put a beat to that Vivaldi stuff, and the first chair clobbered me ''!!

In 1961 the first important legislative victory of the Kennedy Administration came when the principle of national responsibility for local economic distress won out over a `` state's-responsibility '' proposal -- provision was made for payment for unemployment relief by nation-wide taxation rather than by a levy only on those states afflicted with manpower surplus.

The first systematic thinking about this Pandora's box within Pandora's boxes was done four years ago by Fred Ikle, a frail, meek-mannered Swiss-born sociologist.

The smell at first was more surprising than unpleasant.

His collaboration with Washington, begun when he was the general's aide during the Revolution, was resumed when he entered the first Cabinet as Secretary of the Treasury.