Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/560

 MONOTHELITISM

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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.