A Source Book for Ancient Church History - Mirrors

735entirely with doctrinal matters and had not issued any disciplinarycanons. A new council might be gathered to complete thework of the Sixth General Council, not only to reaffirm it, butin connection with some much-needed legislation to retort uponthe West by condemning some Roman practices. In this waythe Second Trullan Council, or Concilium Quinisextum, cameabout in 692. The Roman see, in the meanwhile, although ithad triumphed at Constantinople in 681, did not enjoy an independentpolitical position in Italy. It was still under the RomanEmperor at Constantinople, as had been most painfully perceivedin the treatment of Martin I by Constans. Although the Popehad his apocrisiarius, or nuncio, at Constantinople, he came intoimmediate contact with the exarch of Ravenna, the Emperor'srepresentative in Italy. In Italy, furthermore, the Arian heresylong persisted among the Lombards, although greater tolerationwas shown the Catholic Church.Additional source material: The canons of the QuinisextCouncil may be found complete in Percival, Seven EcumenicalCouncils, PNF, ser. II, vol. XIV.(a) Concilium Quinisextum, A. D. 692, Canons. Bruns, I, 34, ff.This council was commonly regarded as the continuation ofthe Sixth General Council, and has been received in the East,not as a separate council, but as a part of the sixth. The Westhas never accepted this opinion and has only to a limitedextent admitted the authority of its canons, though some havebeen current in the West because, like much conciliar action,they were re-enactments of older canons. Occasionally someof the canons have been cited by popes as belonging to theSixth Council. The canons given here are, for the most part,those which were in some point in opposition to the Romanpractice.[674]