MONOTHELITISM
506
MONOTHELITISM
The bishops of Cyprus, independent of any patri-'
arch, held a synod 29 May, 643, against the Eethesis.
'I hey wrote t^ Pope Theodore a letter of entreaty:
'Tlirist, our God, hius instituted your Apostolic cluiir,
O holy head, sis a God-fixed and immovable founda-
tion. For thou, as truly spake the Divine Wonl, art
Peter, and upon thy foundation the |)illars of the
Church are fixed, and to thee He committed the keys
of the kingdom of Heaven. He ordered thee to bind
and loose with authority on earth and in hi>a\-pn.
Thou art set as the destroyer of ijrofane heresies, as
Corvplianis and leader of the orthodox and unsullied
Faith. Despi.se not then. Father, the Faith of our
Fathers, tossed by waves and imperilled; ilisperse the
rule of the foolish with the light of thy divine knowl-
edge, O most holy. Destroy the blasphemies and in-
solence of the new heretics with their novel expres-
sions. For nothing is wanting to your orthodox and
pious definition and tradition for the augmentation of
the Faith amongst us. For we — O inspired one, you
who hold converse with the holy Apostles and sit with
them — believe and confess from of old since our very
swaddling clothes, teaching according to the holy and
God-fearing Pope Leo, and declaring that 'each nature
works with the communion of the other what is proper
to it'", etc. They declare themselves ready to be
martyred rather than forsake the doctrine of St. Leo:
but their Archbishop Sergius, when the persecution
arose, was found on the side of the persecutors, not of
the martyrs. It is abundantly clear that St. Maxi-
mus and his Constantinopolitan friends, St. Sophro-
nius and the bishops of Palestine, Sergius and his suf-
fragans, had no notion that the Apostolic See had been
compromised by the letters of Honorius, but they look
to it as the only port of salvation. Similarly in 646
the bishops of Africa and the adjoining islands held
councils, in the name of which the primates of Nu-
midia, Byzaeene and Mauritania sent a joint letter to
Pope Theodore, complaining of the Eethesis: " No one
can doubt that there is in the Apostolic See a great
and unfailing fountain pouring forth waters for all
Christians", and so forth. They enclose letters to the
emperor and to the patriarch Paul, to be sent to Con-
stantinople by the pope. They are afraid to write
directly, for the former governor, Gregory (who had
presided at the disputation of his friend St. Maximus
with Pyrrhus) had revolted and made himself em-
peror, and had just been defeated; this was a blow to
orthodoxy, which it brought into discredit at Con-
stantinople. Victor, elected primate of Carthage
after the letters were written, added one of his own.
Paul, the patriarch whom the Emperor Constans had substituted for Pyrrhus, had not been acknowl- edged by Pope Theodore, who demanded of him that Pyrrhus should first be tried by a council before two representatives of the Holy See. Paul's reply is pre- served: the views he exposes are those of the Eethesis, and he defends them by referring to Honorius and Sergius. Theodore pronounced a sentence of deposi- tion against him, and Paul retaliated by destroying the Latin altar which belonged to the Roman See in the palace of Placidia at Constantinople, in order that the papal envoys might be unable to offer the Holy .Sacrifice; he also persecuted them, together with many orthodox laymen and priests, by imprisonment, exile, or stripes. But Paul, in spite of this violence, had no idea of resisting the definitions of Rome. Until now, Honorius had not been di.sowned there, but defended. It was said that he had not taught one will; but the prohibition in the Eethesis of two operations was but an enforcement of the cour.se Honorius had approved, and nothing had a.s yet, it seems, been officially pub- lished at Rom(' on this point. Paul, somewhat natur- ally, thought it would be sufficient if he dropped the teaching of one will, and prohibited all reference to one will or two wills as well as to one operation or two operations; it could hardly be urged that this was not
in accordance with the teaching of Pope Honorius. It
would be a measure of peace, and East and West
would be again united. Paul therefore persuaded the
emperor lo withdraw the Eethesis, and to .substitute
for that elaborate confession of Faith a mere disciplin-
ary measure forbidding all four expressions under the
severest penalties; none of the emperor's orthodox
subjects have any longer permission to quarrel over
them, but no blame is to attach to any who may have
used either alternative in the past. Transgression of
this law is to involve deposition for bishops and clerics,
excommunication and expulsion for monks, loss of
office and dignity for officials, fines for richer laymen,
corporal punishment and permanent exile for the
poorer. By this cruel law heresy is to be blameless
and orthodoxy forbidden. It is known as the Type of
Constans. It is not a Monothelite document, for it
forbids that heresy just as much as the Catholic Faith.
Its date falls between Sept. 648 and Sept. 649. Pope
Theodore died 5 May of the latter year, and was suc-
ceeded in July by St. Martin I. In October St. Mar-
tin held a great council at the Lateran, at which 105
bishops were present. The pope's opening speech
gives a history of the heresy, and condemns the Eethe-
sis, Cyrus, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and the Type. John
IV had spoken of Sergius with respect; and Martin
does not mention Honorius, for it was obviously im-
possible to defend him if the Type was to be con-
demned as heresy. Stephen of Dora, then on his
third visit to Rome, presented a long memorial, full of
devotion to the Apostolic See. A deputation fol-
lowed, of 37 Greek abbots residing in or near Rome,
who had apparently fled before the Saracens from
their various homes in Jerusalem, Africa, Armenia,
Cilicia, etc. They demanded the condemnation of
Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, and Cyrus and the anathema-
tizing of the Type by the Apostolic and head See. The
heretical documents read were part of a letter of Theo-
dore of Pharan, the seventh proposition of Cyrus, the
letter of Sergius to Cyrus, excerpts from the synods
held by Sergius and Pyrrhus (who had now repented
of his repentance), and the approval of the Eethesis by
Cyrus. The letter of Sergius to Honorius was not
read, nor was anything said about the correspondence
of the latter with Sergius. St. Martin summed up;
then the letter of Paul to Pope Theodore and the
Type were read. The council admitted the good in-
tention of the latter document (so as to spare the em-
peror while condemning Paul), but declared it hereti-
cal for forbidding the teaching of two operations and
two wills. Numerous excerpts from the Fathers and
from Monophysite writers were read, and twenty
canons were agreed to, the eighteenth of which con-
demns Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus, Sergius, Pyrrhus,
Paul, the Eethesis, and the Type, under anathema. A
letter to the emperor was signed by all. An encyclical
letter was sent throughout the Church in the name of
St. Martin and the council, addressed to all bishops,
priests, deacons, abbots, monks, ascetics, and to the
entire sacred fulness of the Catholic Church. This
was a final and complete condemnation of the Con-
stantinopolitan policy. Rome had spoken ex cathedra.
Stephen of Dora had been before appointed papal
vicar in the East, but he had by error been informed
only of his duty to depose heretical bishops, and not
that he was authorized to substitute orthodox bishops
in their place. The pope now gave this commission to
John, Bishop of Philadelphia in Palestine, who was
ordered to appoint bishops, priests, and deacons in the
patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem. Martin also
sent letters to these patriarchates, and to Peter, who
seems to have been governor, asking him to support
his vicar; this Peter was a friend and correspondent of
St. Maximus. The pope deposed John, Archbishop
of Thessalonica, and declared the appointments of
Macarius of Antioch and Peter of Alexandria to be
null and void. Constans retaUated by having St.
