I always knew the generally accepted number of 21 ecumenical councils as recognized by Rome. However, I read an article on the columbia.edu website that says “Although councils can declare themselves ecumenical, this designation has often been applied retrospectively; even the Roman Catholic Church has no formal decree on the number of ecumenical councils.” (
www.learn.columbia.edu’ma/htm/sw/ma_sw_prim_ecumen_council.htm)
- Just wondering on the “no formal decree” thing.
I think that’s basically true. The only formal decrees relating to the subject that I can think of are those given at the Ecumenical Councils themselves in reference to themselves and their predecessors. For example, the Council of Constance says: “I will firmly believe and hold the catholic faith, according to the traditions of the apostles, of the general councils and of other holy fathers, especially of the eight holy universal councils-namely the first at Nicaea, the second at Constantinople, the third at Ephesus, the fourth at Chalcedon, the fifth and sixth at Constantinople, the seventh at Nicaea and the eighth at Constantinople—as well as of the general councils at the Lateran, Lyons and Vienne.” (
Session 39)
On the face of it, that profession appears to accept eleven councils at the very least. In fact, it is more, because there were four Councils at the Lateran and two at Lyons. Unless I’m missing something, that single profession brings us up to 15 Councils accepted in an official, dogmatic Church document. In
Session 14, the Council calls itself “this most holy general synod of Constance.” That brings us up to 16 in that one Council alone.
The next Council, the Council of Florence, affirmed the ecumenical authority of Constance (in Session 9: “the holy general council of Constance”) and its own ecumenical authority (Session 11: “this sacred ecumenical council of Florence.”)
That should bring us up to 17, because Florence affirms Constance plus itself, and by affirming Constance it affirmed the 16 Councils that Constance affirmed. 16 + itself = 17.
The next Council, the Fifth Lateran Council, affirmed the ecumenical authority of itself in Session 2: “this sacred ecumenical council.” But it does not appear to have affirmed its predecessor, at least not that I can tell, and so I don’t think we can use any document of it as an official list of all councils up to its time.
The next Council, the Council of Trent, affirmed itself (Session 3: “This sacred and holy, ecumenical, and general Synod of Trent”) and its predecessor (Session 5: “the general Council (of Lateran)”), but still not Florence, so again I don’t think any of Tridentine documents can be used as an official list of all councils up to its time.
The next Council, Vatican I, affirmed itself (Session 1: “the holy ecumenical Vatican council”), Trent (Session 2: “the ecumenical councils, especially the sacred Trent”), and Florence (Session 4: “the ecumenical Council of Florence”). Florence affirmed the previous 17, Trent affirmed itself and Lateran 5, and Vatican 1 affirmed all of that plus itself – that brings us up to 20 ecumenical councils affirmed in the official, dogmatic decrees of one Council.
The next Council, Vatican II, affirmed itself (Decree Concerning the Pastoral Office of Bishops: “This sacred ecumenical synod”) and its predecessor (Dogmatic Constitution on Divine Revelation: “following in the footsteps of the Council of Trent and of the First Vatican Council”), but it does not appear to explicitly call Vatican 1 ecumenical. Thus, I think the best you could do is assert that Vatican 1 officially and implicitly declared 20 councils to be ecumenical, and Vatican II added one to this.
I hope that helps.
- Also, that the designation is applied retrospectively. This sounds more like the Orthodox position, and I was under the assumption a council is considered ecumenical from the ratification of the Pope?
A Council is considered ecumenical from the ratification of the Pope, but I think the Pope sometimes ratifies it retrospectively. I think that happened with the Second Ecumenical Council, for example.
Please let me know if that helps. God bless!
