Third Council of Constantinople
The Sixth Ecumenical Council, convened by Constantine IV in a domed hall of the imperial palace, condemned monoenergism and monothelitism and defined that Christ has two natural wills and two energies, divine and human, the human will obeying the divine. It anathematized the authors and supporters of the doctrine, among them Patriarch Sergius and Pope Honorius I, and ended the breach between Constantinople and Rome.
- Date
- 7 November 680 – 16 September 681exact date · duration: ≈ 10 monthsDate in the Julian calendar
- Place
- Constantinopletoday: Istanbul, Turkey · Balkans and Anatolia
- Participants
- Constantine IV, Byzantine Empire
- Threads
- Early medieval Europe (500–1000)
- Also known as
- Sixth Ecumenical Council; Шестой Вселенский собор; Constantinople III; Monothelitism; Монофелитство
The dispute went back to Heraclius. To win back the Miaphysites of Syria, Egypt and Armenia, who rejected the Council of Chalcedon, Patriarch Sergius of Constantinople proposed that Christ, though in two natures, had a single energy, and then — in Heraclius’s Ecthesis of 638 — a single will. Sophronius of Jerusalem and the monk Maximus the Confessor opposed the formula, the popes rejected the Ecthesis, and when Constans II forbade all discussion of the question in an edict known as the Type, a synod at the Lateran under Pope Martin I condemned both documents in 649. Martin was arrested, condemned in Constantinople and exiled to Cherson, where he died; Maximus was mutilated.
After repelling the Arab attack on his capital, Constantine IV sought reconciliation with Rome. Pope Agatho had the Western position prepared at regional synods — one of them at Hatfield in England under Archbishop Theodore — and at a Roman synod at Easter 680, and sent legates with his letter to the emperor. The council opened on 7 November 680 in the Trullus, a domed hall of the imperial palace, with only a few dozen bishops (37 or 43, according to different counts); Constantine IV presided over its first eleven sessions and returned for the last, on 16 September 681, by which time more than 150 bishops took part (151 or 174, according to different counts). The fathers acclaimed Agatho’s letter, proclaiming that Peter had spoken through Agatho, and deposed Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, who defended monothelitism.
The definition affirmed two natural wills and two energies in Christ, the human will being “in subjection to his divine and all-powerful will”, and anathematized the patriarchs Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter of Constantinople, Cyrus of Alexandria and Pope Honorius I, who had endorsed Sergius’s view in 635; his condemnation later figured in debates on papal infallibility. Pope Leo II confirmed the decrees. Questions of church discipline were taken up by the Council in Trullo in 692, whose canons the Eastern Church counts as those of the Sixth Council.
Connections
Causes and preconditions
- Reign of Heraclius5 October 610 – 11 February 641 · Balkans and AnatoliaMonothelitism was the compromise formula promoted by Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius
Related events
- Council of Chalcedon8 October – 1 November 451 · Balkans and AnatoliaThe council extended Chalcedon’s two natures of Christ to two wills and two energies
- Reign of Justinian I1 August 527 – 14 November 565 · Balkans and AnatoliaLike Justinian’s Fifth Council, the dispute grew out of attempts to reconcile the opponents of Chalcedon
- First Arab siege of Constantinople674–678 · Balkans and AnatoliaHaving repelled the Arabs, Constantine IV turned to reconciliation with Rome
Same participants
- Founding of the First Bulgarian Empirebetween 680 and 681 · Balkans and Anatoliavia Constantine IV
- Battle of Vescera: Kusaila defeats Uqba ibn Nafibetween 682 and 683 · Africavia Byzantine Empire
Same place
- Founding of Constantinople11 May 330 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Walls of Constantinoplebetween 404 and 408 – 413 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Imperial school in the Capitol of Constantinople27 February 425 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reign of Theodosius II1 May 408 – 28 July 450 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Theodosian Code15 February 438 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Nika riots13–18 January 532 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Corpus Juris Civilis7 April 529 – 16 November 534 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Construction of Hagia Sophia23 February 532 – 27 December 537 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Plague of Justinian541–549 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Jordanes and Procopius describe the Sclaveni and the Antesbetween 550 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Silkworm eggs are smuggled to Constantinoplebetween 552 and 554 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Phocas overthrows Maurice23 November 602 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Avar–Persian siege of Constantinople29 June – 7 August 626 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Invention of Greek firec. 672 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Second Arab siege of Constantinoplebetween 15 July and 15 August 717 – 15 August 718 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Byzantine Iconoclasmbetween 726 and 730 – 11 March 843 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’ attack on Constantinople18 June – 4 August 860 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Oleg’s campaign against Constantinople907 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 9112 September 911 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Igor’s campaigns against Byzantium11 June 941 – 944 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Rus’–Byzantine Treaty of 944between 944 and 945 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Olga’s visit to Constantinople and her baptism9 September – 18 October 957 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Sack of Constantinople12–13 April 1204 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Reconquest of Constantinople25 July 1261 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Fall of Constantinople29 May 1453 · Balkans and Anatolia
- Accession of Suleiman the Magnificent30 September 1520 · Balkans and Anatolia
Adjacent events in the thread
- Battle of Tertry687 · Western and Central Europe
Meanwhile in the world
Other regions, within a year of this event
Eastern Europe
- The Pereshchepina treasure: a steppe ruler’s burial or treasure, perhaps Kubrat’sbetween 642 and 700
- Kyi, Shchek and Khoryv: the legendary founding of Kyivbetween 500 and 700
- Early Slavic cultures: Prague-Korchak, Penkovka and Kolochinc. 450 – c. 700
Middle East and Egypt
- Battle of Karbala10 October 680
Africa
- Battle of Vescera: Kusaila defeats Uqba ibn Nafibetween 682 and 683
- Arab conquest of the Maghreb647–709
Central and Northern Asia
South Asia
- The Pallava monuments of Mamallapurambetween 600 and 630 – between 700 and 728
East Asia
Southeast Asia and Oceania
- Yijing’s voyage to India and his years in Srivijaya671–695
- Srivijaya’s first conquests and its Old Malay inscriptionsbetween 682 and 683 – 686
- Óc Eo, the port of Funanbetween 1 and 100 – between 601 and 700
North America
- Basketmaker III: pottery, beans and the bow on the Colorado Plateauc. 500 – c. 750
- The Late Woodland period in eastern North Americac. 500 – c. 1000
- Plum Bayou Mounds: a planned ceremonial centre in the Arkansas valleyc. 650 – c. 1050
Latin America
- Kʼinich Janaab Pakal rules Palenquebetween 24 July and 26 July 615 – between 26 August and 28 August 683
- Wari culture and the Middle Horizon state in the Central Andesc. 600 – c. 1000
- Nazca culture and the Nazca Linesbetween 200 and 100 BC – between 500 and 800
The same period
Sources
- Wikipedia (English): Third Council of Constantinople
- Wikipedia (English): Monothelitism
- Wikipedia (Russian): Третий Константинопольский собор
- Wikipedia (Russian): Монофелитство
- Hovorun C. Will, Action and Freedom: Christological Controversies in the Seventh Century. — Leiden: Brill, 2008.
- Карташёв А. В. Вселенские соборы. — Париж, 1963.
- Wikidata: Q208037