English translations of the canons, creeds, definitions, and acts of the church councils, from the undivided Church through the medieval Western councils, the Reformation assemblies, and the modern Catholic councils.
The seven ecumenical councils and the received local synods are translated by Henry Percival in The Seven Ecumenical Councils of the Undivided Church, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 14 (1900), as hosted by New Advent (public domain). The later Catholic ecumenical councils (Constantinople IV through Lateran V) and Vatican I use Norman P. Tanner’s Decrees of the Ecumenical Councils (1990) as freely hosted at papalencyclicals.net — The Council of Trent uses J. Waterworth’s translation (1848, public domain) via the Hanover Historical Texts Project; Vatican II uses the official English text from vatican.va (© Libreria Editrice Vaticana). The Reformation confessions and the Canons of Dort are public-domain texts (churchofengland.org, CCEL, the Westminster Standard, and Philip Schaff’s Creeds of Christendom). Provenance and copyright status are stated on every note.
Each council has its own landing page linking to its documents. Councils are arranged chronologically within each group.
The Seven Ecumenical Councils
- Nicaea I (325) — The first ecumenical council: condemned Arianism, promulgated the Nicene Creed and twenty canons.
- Constantinople I (381) — The second ecumenical council: completed the Nicene Creed and condemned the Macedonians.
- Ephesus (431) — The third ecumenical council: condemned Nestorius and affirmed the Theotokos.
- Chalcedon (451) — The fourth ecumenical council: defined Christ in two natures, one person.
- Constantinople II (553) — The fifth ecumenical council: condemned the Three Chapters and Origenism.
- Constantinople III (680) — The sixth ecumenical council: condemned Monothelitism, affirming two wills in Christ.
- Nicaea II (787) — The seventh ecumenical council: restored the veneration of holy images.
Local & Regional Synods
- Carthage (257) — Held under Cyprian; the sentences of eighty-seven bishops rejecting the baptism of heretics.
- Ancyra (314) — The chief disciplinary synod after the persecution of Maximinus, on the lapsed.
- Neocaesarea (315) — Earliest synod to legislate on the presbyterate and on marriage discipline.
- Antioch (341) — The Synod in Encaeniis (of the Dedication); twenty-five widely received canons.
- Gangra (343) — Against the errors of Eustathius of Sebaste and an extreme asceticism.
- Sardica (344) — Called to vindicate Athanasius; its canons on episcopal appeals to Rome.
- Laodicea (4th c.) — Sixty disciplinary canons, including the earliest conciliar list of the canon of Scripture.
- Constantinople (382) — The synodical letter of the fathers reassembled the year after the second ecumenical council.
- Constantinople (394) — Under Nectarius; its ruling that a bishop may not be deposed by only two or three bishops.
- Carthage (419) — The Code of Canons of the African Church, gathering the canons of the earlier African synods.
- Trullo (692) — The Quinisext Council; 102 disciplinary canons supplementing the fifth and sixth councils.
Later Catholic Ecumenical Councils (8th–18th centuries)
The councils held by the Western Church after the Great Schism, numbered as the eighth to eighteenth ecumenical councils in the Catholic reckoning.
- Constantinople IV (869) — deposed Photius and its canons on the see of Rome.
- Lateran I (1123) — the first Western general council; confirmed the Concordat of Worms.
- Lateran II (1139) — ended the schism of Anacletus; thirty reforming canons.
- Lateran III (1179) — fixed papal election by two-thirds of the cardinals.
- Lateran IV (1215) — the great reforming council; defined transubstantiation.
- Lyons I (1245) — deposed the Emperor Frederick II.
- Lyons II (1274) — a short-lived reunion with the Greek Church.
- Vienne (1311) — suppressed the Order of the Knights Templar.
- Constance (1414) — ended the Great Western Schism and condemned Jan Hus and Wycliffe.
- Basel-Ferrara-Florence (1431) — the decree of union with the Greek and Eastern Churches (Laetentur caeli).
- Lateran V (1512) — on the superiority of pope over council, on the eve of the Reformation.
Reformation Diets & Synods
The imperial diets, synods, convocations, and assemblies of the Protestant Reformation and their confessional standards.
- Diet of Worms (1521) — Luther refused to recant; the Edict of Worms outlawed him.
- Diet of Augsburg (1530) — the presentation of the Augsburg Confession.
- Diet of Regensburg (1541) — the failed colloquy of reconciliation.
- Convocation of 1563 — approved the Thirty-Nine Articles of the Church of England.
- Synod of Emden (1571) — established the church order of the Dutch Reformed Church.
- Synod of Dort (1618) — rejected Arminianism; the Canons of Dort (the “five points”).
- Westminster Assembly (1643) — produced the Westminster Standards.
- Reformation Confessions & Catechisms — the confessional texts themselves: the Thirty-Nine Articles (1571), the Heidelberg Catechism (1563), and the Westminster Standards (Confession, Shorter and Larger Catechisms, 1646–48).
Counter-Reformation & Modern Catholic Councils
- Trent (1545) — the Counter-Reformation council; twenty-five sessions defining Catholic doctrine against the Reformation.
- Vatican I (1869) — defined papal primacy and infallibility (Pastor Aeternus).
- Vatican II (1962) — the twenty-first ecumenical council; sixteen documents of doctrine, reform, and renewal.