Ecumenical council
This is a general introduction to
ecumenical councils. For the Roman
Catholic councils, see Catholic
Ecumenical Councils.
An ecumenical council (or oecumenical
council; also general council) is a confer-
ence of the bishops of the whole Christian
Church convened to discuss and settle mat-
ters of Church doctrine and practice. The
word derives
from the Greek
language
"Οικουμένη", which literally means "the in-
habited world", which first referred to the
Roman Empire and later was extended to ap-
ply to the world in general.
Due to schisms, the acceptance of these
councils varies widely between different
branches of Christianity. Those churches that
parted ways with the others over christolo-
gical matters accept the councils prior to
their separation; the Assyrian church only ac-
cepts the first two, the Oriental Orthodoxy
churches the first three, as Ecumenical. Prior
to the East-West Schism the united Western
and Eastern Churches held the first eight
Ecumenical councils (meeting from the 4th to
the 9th century). They accept as Ecumenical
the same first seven but differ on the identity
of the eighth. While the Eastern Orthodox
Church has not generally accepted any later
synod as Ecumenical, the Roman Catholic
Church continues to hold Ecumenical Coun-
cils of those bishops in full communion with
the Pope and has counted twenty-one to date.
Anglicans and some Protestants, most
commonly Lutherans, accept either the first
seven or
the
first
four as Ecumenical
councils.
Council documents
Church councils were, from the beginning,
bureaucratic exercises. Written documents
were circulated, speeches made and respon-
ded to, votes taken, and final documents pub-
lished and distributed. A large part of what
we know about the beliefs of heresies comes
from the documents quoted in councils in
order to be refuted, or indeed only from the
deductions based on the refutations.
Most councils dealt not only with doctrinal
but also with disciplinary matters, which
were decided in canons ("rules"). In some
cases ot