The word filioque was added to the symbol of Constantinople and means were sought for recovering Palestine from the Turks. It also laid down the rules for papal elections. The synod dealt with the crimes and errors imputed to the Knights Templars, the Fraticelli, the Beghards, and the Beguines, with projects of a new crusade, the reformation of the clergy, and the teaching of Oriental languages in the universities.
It became legitimate only when Gregory XII had formally convoked it. Owing to this circumstance it succeeded in putting an end to the schism by the election of Pope Martin V, which the Council of Pisa had failed to accomplish on account of its illegality. The rightful pope confirmed the former decrees of the synod against Wyclif and Hus. This council is thus ecumenical only in its last sessions inclusive and with respect to the decrees of earlier sessions approved by Martin V.
Its object was the religious pacification of Bohemia. Quarrels with the pope having arisen, the council was transferred first to Ferrara , then to Florence , where a short-lived union with the Greek Church was effected, the Greeks accepting the council's definition of controverted points.
The Council of Basle is only ecumenical till the end of the twenty-fifth session, and of its decrees Eugene IV approved only such as dealt with the extirpation of heresy, the peace of Christendom, and the reform of the Church, and which at the same time did not derogate from the rights of the Holy See.
Fifteen cardinals and about eighty archbishops and bishops took part in it. Its decrees are chiefly disciplinary. A new crusade against the Turks was also planned, but came to naught, owing to the religious upheaval in Germany caused by Luther.
There were present 5 cardinal legates of the Holy See, 3 patriarchs, 33 archbishops, bishops, 7 abbots, 7 generals of monastic orders, and doctors of divinity. It was convoked to examine and condemn the errors promulgated by Luther and other Reformers, and to reform the discipline of the Church.
Decisions: Issued pastoral documents on the renewal and reform of the Church, intending the make the Church more effective in dealing with the contemporary world.
Skip to main content Accessibility feedback article. Download Share. Nicaea I Pope Sylvester I, Emperor Constantine, Decisions: Condemned Arianism, which denied the divinity of Christ elements of Arianism have reappeared in our own time ; defined the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son; fixed the date for Easter; began formulation of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. Constantinople III Pope Agatho, Emperor Constantine IV, Decisions: Condemned Monothelitism, which held Christ had but one will, the divine this heresy arose as a reaction to the monophysite heresy ; censured Pope Honorius I for a letter in which he made an ambiguous but not infallible statement about the unity of operations in Christ an episode commonly used by anti-Catholic writers as an argument against papal infallibility, but for the real meaning, see Catholicism and Fundamentalism , pages Nicaea II Pope Hadrian I, Emperor Constantine VI, Decisions: Condemned iconoclasm which was mainly confined to the East , a heresy that held that the use of images constituted idolatry; condemned Adoptionism, which held that Christ was not the Son of God by nature but only by adoption, thereby denying the hypostatic union.
Lateran II Pope Innocent II, Emperor Conrad III, Decisions: Ended a papal schism by antipope Anacletus II; reaffirmed baptism of infants; reaffirmed the sacramental nature of the priesthood, marriage, and the Eucharist against Medieval heretics; decreed that holy orders is an impediment to marriage, making the attempted marriage of a priest invalid.
Florence Pope Eugene IV, Emperors: Albert II, Frederick III, Decisions: Reaffirmed papal primacy against claims of conciliarists that an ecumenical council is superior to a pope; approved reunion with several Eastern Churches, but the reunion was only temporary.
Lateran V Popes Julius II, Leo X, Emperor Maximilian I, Decisions: Opposed erroneous teachings about the soul; reaffirmed the doctrine of indulgences; restated the relationship between popes and ecumenical councils; on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, failed to inaugurate an authentic and thoroughgoing reform of the Church, inadvertently helping Protestantism.
Vatican I Pope Pius IX, Decisions: Defined papal infallibility and primacy; condemned errors regarding the relationship between faith and reason the council was cut short by war, its work to be taken up again by Vatican II. Enjoying this content? There is, however, general agreement about the universal nature of seven Councils, with some disagreement about the eighth: Constantinople IV The ratification of the Pope -- the Bishop of Rome -- was always required from the days of the first Council and Council decisions exercised supreme jurisdiction over the Church.
They are the most appropriate means of proclaiming revealed truth and refuting error. Councils have their prototype in the 'Apostles Council' in Jerusalem cf. Acts ch. At Jerusalem the apostles and presbyters under Peter's leadership were asked to formally consider what, if any obligations of Jewish Law should be placed on gentile converts.
The assembly ratified the proposal that neither circumcision nor the law should be imposed on gentiles but at the same time, urged gentile Christians to take care to avoid Jewish - Christian sensitivities.
In the intervening years since that early meeting in Jerusalem, there have been 21 Ecumenical Councils recognised by the Roman Catholic Church. But the Great Schism, normally dated AD was an unhappy watershed in agreement about Council history. It has been mentioned that during the early years of the church local synods or councils had become a feature of church governance before Constantine called for the bishops of the Oikumene - the whole inhabited world, to meet at Nicea in AD.
At issue was the claim by the Egyptian priest, Arius, that the Son of God was a created being and not therefore fully divine.
This heresy was refuted by the assembled bishops, who declared that the Father and Son were of one substance, 'consubstantial' - or, in Greek, ' homoousios '.
The definitional decree of the council which condemned the teaching of Arius did not altogether end the controversy.
Some of the bishops had reservations over the use of a non-scriptural term i. This resulted in several decades of ongoing theological dispute between an almost solidly Nicene Latin West and the more wide ranging opinions in the Eastern Church. The Emperor Theodosius called a further council, this time in Constantinople, in order to confirm the 'Nicene Faith' and to add the important proviso that the Holy Spirit is also equal and divine in the Trinity.
This council produced a creed, which is still described today as the 'Nicene Creed' although technically it should be the Niceno - Constantinopolitan creed , and has been used down the centuries at Masses on Sundays and Solemnities and contains the authentic teaching on the Trinity.
Having established the teaching on the Trinity, a third Ecumenical Council was convened at Ephesus in to confront Nestorianism. This heresy was named after Nestorius, the bishop of Constantinople , who was accused of over- emphasising the distinction between the divine and the human in Christ, that He could be considered to be two persons making it heretical to describe Mary as Theotokos , God bearer, as she gave birth to a man, Jesus, in whom God dwells.
The council affirmed the unity of Christ by recognising that the correct title for the Mary was indeed ' Theotokos ' - Mother of God, and in due course a definitional formula was agreed to present Christ as one person with two natures. As at Nicea more than a century before, the teaching of the Ephesus council did not totally end the controversy.
Nestorians went their own way but new divisions arose over the manner in which the divine and human natures were united in Christ and these eventually developed into Monophysitism, which held that although there may have been two natures before the incarnation of the Son, there was only one nature afterwards.
A further council was called, therefore, at Chalcedon in which condemned both of the above heresies and formalised the doctrine of the 'Hypostatic Union', namely the union of two distinct natures of God and man in the person of Jesus Christ who is true God and true man. The council statement to a large extent, owed much to the foundation of faith which was presented by Pope St.
Leo I, and which the assembled prelates had judged to be in harmony with the teachings of earlier councils. Pope St Leo's significance in this matter requires study as some historian's have perhaps overstressed papal involvement, whereas the 'Formula of Union' of was also of considerable importance.
See Tanner: Short History , p. Tanner, pp. Collectively, the above four Ecumenical Councils formulated the Trinitarian and Christological dogma of the church and are of particular significance in the cause of Christian unity as their teachings are accepted by Roman Catholics, the Orthodox and most Protestant Churches.
However, and not negating their importance, the politics and rivalry between different Patriarchs at the time resulted in a continuing debate on the divine and human natures of Christ and led to two further generally acknowledged ecumenical councils at Constantinople. Hughes continues to explain for another twenty-five pages, see his article here. Such were the theological uncertainties, made more complex by the political turbulence, that the Monophysite battle had, virtually, to be fought again, but on only slightly different ground as Monothelitism.
The period can be read in Hughes ibid. Risking distortion through brevity, it was this Council which condemned Pope Honorius I This event is referred to in the summary below and will perhaps repay further attention elsewhere in the site.
Before Nicaea II, which follows, a further, but unrecognised Council had been held at Contantinople, called the council of Trullo, in The next generally accepted council at Nicaea in was called to answer very different questions relating to the use of icons that had given rise to claims of idolatry.
Nicea II specified that adoration was due to God alone but at the same time accepted the tradition of venerating icons which were described as 'pointing beyond' themselves to the person they portray. It is worth interjecting at this point that only twenty years earlier, Constantinople, with Leo III as Emperor, had withstood a year-long siege from the developing Saracen threat, which was beaten off then, but developed again later and ultimately changed the shape of the Christian Church.
The eighth and last council of the first millennium marked yet a further return to Constantinople in It was mainly the product of ecclesiastical and imperial politics and after many uncertainties was accepted as ecumenical in the West, but rapidly repudiated in the East.
The issue was that the Emperor had appointed Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople, but subsequently, there were many confusing factors exacerbated by the distance and slowness of communication between Rome and Constantinople. A full account is given by Mgr. To summarise the status of Councils of the first millennium, the Eastern Church does not recognise Constantinople IV as ecumenical but they judge the first seven councils as representing the basic criteria upon which all subsequent councils should base their findings.
In the words of the Orthodox theologian George Recoveanu:. It cannot be maintained that the properties that made a council "ecumenical" vanished after [i.
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