This Ecumenical Synod fixed the Pope's primacy as primitus honoris only and not primitus jurisdic-tionis.  And it ratified St. Photios' restoration as Patriarch of Constantinople, overturning the Ignatian Synod of ten years earlier which deposed St. Photios with the papacy's support.  Held primarily in Ayia Sophia, the Synod of 879-880 consisted of 383 bishops of East and West, including the legates of the new and Orthodox Pope John VIII.  They signed and declared their gathering and its proclamations as an Ecumenical Synod.  It was also named an Ecumenical Synod by Basil the Macedonian, the Roman Emperor, the Emperor of the Ecumeni, in his own statement attached to the acts, which then he signed.  The appellation as an Ecumenical Synod appears in several places in the acts and in the (h)oros or decree.  This Synod also ratified the previous Ecumenical Synod, the Seventh of 787 (second of Nicaea), which had not yet been ratified by a General Council or Synod.

     The (Eighth) Ecumenical Synod (879-880) anathematized those who would make any subtraction or addition to the Nicene Creed incl. the Filioque, which it also implicitly condemned as wrong in itself, apart from the Creed.  In the 6th act after the reading of the (h)oros or decree, the bishops unanimously and vocally condemned any addition that would alter the confession of faith in the Holy Trinity that we have received.  Thus, the Filioque was implicitly condemned as false in itself.  This Synod was specifically referred to as Ecumenical by the famous canonologist Theodoros Balsamon, by Sts. Mark of Ephesus, Neilos of Rhodes, Symeon of Thessaloniki, and others. 

     Subsequent General Synods also called themselves Ecumenical, having approbation of the Roman [Byzantine] Emperor, e.g., the three so-called Hesychast Synods of Constantinople in the 14th century.  These three would constitute the Ninth Ecumenical Synod collectively since they dealt with the same problem repeatedly and issued the same decrees.  It is not unusual for multiple General Synods to be lumped together and counted as one Ecumenical Synod.  Best example is the Synod of Trullo (Fifth-Sixth [Penthekt]) and the 6th Ecumenical Synod which have been incorporated formally into one--the Sixth Ecumenical Synod.  These Synods were ecumenical for their universality, dogmatic content, approbation by the Basileus of the Ecumeni, the Roman Emperor.

     The Church never officially enumerated the General or Ecumenical Synods as any more than the Seven accepted by the East and by Rome because it would have been a sensitive point with the papacy while the Church was hoping for an opportunity to heal the schism of Rome.  Since the 14th century, the history of Orthodoxy has been one of turmoil up to the present for all the historic reasons you can easily imagine, and it has not lent itself to the General Synods of the Church for such a discussion and proclamation.  So, for centuries, we Orthodox have not been telling the complete story about our Ecumenical Synods seemingly in deference to the Roman Catholic Church.  We have unthinkingly taught our own people as well as others that there were only seven Ecumenical Synods, accepting a Roman Catholic precept so as not to offend them. Ironically, the 8th and 9th Ecumenical Synods condemned the heresies of the Filioque, the papal claims to primacy in authority, and Augustinian theology's doctrine of created grace.  Perhaps it should be stated that Ecumenical Synods did not call themselves the Second, Third, or Fourth, etc.  The enumeration was bestowed by history.  As the reader may know, a few years after the (8th) Ecumenical Synod of 879, a new pope, John Marinus, denounced this Synod which Pope John VIII signed, and he reinstated the Anti-Photian Synod of 869. Since that time, Rome has called this one (869) the 8th Ecumenical Synod.  So much for the infallibility of the popes!

GSG

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Ch. 9 is on the Ninth Ecumenical Synod; this chapter explains
why the (Eighth and) Ninth Ecumenical Synods failed to get
included in Orthodox prayer books and calendars:  The 
Turks forbade the Greeks to print such items; they were 
printed in Venice under Romanist supervision, which of 
course refused to publish any mention of either St.
 Photios the Great or St. Gregory Palamas "the 
Theologian," because these formative Orthodox
Saints had shown how innovating and false
the Latin views condemned by those
two Saints really are!