Whilst Bullinger’s CHP accepts the decisions of the first four ecumenical councils,
no description has been produced concerning their criteria. Based on the common features
of Nicaea, Constantinople, Ephesus and Chalcedon, the Apostles’ Council of Jerusalem
would fit the pattern, with one exception: it had neither been convened nor supervised
by secular rulers. Why did the strongly Bible-oriented Reformers fail to ‘renumber’
the ecumenical councils starting with the one in Jerusalem, as they did e.g. with
the Decalogue or the sacraments? Apparently, they acquiesced in the already established
state of affairs to appease the contemporary secular powers, whilst preserving Chalcedon’s
Christological and soteriological heritage.
