CANONS OF THE FIFTH-SIXTH COUNCIL (CONCILIUM QUINISEXTUM) – IMPROPER PRACTICES IN ROME AND ARMENIA VIEWED FROM THE PERSPECTIVE OF THE EASTERN CHURCH IN THE 7TH CENTURY
/КАНОНИ ПЕТО-ШЕСТОГ САБОРА – НЕПРАВИЛНЕ ПРАКСЕ У РИМУ И ЈЕРМЕНИЈИ САГЛЕДАНЕ ИЗ ПЕРСПЕКТИВЕ ИСТОЧНЕ ЦРКВЕ У 7. ВЕКУ/

Ivica CAIROVIC

assistant professor, Faculty of Orthodox Theology, University of Belgrade, Mije Kovacevića 11б, 11060 Belgrade, Republic of Serbia, icairovic@bfspc.bg.ac.rs, 00381112762732, ORCID: 0000-0003-4677-7897

Abstract

In this study is noted an irregular practice in Rome and Armenia, which over time became a custom in these Churches, and are explored the canons of the Fifth-Sixth Council held in Constantinople in 691/692. The importance of these canons and the council's condemnation of improper practices and behavior of clerics in Rome and Armenia was shown in the later centuries, when the Roman and Armenian Churches created circumstances for later schism. By referring to these canons, the relationship between Constantinople and the entire East on the one hand, and Rome and the Armenian regions, on the other hand, is followed. The aim of the research is to explain the beginnings of all divergences between East and West before 1054 and the Great Schism, among which are the canons of the Fifth and Sixth Councils (Concilium Quinisextum).

Keywords

Fifth-sixth council, canon, Constantinople, Rome, Jerome, Justinian II.

SUMMARY

Pope Sergius I (687-701) did not sign the canons of the Council of Trulli, so Emperor Justinian II tried to convince the pope to sign the canons through military and political pressure, but he did not succeeded. Sergius I. did not participate in this council, while the gathered Fathers, mainly from the east of the Empire, considered the participation of Bishop Basil of Crete as a representation of the Roman Cathedral, because Crete - at that time - fell under Roman jurisdiction. However, the participation of representatives of the Cretan Church was not at the level of the papal legate. The Pope rejected the council's canons and expressed concern because the canons showed many novelties. Andrej Ikonomu pointed out that the council's decisions on the anathematization of Pope Honorius I were unacceptable to the pope, as well as the identification of the privileges of Constantinople and Rome, and the Roman acceptance of only the first fifty Apostolic rules.
Emperor Justinian II was deposed and after a ten-year period, during the second government, he again asked the Pope - now John VII - to agree with the canons passed at the Council of Trullo, but now more tactfully. The emperor begs the pope to review 102 canons, to correct or reject all that he thinks should be corrected, and the pope, as the son of a Byzantine official and a timid man, refused to correct the canons and returned the intact document to the emperor. Since there was soon a change in the Roman cathedral, the emperor turned to Pope Constantine and ordered him to come to the capital in October 710, and the pope left with a large entourage for Constantinople. This Roman delegation was met by Tiberius, the emperor's heir, because the emperor was in Nicomedia, so he invited the pope to join him. When the canons of Trulli were reexamined, the deacon Gregory, the deputy pope, defended the Roman position so convincingly that the emperor himself wavered at one point. According to Kartashov, the pope accepted all the canons, which were not against the Orthodox faith, and the emperor reconciled with the Roman bishop and the views of the delegation and confirmed the status of the Roman cathedral. However, the heir to the imperial throne, the Armenian Vardan, known as Philippicus, rejected the religious policy of Emperor Justinian II and the Orthodox views of the Sixth Ecumenical and Trullian Councils, and declared monothelitism. In this way, the consequences of the Council of Trula were undermined, because in the new circumstances, until further notice, the validity of the canon was not discussed by Rome and Armenia.

(Language: serbian)

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