From Nicaea to Vatican II: A Reference Guide to the Church’s 21 Ecumenical Councils

Including Essential Quotes From Each Council

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Roughly every century, problems arise in the Church to a degree that simply preaching and teaching is not effective enough to counteract the burning concerns of the faithful.

For a brief moment, sometimes for a few weeks—sometimes for a few decades—the Church pauses and reflects. This pause in missionary activity, where the Church is in limbo, is usually used to address burning concerns, questions, and heresies.

Beginning in 325 A.D., the Church has convened 21 Ecumenical Councils. An Ecumenical Council is a council composed of bishops from around the world gathered to discuss matters which effect the whole Church, and the Council must be approved by the Pope. It is not necessary that the Pope be physically present; the decrees, however, must be given approval by the Pope to be truly considered a valid Ecumenical Council.

Why Are They Important?

The Ecumenical Councils are critically important for all Catholics to study because not only do they define matters of doctrine, such as the Incarnation and the Papacy, but they pertain to the development of Catholic doctrine over the last 2,000 years of Church history. The Councils also are a part of the extraordinary Magisterium of the Church, as opposed to the ordinary Magisterium. The ordinary Magisterium refers to the “whole body of bishops, in hierarchical communion with the successor of Peter, is morally unanimous in teaching a certain doctrine as a matter of divine and Catholic faith, to be accepted by all as pertaining to the faith of the Church.”¹ This can be see in the unanimous teaching and preaching of the bishops of the world on matters of doctrine. The extraordinary Magisterium is “when [the] bishops representing the universal Church, by a united act, solemnly define a matter of faith or morals, with the approval of the Pope.”² This then makes clear the importance of the Ecumenical Councils because it is an exercise of the infallibility of the Church.

So, now let us look at the 21 Ecumenical Councils of the Church so we can become more familiar with them, with their general characteristics, and their general teachings for the life of the Church.

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A Reference Guide For The 21 Ecumenical Councils of the Catholic Church

1. First Council of Nicaea, 325

Pope: Sylvester I

The Council was convened by Emperor Constantine to address the rise of Arianism and the chaos surrounding that heresy. The Council condemned Arius and the teachings of Arianism and formulated the Nicene Creed, which forms the bulk of our current Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed. The council taught the full Divinity of Jesus and affirmed that Jesus is homoousios with God the Father.

From the Council:

The Nicene Creed was originally written in Greek. However, in the English translation of the ancient Latin version, we see the famous Christological statement as follows:

the Only-Begotten born from the Father, that is, from the substance of the Father, God from God, light from light, true God from true God, born, not made, of one substance with the Father (which they call ὁμοούσιος in Greek), through whom all things were made, those in heaven and those on earth…³

2. First Council of Constantinople, 381

Pope: Damasus

The second Ecumenical Council was convened to address the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. It affirmed the full Divinity of the Holy Spirit and once again codified the condemnation of Arianism, which still persisted after the Council of Nicaea. The council was directed against the Macedonians, Apollinaris of Laodicea, Sabellius of Ptolemais, Marcellus of Ancyra, Photinus of Sirmium, Eunomius of Cyzicus, and Eudoxius of Constantinople.⁴ The Council also added the final part of our current Nicene Creed that concerns the Holy Spirit.

From the Council:

Apart from the Creed itself, which we are all familiar with, this quote is from the Canons of the Council which condemns the heresies mentioned above:

The faith of the 318 Fathers who gathered in Nicaea of Bythinia should not be annulled. Rather it should continue to have authority, and every heresy (should be) anathematized, especially that of the Eunomians, or the Anomians, that of the Arians, or Eudoxians, that of the Semiarians, or Pneumatomachians, that of the Sabellians, that of the Marcellians, that of the Photinians, and that of the Apollinarians.⁵

3. Council of Ephesus, 431

Pope: Celestine I

The third Ecumenical Council, the Council of Ephesus, was presided over by St. Cyril of Alexandria. This council is famous for its definition of Mary as the theotokos, or the Mother of God, which once again affirmed the full Divinity and humanity of Jesus. This was in response to the Christological heresy of Nestorianism. The council also further condemned the Pelagians and the Messalians.

From the Council:

In St. Cyril of Alexandria’s Second Letter to Nestorius, he writes:

For this was not an ordinary man who was at first begotten of the holy Virgin, and then the Word descended upon him: rather, (the Word) united flesh to himself from his mother's womb and is said to have undergone begetting in the flesh in order to take to himself flesh of his own.... For this reason [the holy Fathers] have not hesitated to speak of the holy Virgin as the Mother of God, not certainly because the nature of the Word or his divinity had the origin of its being from the holy Virgin, but because from her was generated his holy body, animated by a rational soul, a body hypostatically united to the Word; and thus it is said that (the Word) was begotten according to the flesh.⁶

4. Council of Chalcedon, 451

Pope: St. Leo the Great

The fourth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Chalcedon, is another great Christological Council. It affirmed the two natures of Christ and condemned the heresy of Monophysitism which stated that Christ only had a divine nature.

From the Council:

In it’s famous formula, it stated that Jesus Christ, the Son of God:

must be acknowledged in two natures, without confusion or change, without division or separation. The distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one Person and One hypostasis.⁷

5. Second Council of Constantinople, 553

Pope: Vigilius

The fifth Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Constantinople, condemned multiple errors. Primarily, it again sought to convert the Monophysites. It condemned the errors of Origen of Alexandria, writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Ibas of Edessa.

From the Council:

If anyone says that the glorious holy Mary, ever virgin, is not Mother of God in the true sense but only by an abuse of language, or that she is so by relation, meaning that a mere man was born from her and not God the Word made flesh in her, though, according to those who hold this, the birth of this man can be attributed to God the Word insofar as he was with the man at his birth; and if he makes the slanderous assertion that it was in this blasphemous sense thought out by Theodore that the holy Council of Chalcedon called the Virgin "Mother of God";

or if anyone calls her mother of the man or mother of Christ as though Christ were not God, but does not confess that she is Mother of God in the true and proper sense since God the Word, begotten from the Father before the ages, became incarnate from her in the latter days, and this is the pious sense in which the holy Council of Chalcedon confessed her to be the Mother of God, let him be anathema.⁸

6. Third Council of Constantinople, 680-681

Pope: Agatho

The sixth Ecumenical Council, the Third Council of Constantinople, condemned the heresy of Monotheletism that stated Christ only had one will rather than two—human and Divine. It also condemned Pope Honorus. The council affirmed the two wills of Christ, and the decrees of the council were affirmed by Pope Leo II.

From the Council:

The condemnation of the former Pope Honorius:

Along with these we have seen fit to banish from the holy Church of God and to anathematize also Honorius, the former pope of the elder Rome, because we have discovered in the letters written by him to Sergius that he followed in everything the opinion of that one and confirmed his impious dogma.⁹

The Definition of the Two Wills of Christ:

We likewise proclaim in him, according to the teaching of the holy Fathers, two natural volitions or wills and two natural actions, without division, without change, without separation, without confusion. The two natural wills are not—by any means-opposed to each other as the impious heretics assert; but his human will is compliant; it does not resist or oppose but rather submits to his divine and almighty will. For, as the wise Athanasius says, it was necessary that the will of the flesh move itself, but also that it be submitted to the divine will; because, just as his flesh is said to be and is the flesh of God the Word, so too the natural will of his flesh is said to be and is God the Word's very own, as he himself declares: ‘I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but the will of him who sent me’ [Jn 6:38]. He calls the will of his flesh his own will because the flesh also has become his own. For just as his most holy and immaculate flesh, animated by his soul, has not been destroyed by being divinized but remained in its own state and kind, so also his human will has not been destroyed by being divinized. It has rather been preserved, according to the words of Gregory the theologian: ‘For his will—referring to that of the Savior—being fully divinized, is not opposed to God.’¹⁰

7. Second Council of Nicaea, 787

Pope: Adrian I

The seventh Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Nicaea, is the famous “Iconoclast” council in which the veneration of Icons was affirmed, and the “Iconoclasts” were condemned with the help of St. John of Damascus.

From the Council:

In regard to the veneration of icons, the council states that:

This, however, is not actual worship, which, according to our faith, is reserved to the divine nature alone. But as it is done for the figure of the glorious and life-giving Cross, the holy Gospels, and all other sacred objects, let these images be honored with an offering of incense and light, according to long-standing pious custom. For ‘the honor rendered to the image passes on to the original’, and he who venerates an image venerates in it the person whom the image represents.¹¹

8. Fourth Council of Constantinople, 869

Pope: Adrian II

The eighth Ecumenical Council, the Fourth Council of Constantinople, was called to address the question of Photius who, only a few years before, caused a schism in the Church. This is the last recognized Ecumenical Council in the East. In fact, this council was only acknowledged as an Ecumenical Council by the Western Church after the 12th century.¹²

From the Council:

Condemnation of Photius and the warning against conspiring against the Pope of Rome:

But whoever, like Photius and Dioscorus, will manifest such insolence and audacity that he promotes injuries of some sort against the See of Peter, the chief of the apostles, whether in writing or not, let him receive a condemnation equal to and identical to theirs.

But if anyone, making use of some secular power or authority, should attempt to expel the above-mentioned pope of the Apostolic See or one of the other patriarchs, let him be anathema.¹³

9. First Lateran Council, 1123

Pope Callistus II

The ninth Ecumenical Council, the First Lateran Council, dealt primarily with discipline in the Church, especially reforming the clergy. In particular, it condemned lay investiture.

From the Council:

Can. 4 We further resolve, in accordance with the statute of the most blessed Pope Stephen, that lay persons, however religious they may be, have no power to dispose of any ecclesiastical business; but following the Apostolic Canons, let the bishop have the care of all ecclesiastical matters, and let him manage them as in the sight of God. Therefore, if any prince or other lay person should arrogate to himself the disposition or donation of ecclesiastical things or possessions, let him be regarded as sacrilegious.¹⁴

10. Second Lateran Council, 1139

Pope: Innocent II

The tenth Ecumenical Council, the Second Lateran Council, was convened to condemn Arnold of Brescia and the Petrobrusians. It also “ended the schism of Anacletus II.”¹⁵

From the Council:

Can. 13. Furthermore, we condemn that practice accounted despicable and blameworthy by divine and human laws, denounced by Scripture in the Old and New Testaments, namely, the ferocious greed of moneylenders; and we sever them from every comfort of the Church, forbidding any archbishop or bishop, or an abbot of any order whatever or anyone in clerical orders, to dare to receive usurers, unless they do so with extreme caution; but let them be held infamous throughout their whole lives and, unless they repent, be deprived of a Christian burial.¹⁶

11. Third Lateran Council, 1179

Pope: Alexander III

The eleventh Ecumenical Council, the Third Lateran Council, was convened to condemn the Albigensian heresy.

From the Council:

Chap. 10. Monks may not be accepted into monasteries for money.... But if anyone, after having been expelled, paid something in order to be taken back, let him not be elevated to holy orders. The one who accepted (this money), moreover, is to be punished by the deprivation of his office.¹⁷

12. Fourth Lateran Council, 1215

Pope: Innocent III

The twelfth Ecumenical Council, the Fourth Lateran Council, was the most important council of the Middle Ages. Among many decrees, the council further condemned the Albigensian heresy, the Trinitarian heresies of Abbot Joachim, the Waldensians, as well as issued many decrees of reformation for the Church.

From the Council:

The sacrament of baptism (which is celebrated in water at the invocation of God and of the undivided Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit) conduces to the salvation of children as well as of adults when duly conferred by anyone according to the Church's form.

After receiving baptism, anyone who shall have lapsed into sin can always be restored through true penance. Not only virgins and the continent, but also married persons, by pleasing God through right faith and good work, merit to attain to eternal happiness.¹⁸

13. First Council of Lyons, 1245

Pope: Innocent IV

The thirteenth Ecumenical Council, the First Council of Lyons, condemned and excommunicated Emperor Frederick II and issued a new crusade under the command of St. Louis which was directed against the Saracens and Mongols.

From the Council:

24 (§ 19). But if anyone dies in mortal sin without repentance, beyond any doubt, he will be tortured forever by the flames of everlasting hell.

25 (§ 20). But the souls of little children after the cleansing of baptism—as well as (the souls) of adults who, having died in (the state of) charity, are bound neither by sin nor to any satisfaction for sin—ascend immediately into the everlasting homeland.¹⁹

14. Second Council of Lyons, 1274

Pope: Gregory X

The fourteenth Ecumenical Council, the Second Council of Lyons, was convened to try and reunite the Greek Church. This reunion was only temporary. It also added the filioque (“and the son”) to the Creed, which we still use today. Among other things, this council also affirmed the rules for the Papal Conclave, issued by the Papal Bull Ubi Periculum, of Pope Gregory X. This Papal Bull was finally fully affirmed and codified in Canon Law during the papacy of Boniface VIII (1294-1303). Since Pope Boniface VIII, all subsequent papal elections have taken place in conclave.

From the Council:

We confess faithfully and devoutly that the Holy Spirit proceeds eternally from Father and Son, not as from two principles, but from one, not by two spirations, but by one only. This the holy Roman Church, the mother and teacher of all the faithful, has so far professed, preached, and taught; this she continues to hold, to preach, to profess, and to teach. This is the unchangeable and true doctrine of the orthodox Fathers and Doctors, both Latin and Greek. However, some have fallen into various errors out of ignorance of the above indisputable truth.²⁰

15. Council of Vienne, 1311-1313

Pope: Clement V

The fifteenth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Vienne, was held in France during the Avignon papacy, and it was convened to address the Knights Templar, the Fraticelli, the Beghards, the Beguines. It also addressed the reformation of the clergy and called for assistance to the Holy Land.

From the Council:

All are faithfully to profess that there is one baptism that regenerates all those baptized in Christ, just as there is one God and one faith [cf. Eph 4:5]. We believe that when baptism is administered in water in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, it is a perfect means of salvation for both adults and children.²¹

16. Council of Constance, 1414-1418

Pope: Gregory XII and Martin V

The sixteenth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Constance, is fraught with controversy. This council sought an end to the Western Schism of the three popes (Gregory XII, John XXIII, and Benedict XIII). Once resolved, Martin V was elected Pope. The council, however, is only Ecumenical to the last session which were approved by Martin V. Also, John Wycliffe and Jan Hus were formally condemned at the council.

From the Council:

Most of the texts from the council are stating the errors of John Wycliffe and Jan Hus which together constitute about 75 articles.

17. Council of Florence, 1431-1439

Pope: Eugene IV

The seventeenth Ecumenical Council, the Council of Florence, dealt primarily with the reunion of the Eastern Churches. As a result, the Copts, the Syrians of Mesopotamia, the Chaldeans, and the Maronites of Cyprus were reunited.

From the Council:

Instead of quoting from the lengthy “union” documents, it will suffice to simply list them and, at your conveneince, you can look them up.

Bull of Union with the Greeks Laetentur caeli²²

Bull of Union with the Armenians Exsultate Deo²³

Bull of Union with the Copts and the Ethiopians Cantate Domino²⁴

18. Fifth Lateran Council, 1512-1517

Pope: Julius II and Leo X

The eighteenth Ecumenical Council, the Fifth Lateran Council, dealt primarily with disciplinary actions in the Church.

From the Council:

And, therefore, all those, whether living or dead, who have truly obtained all such indulgences are freed from the temporal punishment due to their actual sins according to divine justice in a measure equivalent to the indulgence granted and acquired.²⁵

19. Council of Trent, 1545-1563

Pope: Paul III, Julius III, Marcellus II, Paul IV, and Pius IV

The nineteenth and great Ecumenical Council of Trent was convened to counter the Protestant Reformation begun by Luther and the reformers. It dealt with the reform of the Church, the definition of the Sacraments, dogmatic questions, the formation of the Tridentine Mass, and the formation of the Seminary system.

From the Council:

Due to the historical importance of the decrees of the Council of Trent, and their wide distribution, I felt it not necessary to pull a single quote from these documents. Their availability is so wide than you can look them up and read them at your leisure.

20. First Vatican Council, 1869-1870

Pope: Pius IX

The twentieth Ecumenical Council, the First Vatican Council, addressed many doctrinal areas. Particularly, it defined Papal Infallibility, Divine Revelation, and many other areas relating to doctrine and faith.

From the Council:

That the Roman pontiff, when he speaks ex cathedra, that is, when, acting in the office of shepherd and teacher of all Christians, he defines, by virtue of his supreme apostolic authority, a doctrine concerning faith or morals to be held by the universal Church, possesses through the divine assistance promised to him in blessed Peter the infallibility with which the Divine Redeemer willed his Church to be endowed in defining the doctrine concerning faith or morals; and that such definitions of the Roman pontiff are therefore irreformable of themselves, not because of the consent of the Church.²⁶

21. Second Vatican Council, 1962-1965

Pope: St. John XXIII and St. Paul VI

The last Ecumenical Council, the Second Vatican Council, is the most recent Ecumenical Council. While not primarily a doctrinal council, this council addressed the missionary concerns of the Church, particularly as it relates to the Church in the modern world. The major reforms of the council include the reformation of the Mass, the Liturgy of the Hours, Divine Revelation, Evangelization, and ecumenism.

From the Council:

Once again, due to the wide availability of the Constitutions and Decrees, I felt the need to simple offer a brief overview to Vatican II. I will have more to say on this important council. You can find all the documents for free on the Vatican’s website.

Conclusion

The 21 Ecumenical Councils of the Church constitute the extraordinary universal Magisterium of the Church. Throughout the Church’s long history, heresy, schism, false popes, and wars have sought to put the Church asunder. But, as the councils witness to, and as the history of the Church witnesses to, the Holy Spirit is leading and guiding the Church, and “the powers of death shall not prevail against it.”²⁷

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1. Avery Cardinal Dulles, S.J., Magisterium: Teacher and Guardian of the Faith (Ave Maria: Sapientia Press of Ave Maria University, 2017), 67.

2. Dulles, S.J., Magisterium, 67-8.

3. Heinrich Denzinger. Enchiridion symbolorum, definitionum et declarationum de rebus fidei et morum. Compendium of Creeds, Definitions, and Declarations on Matters of Faith and Morals, revised, enlarged, and, in collaboration with Helmut Hoping, edited by Peter Hünermann for the original bilingual edition, edited by Robert Fastiggi and Anne Englund Nash for the English edition, 43rd ed. (San Francisco: Ignatius Press, 2012), 125. (hereafter DS).

4. DS, First Council of Constantinople, Introduction, p. 64.

5. DS 151.

6. DS 251. Bold is my own.

7. DS 302. Emphasis is my own.

8. DS 427.

9. DS 552.

10. DS 556.

11. DS 601.

12. DS, Fourth Council of Constantinople, Introduction, p. 223.

13. DS 662-663.

14. DS 712.

15. DS, Second Lateran Council, Introduction, p. 240.

16. DS 716.

17. DS 751.

18. DS 802.

19. DS 839.

20. DS 850.

21. DS 903.

22. DS 1300-1308.

23. DS 1310-1328.

24. DS 1330-1353.

25. DS 1448.

26. DS 3074.

27. Matthew 16:18.