Quinisext Council

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Council in Trullo (Quinisext Council)
Date	692
Accepted by	Eastern Orthodoxy
Previous council	Third Council of Constantinople
Next council	Second Council of Nicaea
Convoked by	Emperor Justinian II
Presided by	Justinian II
Attendance	215 (all Eastern)
Topics of discussion	discipline
Documents and statements	basis for Orthodox Canon law
Chronological list of Ecumenical councils

This particular council of Constantinople, held in 692 under Justinian II, is often known as the Council in Trullo, because it was held in the same domed hall where the Sixth General Council had met. Both the Fifth and the Sixth General 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:Penthekte Synodos), i.e. Fifth-Sixth Council. It was attended by 215 bishops, all from the Eastern Roman Empire. Basil of Gortyna in Illyria, however, belonged to the Roman patriarchate and called himself papal legate, though no evidence is extant of his right to use a title that in the East served to clothe the decrees with Roman (Western) authority. In fact, the Western (Latin Rite) Church, including the Papacy, never recognized the 102 disciplinary canons of this council.

Many of the canons were reiterations of previously passed canons. However, most of the new canons exhibited an inimical attitude towards Churches not in disciplinary accord with Constantinople, especially the Western Churches. Their customs are anathematized and "every little detail of difference is remembered to be condemned" (Fortescue).

Among the practices of the Latin Church thus condemned were the practice of celebrating masses on weekdays in Lent (rather than having pre-sanctified liturgies); of fasting on certain Saturdays during the year; of omitting the "Alleluia" in Lent; of depicting Christ as a lamb; and the discipline of celibacy for all bishops, priests and deacons. This last merits further elaboration: not content merely to condemn the discipline of celibacy in the case of priests and deacons, the Council declared that anyone who tries to separate a priest or deacon from his wife is to be excommunicated. Likewise any cleric who leaves his wife because he is ordained is also to be excommunicated.

Pope Sergius I protested the council, and refused to sign the canons. At Sergius's refusal, Justinian dispatched a military delegation to Rome lead by Zacharias to induce Sergius to sign. However, the imperial army at Ravenna, composed mainly of native Italians rallied to support the Roman Pontiff, marching on Rome to eject Zacharias.

The Eastern Orthodox churches hold this council an ecumenical one, and adds its canons to the decrees of the Fifth and Sixth Councils. In the West, St. Bede calls it (De sexta mundi aetate) a "reprobate" synod, and Paul the Deacon (Hist. Lang., VI, p. 11) an "erratic" one. Dr. Fortescue says that intolerance of all other customs with the wish to make the whole Christian world conform to its own local practices has always been and still is a characteristic note of the Byzantine Church. For the attitude of the Popes, substantially identical, in face of the various attempts to obtain their approval of these canons, see Hefele, "Conciliengesch." (III, 345-48).

This article incorporates text from the public-domain Catholic Encyclopedia of 1913.

[edit] External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Council in Trullo
• Council in Trullo in the Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers

Ecumenical councils v • d • e
Catholic & Orthodox	Nicaea I | Constantinople I | Ephesus | Chalcedon | Constantinople II | Constantinople III | Nicaea II | Constantinople IV
Eastern Orthodox	Quinisext Council | Constantinople V | Synod of Jerusalem
Catholic	Sutri | Lateran I | Lateran II | Lateran III | Lateran IV | Lyon I | Lyon II | Vienne | Pisa | Constance | Siena | Council of Basel-Ferrara-Florence | Lateran V | Trent | Vatican I | Vatican II