Which Councils Are Not Listed in "The Rudder" of Saint Nicodemus, and Why?

Protopresbyter Dimitrios Athanasiou | July 14, 2026

 

 

The Omission of the Eighth Ecumenical Council (879-880) from The Rudder

The omission of the Eighth Ecumenical Council (the Council of 879–880 under Photios the Great) from The Rudder of Saint Nicodemus constitutes an exceptionally interesting historical and canonical question, since this omission was not due to ignorance or an undervaluing of the Council on the part of Saint Nicodemus—who had boundless respect for Photios the Great—but to specific historical, editorial, and strategic considerations of his time, at the end of the eighteenth century.

1. The Official Ecclesiastical Numbering of the Period

During the period of Ottoman rule, reference to Seven Ecumenical Councils had become established in the Orthodox East (the last being the Seventh, held at Nicaea in 787). Although the Council of 879–880 possessed all the characteristics and authority of an Ecumenical Council (representatives of all the Patriarchates and of Pope John VIII participated in it, while it also confirmed the Seventh Ecumenical Council), the Orthodox Church had not, at that time, proceeded to an official and solemn proclamation of it as the “Eighth” by any subsequent general council. Consequently, Saint Nicodemus, following the traditional structure of the Byzantine Nomocanons upon which he based his work, retained the classical numbering of the Seven Ecumenical Councils so as not to cause confusion or accusations of innovation.

2. The Fear of Western Reaction and Censorship

The Rudder was printed in Leipzig, Germany, in 1800, at a time when the Orthodox Church was under the Ottoman yoke and did not possess its own free printing presses capable of producing such voluminous works. This meant that the explicit proclamation and analysis of an “Orthodox Eighth Ecumenical Council”—which condemned the Filioque and annulled the decisions of the anti-Photian Council of 869–870 (which the Roman Catholic Church recognizes as its own Eighth Ecumenical Council)—in a book printed in the heart of Europe would have provoked a storm of reactions from the Roman Curia and the Western authorities, placing the publication in immediate danger of confiscation, prohibition of circulation, or even refusal to print it.

3. The Indirect Strategy of Saint Nicodemus

Saint Nicodemus chose a more indirect yet substantive course, for instead of provoking controversy by numbering it the “Eighth Ecumenical Council” (something that would have given the enemies of the Church a pretext to block the work), he included and interpreted the three Sacred Canons of this Council (which convened “in the Church of Hagia Sophia”) and indirectly attributed ecumenical authority to it [in the English edition, under the name “Temple of the Holy Wisdom – trans. note], extolling its authority in his interpretations and referring to Photios the Great with the most laudatory titles, thereby implicitly recognizing that its decisions possess the force of an Ecumenical Council, since they were accepted by the entire Church in both East and West.

4. Summary Concerning the Council of 879-880.

The omission of any reference to the Council of 879–880 as the “Eighth Ecumenical Council” in The Rudder was a necessary historical and editorial concession (economy) of the period, so that this monumental work might succeed in being printed in the West and reach safely the hands of the subjugated Orthodox, without, however, diminishing in the slightest the dogmatic and canonical value of the decisions of Photios the Great.

Which Other Councils are Not Included, and Why

In order to understand why many important Councils are absent (such as, for example, the Hesychast/Palamite Councils of the fourteenth century or other local councils), we must clarify that The Rudder is neither a historical book nor a collection of theological decisions, but the “Nomocanonical” book of the Church. Consequently, its contents were selected according to strict criteria concerning the distinction between “Canons” (which regulate administration and order) and “Dogmas” (which define the Faith), since dogmatic decisions (such as those of the Councils of 1341 and 1351 under Saint Gregory Palamas concerning the Uncreated Light) did not produce canonical legislation and therefore had no place in a practical guide.

The Practical Purpose and Consolidation of the Canons

Saint Nicodemus compiled The Rudder as a functional handbook for practical use by spiritual fathers and clergy, avoiding turning it into a vast and difficult-to-understand historical encyclopedia. He based it on the principle that the canonical tradition of the Church had been crystallized in the Canons of the Ecumenical Councils and the important Local Councils of the first millennium, while later councils merely repeated or applied the already existing Canons. He therefore selected the “classical” Canons, which cover 99% of everyday cases.

Why Only Certain Local Councils Were Included

The reason why Local Councils such as those of Carthage or Gangra were included is that they produced very specific and practical Canons (e.g., concerning marriage, monks, and fasting) that were absent from the other texts. This means that the Councils which are absent were not omitted because they are less important, but because they were purely dogmatic, did not produce new Canons governing daily life, and the practical character of the book had to be preserved—as the “Penal Code” of the Church, regulating life, rather than as a historical archive of theological discussions.

 

Greek source: https://fdathanasiou-parakatathiki.blogspot.com/2026/07/blog-post_916.html