Ecumenical Councils are meetings of bishops from across the Church, in union with the Pope, to exercise, by discussion, vote, and the passing of written texts or (legal) resolutions, their teaching and juridical ministry on behalf of the whole Church. More local (geographically or juridically restricted) councils have also occurred and still occur: they require less participation by the Pope, and have competence over that part of the Church of which the validly assembled bishops, or indeed patriarchs, are ordinaries. (Other religious leaders and experts may also be invited to participate in various ways.) For those who are interested, authoritative Church teaching, in its current formulation, on the nature of ecumenical councils is contained in Vatican II’s Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, Lumen Gentium (LG) n. 22 and wider but relevant teaching in nn. 23-25.
The practice of having councils, ecumenical or smaller in scale, is rooted in the ministry of the apostles and the special task of Peter, as given by Jesus, and the way they exercised these ministries as testified to in the New Testament including the letters. The Twelve, under the leadership of Peter, are a crucial group in the founding and early leadership of the Church. They are often referred to as a collective entity, what we know call a college. Paul, also named an apostle, is keen to stress his solidarity and union in teaching and discipline with the other apostles. Particular authority lies in their collective decisions, seen most dramatically in the Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15. This sets a precedent for later synods or councils of bishops, the successors of the apostles who receive their teaching and juridical (disciplinary) function in the Church, and also their role at the service of the unity of local Churches and the Universal Church.
We know of local and regional councils in the second century and they became a common, established widespread practice of the Church in the third century. In a similar, but not identical, way to the apostles, the bishops have serious and weighty authority on their own, and also when they act in agreement, whether dispersed or gathered together at the time. At the same time appeals were made to the eldest churches, those of known apostolic origin, and especially to Rome, linked in a unique way with the ministry and martyrdom of St Peter. After Christianity was officially tolerated by Constantine in 313, it became possible to call a council of the bishops across the whole Roman Empire. This happened for the first time at Nicea (modern Turkey) in 325. It was called an ecumenical council, after the Greek word for household, a term that became an administrative and descriptive term in the Roman Empire, used to refer to the entire household or economy of the empire. (Such was the size of the empire that it acquired the sense of ‘universal’. However, it seems that Churches outside the Empire were not invited.) Though very few western or Latin bishops attended, the decisions, expressed in legal canons, were approved by the Pope and such a collective and united gathering and set of decisions by the bishops were seen as powerfully authoritative and binding for all the Church.
The practice of holding such ecumenical councils grew, alongside more local or regional ones. In due course, by the ninth century, 7 councils (the last one being Nicea III in 787) were recognised by Rome and the main eastern sees (ie the Patriarchies) as ‘ecumenical’ in stature and authority. All these 7 councils were held in the eastern empire, in modern Turkey, but were held to be ecumenical since the Pope consented to them happening, and then accepted and approved their canons. The extent of his active participation, typically via representatives, varied. The papal approval of their documents and canons was not always immediate or comprehensive. Constantinople I (381) was intended as an eastern council only but later the Pope approved nearly all of its canons, in effect raising it to ecumenical status.
After the ‘final’ split of the Latin (West) and Greek (East) speaking Churches in 1054, both continued to have local synods of bishops. In the West these happened at various levels for various territories, including provincial and sometimes national ones. In due course, the Pope starting calling general (i.e. non-territorially particular) ones, starting with Lateran I in 1123. These grew in importance and complexity and in what they addressed. They were intended for the Western Church in the first place, and held in West Europe, but the Pope did have a universal ministry and jurisdiction. Two of them, Lyons II (1274) and the Council meeting at Florence in 1439, were attended by Eastern officials to try and restore Christian unity between West and East. Although agreements were reached no lasting unity was achieved.
The Pope called another western general council at Trent (1545-63) to address the problems of Protestantism. The Protestants, some of whom had wanted a general council called to address their complaints about the Church, rejected its findings. Some of them rejected its authority on the grounds that it was not an ‘ecumenical council’, i.e. one like those of the first millennium that commanded adherence in East as well as West. By this time lists (with some variations) were emerging in the West of the general councils from the period of the Middle Ages. St Robert Bellarmine, in the 1580s, was the first to draw up such a list in which, to respond to the Protestant objection, he called all the councils of the first millennium lists and those of the second up to and including Trent ‘ecumenical’. This list soon found its way into official Vatican documents and Papal discourse. (Constantinople IV (869-70) was first given ‘ecumenical status’ by Papal officials late in the 11th century principally because one of its canons argued strongly against state interference in Episcopal appointments. Popes endorsed this status.) It is the list we now have, to which, of course, have been added Vatican I and II. Though there are other important, if officially less universal, church councils we shall in the fist place examine those now listed as the 21 Ecumenical Councils of the Church.
Some prefer to name them the 21 General Councils, out of respect for the sensibilities of Eastern Christians who generally restrict the term ‘ecumenical council’ for the first 7 on the Papal list. The Popes use both terms, sometimes choosing ‘general’ to show respect to the Eastern Churches. Though these councils sometimes treated the reconciliation of Christians, the word ‘ecumenical’ is not being used in this modern sense of ecumenism in the term ‘ecumenical council’.
The Church’s theological understanding of councils, and the expression of this in canonical and procedural terms have developed over history. The Church has come to recognise that although an ecumenical council requires the presence of many Bishops, it is the role of the Pope that is crucial in determining what is and is not an ecumenical or general council. As Lumen Gentium (LG) puts it ‘there never is an ecumenical council which is not confirmed or at least recognised as such by Peter’s successor. (LG 22)’ It is his universal jurisdiction, unique to him as an individual among the other bishops, that makes this possible. In actual fact the extent of active participation of the pope has varied a lot historically in different ecumenical councils. However, the Church in her wisdom now also states “And it is the prerogative of the Roman Pontiff to convoke such councils, to preside over them and to confirm them. (LG 23)” However, the bishops do not serve as mere adjuncts of Papal ministry. They have their own dignity and office, directly conferred by God and given in Episcopal ordination. Thus ecumenical / general councils, in which they come together, in communion with the Pope, express the highest authority of the Church, applicable in teaching on faith and morals and in regulating the liturgy and in other disciplinary measures.