October 692 A.D. Council of Trullo or Quinisext Council
October 692
A.D. Council of Trullo or Quinisext
Council
This article incorporates text from a publication
now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles, ed.
(1913). Catholic Encyclopedia. Robert Appleton Company.
See also
Quinisext Council
Council in
Trullo (Quinisext Council)
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Date
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692
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Accepted by
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Previous council
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Next council
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Convoked by
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Emperor Justinian II
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President
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Attendance
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215 (all Eastern)
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Topics
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discipline
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Documents and statements
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basis for Orthodox Canon law
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The Quinisext Council (often called the Council
in Trullo or the Penthekte Synod) was a church council held in 692
at Constantinople under Justinian
II. It is often known as the Council in Trullo,
because it was held in the same domed hall where the Sixth Ecumenical Council had met. Both the Fifth and the
Sixth Ecumenical Councils had omitted to draw up disciplinary canons, and as this council was intended to complete both in this respect, it
took the name of Quinisext (Latin: Concilium Quinisextum, Koine Greek: Πενθέκτη Σύνοδος, Penthekte Synodos), i.e. the
Fifth-Sixth Council. It was attended by 215 bishops, all from the Eastern
Roman Empire. Basil of Gortyna in Crete, however, belonged to the Roman patriarchate and called himself papal legate, though no evidence is extant of his right to use that
title.
Many of the canons were reiterations of previously passed
canons. Several of the regulations passed were attempts at eliminating certain
festivals and practices, in many cases because they were ascribed a pagan
origin. As a result, the proceedings of the Council give some insight to historians
regarding the prevalence and nature of pre-Christian religious practices in the
Eastern empire.[1]
In addition to recording earlier decisions and attempting
to curb pagan practices, many of the new regulations were aimed at settling
differences between the Eastern and Western church practices regarding ritual
observance and clerical discipline. Being held under Byzantine auspices, with
an exclusively Eastern clergy, these regulations overwhelmingly regarded the
customs of the Church of Constantinople as the orthodox practice.[1]
Practices in the Church in the West that had got the
attention of the Eastern Patriarchates were condemned, such as: the practice of
celebrating Masses on weekdays in Lent (rather than having Pre-Sanctified Liturgies); of fasting on Saturdays throughout the year; of omitting the "Alleluia" in Lent; of depicting Christ as a Lamb. Larger disputes were revealed regarding Eastern and
Western attitudes toward celibacy for priests and deacons, with the Council affirming the right of married men to
become priests and prescribing excommunication for anyone who attempted to separate a clergyman from
his wife, or for any cleric who abandoned his wife. The council also endorsed
these lists of canonical writings: the Apostolic Canons (~385 CE), the Synod of Laodicea (~363 CE ?), the Third Synod
of Carthage (~397 CE), and the 39th Festal Letter of
Athanasius (367 CE).
Pope Sergius I, who was of Syrian origin, rejected the council,
preferring, he said, "to die rather than consent to erroneous
novelties": though a loyal subject of the Empire, he would not be
"its captive in matters of religion" and refused to sign the canons.[2] Emperor Justinian
II ordered his arrest and abduction to Constantinople by
the notoriously violent protospatharios Zacharias.[3] However, the militia of the exarchate
of Ravenna frustrated the attempt.[4] Zacharias nearly lost his life in his attempt to arrest
Sergius I.[5][6] Meanwhile, in Visigothic Spain, the council was ratified by the Eighteenth Council of Toledo at the urging of the king, Wittiza, who was vilified by later chroniclers for his decision.[7] Fruela
I of Asturias reversed the
decision of Toledo sometime during his reign (757–768).[7]
The Eastern Orthodox churches hold this council be part of the Fifth and
Sixth Ecumenical Councils, adding its canons thereto. In the West, Bede calls it (in De sexta mundi aetate) a "reprobate" synod, and Paul the Deacon an "erratic" one.[8] For the attitude of the Popes, in face of the various attempts to obtain their approval of these canons
see Hefele.[9] However, Pope Hadrian I did write favourably of the canons of this council.[10] The Catholic Church has never accepted the council as authoritative or ecumenical.
Notes
1.
^ Jump up to: a b Ostrogorsky, George; Hussey, Joan
(trans.) (1957). History of the Byzantine state. New Brunswick, N.J.:
Rutgers University Press. pp. 122–23. ISBN 0-8135-0599-2.
2.
Jump up ^ Andrew J. Ekonomou, Byzantine
Rome and the Greek Popes (Lexington Books 2007 ISBN 978-0-73911977-8), p.
222
6.
Jump up ^ Walter Ullmann, A
Short History of the Papacy in the Middle Ages (2nd edition, Routledge 2003
ISBN 978-0-41530227-2), p. 64
10.
Jump up ^ Schaff, Philip; Wace, Henry (1900).
"Introductory Note:
Council in Trullo". Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series II, Vol. XIV. Charles
Scribner's Sons. Archived from the original on 2006-02-17. Retrieved 2007-07-05.
References
·
Concilium
Constantinopolitanum a. 691/2 in Trullo habitum. H. Ohme (ed.) Acta conciliorum oecumenicorum, Series Secunda II:
Concilium Universale Constantinopolitanum Tertium, Pars 4. ISBN 978-3-11-030853-2. Berlin/Boston Oktober 2013.
·
Collins, Roger. The
Arab Conquest of Spain, 710–97. Oxford: Blackwell Publishing, 1989. ISBN 0-631-15923-1.
·
George Nedungatt: The
council of Trullo revisited: Ecumenism and the canon of the councils, dans Theological
Studies, Vol.71, September 2010, pp. 651–676.
See also
- First seven Ecumenical Councils
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