Quinisext Council (Council in Trullo) (692)

M. C. STEENBERG

The Quinisext Council (Latin, quinisextum, “fifth-sixth”: so named as it was seen to complete the work of the fifth and sixth ecumenical councils) was convened in 692 by Emperor Justinian II and held in Constantinople’s Trullo (“domed”) palace, where the sixth council had convened in 681 (hence its alternate name, the Council in Trullo, or Troullo). Its purpose was to issue legislative canons, which neither the fifth nor sixth councils had done. These include injunctions against fasting on Sat­urdays, celebrating full liturgies on week­days in Great Lent, and so on. Many of the canons address differences in Eastern and Western Church practice, and this, together with the lack of western representation at the council, ensured its disputed place in the ecumenical conciliar lists of the Western Churches, while in the Byzantine world it was widely assigned the same ecumenical status of its conciliar predecessors.

SEE ALSO: Canon Law; Ecumenical Councils

REFERENCES AND SUGGESTED READINGS

Davis, L. D. (1987) The First Seven Ecumenical Councils: Their History and Theology.

Wilmington: Michael Glazier.

Meyendorff, J. (1989) Imperial Unity and Christian Divisions: The Church 450–680 ad. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir’s Seminary Press.