What happened at the Second Council of Constantinople?

Answer

In AD 553, the fifth ecumenical council of the Christian church was convened by decree of Emperor Justinian and led by Eutychus, the patriarch of Constantinople. This council, known as the Second Council of Constantinople, saw Pope Vigilius of Rome, who had been summoned to Constantinople against his will, express his displeasure by seeking sanctuary in a church for over seven months. Eventually, Pope Vigilius ended his protest by officially endorsing the council’s decisions in February of the following year.

The Second Council of Constantinople decreed fourteen anathemas, or condemnations, concerning the biblical doctrine of the dual nature of the Lord Jesus Christ. The Bible affirms that Jesus was fully God (John 1:1;John 8:58) and fully man “And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us, (and we beheld his glory, the glory as of the only begotten of the Father,) full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14). This union of two natures in one person is known as the hypostatic union. Denying Jesus’ divine nature is heretical, just as denying His human nature is equally heretical. The purpose of the fourteen anathemas issued by the Second Council of Constantinople was to silence false teachers who rejected the fundamental biblical teachings concerning the person and nature of the Lord Jesus Christ.

Emperor Justinian, convinced that strict religious conformity was essential to maintain the unity of the Byzantine Empire, called for the Second Council of Constantinople when factions within the church could not reach a consensus on the dual natures of Christ Jesus. In his pursuit of religious uniformity, Emperor Justinian had pagans baptized against their will, shut down schools that taught doctrines contrary to Christianity, and ruthlessly persecuted a group known as the Montanists. The Montanists held the belief that…

The Holy Spirit had given their leader, Montanus, new revelation. This “new revelation” dealt with personal conduct rather than doctrine. Believing Montanus to be a heretic, Emperor Justinian vigorously opposed his followers. Concerning Pope Vigilius’ opposition to the Second Council of Constantinople, Emperor Justinian threatened to prevent the pope from returning to Rome unless he agreed to the fourteen anathemas.

Nestorianism, a false belief that Christ was two separate persons, one human and one divine, had been adopted by some church leaders. This breach in orthodox Christology was expressed in writings that came to be known as the Three Chapters: the writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia, certain works of Theodoret of Cyrus, and the letter of Ibas to Maris. At the previous Council of Chalcedon, the Nestorian writings had been rebuked but not condemned outright. At the Second Council of Constantinople, the assembly reaffirmed their belief in Christ’s two natures while condemning those who believed there were “two Sons or two Christs.”

Also in error was monophysitism. The monophysites believed that Christ Jesus had only one nature, a teaching propagated by Cyril of Alexandria. Empress Theodora, herself a monophysite, had urged Justinian to call a council as a political maneuver to discredit the rival Nestorians. Justinian, who believed religious conformity would bring the empire back to its glory days, agreed to Theodora’s request by summoning the church’s leaders to Constantinople in 553.

In the end, erroneous teachings surrounding the person and nature of the Lord Jesus were condemned at the Second Council of Constantinople. Quite possibly, Emperor Justinian’s motives for calling the council were as political as they were theological, but the assembly stood firm against heretical teachings. Some may consider the disagreements among the various factions in Constantinople as theological hair-splitting, but the subject of Christology is hardly a peripheral issue. Every cult and ism, past and present, has been influenced by the Church’s stance on the nature of Christ.

Present, starts with an incorrect comprehension of the individual and essence of God. Our limited intellects cannot entirely grasp the profundity of Christ’s nature, but the clear instruction of Scripture is that He is entirely divine and entirely human. In the end, the fourteen anathemas proclaimed by the Second Council of Constantinople were warranted and essential.