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{{Short description|381 AD council of Christian bishops}}
{{For|the earlier Council of Constantinople in 359 dominated by Arians|Council of Constantinople (360)}}
{{Infobox ecumenical council
| council_name = First Council of Constantinople
| council_date = 381
| image = Homilies of Gregory the Theologian gr. 510, f 723.jpg
| caption = 9th-century Byzantine manuscript illumination of the First Council of Constantinople, ''[[Paris Gregory|Homilies of St. Gregory of Nazianzus]]'', 879–883
| accepted_by = {{plainlist|
* [[Catholic Church]]
* [[Eastern Orthodox Church]]
* [[Oriental Orthodox Church]]
* [[Church of the East]]
* [[Lutheran Church]]es
* [[Anglican Church]]es
* [[Reformed Church]]es}}
| previous = [[First Council of Nicaea]]
| next = {{plainlist|
* [[Council of Ephesus]] ([[Roman imperial Church]])
* [[Council of Seleucia-Ctesiphon]]<br>(Church of the East)}}
| convoked_by = Emperor [[Theodosius I]]
| presided_by = [[Timothy I of Alexandria|Timothy of Alexandria]], [[Meletius of Antioch]], [[Gregory of Nazianzus]],<br>and [[Nectarius of Constantinople]]
| attendance = 150 (no representation of Western Church)
| topics = [[Arianism]], [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]]
| documents = [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Nicene Creed of 381]], 7 [[canon law|canon]]s (3 disputed)
}}
{{Oriental Orthodox sidebar|expanded=history}}
{{Eastern Orthodox sidebar|expanded=councils}}
{{Ecumenical councils of the Catholic Church}}

The '''First Council of Constantinople''' ({{langx|la|Concilium Constantinopolitanum}}; {{langx|grc|Σύνοδος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως}}) was a council of Christian bishops convened in [[Constantinople]] (now [[Istanbul]], [[Turkey]]) in AD 381 by the [[Roman Emperors|Roman Emperor]] [[Theodosius I]].<ref>[[Socrates Scholasticus]], ''Church History'', book 5, chapters 8 & 11, puts the council in the same year as the revolt of Magnus Maximus and death of Gratian.</ref><ref>{{ cite book |last1=Hebblewhite |first1=M. |title=Theodosius and the Limits of Empire|pages= 56ff |year=2020}}</ref> This second [[ecumenical council]], an effort to attain [[consensus decision-making|consensus]] in the church through an [[legislature|assembly]] representing all of [[Christendom]], except for the [[Western Church]],<ref name="dictionary">Richard Kieckhefer (1989). "Papacy". ''[[Dictionary of the Middle Ages]]''. {{ISBN|0-684-18275-0}}.</ref> confirmed the [[Nicene Creed]], expanding the doctrine thereof to produce the [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed]], and dealt with sundry other matters. It met from May to July 381<ref>{{Cite web|title=Catholic Encyclopedia: First Council of Constantinople|url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04308a.htm|access-date=2021-06-02|website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref> in the [[Hagia Irene|Church of Hagia Irene]] and was affirmed as ecumenical in 451 at the [[Council of Chalcedon]] for [[Chalcedonian Christianity]] and the [[Second Council of Ephesus]] for the [[Oriental Orthodox Churches]].

==Background==
When Theodosius ascended to the imperial throne in 380, he began on a campaign to bring the Eastern Church back to Nicene Christianity. Theodosius wanted to further unify the entire empire behind the orthodox position and decided to convene a church council to resolve matters of faith and discipline.<ref name="Ruether">{{citation |author-link=Rosemary Radford Ruether |last=Ruether |first=Rosemary Radford |title=Gregory of Nazianzus: Rhetor and Philosopher | publisher = Oxford University Press | year = 1969}}</ref>{{rp |45}} [[Gregory Nazianzus]] was of similar mind, wishing to unify Christianity. In the spring of 381 they convened the second ecumenical council in Constantinople.{{citation needed|date=December 2024}}

===Theological context===
The [[First Council of Nicaea|Council of Nicaea]] in 325 had not ended the [[Arianism|Arian]] controversy which it had been called to clarify. [[Arius]] and his sympathizers, e.g. [[Eusebius of Nicomedia]], were admitted back into the church after ostensibly accepting the Nicene creed. [[Athanasius]], bishop of [[Alexandria]], the most vocal opponent of Arianism, was ultimately exiled through the machinations of Eusebius of Nicomedia. After the death of [[Constantine I]] in 337 and the accession of his Arian-leaning son [[Constantius II]], open discussion of replacing the Nicene creed itself began. Up until about 360, theological debates mainly dealt with the divinity of the Son, the second person of the [[Trinity]]. However, because the Council of Nicaea had not clarified the divinity of the [[Holy Spirit in Christianity|Holy Spirit]], the third person of the Trinity, it became a topic of debate. The [[Macedonians (religious group)|Macedonians]] denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit. This was also known as [[Pneumatomachi]]anism.<ref>{{Cite web |title=CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pneumatomachi |url=https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12174a.htm |access-date=2025-05-10 |website=www.newadvent.org}}</ref>

[[Nicene Christianity]] also had its defenders: apart from Athanasius, the [[Cappadocian Fathers]]' Trinitarian discourse was influential in the council at [[Constantinople]]. [[Apollinaris of Laodicea]], another pro-Nicene theologian, proved controversial. Possibly in an over-reaction to Arianism and its teaching that [[Jesus|Christ]] was created and not eternal, he taught that Christ consisted of a human body and a divine mind, rejecting the belief that Christ had a complete human nature, including a human mind.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Alister McGrath |last=McGrath |first=Alister |year=1998 |title=Historical Theology, An Introduction to the History of Christian Thought |location=Oxford |publisher=Blackwell Publishers |chapter=The Patristic Period |isbn=0-631-20843-7 |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/historicaltheolo0000mcgr }}</ref> He was charged with confounding the persons of the [[Godhead (Christianity)|Godhead]], and with giving in to the heretical ways of [[Sabellius]]. [[Basil of Caesarea]] accused him of abandoning the literal sense of the scripture, and taking up wholly with the allegorical sense. His views were condemned in a [[Synod]] at [[Alexandria]], under [[Athanasius of Alexandria]], in 362, and later subdivided into several different heresies, the main ones of which were the [[Polemian]]s and the [[Antidicomarianite]]s.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Antidicomarianites |url=https://catholicism.en-academic.com/849/Antidicomarianites |access-date=2025-05-10 |website=Academic Dictionaries and Encyclopedias |language=en}}</ref>

===Geopolitical context===
Theodosius' strong commitment to Nicene Christianity involved a calculated risk because Constantinople, the imperial capital of the Eastern Empire, was solidly Arian. To complicate matters, the two leading factions of Nicene Christianity in the East, the Alexandrians and the supporters of Meletius in Antioch, were "bitterly divided ... almost to the point of complete animosity".<ref name="McGuckinP235">McGuckin, p. 235</ref>

The bishops of Alexandria and Rome had worked over a number of years to keep the see of Constantinople from stabilizing. Thus, when Gregory was selected as a candidate for the bishopric of Constantinople, both Alexandria and Rome opposed him because of his Antiochene background.{{Citation needed|date=May 2021}}

===Meletian schism===
{{See also|Meletius of Antioch}}
{{expand section|date=October 2011}}
===See of Constantinople===
The incumbent bishop of Constantinople was Demophilus, a [[homoiousia|Homoian]] Arian. On his accession to the imperial throne, Theodosius offered to confirm Demophilus as bishop of the imperial city on the condition of accepting the [[Nicene Creed]]; however, Demophilus refused to abandon his Arian beliefs, and was immediately ordered to give up his churches and leave Constantinople.<ref>{{harvnb|Onslow|1911}} cites Socr. H. E. v. 7.</ref><ref name="Butler2006">{{cite book|author=Alban Butler|title=The Lives of the Fathers, Martyrs, and Other Principal Saints; Compiled from Original Monuments, and Other Authentic Records|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=XeBclBLATNEC&pg=PA280|access-date=22 October 2011|date=May 2006|publisher=Kessinger Publishing|isbn=978-1-4286-1025-5|pages=280–}}</ref> After forty years under the control of Arian bishops, the churches of Constantinople were now restored to those who subscribed to the Nicene Creed; Arians were also ejected from the churches of other cities in the Eastern Roman Empire thus re-establishing Christian [[orthodoxy]] in the East.{{sfn|Onslow|1911}}

There ensued a contest to control the newly recovered see. A group led by [[Archbishop Maximus I of Constantinople|Maximus the Cynic]] gained the support of Patriarch Peter of Alexandria by playing on his jealousy of the newly created see of Constantinople. They conceived a plan to install a cleric subservient to Peter as bishop of Constantinople so that Alexandria would retain the leadership of the Eastern Churches.<ref name="The Church standard">{{cite book|title=The Church standard|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=1kVJAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA125|access-date=21 October 2011|year=1906|publisher=Walter N. Hering|pages=125–}}</ref> Many commentators characterize Maximus as having been proud, arrogant and ambitious. However, it is not clear the extent to which Maximus sought this position due to his own ambition or if he was merely a pawn in the power struggle.{{citation needed|date=October 2011}} In any event, the plot was set into motion when, on a night when Gregory was confined by illness, the conspirators burst into the cathedral and commenced the consecration of Maximus as bishop of Constantinople. They had seated Maximus on the [[archiepiscopal]] throne and had just begun shearing away his long curls when the day dawned. The news of what was transpiring quickly spread and everybody rushed to the church. The [[magistrate]]s appeared with their officers; Maximus and his consecrators were driven from the cathedral, and ultimately completed the tonsure in the tenement of a flute-player.<ref name="McGuckinP318">McGuckin p. 318</ref>

The news of the brazen attempt to usurp the episcopal throne aroused the anger of the local populace among whom Gregory was popular. Maximus withdrew to [[Thessalonica]] to lay his cause before the emperor but met with a cold reception there. Theodosius committed the matter to [[Ascholius]], the much respected [[bishop of Thessalonica]], charging him to seek the counsel of [[Pope Damasus I]].<ref>{{harvnb|Venables|1911}} cites [[Migne]], ''[[Patrologia Latina]]'' xiii. pp. 366–369; Epp. 5, 5, 6.</ref>

Damasus' response repudiated Maximus summarily and advised Theodosius to summon a council of bishops for the purpose of settling various church issues such as the schism in Antioch and the consecration of a proper bishop for the see of Constantinople.<ref name="Lincoln.)1882">{{cite book|author=Christopher Wordsworth (bp. of Lincoln.)|title=A Church history|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=i-ICAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA312|access-date=21 October 2011|year=1882|publisher=Rivingtons|pages=312–}}</ref> Damasus condemned the translation of bishops from one see to another and urged Theodosius to "take care that a bishop who is above reproach is chosen for that see."<ref name="Marique1962">{{cite book|author=Joseph Marie Felix Marique|title=Leaders of Iberean Christianity, 50–650 A.D.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2kkbAAAAMAAJ|access-date=23 October 2011|year=1962|publisher=St. Paul Editions|page=59}}</ref>

==Proceedings==
[[Image:Gregor-Chora (cropped).jpg|150px|thumb|left| Gregory of Nazianzus presided over part of the council.]]

Thirty-six [[Pneumatomachi]]ans arrived but were denied admission to the council when they refused to accept the Nicene creed.

Since Peter, the Pope of Alexandria, was not present, the presidency over the council was given to [[Meletius of Antioch|Meletius]] as Patriarch of Antioch.<ref>{{cite book |title=Catholic Encyclopedia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HSWpSJINLRwC&pg=PR3 |access-date=10 September 2013|last1 = Herbermann|first1 = Charles|year = 1907}}</ref> The first order of business before the council was to declare the clandestine consecration of Maximus invalid, and to confirm Theodosius' installation of [[Gregory Nazianzus]] as Archbishop of Constantinople. When Meletius died shortly after the opening of the council, Gregory was selected to lead the council.

The Egyptian and Macedonian bishops who had supported Maximus's ordination arrived late for the council. Once there, they refused to recognise Gregory's position as head of the church of Constantinople, arguing that his transfer from the See of Sasima was canonically illegitimate because one of the canons of the Council of Nicaea had forbidden bishops to transfer from their sees.<ref name="McGuckin">McGuckin</ref>{{rp |358–9}}

McGuckin describes Gregory as physically exhausted and worried that he was losing the confidence of the bishops and the emperor.<ref name=McGuckin />{{rp |359}} Ayres goes further and asserts that Gregory quickly made himself unpopular among the bishops by supporting the losing candidate for the bishopric of Antioch and vehemently opposing any compromise with the Homoiousians.<ref name="Ayres2006">{{cite book|author=Lewis Ayres|title=Nicaea and its legacy: an approach to fourth-century Trinitarian theology|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CYbDjXRz5-0C&pg=PA254|access-date=21 October 2011|date=3 May 2006|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-875505-0}}</ref>{{rp|254}}

Rather than press his case and risk further division, Gregory decided to resign his office: "Let me be as the Prophet Jonah! I was responsible for the storm, but I would sacrifice myself for the salvation of the ship. Seize me and throw me... I was not happy when I ascended the throne, and gladly would I descend it."<ref>''[[Patrologia Graeca|PG]]'', 37.1157–9, ''Carm. de vita sua'', ll 1828–55.</ref> He shocked the council with his surprise resignation and then delivered a dramatic speech to Theodosius asking to be released from his offices. The emperor, moved by his words, applauded, commended his labor, and granted his resignation. The council asked him to appear once more for a farewell ritual and celebratory orations. Gregory used this occasion to deliver a final address (Or. 42) and then departed.<ref name=McGuckin />{{rp |361}}

[[Archbishop Nectarius of Constantinople|Nectarius]], an unbaptized civil official, was chosen to succeed Gregory as president of the council.<ref name=Ayres2006 />{{rp|255}}

==Canons==
Seven [[canon law|canon]]s, four of these doctrinal canons and three disciplinary canons, are attributed to the council and accepted by both the [[Eastern Orthodoxy|Eastern Orthodox Church]] and the [[Oriental Orthodoxy|Oriental Orthodox Churches]]; the [[Roman Catholic|Roman Catholic Church]] accepts only the first four<ref name="SevenCouncils">{{cite web |url=http://www.ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-14/Npnf2-14-59.htm#P3825_663549 |title=NPNF2-14. The Seven Ecumenical Councils |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |date=2005-06-01 |access-date=2013-08-25 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060615214631/http://ccel.org/fathers2/NPNF2-14/Npnf2-14-59.htm#P3825_663549 |archive-date=2006-06-15 |url-status=dead }}</ref> because only the first four appear in the oldest copies and there is evidence that the last three were later additions.<ref name="FirstCouncil">{{cite web |url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04308a.htm |title=NPNF2-14. First Council of Constantinople |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |access-date=2015-08-24}}</ref>

* The first canon is an important dogmatic condemnation of all shades of Arianism, and also of Macedonianism and [[Apollinarianism]].<ref name="SevenCouncils" />
* The second canon renewed the Nicene legislation imposing upon the bishops the observance of diocesan and patriarchal limits.<ref name="SevenCouncils" />
* The third canon reads:{{Blockquote|The Bishop of Constantinople, however, shall have the prerogative of honour after the [[Bishop of Rome]] because [[Constantinople]] is [[New Rome]].<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.viii.iv.html |title=NPNF2-14. Canon III |website=Christian Classics Ethereal Library |date=2005-06-01 |access-date=2011-10-27}}</ref><ref name=FirstCouncil /><ref name=SevenCouncils />}}
* The fourth canon decreed the consecration of [[Archbishop Maximus I of Constantinople|Maximus]] as [[Bishop of Constantinople]] to be invalid, declaring "that [Maximus] neither was nor is a bishop, nor are they who have been ordained by him in any rank of the clergy".<ref name="SevenCouncils" /><ref>{{harvnb|Venables|1911}} cites [[Philippe Labbe]], ''Concilia'', ii. 947, 954, 959.</ref> This canon was directed not only against Maximus, but also against the Egyptian bishops who had conspired to consecrate him clandestinely at Constantinople, and against any subordinate ecclesiastics that he might have ordained in Egypt.<ref name="Ullmann1851">{{cite book|author=Carl Ullmann|title=Gregory of Nazianzum |translator-first=G. V. |translator-last=Cox |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=QdcCAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA241|access-date=21 October 2011|year=1851|pages=241ff}}</ref>
* The fifth canon might actually have been passed the next year, 382, and is in regard to a ''Tome'' of the Western bishops, perhaps that of [[Pope Damasus I]].<ref name="SevenCouncils" />
* The sixth canon might belong to the year 382 as well and was subsequently passed at the [[Quinisext Council]] as canon 95. It limits the ability to accuse bishops of wrongdoing.<ref name="SevenCouncils" />
* The seventh canon regards procedures for receiving certain heretics into the church.<ref name="SevenCouncils" />

==Dispute concerning the third canon==
The third canon was a first step in the rising importance of the new imperial capital, just fifty years old, and was notable in that it demoted the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria. Jerusalem, as the site of the first church, retained its place of honor. It originally did not elicit controversy, as the Papal legate [[Paschasinus]] and a partisan of his, [[Diogenes of Cyzicus]], reference the canon as being in force during the first session of the [[Council of Chalcedon]].<ref>Richard Price and Michael Gaddis, The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon Vol 1, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, p. 159</ref> According to Eusebius of Dorlyeum, another Papal ally during Chalcedon, "I myself read this very canon [Canon 3] to the most holy pope in Rome in the presence of the clerics of Constantinople and he accepted it."<ref>Richard Price and Michael Gaddis, The Acts of the Council of Chalcedon Vol 3, Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, p. 89</ref>

Nevertheless, controversy has ensued since then. The status of the canon became questioned after disputes over Canon 28 of the [[Council of Chalcedon]] erupted. [[Pope Leo the Great]],<ref>Ep. cvi in P.L., LIV, 1003, 1005.</ref> declared that this canon had never been submitted to Rome and that their lessened honor was a violation of the Nicene council order. Throughout the next several centuries, the [[Western Christianity|Western Church]] asserted that the Bishop of Rome had supreme authority, and by the time of the [[East–West Schism|Great Schism]] the [[Roman Catholic Church]] based its claim to supremacy on the [[apostolic succession|succession]] of [[St. Peter]]. At the [[Fourth Council of Constantinople (Catholic Church)|Fourth Council of Constantinople]] (869), the Roman legates<ref>[[J. D. Mansi]], XVI, 174.</ref> asserted the place of the bishop of Rome's honor over the bishop of Constantinople's.
After the Great Schism of 1054, in 1215 the [[Fourth Lateran Council]] declared, in its fifth canon, that the Roman Church "by the will of God holds over all others pre-eminence of ordinary power as the mother and mistress of all the faithful".<ref>[http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/basis/lateran4.asp The Canons of the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215]</ref><ref>[[J. D. Mansi]], XXII, 991.</ref> Roman supremacy over the whole world was formally claimed by the new Latin patriarch. The Roman correctores of Gratian,<ref>(1582), at dist. xxii, c. 3.</ref> insert the words: "canon hic ex iis est quos apostolica Romana sedes a principio et longo post tempore non recipit" ("this canon is one of those that the Apostolic See of Rome has not accepted from the beginning and ever since").{{cn|date=October 2024}}

Later on, [[Baronius]] asserted that the third canon was not authentic, not in fact decreed by the council. Contrarily, roughly contemporaneous Greeks maintained that it did not declare supremacy of the [[Bishop of Rome]], but the primacy; "the first among equals", similar to how they today view the [[Bishop of Constantinople]].{{cn|date=October 2024}}

==Aftermath==
It has been asserted by many that a synod was held by [[Pope Damasus I]] in the following year (382) which opposed the disciplinary canons of the Council of Constantinople, especially the third canon which placed Constantinople above Alexandria and Antioch. The synod protested against this raising of the bishop of the new imperial capital, just fifty years old, to a status higher than that of the bishops of Alexandria and Antioch, and stated that the primacy of the Roman see had not been established by a gathering of bishops but rather by Christ himself.<ref name="Chadwick2001">{{cite book|author=Henry Chadwick|title=The church in ancient society: from Galilee to Gregory the Great|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=s4aBJWNCDNkC&pg=PA429|access-date=25 October 2011|year=2001|publisher=Oxford University Press|isbn=978-0-19-924695-3|page=429}}</ref><ref name="R&EC">{{cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Hje62q52XNsC&pg=PA202 |title=Rome and the Eastern Churches|orig-year= (T & T Clark) 1992|pages= 202–203 |year= 2010|isbn=978-1586172824 |access-date=2011-10-27|last1=Nichols |first1=Aidan }}</ref>{{refn|In opposition to this view, Francis Dvornik asserts that not only did Damasus offer "no protest against the elevation of Constantinople", that change in the primacy of the major sees was effected in an "altogether friendly atmosphere." According to Dvornik, "Everyone continued to regard the Bishop of Rome as the first bishop of the Empire, and the head of the church."<ref name="Dvornik1966">{{cite book|first=Francis |last=Dvornik|title=Byzantium and the Roman primacy|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WwfZAAAAMAAJ|access-date=17 October 2011|year=1966|publisher=Fordham University Press|page=47 |quote=Pope Damasus offered no protest against the elevation of Constantinople, even though Alexandria had always been, in the past, in close contact with Rome. This event, which has often been considered the first conflict between Rome and Byzantium, actually took place in an altogether friendly atmosphere. Everyone continued to regard the Bishop of Rome as the first bishop of the Empire, and the head of the church.}}</ref>|group=note}} Thomas Shahan says that, according to Photius too, Pope Damasus approved the council, but he adds that, if any part of the council were approved by this pope, it could have been only its revision of the [[Nicene Creed]], as was the case also when Gregory the Great recognized it as one of the four general councils, but only in its dogmatic utterances.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04308a.htm |title=Thomas Shahan, "First Council of Constantinople" in ''The Catholic Encyclopedia'' |publisher=Newadvent.org |access-date=2011-10-27}}</ref>

===Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed===
{{main|Nicene Creed}}Traditionally, the [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed]] has been associated with the Council of Constantinople (381). It is roughly theologically equivalent to the [[Nicene Creed#Original Nicene Creed of 325|Nicene Creed]], but includes two additional articles: an article on the Holy Spirit—describing Him as "the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father, Who with the Father and the Son is worshipped and glorified, and Who spoke through the prophets"—and an article about the church, baptism, and the resurrection of the dead. (For the full text of both creeds, see [[Nicene Creed#Comparison between creed of 325 and creed of 381|Comparison between Creed of 325 and Creed of 381]].)

However, scholars are not agreed on the connection between the Council of Constantinople and the Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed. Some modern scholars believe that this creed, or something close to it, was stated by the bishops at Constantinople, but not promulgated as an official act of the council. Scholars also dispute whether this creed was simply an expansion of the Creed of Nicaea, or whether it was an expansion of another traditional creed similar but not identical to the one from Nicaea.<ref>{{cite web |title = Encyclopædia Britannica |url=https://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/413955/Nicene-Creed |access-date=November 9, 2012}}</ref> In 451, the [[Council of Chalcedon]] referred to this creed as "the creed ... of the 150 saintly fathers assembled in Constantinople",<ref>{{cite book |title=Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils |url=https://archive.org/details/decreesofecumeni0000norm_l8e1 |url-access=registration |editor-first=Norman |editor-last=Tanner |editor2-first=Giuseppe |editor2-last=Alberigo |location= Washington, DC |publisher=Georgetown University Press |year=1990 |isbn=0-87840-490-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/decreesofecumeni0000norm_l8e1/page/n245 84] }}</ref> indicating that this creed was associated with Constantinople (381) no later than 451.

===Christology===
This council condemned [[Arianism]] which began to die out with further condemnations at a [[council of Aquileia, 381|council of Aquileia]] by [[Ambrose of Milan]] in 381. With the discussion of [[Trinitarianism|Trinitarian]] doctrine now developed, the focus of discussion changed to [[Christology]], which would be the topic of the [[First Council of Ephesus|Council of Ephesus]] of 431 and the [[Council of Chalcedon]] of 451.

===Shift of influence from Rome to Constantinople===
David Eastman cites the First Council of Constantinople as another example of the waning influence of Rome over the East. He notes that all three of the presiding bishops came from the East. Damasus had considered both Meletius and Gregory to be illegitimate bishops of their respective sees and yet, as Eastman and others point out, the Eastern bishops paid no heed to his opinions in this regard.<ref name="Eastman2011">{{cite book|author=David L. Eastman|title=Paul the Martyr: The Cult of the Apostle in the Latin West|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=NswF2j8IISMC&pg=PA103|access-date=27 October 2011|year=2011|publisher=Society of Biblical Lit|isbn=978-1-58983-515-3|page=103}}</ref>

The First Council of Constantinople (381) was the first appearance of the term 'New Rome' in connection to Constantinople. The term was employed as the grounds for giving the relatively young church of Constantinople precedence over Alexandria and Antioch ('because it is the New Rome'). Later, after the [[Council of Ephesus]], influence would shift to Alexandria from both Rome and Constantinople, which prompted Rome to intervene with its [[Council of Chalcedon]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=Wayback Machine |url=http://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3512/SchwerinBishop.pdf |archive-url=http://web.archive.org/web/20170805133528/http://essays.wls.wels.net/bitstream/handle/123456789/3512/SchwerinBishop.pdf |archive-date=2017-08-05 |access-date=2025-05-10 |website=essays.wls.wels.net}}</ref>

==Liturgical commemorations==
The 150 individuals at the council are commemorated in the [[Calendar of saints (Armenian Apostolic Church)|Calendar of saints]] of the [[Armenian Apostolic Church]] on February 17.

The [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] in some places (e.g. Russia) has a feast day for the Fathers of the First Six Ecumenical Councils on the Sunday nearest to July 13<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.orthlib.info/Menaia/Rjadovaja-Minea/11-July/jul16.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927172719/http://www.orthlib.info/Menaia/Rjadovaja-Minea/11-July/jul16.pdf |archive-date=2013-09-27 |url-status=live |title=Menaion – July 13 |access-date=25 August 2013}}</ref> and on May 22.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Богослужебные тексты – Рядовая Минея – Июль – 16 июля: Священномученика Афиногена и десяти учеников его. Святые отцов шести Вселенских соборов |url=http://www.orthlib.info/Menaia/Rjadovaja-Minea/11-July/jul16.pdf |url-status=live |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130927172719/http://www.orthlib.info/Menaia/Rjadovaja-Minea/11-July/jul16.pdf |archive-date=2013-09-27 |access-date=2013-08-28 |website=OrthLib}}</ref>

==See also==
* [[Second Council of Constantinople]]
* [[Third Council of Constantinople]]

==Notes==
{{Reflist|group=note}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

===Works cited===
* {{Cite DCBL |first=P. |last=Onslow |date=1911 |wstitle=Demophilus}}
* {{Cite DCBL |last=Venables |first=E. |date=1911 |author-link=Edmund Venables |wstitle=Atticus, archbp. of Constantinople}}

==Further reading==
* Giuseppe Alberigo, ed., ''Conciliorum Oecumenicoum Generaliumque Decreta'', vol. 1 (Turnhout, 2006), pp.&nbsp;35–70.
* {{cite book |title=AD 381: Heretics, Pagans and the Christian State |last=Freeman |first=Charles |author-link=Charles Freeman (historian) |year=2009 |publisher=Pimlico |isbn=978-1-84595-007-1 }}
* {{cite book |title=Theodosius and the Limits of Empire |last=Hebblewhite |first=Mark |year=2020 |publisher=Routledge }}
* {{cite book |first=John Anthony |last=McGuckin |title=St. Gregory of Nazianzus: An Intellectual Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7jervOqijlwC&pg=PA235 |access-date=25 October 2011 |year=2001 |location=Crestwood, NY |publisher=St Vladimir's Seminary Press |isbn=0-88141-229-5 }}
* {{Cite book|last=Kelly|first=John N. D.|author-link=John Norman Davidson Kelly|title=Early Christian Creeds|year=2006|orig-year=1972|edition=3rd|location=London-New York|publisher=Continuum|isbn=978-0826492166|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Titk-TEYqD4C}}
* {{Cite book|last=Ritter|first=Adolf Martin|title=Das Konzil von Konstantinopel und sein Symbol: Studien zur Geschichte und Theologie des II. Ökumenischen Konzils|year=1965|location=Göttingen|publisher=Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=WZAAAAAAMAAJ}}

==External links==
*[http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04308a.htm Catholic Encyclopedia: First Council of Constantinople]
*[http://www.religioustolerance.org/chr_hise.htm Council of Constantinople]
*[http://www.legionofmarytidewater.com/faith/ECUM02.HTM Council of Constantinople]
*[https://earlychurchtexts.com/public/constantinople_canons.htm Canons]

{{Ecumenical councils}}
{{Christian History}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}
{{Portal bar|Catholicism|Christianity}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:First Council Of Constantinople}}
[[Category:380s in the Byzantine Empire]]
[[Category:4th-century church councils|Constantinople]]
[[Category:Church councils in Constantinople]]
[[Category:Theodosian dynasty]]
[[Category:First seven ecumenical councils|Constantinople 1]]
[[Category:Trinitarianism]]
[[Category:381]]
[[Category:Theodosius I]]