Important News! This Just In! Ecumenical Councils!

You might want to sit down for this: It has been recently discovered that there are 21 Church Councils accepted as ecumenical by the Roman Catholic Church.  Shockingly, only one of those councils is the one commonly referred to a Vatican II.  It does happen to be the most recent, but it is also the only one to have been deemed "pastoral" in nature.  It is the only Council ever to definitively not define any new doctrine.  It was not called in reaction to a crisis or particular heresy.  It did not anathematize anyone and any idea.

And yet... it is the only ecumenical council that can be simply referred to as "the Council."  If you read the Catechism of the Catholic Church, you will likely notice that "the Council" is the main source of citation. 

I would like to do more research about the history of ecumenical councils prior to "the Council."  There is no question that the first 7 councils were very important.  The First Council of Nicea in the 4th Century determined that the faithful should not kneel during the Liturgy on Sundays.  Heck, one Council (Constatinople III) even posthumously excommunicated the Pope!

It turns out, the first seven Councils, which sorted out important issues relating to, among other things, Christology, were not called by the Pope and really had no involvement from the Bishop of Rome.  In fact, the first seven Councils involved mainly bishops from the Eastern Churches.  The first Council called by the Pope was Lateran I in the 12th Century. 

After the first seven Councils, educated minds seem to disagree about their importance (and their ecumenicity - for the non-Catholics, anyway).  You have a few "pseudo-councils" and "robber councils."  You have a few ecumenical councils that really did very little and were never implemented.  There are ecumenical councils that dealt mainly with political issues about legitimate princes.  Councils attempted to heal the Great Schism between East and West, they discussed purgatory (or not), icons (or not), leavened bread for Holy Communion (or not)... 

Of course, the Council of Trent is the most important Council since the original seven.  The Council of Trent responded scholastically to the major tenets of Protestantism and set the course of scholasticism in the Western Church. 

The history of the councils is very interesting.  I hope to read more about it in the future.  Perhaps, when I have done so I will post more thoughts on this interesting subject.