Constantinople III and Constantinople IV: Minorities Posing as the Voice of the Whole Church

Abstract Decisions at ecumenical councils required ‘unanimous’ consensus. This paper treats two councils, Constantinople III (680–81) and Constantinople IV (869–70), which issued decrees where the claim to unanimity was particularly contrived. Although the Acts of Constantinople III try to hide the fact, the account in the Liber pontificalis shows that it took imperial pressure and months of debate before the bishops of the patriarchate of Constantinople came over to the ‘orthodox’, dyothelete side. At Constantinople IV the lack of support for its anti-Photian decrees is shown by minimal number of bishops who chose to attend. These two councils are examples of ‘ecumenical’ decisions that, so far from being unanimous, enjoyed the genuine support of only a minority.