ABSTRACT
Byzantium, with its steadily propagated theocratic doctrine, has seldom been used as an example of the development of democratic theories and practices. Nevertheless, the Byzantine civilization, with its markedly urban character, was the political structure that preserved ancient democratic theories and practices and translated them for the rest of the European world. This chapter focuses on a detailed description of the actions related to this synod, an extensive account of which is preserved in the so-called Boril's Synodic from the fourteenth century. This document yields unique information on both the legal and administrative aspects of the conciliar vote in Late Byzantium and the specific procedures and practices characteristic of this highest, and truly ecumenical, type of voting assemblies in the Eastern Orthodox world. In the Eastern Orthodox world, in particular, iconography has entrenched the idea that there were only seven ecumenical councils as an unwavering dogma.
