- The Orthodox church asserts seven ecumenical councils, so your point about the eighth council is moot.
And you had the hide to claim Nine_Two wasn’t answering your posts.
In actual fact the Orthodox Church asserts many councils though it only enumerates seven of them as Ecumenical. Your Church labelled the council of 879 as Ecumenical for 200 years and it was believed by 50 of your Popes to be Ecumenical until the reforms of Pope Gregory VII.
So for 200 years, both Rome and Constantinople accepted the council of 879 as the “Fourth Council of Constantinople”. This council, accepted by both Rome and Constantinople, not only healed the schism which had seperated Rome and Constantinople, but also repudiated the earlier council of 869 as a false council.
As Pope John VIII wrote to the council of 879, the same being read out at the council by his legates: **"We [Pope John VIII] wish that it is declared before the Synod, that the Synod which took place against the aforementioned Patriarch Photios at the time of Hadrian, the Most holy Pope in Rome, and [the Synod] in Constantinople [869/70] should be ostracized from this present moment and be regarded as annulled and groundless, and should not be co-enumerated with any other holy Synods."
In a letter he wrote to Patriarch Photius, he states:“As for the Synod that was summoned against your Reverence we have annulled here and have completely banished, and have ejected [it from our archives], because of the other causes and because our blessed predecessor Pope Hadrian did not subscribe to it…”**Apparently Pope Adrian II had not even signed the procedings of the 869 council, thus it cannot be listed among the Ecumenical Councils according to Latin standards since it had not been ratified by the Pope.
So for the reign of 50 Popes the Latin records listed the 879 council as the “Fourth Council of Constantinople” and the “Eighth Ecumenical Council”, however at the end of the 11th century, Rome suddenly did an about face, and without fanfare or explanation, shelved the 879 council and reinstated the false council of 869, calling
it the “Fourth Council of Constantinople” and “Eighth Ecumenical Council”. How do Catholics explain this reversal and what reason do they give for the removal of the 879 council from the records?
- Rubber stamp or not, we just cannot say that the Popoe’s approval was not crucial for acceptance as ecumenical.
Why not? The Eastern Churches certainly did not wait for the Pope’s approval as though he had some power of veto on the decisions of the councils, nor did some of the Western Churches.