Deposed Photius and settled the Byzantine patriarchal quarrel — the last council held in the East, and the first the Orthodox do not receive.
- Where
- Constantinople — Istanbul, Turkey
- Convoked by
- The emperor Basil I with the patriarch Ignatius, following the demands of Pope Nicholas I
- Pope
- Hadrian II, who had succeeded Nicholas I; his legates Donatus, Stephen and Marinus presided
- Emperor
- Basil I
- Sat
- 5 October 869 to 28 February 870
- Sessions
- Ten sessions in Hagia Sophia. Attendance began at eighteen bishops and grew as the council went on
- Bishops present
- Fewer than 110 bishops signed the acts — small for an ecumenical council, and one reason its standing was later argued
What it faced
Photius was the finest scholar of his age and became patriarch of Constantinople in 858, when the emperor deposed Ignatius. He was a layman on the Monday and a patriarch within the week, which was irregular but not unprecedented. Rome, appealed to by both sides, judged for Ignatius; Photius replied by condemning Rome, and in 867 by attacking the Latin insertion of the Filioque and Latin missionary practice in Bulgaria.
Behind the personalities lay a real question: who settles a disputed patriarchal election in the East? Rome said the case came to her on appeal. Constantinople said the emperor and the Eastern synods had settled it already. And behind that lay Bulgaria, newly converted and claimed by both.
A palace coup in 867 killed the emperor Michael III, put Basil I on the throne and reinstated Ignatius. The council that followed was in effect a new regime settling accounts, with Roman legates presiding over it.
What it defined
- ✠That Photius was never lawfully patriarch, and that the ordinations he conferred are void.
- ✠That Ignatius is the lawful patriarch of Constantinople.
- ✠That sacred images are to be venerated with the honour given to the book of the Gospels — the East’s own Nicaea II, restated.
- ✠That no lay ruler may intervene in the election of a patriarch, metropolitan or bishop.
In its own words
“…the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ… is to be venerated with honour equal to that given to the book of the holy gospels.”
“…no lay authority or ruler may intervene in the election or promotion of a patriarch, metropolitan or any bishop.”
Its canons
The disciplinary rules it made — law, not doctrine, and most of them long since changed.
- Canon 3Icons are venerated with the honour given to the Gospel book — Nicaea II restated for the West.
- Canon 17Confirms the order of the five patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem.
- Canon 21Forbids writing or speaking against the patriarchs, and above all against the Roman see.
- Canon 22Excludes secular rulers from the election of bishops — the principle the West would fight for at Lateran I.
- ✕It did not end the quarrel with Photius. Ignatius died in 877, Photius returned as patriarch, and a council at Constantinople in 879–880 — with papal legates present — annulled the acts of this one.
- ✕It did not cause the Great Schism. That is nearly two centuries later. Rome and Constantinople remained in communion through most of the interval, and Photius himself died in communion with Rome.
- ✕It did not settle Bulgaria, which is what the participants most wanted. The Bulgarians went to Constantinople anyway, within days of the closing.
What people think it did
This council was the Great Schism, or caused it.
What happened: Neither. Communion continued after it and after Photius’s restoration. The mutual excommunications usually called the Great Schism date from 1054, and even those were exchanged between a papal legate and a patriarch rather than between the churches as such. The estrangement was a long process, and the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade in 1204 did more to make it permanent than any council did.
Photius was a schismatic who died condemned by Rome.
What happened: He was restored to the patriarchate in 877, recognised by Pope John VIII, and died in communion with Rome. He is a saint in the Orthodox Church. The Catholic Church has never canonised him and does not accept his account of the Filioque, but the picture of a man who died outside the Church is simply wrong.
What followed
This is the point where the two lists of ecumenical councils part company. The Orthodox count the council of 879–880, which restored Photius, as the eighth. The West counts this one — but only from the eleventh century: it appears in no Byzantine canonical collection, and it entered the Latin lists during the Gregorian reform, when its canons against lay investiture suddenly became useful.
That late reception is worth stating plainly, because it is the strongest thing an Orthodox critic can say about the Western list of twenty-one, and the honest answer is not to deny it.
In 1965 Paul VI and the patriarch Athenagoras jointly lifted the anathemas of 1054 from the memory of the Church. The two lists of councils remain different; the mutual excommunications no longer stand.
Follow it further
Sources
Every date, figure and quotation on this page was checked against the conciliar text or a published translation before it was written, and independently re-checked by three separate passes over dates, quotations and theology. Where the sources disagree — attendance figures above all — the page gives the range rather than choosing.