The earliest Ecumenical Councils were held in the Eastern provinces based on the disputes arising from these locations and the reigning Pope usually sent Legates to represent him at the Council. They were held to define a common interpretation and understanding of Scripture and the Bible.

A Gathering of Bishops is recognized as Ecumenical once its works are approved by the Pope, even if not in attendance by him. Afterwards, the Pope would be briefed as the Decrees of the Council and state his agreement, thereby verifying that they were recognised as Ecumenical Councils.

Since the First Ecumenical Council in AD 325, the Holy Roman Church has defined the following:

  • God is a wholly consubstantial masculine entity that exists as a Trinity of Father, Son and Holy Spirit.
  • Jesus was both fully Man and God as One essence of God in divine manifest form.
  • Established Mary as the Mother of God
  • Man is incapable of earning his own salvation through his own natural powers and requires the Roman church to do so.
  • Jesus was born a divine being and therefore never separate from God in human form.
  • Established the Pope was appointed by God and therefore infallible and incapable of falsity and committing sin.
  • Jesus was born as the Son of God as God in human form.
  • The use of images or icons other than the Cross was idolatry and should be condemned.
  • All Eastern Churches should not be unified with the Holy Roman Catholic Church since AD 1054.
  • Only the Church could appoint Bishops and not the state.
  • Condemned any alternative views of Christianity subject to excommunication and death.
  • Sought annihilation of the Cathars, Albigensian and Knights Templar as a threat to the Catholic church.
  • Determined that the Pope had supremacy over any conclusions provided by the Ecumenical Council.
  • Opposed and denounced any view of the Protestant Reformation regarding teachings and views not held by the Holy Roman church.
  • Re-affirmed and defined papal infallibility and primacy that faith overrides reason in all church matters.
  • Established ‘de fide definita’ (“defined as being of the faith”) – that the teachings of the Holy Roman Church had been infallibly defined as revealed by God.

In 2000 years, the Holy Roman Church has grown to become the most powerful revered organisation in the world. Its continued dominance has been created through condemning, removing, annihilating, burning, excommunicating, opposing, denying, destroying, denouncing, war-ing, fighting and defeating all other religions, empires, countries, governments, factions, cults, movements, reformations, organisations, gatherings, councils, oppositions and States not supportive of its teachings and power over mankind.
The countless deaths of men, woman and children that have died as a result of the decrees and rulings of the Holy Roman Church in the name of Christ, amount to hundreds of millions of individuals. 

Snr. John Fisher – Bishop of Rochester, Cardinal of San Vitale
Appointed Cardinal by Pope Paul III May 1535,
Beheaded at King Henry VIII’s request in June 1535.
Confessor to Lady Margaret Beaufort, mother of Henry VII
Tutor to Prince Harry, later to become Henry VIII
Confessor and confidante to Queen Katherine of Aragon, first wife of Henry VIII.

Jerusalem Pre-Council
The Council of Jerusalem
AD 50 – Acts 15
The first general gathering of the Bishops of the Church.
St. Peter – Acts 15 “We believe it is through the grace of our Lord Jesus that we are saved”.

1. Nicaea I – Arianism
325
Pope Sylvester I, 314-335
Emperor Constantine, 306-337
Decisions: Condemned Arianism, which denied the divinity of Jesus stating that he was a man who became Christ through receiving the Holy Spirit from God; defined the consubstantiality of the Father and the Son and Holy Spirit as the same substance; fixed the date for Easter; began formulation of Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

2. Constantinople I – Arianism, Macedonianism
381
Pope Damasus I, 366-384
Emperor Theodosius, 379-395
Decisions: Recondemned Arianism; condemned Macedonianism, which denied the divinity of the Holy Spirit; completed the formulation of the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed.

3. Ephesus – Nestorianism, Pelagianism
431
Pope Celestine I, 422-432
Emperor Theodosius II, 408-450
Decisions: Condemned Nestorianism, which denied the unity of the divine and human in Christ; defined that Mary was the Mother of God (Theotokos), a doctrine denied by the Nestorians and by most of today’s Protestants; condemned Pelagianism, which held that man could earn his own salvation through his own natural powers.

4. Chalcedon – Monophysitism
451
Pope Leo the Great, 440-461
Emperor Marcian, 450-457
Decisions: Condemned Monophysitism (also called Eutychianism), which denied Christ’s human nature.

5. Constantinople II – Nestorianism
553
Pope Vigilius, 537-555
Emperor Justinian I, 527-565
Decisions: Condemned the Three Chapters, writings tainted by Nestorianism and composed by Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyr, and Ibas of Edessa.

6. Constantinople III – Monothelitism
680
Pope Agatho, 678-681
Emperor Constantine IV, 668-685
Decisions: Condemned Monothelitism, which held Christ had but one will, the divine (this heresy arose as a reaction to the monophysite heresy); censured Pope Honorius I for a letter in which he made an ambiguous but not infallible statement about the unity of operations in Christ.

7. Nicaea II – Iconoclasm
787
Pope Hadrian I, 772-795
Emperor Constantine VI, 780-797
Decisions: Condemned iconoclasm (which was mainly confined to the East), a heresy that held that the use of images constituted idolatry; condemned Adoptionism, which held that Christ was not the Son of God by nature but only by adoption, thereby denying the hypostatic union.

8. Constantinople IV – Adoptionism
869
Pope Hadrian II, 867-872
Emperor Basil, 867-886
Decisions: Recondemned Adoptionism; deposed Photius as patriarch of Constantinople, thereby ending the Photian Schism, but this did not completely remove disaffections between the West and the East (in 1054 came the final break, when the Eastern Orthodox Churches broke away from unity with Rome).

9. Lateran I – Concordat of Worms
1123
Pope Callistus II, 1119-1124
Emperor Henry V, 1105-1125
Decisions: Confirmed the Concordat of Worms (1122), in which the Pope and Emperor sought to end the dispute over investiture (the attempt by the secular powers to assume authority in appointing bishops; this was a main source of Church/state friction during the Middle Ages).

10. Lateran II – Papal Schism
1139
Pope Innocent II, 1130-1143
Emperor Conrad III, 1138-1152
Decisions: Ended a papal schism by antipope Anacletus II; reaffirmed baptism of infants; reaffirmed the sacramental nature of the priesthood, marriage, and the Eucharist against Medieval heretics; decreed that holy orders is an impediment to marriage, making the attempted marriage of a priest invalid.

11. Lateran III – Waldensianism, Albigensianism, Manichaenism
1179
Pope Alexander III, 1159-1181
Emperor Frederick Barbarossa, 1152-1190
Decisions: Regulated papal elections by requiring a two-thirds vote of the cardinals (see in this issue the article by Canon Francis J. Ripley, page 27); condemned Waldensianism and Albigensianism, a form of Manichaeanism (an ancient heresy that held that matter is evil; Albigensians opposed the authority of the state and of the Church, opposed the sacrament of matrimony, and practiced ritual suicide; despite these tenets, many anti-Catholics believe Albigensianism was the continuation of “real Christianity” during the Middle Ages and was a forerunner of Protestantism).

12. Lateran IV – Albigensianism
1215
Pope Innocent III, 1198-1216
Emperor Otto IV, 1209-1215
Decisions: Ordered annual reception of penance and the Eucharist; used the term “transubstantiation” to explain the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist; adopted further canons against the Albigensians.

13. Lyons I – Excommunication of Emperor Frederick II
1245
Pope Innocent IV, 1243-1254
Emperor Frederick II, 1220-1250
Decisions: Excommunicated and deposed Frederick II for heresy and crimes against the Church.

14. Lyons II – Temporary Union of Eastern Churches with the Roman Church
1274
Pope Gregory X, 1271-1276
Emperor Rudolf I, 1273-1291
Decisions: Effected only temporary union of the Eastern Churches with the Roman Church; promulgated regulations for conclaves.

15. Vienne – Condemnation of the Knights Templar
1311
Pope Clement V, 1305-1314
Emperor Henry VII, 1308-1313
Decisions: Suppressed the Knights Templars; issued decrees on the reform of morals.

16. Constance – The Great Schism – Three Popes, John Wycliffe, John Huss – Moravian Church
1414
Popes Gregory XII, 1406-1415
Emperor Sigismund, 1410-1437
Decisions: Ended the Great Schism, which involved three rival claimants to the papacy (see in this issue the article by Canon Francis J. Ripley, page 27); opposed the teachings of John Wycliffe, who taught sola scriptura, denied the authority of the pope and bishops, denied the Real Presence of Christ in the Eucharist, and wrote against penance and indulgences; condemned as a heretic John Huss, who denied papal authority and taught wrongly about the nature of the Church and who was burned at the stake in 1415 (in 1457 his followers established what became known commonly as the Moravian Church, which was the first independent Protestant church).

17. Florence – Papal Primacy reaffirmed over Conciliarists.
1438-1443
Pope Eugene IV, 1431-1447
Emperors: Albert II, 1438-1439
Frederick III, 1440-1493
Decisions: Reaffirmed papal primacy against claims of conciliarists that an ecumenical council is superior to a pope; approved reunion with several Eastern Churches, but the reunion was only temporary.

18. Lateran V – Rulings against Protestant Reformation
1512-1517
Popes Julius II, 1503-1513
Leo X, 1513-1521
Emperor Maximilian I, 1493-1519
Decisions: Opposed erroneous teachings about the soul; reaffirmed the doctrine of indulgences; restated the relationship between popes and ecumenical councils; on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, failed to inaugurate an authentic and thoroughgoing reform of the Church, inadvertently helping Protestantism.

19. Trent – Rulings against Protestant Reformers, reaffirmation of Catholic teachings.
1545-1549,
1551-1552,
1562-1563
Popes Paul III, 1534-1549
Julius III, 1550-1555
Pius IV, 1559-1565
Emperors Charles V, 1519-1558
Ferdinand I, 1558-1564
Decisions: Affirmed Catholic doctrines against the errors of the Protestant Reformers; reaffirmed teachings on the role of the Bible and Tradition, grace, sin, justification by faith (but not by “faith alone”), the Mass as a real sacrifice, purgatory, indulgences, jurisdiction of the pope; initiated the Counter-Reformation; reformed the clergy and morals; promoted religious instruction; ordered the establishment of seminaries for the future training of priests.

20. Vatican I – Definition of Papal Infallibility
1869-1870
Pope Pius IX, 1846-1878
Decisions: Defined papal infallibility and primacy; condemned errors regarding the relationship between faith and reason (the council was cut short by war, its work to be taken up again by Vatican II).

21. Vatican II – Reformation of the Catholic Church in line with Modernism
1962-1965
Popes John XXIII, 1958-1963
Paul VI, 1963-1978
Decisions: Issued pastoral documents on the renewal and reform of the Church, intending the make the Church more effective in dealing with the contemporary world.