It is referred to as the Gangster Council – and if that makes it sound the most unchristian meeting ever held then you would be right and wrong at the same time. Wrong in that it was a formally-called gathering of ‘world’ Christian leaders; right in that the level of violence used in it totally discredited the meeting. Unfortunately, the violence used was but a reflection of the violence generally used within the church to ensure the dominance of one party over the other.

The Second Council of Ephesus was called in AD 449 to debate important theological issues. Before the council got going, however, a group of monks and soldiers forced the bishops to sign a blank sheet of paper on which the winning side would later fill in its favoured statement. One of the main bishops present, Flavian, was physically attacked by monks and died of his wounds some days later. This level of intimidation was considered so bad that future church leaders would dismiss the council as discredited and it has been known as the Gangster Council ever since.

Such violence was not uncommon, however, and was regularly used as a tool with which one side in a theological debate would dominate another. Ensuring conformity with the current orthodoxy – or correct theology – was a major issue for the church in the 4^th and 5^th centuries – the time when the main doctrines of the church were ‘settled’ and which are still held today by all mainline denominations.

From some of the details above you could be excused for thinking that I had been watching an episode of the Sopranos – the fictional TV series about a New Jersey mafia family, but I have in fact begun reading Jesus Wars by Philip Jenkins, a great academic read about church history. More uplifting stories from this book to come.