Quinisext Council

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Quinisext Council
Eastern Orthodox canon law
Chronological list of ecumenical councils

The Quinisext Council (

Koinē Greek: Πενθέκτη Σύνοδος, romanized: Penthékti Sýnodos), i.e., the Fifth-Sixth Council, often called the Council in Trullo, Trullan Council, or the Penthekte Synod, was a church council held in 692 at Constantinople under Justinian II. It is known as the "Council in Trullo" because, like the Sixth Ecumenical Council, it was held in a domed hall in the Imperial Palace (τρούλος [troúlos], meaning a cup or dome). Both the Fifth and the Sixth Ecumenical Councils had omitted to draw up disciplinary canons
, and as this council was intended to complete both in this respect, it took the name of Quinisext.

Decisions

Many of the council's

Ban on pre-Christian practices

The Council banned certain festivals and practices which were thought to have a Pagan origin. Therefore, the Council gives some insight to historians about pre-Christian religious practices.

Ritual observance

Many of the council's canons were aimed at settling differences in ritual observance and clerical discipline in different parts of Christendom. Being held under Byzantine auspices, with an exclusively Eastern clergy, these overwhelmingly took the practice of the Church of Constantinople as orthodox.[2]

Armenian practices

The council explicitly condemned some customs of Armenian Christians; among them using wine unmixed with water for the Eucharist (canon 32), choosing children of clergy for appointment as clergy (canon 33), and eating eggs and cheese on Saturdays and Sundays of Lent (canon 56). And the council proclaimed deposition for clergy and excommunication for laypeople who contravened the canons prohibiting these practices.[5]

Roman practices

Likewise, it reprobated, with similar penalties, the

diaconate or priesthood unless they vowed for perpetual continence and living separately from their wives (canon 13), and fasting on Saturdays of Lent (canon 55). Nevertheless, it also prescribed continence during those times when serving at the altar (canon 13). Without contrasting with the practice of the Roman Church, it also prescribed that the celebration of the Eucharist in Lent should only happen in Saturdays, Sundays, and the feast of the Annunciation (canon 52).[1][5]

Eucharist, liturgy, evangelising, baptism

Grapes, milk and honey were not to be offered at the altar. Whoever came to receive the Eucharist should receive in the hand by holding his hands in the form of a cross. The Eucharist was not allowed to be given to dead bodies. During the liturgy the psalms were to be sung in modest and dulcet tones, and the phrase 'who was crucified for us' was not to be added to the Trisagion. Prelates were to preach the gospel as propounded by the fathers. Priests received special instructions on how to deal with those who were not baptized and they were also given rubrics to follow on how to admit heretics to the faith.[5]

Moral guidelines for clerics and laity

In addition to these, the council also condemned clerics that had improper or illicit relations with women. It condemned simony and the charging of fees for administering the Eucharist. It enjoined those in holy orders from entering public houses, engaging in usurious practices, attending horse races in the

house of prostitution, engage in abortion, arrange hair in ornate plaits or to promote pornography. It also ordered law students at the University of Constantinople to cease wearing "clothing contrary to the general custom".[4][5]

Acceptance

The Quinisext canons found their way into Byzantine

Gratian (twelfth-century) cited many of the Quinisext Canons in his own great collection of canons, the Concord of Discordant Canons. Where, however, they clashed with western canons or practice, he set them aside as representing Byzantine practice but lacking universal validity. Gratian's work remained authoritative in the West until the first systematic Code of Catholic Canon Law, issued in 1917.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ a b "CHURCH FATHERS: Council in Trullo (A.D. 692)". www.newadvent.org. Retrieved 2023-08-22.
  2. ^ .
  3. . Retrieved Nov 17, 2021.
  4. ^ a b Canon 71
  5. ^ a b c d Andrew Ekonomou. Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes. Lexington Books, 2007
  6. ^ Richard Price, The Canons of the Quinisext Council, Liverpool 2020, 34-54.

Further reading

External links