The Second Ecumenical Council. An attempt at the reconstruction of the proceedings

The Second Ecumenical Council (also known as the First Council of Constantinople), held in Constantinople in 381 AD, is in many ways unique in the history of ecumenical councils. Its uniqueness lies, among other things, in the scarcity of written sources describing this event. No documents from the Council are extant. All that has remained is passing references by fifth century historians and chance remarks on the Council in letters. An important, although rather singular, source on the Second Ecumenical Council is St Gregory of Nazianzus’s autobiographical poem. We can also rely on the documents which were the fruit of the Council: the canons, the Symbol and a letter written to the Emperor Theodosius I at the conclusion of the Council. The information included in these documents is not entirely coherent. This paper aims to reconstruct the proceedings of the Council on the basis of the available evidence.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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