Not a word about Peter.
Pentarchy - Wikipedia
Pentarchy (from the
Greek Πενταρχία,
pentarchía, from πέντε
pénte, "five", and ἄρχειν
archein, "to rule") is a model of Church organization historically championed in the
Eastern Orthodox Church. It found its fullest expression in the laws of Emperor
Justinian I of the
Byzantine Empire. In the model, the
Christian church is governed by the heads (
patriarchs) of the five major
episcopal sees of the
Roman Empire:
Rome,
Constantinople,
Alexandria,
Antioch, and
Jerusalem.
[2]
The idea came about because of the political and ecclesiastical prominence of these five sees, but the concept of their universal and exclusive authority was firmly tied to the administrative structure of the Roman Empire. The pentarchy was first legally expressed in the legislation of Emperor
Justinian I (527–565), particularly in
Novella 131.
The Quinisext Council of 692 gave it formal recognition and ranked the sees in order of preeminence. Especially following Quinisext, the pentarchy was at least philosophically accepted in Eastern Orthodoxy, but generally not in the
West, which rejected the Council, and the concept of the pentarchy.
[3]
The greater authority of these sees in relation to others was tied to their political and ecclesiastical prominence; all were located in important cities and regions of the Roman Empire and were important centers of the Christian Church. Rome, Alexandria and Antioch were
prominent from the time of early Christianity, while Constantinople came to the fore upon becoming the imperial residence in the 4th century. Thereafter it was consistently ranked just after Rome.
Jerusalem received a ceremonial place due to the city's importance in the
early days of Christianity. Justinian and the Quinisext Council excluded from their pentarchical arrangement churches outside the empire, such as the then-flourishing
Church of the East in
Sassanid Persia, which they saw as
heretical. Within the empire they recognized only the
Chalcedonian (or
Melchite) incumbents, regarding as illegitimate the
non-Chalcedonian claimants of
Alexandria and
Antioch.
Infighting among the sees, and particularly the rivalry between Rome (which considered itself
preeminent over all the church) and Constantinople (which came to hold sway over the other
Eastern seesand which saw itself as equal to Rome, with Rome "
first among equals"), prevented the pentarchy from ever becoming a functioning administrative reality. The
Islamic conquests of Alexandria, Jerusalem, and Antioch in the
7th century left Constantinople the only practical authority in the East, and afterward the concept of a "pentarchy" retained little more than symbolic significance.
Tensions between East and West, which culminated in the
East–West Schism, and the rise of powerful, largely independent
metropolitan sees and patriarchates outside the
Byzantine Empire in
Bulgaria,
Serbia, and
Russia, eroded the importance of the old imperial sees. Today, only the sees of Rome and Constantinople still hold considerable authority over a Christian church, the first being the head of the
Roman Catholic Church and the second having symbolic hegemony over the
Orthodox Church.
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Quinisext Council - Wikipedia
The
Quinisext Council (often called the
Council in Trullo,
Trullan Council, or the
Penthekte Synod) was a church council held in 692 at
Constantinople under
Justinian II. It is often known as the
Council in Trullo, because like the
Sixth Ecumenical Council it was held in a domed hall in the Imperial Palace (τρούλος [
troulos] meaning a cup or dome). Both the
Fifth and the Sixth Ecumenical Councils had omitted to draw up disciplinary
canons, and as this council was intended to complete both in this respect, it took the name of Quinisext (
Latin:
Concilium Quinisextum,
Koine Greek: Πενθέκτη Σύνοδος,
Penthékti Sýnodos), i.e. the Fifth-Sixth Council. It was attended by 215
bishops, all from the
Eastern Roman Empire. Basil of Gortyna in
Crete, however, belonged to the Roman
patriarchate and called himself
papal legate, though no evidence is extant of his right to use that title.
Many of the Council's canons were reiterations. It endorsed not only the six
ecumenical councils already held (canon 1), but also the
Apostolic Canons, the
Synod of Laodicea, the
Third Synod of Carthage, and the
39th Festal Letter of Athanasius (canon 2).
[1]
The Council banned certain festivals and practices which were thought to have a pagan origin[
which?] (hence the Council gives some insight to historians about pre-Christian religious practices).
[2]
Many of the council's canons were aimed at settling differences in ritual observance and clerical discipline in different parts of the Christian Church. Being held under Byzantine auspices, with an exclusively Eastern clergy, these overwhelmingly took the practice of the Church of Constantinople as orthodox.
[2] It explicitly condemned some customs of Armenian Christians – among them using wine unmixed with water for the Eucharist (canon 32), choosing children of clergy for appointment as clergy (canon 33), and eating eggs and cheese on Saturdays and Sundays of Lent (canon 56) – and decreed deposition for clergy and excommunication for laypeople who contravened the canons prohibiting these practices. Likewise, it reprobated, with similar penalties, the Roman customs of requiring perpetual continence (even outside of times of serving at the altar) of those ordained to the diaconate or priesthood (canon 13), and fasting on Saturdays of Lent (canon 55). Without explicitly mentioning the Roman Church, it also reprobated celebration of the Eucharist on days in Lent other than Saturdays, Sundays, and the feast of the Annunciation (canon 52).
While the
Orthodox Church widely considers this council an addendum to the Fifth and Sixth Ecumenical Councils, adding its canons thereto[
citation needed], the
Roman Catholic Church has never accepted the council as authoritative or in any sense
ecumenical. In the West,
Venerable Bede calls it (in
De sexta mundi aetate) a "reprobate"
synod, and
Paul the Deacon an "erratic" one.
[3] For the attitude of the
Roman bishops, in face of the various attempts to obtain their approval of these canons see
Hefele.
[4] However,
Pope Hadrian I did write favourably of the canons of this council.
[5]
The Pope of the time of the council,
Sergius I, who was of Syrian origin, rejected it, preferring, he said, "to die rather than consent to erroneous novelties": though a loyal subject of the Empire, he would not be "its captive in matters of religion" and refused to sign the canons.
[6] Emperor
Justinian II ordered his arrest and abduction to Constantinople by the notoriously violent
protospatharios Zacharias.
[7] However, the militia of the
exarchate of Ravenna frustrated the attempt.
[8] Zacharias nearly lost his life in his attempt to arrest Sergius I.
[9][10] Louis Duchesne suggests that it was in protest against the Council's banning of representations of Christ as a
Lamb that Pope Sergius introduced the singing of the
Agnus Dei at the
breaking of the
host at
Mass.
[11]
In
Visigothic Spain, the council was ratified by the
Eighteenth Council of Toledo at the urging of the king,
Wittiza (694 – probably 710), who was vilified by later chroniclers for his decision.
[12] Fruela I of Asturias (757–768) reversed the decision.
[12]
Forgive me...