Church Councils

Question 1

The 1st Ecumenical Council

Answer 1

I. FIRST COUNCIL OF NICAEA
Year: 325

To this council we owe:

• The Nicene Creed.
• Defining against Arius the true Divinity of the Son of God (homoousios).
• The fixing of the date for keeping Easter (against the Quartodecimans).

Question 2

The 2nd Ecumenical Council

Answer 2

II. FIRST COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Year: 381

• Directed against the followers of Macedonius who denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit.
• To the Nicene Creed it added the clauses referring to the Holy Ghost (qui simul adoratur) and all that follows to the end.

Question 3

The 3rd Ecumenical Council

Answer 3

III. COUNCIL OF EPHESUS
Year: 431

• Defined the true personal unity of Christ.
• Declared Mary the Mother of God (theotokos) against Nestorius, Bishop of Constantinople.

Question 4

The 4th Ecumenical Council

Answer 4

IV. COUNCIL OF CHALCEDON
Year: 451

• Defined the two natures (Divine and human) in Christ against Eutyches, who was excommunicated.

Question 5

The 5th Ecumenical Council

Answer 5

V. SECOND COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Year: 553

• The Council confirmed the first four general councils, especially that of Chalcedon whose authority was contested by some heretics.

Question 6

The 6th Ecumenical Council

Answer 6

VI. THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Years: 680-681

• It put an end to Monothelitism by defining two wills in Christ, the Divine and the human, as two distinct principles of operation.

Question 7

The 7th Ecumenical Council

Answer 7

VII. SECOND COUNCIL OF NICAEA
Year: 787

• It regulated the veneration of holy images.

Question 8

The 8th Ecumenical Council

Answer 8

VIII. FOURTH COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE
Year: 869

• It consigned to the flames the Acts of an irregular council (conciliabulum) brought together by Photius against Pope Nicholas and Ignatius the legitimate Patriarch of Constantinople; it condemned Photius who had unlawfully seized the patriarchal dignity. The Photian Schism, however, triumphed in the Greek Church, and no other general council took place in the East.

Question 9

The 9th Ecumenical Council

Answer 9

IX. FIRST LATERAN COUNCIL
Year: 1123

• It abolished the right claimed by lay princes, of investiture with ring and crosier to ecclesiastical benefices.
• It dealt with the recovery of the Holy Land from the infidels.

Question 10

The 10th Ecumenical Council

Answer 10

X. SECOND LATERAN COUNCIL
Year: 1139

• Its object was to put an end to the errors of Arnold of Brescia.

Question 11

The 11th Ecumenical Council

Answer 11

XI. THIRD LATERAN COUNCIL
Year: 1179

• It condemned the Albigenses and Waldenses and issued numerous decrees for the reformation of morals.

Question 12

The 12th Ecumenical Council

Answer 12

XII. FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL
Year: 1215

• spoke of the bread and wine as “transubstantiated” into the body and blood of Christ: “His body and blood are truly contained in the sacrament of the altar under the forms of bread and wine, the bread and wine having been transubstantiated, by God’s power, into his body and blood”.
• This is the most important council of the Middle Ages, and it marks the culminating point of ecclesiastical life and papal power.

Question 13

The 13th Ecumenical Council

Answer 13

XIII. FIRST COUNCIL OF LYONS
Year: 1245

• It excommunicated and deposed Emperor Frederick II and directed a new crusade, under the command of St. Louis, against the Saracens and Mongols.

Question 14

The 14th Ecumenical Council

Answer 14

XIV. SECOND COUNCIL OF LYONS
Year: 1274

• It effected a temporary reunion of the Greek Church with Rome.
• 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.

Question 15

The 15th Ecumenical Council

Answer 15

XV. COUNCIL OF VIENNE
Years: 1311-1313

• 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.

Question 16

The 16th Ecumenical Council

Answer 16

XVI. COUNCIL OF CONSTANCE
Years: 1414-1418

• Was held during the great Schism of the West, with the object of ending the divisions in the Church.
• It became legitimate only when Gregory XI 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 (1403) 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 (42-45 inclusive) and with respect to the decrees of earlier sessions approved by Martin V.

Question 17

The 17th Ecumenical Council

Answer 17

XVII. COUNCIL OF BASLE/FERRARA/FLORENCE

Years: 1431-1439

Question 18

The 18th Ecumenical Council

Answer 18

XVIII. FIFTH LATERAN COUNCIL
Years: 1512-1517

• 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.

Question 19

The 19th Ecumenical Council

Answer 19

XIX. COUNCIL OF TRENT
Years: 1545-1563

• It was convoked to examine and condemn the errors promulgated by Luther and other Reformers, and to reform the discipline of the Church.

Question 20

The 20th Ecumenical Council

Answer 20

XX. FIRST VATICAN COUNCIL
Years: 1869-1870

• the council decreed the infallibility of the pope when speaking ex cathedra, i.e. when as shepherd and teacher of all Christians, he defines a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the whole Church.
• Condemned the belief that the exitence of God could not be know by reason alone.

Question 21

The 21st Ecumenical Council

Answer 21

XXI. SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL

Years: 1962-1965