Council of Constantinople (536)
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The Council of Constantinople was a conference of the endemic synod held in Constantinople, the capital of the Eastern Roman Empire, in May–June 536. It confirmed the deposition of the Patriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople and condemned three prominent anti-Chalcedonians living in Constantinople, causing the Emperor Justinian I to ban all four from the capital. The Council of Jerusalem held in September was convoked to condemn the same four as heretics. The condemned were the deposed Patriarch Severus of Antioch, the deposed Bishop Peter of Apamea and the monk Zoora.
The council had its roots in the Chalcedonian–Miaphysite controversy that peaked in Constantinople in 535–536 under Patriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople, who was accused of having Miaphysite sympathies.[1] The Chalcedonians launched a campaign for his removal and condemnation. Four concerned monks of Palestine sent a petition to the Emperor Justinian I. A further 96 signed a petition to Pope Agapetus I. Finally, 47 bishops and clerics endoumentes (resident) in Constantinople sent a petition to the pope.[2]
Agapetus arrived in Constantinople in February or March 536 on a diplomatic mission for the Ostrogothic king Theodahad. He refused to receive communion with Anthimus ostensibly on the grounds that the latter had been elected uncanonically. While this was true—he had transferred from the diocese of Trebizond—the real reason for the pope's refusal was probably his suspicions of the patriarch's theology. Agapetus may even have excommunicated the Empress Theodora, as Liberatus thought. Lacking support from the emperor, who had called for a council to meet in Constantinople in May, Anthimus resigned. He was replaced by Menas, who was consecrated by Agapetus on March 13.[1][3] Shortly after, Justinian issued an order (keleusis) to the new patriarch to convoke a synod to investigate Anthimus.[4]
It is probable that the removal of Anthimus had been planned for some time since the participation of Palestinian monks in the synod would only have been possible had they been apprised of the council before the arrival of the pope in Constantinople. As it went, they did not receive a formal invitation from the emperor until after Menas' election, when they must have already been on their way. The pope died suddenly in Constantinople on April 22.[1]