Robber Synod
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(Ephesus II, 449) — The synod that deposed Flavian of Constantinople and was repudiated two years later. Orthodox tradition holds that its rejection illustrates the principle of reception: a council is ecumenical not by episcopal signatures alone but by the Spirit-led consent of the whole Church across time. The Emperor Theodoisus II convoked this synod, placing Alexandrian (Coptic) Pope Dioscorus at the head, over the issue of Eutyches’s teachings.