Quinisext Council

Both the Fifth Ecumenical Council and the Sixth Ecumenical Council failed to produce disciplinary norms, for which reason the emperor Justinian II convoked an assembly in 692 to meet in Constantinople in the same domed hall where the Sixth Council had been held, called "in Trullo" (=under the dome). As it sought to complete the fifth and sixth councils, it is often called the Quinisext Council. No western bishops were invited, though Basil of Gortyna, Illyria, of the Latin rite, claimed to be a papal legate (most Catholics dispute this). The council discussed primarily Church discipline, allowing priests to be married, while requiring bishops to be celibate (see also clerical celibacy). The council anathematized practices not in accord with those of Constantinople. As a prefiguring of Iconoclasm, the Council also banned the depiction in religious art of Christ as the paschal lamb, dictating instead that he should always be shown as a man. The 102 disciplinary norms (often repeating decisions of earlier councils) formed the basis for Orthodox canon law.