Council of Constantinople, Introductory Note (editor's introduction)

The acts of this Council are found in Balsamon, page 761 of the Paris edition, with Hervetus’s translation. Labbe has taken Balsamon’s text and inserted it into his Collection, from which the following translation is made. There is another version extant in Leunclavius, Jus Græco-Roman. p. 247.

On September the twenty-ninth of the year 394, a magnificent church, dedicated to SS. Peter and Paul, built by the munificence of Rufinus the Prætoreal prefect, and situated at a place called “the Oaks,” a suburb of Chalcedon, was consecrated. Most scholars have adopted Tillemont’s suggestion that this was the occasion which brought the patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch to Constantinople, and that occasion was taken advantage of to hold a synod with regard to the dispute as to the see of Bostra. At this council, in accordance with the canon of the Second Ecumenical Council, adopted only a dozen years before, Constantinople took the first place and its bishop presided, but so strong was the hold of Alexandria that three centuries afterwards the Quinisext Synod speaks of this council as held “under Nectarius and Theophilus.” In passing it may not be amiss to remark that St. Gregory of Nyssa and Theodore of Mopsuestia, and Flavian were present at this council! Well may Tillemont exclaim, “It is remarkable to see Theophilus there with Flavian, although they were not in communion with each other.”