The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character by Thomas Graumann (review)

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• The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character by Thomas Graumann
• Alexander H. Pierce

The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character Thomas Graumann Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2021. Pp. xii + 333. ISBN: 978-0-1988-6817-0

Professor of Ancient Christian History and Patristics Studies at the University of Cambridge, Thomas Graumann has provided massive gains to the modern study of late antique and medieval church councils. Graumann's latest contribution, The Acts of Early Church Councils: Production and Character, offers a window into the complex and largely unpredictable operations underlying extant conciliar acts and canons. As Graumann explains, the method of his examination is to attend at one and the same time to concurrent descriptions of conciliar documentation and to retrospective assessments of those documents in later conciliar contexts. Together, these vantage points enable Graumann to reconstruct the likely "expectations and conventions" for conciliar acts and the various constituents thereof (7).

Graumann's study focuses on conciliar texts of "session-protocols that present themselves as the direct records of 'live' oral interventions by individual speakers" (9). Although Graumann draws upon numerous records of this kind, the predominant sources of his study include the Conference at Carthage [End Page 287] (411), the Council of Ephesus (431), and the Council of Chalcedon (451). The book contains five parts:

1. I. The Quest for Documentation

2. II. "Reading" and "Using" Acts

3. III. "Writing" Acts: The Council's Secretariat in Action

4. IV. The Written Record

5. V. Files, Collections, Editions: Dossierization and Dissemination

The first part includes three chapters. Chapter one provides a historical overview of early church councils and their documents. Graumann describes the increasing role of church councils as an institution in the life of the church and summarizes the diverse and complicated processes required to facilitate the documentation that supported their institutional functions. Chapter two explores the wide range of characteristics and qualities constitutive of what are commonly referred to as conciliar "acts." The third chapter examines the Conference at Carthage (411) as a most vivid example of the technical strategies employed to ensure a reliable conciliar record. That this conference involved the contested parties of Catholics and Donatists in Africa Proconsularis meant that particular care and clarity was required to secure a trustworthy record that could speak to the present imperial outcome but also remain reliable for posterity.

Part 2 contains four chapters. The fourth chapter draws upon two imperial inquiries in April of 449 into the trial of the archimandrite Eutyches the previous year as well as Augustine's awaiting official documents to respond to the 415 Synod of Diospolis. Graumann uses these two episodes to show that, in reviewing earlier trials and councils, only the fully authentic original record (prizing authentica over antigrapha) or official protocol (ecclesiastica gesta) would suffice. Chapter 5 builds on this discussion by illustrating how the transcription of the authentic council record (the schedarion) onto a roll of papyrus (most commonly) allows us to draw a variety of conclusions. The physical form of a roll functions as supporting evidence for conciliar records' probable authenticity, established their resemblance to administrative texts, dictated their promise and limitations for arranging information, and required certain compositional practices. In chapter 6, Graumann goes into further detail regarding the importance of the physical and paratextual features used for authenticating documents, whether protocols or associated files. Chapter 7 examines the ecumenical councils of Constantinople III (680/681) and Nicaea II (787) to validate further the notion witnessed at Chalcedon (451) that the visual appearance of conciliar records was integral to the authority and reliability posterity would assign to them.

The third part, which includes chapters 8 to 10, attends to the practices and intentions underlying the complex processes that led from live sessions to final, redacted conciliar acta. In chapter 8, Graumann considers evidence from several councils to describe the administrative persons—for example, scribes (scribae), notaries (notarii), and speed-writers (exceptores)—and practices employed by council presidents to produce official protocols. Chapter 9 reports on the demands placed upon conciliar stenographers in giving voice to the proceedings in the form of minutes that fulfilled the agenda of the council president and represented the consensus of...