Ecumenical councils

Ecumenical councils: (from oikoumenikos, ‘worldwide’) conferences of the bishops of the whole church; the first seven ‘universal’ councils of the orthodox church, given imperial confirmation and the binding force of the law: Nicaea I (325); Constantinople I (381); Ephesus (431); Chalcedon (451); Constantinople II (553); Constantinople III (680–1);
Nicaea II (787).