681 (DCLXXXI) is a year in the Julian calendar. It is recorded in medieval sources for several significant political and religious developments that helped shape southeastern Europe and the Christian church.
Major events
- Formation of the First Bulgarian State — During this period the Bulgar leader often called Asparuh consolidated control over territory south of the Danube. By 681 the Byzantine Empire appears to have recognized a Bulgar polity in the northern Balkans, an event commonly dated as the foundation of the First Bulgarian Empire.
- Ecclesiastical settlement — The church council that met in Constantinople in 680–681 (the Third Council of Constantinople, also numbered as the Sixth Ecumenical Council) brought an end to the controversy over Monothelitism. The council rejected the doctrine that Christ had only one will and affirmed the orthodox position that he possesses two wills corresponding to his two natures.
Context and consequences
The recognition of a Bulgar state altered the balance of power on Byzantium’s northern frontier and laid the foundations for a medieval Bulgarian polity that would play a major role in Balkan affairs for centuries. The doctrinal decisions of the 680–681 council helped clarify Christological teaching across the Byzantine world and influenced relations between the imperial church and Rome.
Chronological notes
Contemporary records for the year are uneven in coverage: political and religious affairs in the eastern Mediterranean are relatively well attested, while events in other regions are less consistently recorded. Dates for some episodes are reconstructed from later chronicles and should be treated with the usual caution applied to early medieval chronology.