Conciliar

The Council of Constantinople (879–880)

879–880 · 9th c. · 1 work

The Council of Constantinople (879–880), sometimes called the Photian Council or the Council of Union, was a council of bishops convened under the presidency of Photios, Patriarch of Constantinople, in the great hall of the Hagia Sophia. It was attended by legates of Pope John VIII, and by representatives of the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. The council's central achievement was the formal reconciliation of the schism that had arisen over the deposition and reinstatement of Photios, fully restoring him to his see and rehabilitating his episcopate.

The council also issued a landmark definition on the Symbol of Faith, forbidding any addition to the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed — a direct censure of the Western Filioque clause (the addition of 'and from the Son' to the statement on the procession of the Holy Spirit). This canon, together with the treatise that Photios had written against the Filioque (the Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit), made the council a formative moment in the defense of the Orthodox teaching that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father alone. The Orthodox Church receives this council as the Eighth Ecumenical Council, regarding its canons as binding, while Western tradition does not accord it that rank.

Sources: Encyclopædia Britannica — Photius · Catholic Encyclopedia (New Advent) — Photius of Constantinople