Constantinople, Third Council of

Constantinople, Third Council of,

680, regarded by Roman Catholic and Orthodox Eastern churches as the sixth ecumenical council. It was convoked by Byzantine Emperor Constantine IVConstantine IV,
c.652–685, Byzantine emperor (668–85), son and successor of Constans II. He defended Constantinople against the annual naval attacks of the Muslims, who finally withdrew in 678; Greek fire was a conspicuous weapon in the defense.
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 to deal with MonotheletismMonotheletism
or Monothelitism
[Gr.,=one will], 7th-century opinion condemned as heretical by the Third Council of Constantinople in 680 (see Constantinople, Third Council of).
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. The council was attended by more than 150 bishops from all over the world, and it was presided over by the papal legates. It condemned Monotheletism very clearly by defining the orthodox faith as the acceptance of a separate will and operation in each of the natures of Christ. It also condemned several churchmen as Monothelites, among them an earlier pope, Honorius IHonorius I
, pope (625–38), an Italian; successor of Boniface V. He showed great interest in the church in Spain and the British Isles, and he did a great deal to reform the education of the clergy.
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. The condemnation of Honorius is a much-discussed point in church history. The Orthodox Church accepts as an ecumenical part of the Third Council of Constantinople the Council of 692, summoned by Justinian IIJustinian II
(Justinian Rhinotmetus), 669–711, Byzantine emperor (685–95, 705–11), son and successor of Constantine IV. He successfully invaded Arab territory but lost the advantage through a truce that ceded much of Asia Minor to the Arabs.
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, son and successor of Constantine. It is called in the West the Trullan Synod because it met in the Trullo, i.e., in the dome of the palace at Constantinople, or the Quinisext Synod [Lat.,=fifth-sixth] because it is considered in the East to supplement the fifth and sixth ecumenical councils. The Trullan Synod was entirely legislative, and its principal work was the pronouncement of the obligation to observe the canons of the Apostolic ConstitutionsConstitutions, Apostolic,
late-4th-century compilation, in eight books, of administrative canons for the clergy and the laity and of guides for worship. They were supposed to be works of the apostles, but actually included the greater part of the Didascalia Apostolorum,
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. There was apparently in the legislation an anti-Western tone, and certain practices of the West were condemned.