Fourth Council of Constantinople

Fourth Council of Constantinople, (869–870), a council of the Christian church, meeting in Constantinople. The Roman church eventually recognized it as the eighth ecumenical council, but the Eastern church for the most part denied its ecumenicity and continues to recognize only the first seven ecumenical councils.

The council confirmed a Roman sentence of excommunication against Photius, patriarch of Constantinople, bringing to a head the so-called Photian Schism. (Photius was later reinstated in 879–880.) The council’s canon (number 22) that prohibited lay interference in episcopal elections assumed great importance in the Western church’s Investiture Controversy between church and state in the 11th and early 12th centuries.