CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF. Eight councils which are recognized as ecumenical either by the Greek or Latin Church, or by both, were held at the city of Constantinople. The first was the second ecumenical council of the Church. convened in 381 by the Emperor Theodosius I. It consisted of 150 bishops, chosen under the dictation of the Emperor and chiefly from the East. besides the semi-Arians, followers of Macedonius of Constantinople, who with drew' after their opinions hail been condemned. This council condemned also the Arians, Euno mians, and Eudoxians; it reaffirmed the reso lutions of the Council of Nice, completed the definition by that council of the divinity of the Holy Ghost, and declared that the Bishop of Constantinople, or new was, of right. next in rank to the Bishop of old Rome; both of them being alike subject only to the Emperor. The mcond was the fifth ecumenical council of the Church, convened in 553 by Justinian I. to sustain his condemnation of three distinguished teachers of the Antiochian sehool—viz. Theodore of Mopsnestia, Theodoret, and thus of Edessa whoso opinions had been collected into 'three chapters.' (See CHAPTERS, THE •uREE.) There were 165 bishops, mostly Eastern, in attendance. They condemned the 'three chapters' and renewed the condemnation of the doctrines of Nestorins. Pope Vigil ins, though not present, afterwards sanctioned the condemnations. The third was the sixth Oen men ie:11 council, held in 6S0-81, and consisting of 259 bishops. Through the influence of the Roman legates, the council con demned the doctrine that "as there was only one Christ, so Ile had only one will," and recog nized in Ilim, consistently with the doctrine of two natures in one person, two wills made one by the moral subordination of the human to the divine. The fourth. was the council held in 692,
by command of .Justinian 11. it is recognized as ecumenical only by the Greeks, and is called `quinisextuno,' because it supplemented the fifth and sixth. It passed more than one hundred canons concerning the morals of the clergy and Church discipline. The fifth was held in 754, and attended by 338 bishops. It is recognized only by the Greeks, and is called 'the Mock Synod' by Hefele. It issued a decree against image worship. which was revoked in 787 by the second ecumenical council of Nice. The sixth was held in 869-70, and is recognized only by the Latin Church. It was attended by upward of GO bish ops. it deposed the patriarch Photius, restored Ignatius, and enacted laws concerning Church discipline. The seventh was held in 879, and is called by the Greeks the eighth ecumenical. There were 353 bishops present. It recalled Photius, repealed the action of the preceding council against him, and defined the position of the patriarch of Constantinople in relation to the Pope. The eighth was held in 1341, and is called by the Greeks the ninth ecumenical. It condemned Barlaam, an educated monk, as heretical in opposing the Hesychasts, a mystical sect among the monks of Mount Athos. who as serted the possibility of attaining, while yet in the body, an intuition of the divine light and essence by n perfect cessation of corporeal life.