The word "ecumenical" derives from the Late Latin "oecumenicus" "general, universal", from Greek "oikoumenikos" "from the whole world", from "he oikoumene ge" "the inhabited world (as known to the ancient Greeks); the Greeks and their neighbors, considered as developed human society (as opposed to barbarian lands)"; in later use "the Roman world" and in the Christian sense in ecclesiastical Greek, from "oikoumenos", present passive participle of "oikein" ("inhabit"), from "oikos" ("house, habitation"). The first seven ecumenical councils, recognised by both the eastern and western denominations comprising Chalcedonian Christianity, were convoked by Roman Emperors, who also enforced the decisions of those councils within the state church of the Roman Empire.