The Second Council of Constantinople

A century after the Council of Chalcedon the churches of the East were still divided over that council. The emperor Justinian I told the bishops that he held it his chief task to reunite the churches and bring the four councils to general acceptance. Nestorians, he wrote, were bringing in their teaching through three things: the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, what Theodoret had written against Cyril of Alexandria and the first council of Ephesus, and a letter attributed to Ibas, which they claimed Chalcedon had accepted (Council of Constantinople (553) session 1, letter of Justinian). These were the “Three Chapters”.

Pope Vigilius, whom officers of the court had taken from Rome and brought to Constantinople (Liber Pontificalis 61 (Vigilius)), had condemned the Three Chapters more than once but would not do so together with the council (Council of Constantinople (553) session 7). When the council met in 553, with the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria and Antioch among the bishops whom the emperor addressed (Council of Constantinople (553) session 1, letter of Justinian), he stayed away (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.38). He sent word that he had written his own judgment for the emperor. Justinian ordered his name removed from the prayers of the churches, and the bishops agreed while declaring that they kept unity with the apostolic see (Council of Constantinople (553) session 7).

The council’s sentence professes the faith of the four earlier councils and then condemns Theodore and his writings, the writings of Theodoret against Cyril and against the council of Ephesus, and the letter said to be by Ibas, together with anyone who defends them in the name of Chalcedon (Council of Constantinople (553) sentence). Fourteen capitula follow. They teach one person or hypostasis in Christ, allow both the phrase “in two natures” and Cyril’s phrase about the one incarnate nature of God the Word if each is rightly understood, call the crucified Christ “one of the Holy Trinity”, and name Origen among the heretics (Council of Constantinople (553) capitula 5–11). Evagrius adds that the council examined and condemned the teachings of Origen’s followers (Evagrius, Ecclesiastical History 4.38).

On 8 December 553 Vigilius wrote to Eutychius, patriarch of Constantinople, that further study had shown him his error, and he anathematized the Three Chapters and annulled what he had written in their defence (Council of Constantinople (553) letter of Vigilius to Eutychius). He died at Syracuse on his way home (Liber Pontificalis 61 (Vigilius)). In the West the decision was resisted. Some forty years on, Gregory the Great was still writing to bishops who remained in schism over it, assuring them that the council had changed nothing in the faith and had judged only persons (Gregory the Great, Letters 2.51), and he told the Eastern patriarchs that he venerated the fifth council with the four (Gregory the Great, Letters 1.25).