Interesting bit of history...

[kengr]

"The Trinity was carried in a general council by one vote against a quaternity; the Virgin Mary lost an equality with the Father, Son, and Spirit only by a single suffrage."

– John Adams to Benjamin Rush, June 12, 1812.

Anybody know which council that was?

Comments

[lolleeroberts.livejournal.com]

It's actually a misrepresentation of what happened at the Council of Nicea in 327 A.D.

That council was to discuss whether or not Jesus was actually God and a member of the Trinity, the same person as God, or if he was the Son of God, made by God and therefore inferior.

The discussion regarding the Virgin Mary was whether she was simply the mother of the human Jesus or the mother of Jesus as God. (These was a separate issue - some who thought Jesus was Divine thought Mary simply produced the earthly vessel, or human body, that Jesus the Divine entered.) At no time that I am aware of was Mary considered in the running AS a part of the Godhead. She has always been considered human by the Catholic Church, but to occupy a unique, rarified position interceding between God and Man.

Veneration of Mary by Catholics has often led to the charge by Protestants that she is deified or treated as part of the Godhead. Also John Adams was a Unitarian, and other writings of his seem to indicate he didn't believe in the Trinity at all. He may have been using a bit of rhetoric hyperbole to dismiss the Trinity as the result of a close vote.

More than you probably wanted to know -

ex-Catholic, 12 years Catholic school, much too much religious education.

[kengr]

ex-Catholic,

ditto (well, *severely* lapsed :-)

12 years Catholic school,

Only 6 here.