Canons and Letters of the Council of Constantinople (381)

The council of 381 left no acts. Its own documents are a covering letter to Theodosius, which reports that the bishops ratified the faith of Nicaea, condemned the heresies opposed to it and drew up canons, and the canons themselves, headed with the date 9 July 381. The Greek collections count seven canons. The Latin collections have only the first four, and the last three are generally thought to come from the council of 382 or later. The letter of 382, addressed to Damasus of Rome, Ambrose of Milan and other western bishops, is copied by Theodoret into his Church History (5.9); it gives a summary of the eastern bishops’ faith and mentions a longer statement, a “tome”, issued in 381, which is lost.

These texts are first-hand evidence for what the bishops decided. The creed that bears the council’s name is not among them. It is known from the acts of the Council of Chalcedon seventy years later and has its own record, the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Percival’s volume prints the documents with long notes of his own and of older commentators; only the documents are cited here.