400

Pyrrhus and Maximus

[636-648

in which the principles contained in the letter to Honorius were put in the shape of a formal confession of faith (636). Heraclius on his return from the East signed this document, and it was posted on the walls of St Sophia (autumn 638). A copy was sent to Cyrus, who received it with veneration, and to Severinus, who had been elected to the papacy after the death of Honorius (Oct.); while a synod at Constantinople threatened spiritual penalties against anyone who asserted either one operation or two operations. This was the last act of Sergius, who died 9 Dec. 638. As Severinus rejected the Ekthesis, confirmation of his election was refused, and his emissaries were detained in Constantinople; but on their allowing it to be understood that they would obtain his acceptance permission was given for his consecration, which took place 28 May 640.

Egypt having been cut off by the Arab invasion, the question resolved itself into a contest between Rome and Constantinople. Severinus died two months after his consecration without accepting the Ekthesis; and his successor, John IV, wrote to the new patriarch, Pyrrhus, to denounce it: whereupon Heraclius, now at the point of death, in a letter to the pope disclaimed the responsibility for it, which he threw on Sergius. After his death John wrote to Constantine maintaining the doctrine of two wills, explaining away Honorius' letter, and asking for the removal of the Ekthesis. The civil troubles prevented any further steps at the time; but the government of Constans gave the pope to understand that the Ekthesis would be removed (642); and Pope Theodore (consecrated 24 Nov.) wrote to Paul of Constantinople to complain that this had not been done. He further reproached Paul for having taken possession of the see when Pyrrhus had not been formally deposed, and wrote to the Emperor to suggest that Pyrrhus should be tried at Rome. Sergius of Cyprus expressed his adherence in a letter to the pope (29 May 643): but his strongest support came from Africa, where the exarch Gregory was contemplating rebellion.

The most resolute opponent of Monotheletism was Maximus, archimandrite of Chrysopolis, who had met Sophronius in Africa shortly before the Alexandrine union, and had now again gone thither to stir up opposition to the Ekthesis. Here in the presence of Gregory he held a dispute with Pyrrhus (July 645); who, hoping by Gregory's help to obtain restoration, declared himself converted, and having gone to Rome with Maximus, condemned the Ekthesis and was received by the pope with the honours of a patriarch. In 646 several synods were held in Africa; and letters in condemnation of the Ekthesis were written to the pope, the Emperor, and the patriarch, the last being sent through the pope. Theodore forwarded the African letter with a remonstrance of his own; and Paul answered by an enunciation of the Monothelete doctrine; upon which Theodore declared him deposed.

Gregory rebelled in 647 : but in 648 he fell in battle with the Arabs;

648-653]

Arrest of Pope Martin

401

and Pyrrhus, having nothing more to hope from the party of Maximus, went to Ravenna and made his peace with the government by recanting his recantation. Theodore then solemnly deposed and anathematised him in St Peter's. Meanwhile, as the Ekthesis had only shifted the dispute from operations to wills, Paul made another attempt on the same lines to restore peace. An imperial edict, known as the Type, was at his instigation put forth, by which the Ekthesis was abrogated and all controversy on either question forbidden under heavy penalties (648); and, when the papal representatives refused to accept this, they were punished by imprisonment, flogging, or exile.

Theodore died in May 649; and his successor, Martin, who was consecrated without awaiting the imperial confirmation (5 July), immediately held a synod in the Lateran, which asserted the doctrine of two wills, denounced all who maintained one operation or one will, and condemned the Ekthesis and the Type, and Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Cyrus, and Theodore of Faran (5-31 Oct.). The synodal acts were sent to the Emperor; and Paul of Thessalonica, who refused to accept the Roman theology, was declared deposed by a letter of the pope.

Martin by his illegal consecration and flagrant disregard of the edict had defied the Emperor; and the answer of Constans, acting under the advice of Paul, was to send the chamberlain Olympius to Italy as exarch with orders to find out the general disposition towards the Type, and, if it should be favourable, and if the local army supported him, to arrest Martin, whom the Emperor did not recognise as pope, have the Type read in all the churches, and make the bishops sign it; but, if not, to wait till a stronger force could be collected. Olympius however, observing the state of affairs at Rome, preferred to play the part of Gregory, and accordingly came to an understanding with the pope and threw off allegiance to the Emperor. Some time afterwards he died in Sicily, whither he had gone to repel an Arab invasion; and after the imperial authority was thus restored in Italy, the new exarch, Theodore Calliopas, entered Rome with an army (15 June 653), and arrested Martin in the Lateran church (17 June) on charges of sending a letter and money to the Arabs and of disrespect to the Virgin (i.e. Nestorianism). At midnight on the 18th he was removed from Rome, conveyed to Misenum (1 July) and placed on board ship for Constantinople, which after a short stay in Naxos he reached (17 Sept.). He was kept in prison till 20 Dec., and then brought before the Senate. Being ill from the voyage and the long confinement, he was carried to the court in a litter. The charges of usurpation and disobedience, the real ground of his arrest, were kept in the background, nor do we hear anything more of those made against him at Rome; but he was accused of complicity with Olympius. Next, after the Emperor had been consulted, he was first exposed to the public gaze in the entrance-hall of the building, and then placed in a gallery overlooked by a hall in the palace where Constans

C. MED. H. VOL. II. CH. XIII.

26

402

Deposition of Martin

[645-655

was here a crowd was allowed to surround him. The treasurer after again consulting the Emperor finally ordered him to be deprived of his pontifical head-dress, as not being lawful pope, and delivered to the praefect to be beheaded. He was then stripped naked except for one torn garment and dragged with a chain round his neck over rough stones to a common prison with a sword in front of him, and thence to the praefect's praetorium, where he was chained to the jailer: but in the evening the praefect sent food with an assurance that the sentence would not be executed, and the chains were removed. The sentence had in fact been passed in order to frighten him into submission; and after Paul's death, which shortly followed, unsuccessful attempts were made to extort a statement that Pyrrhus, who had returned to Constantinople after his reconciliation and was seeking restoration, had recanted under compulsion at Rome. Nevertheless Pyrrhus was restored, but died on Whit Sunday following (1 June 654). As all attempts to induce Martin to communicate with the clergy of Constantinople were vain, he was on 15 Mar. removed to the house of a scribe, and thence on 11 Apr. to a ship, in which he was conveyed to Cherson in the Crimea (15 May), where he remained till his death in Sept. 655, complaining bitterly of the lack of food and the neglect of his friends at Rome to send supplies.

Martin had however better reason to complain of the fickleness of the Romans. At the time of his arrest the exarch had ordered the clergy to elect a new pope; and after a year's resistance they yielded, and (10 Aug. 654) Eugenius was consecrated to the papacy. The new pope sent envoys to Constantinople without a letter; and these communicated with the new patriarch, Peter, under a compromise. It had been implied in the Type that the expressions "one will" and "two wills" were both in a sense correct: and, though this doctrine had been condemned by the synod, the envoys acquiesced in it (655). Peter then sent a synodical to the pope in which this principle was stated; but popular clamour compelled Eugenius to reject it.

1

Maximus had since 645 been living in Rome; and, as he was believed to have been the chief instigator of Martin's resistance, it was thought that, if he could be induced to submit, the cause would be won. Accordingly an imperial commissioner who had been sent to order Eugenius to communicate with Peter tried to persuade Maximus to accept the Type; and on his refusal he was arrested and conveyed to Constantinople, where he was brought before the treasurer and Senate and accused of advising the magister militum of Numidia to disobey the orders of Heraclius to march against the Arabs in Egypt, of encouraging Gregory's rebellion, of disrespect to the Emperor, and of anathematising the Type (655). During part of the proceedings the patriarchs Peter of Constantinople and Macedonius of Antioch, who resided in the capital, were present, and on Whit Sunday (17 May) 1 “Tòν BEOTlμNTOV Tάяяаν" must be Eugenius, since Martin was never recognised.

656-677]

Exile of Maximus

403

Peter made a special attempt to induce him to accept the compromise which had satisfied the Roman envoys: but, as he refused to yield anything, he was banished to Bizye in Thrace. On 24 Aug. 656 Theodosius, bishop of Caesarea in Bithynia, and two senators came to Bizye with an offer to repeal the Type if he would communicate with the Church of Constantinople; and on this being rejected Theodosius agreed to accept two wills and operations, that is without condemning the other doctrine according to the compromise; and, as Maximus insisted on the Emperor and the patriarch sending a profession of faith to the pope, Theodosius undertook to try to bring this about. Maximus promised that, if Theodosius were sent to Rome, he would go with him, but refused to accept one will and one operation in any sense. Constans would not concede this, but made another attempt to win Maximus over. On 8 Sept. he was brought with great respect to the monastery of Theodore at Rhegium, and the next day Theodosius and two patricians came and promised him high honours if he would accept the Type. This he also refused, and the patricians assailed him with blows and abuse till persuaded by Theodosius to desist. He was then conveyed under military guard to Selymbria (14 Sept.), and thence to Perberis. Five years later he was brought before a synod at Constantinople, anathematised with Sophronius and Martin, and flogged. He was then deprived of his tongue and right hand, taken to Lazica (8 June 661), and imprisoned. In this exile he died at the age of 82 (13 Aug. 662).

The Armenians had outwardly accepted orthodox communion in 631; but, when Constans in 648 ordered them to receive the Synod of Chalcedon, they in a synod at Dvin openly refused. In 652, the chiefs having invited the Arabs into the country, Constans came with an army and lodged at Dvin in the house of the Catholicus, Nerses, who inclined to the Roman party and from opposition to the chiefs proclaimed the Synod, but had so little support that, when the Emperor returned early in 653, he was forced to go with him and did not return to his see till 658. After his death in 662 no more was heard of the union.

Vitalian, who succeeded Eugenius on 30 July 657, announced his ordination to Constans and sent a synodical to Peter in which he conformed to the Type. Peter in answer wrote a letter in which the numbers "one" and "two" applied to operations and wills were declared immaterial, the Emperor sent presents and renewed the privileges of the Church of Rome, and Vitalian's name was inserted in the diptychs of Constantinople, which did not contain that of any of his predecessors since Honorius. Peter's successor, Thomas (17 Apr. 667-15 Nov. 669) sent no synodical; but for this the Arab attack was afterwards alleged as a reason. The next two patriarchs, John (Nov./Dec. 669–Aug. 675) and Constantine (2 Sept. 675-9 Aug. 677), sent synodicals in which no reference was made to the disputed points; but, Constans being dead,

404

Sixth General Council

[670-681 Vitalian yielded to popular feeling and rejected John's synodical: similarly his successor, Adeodatus (672-676), rejected that of Constantine; and his name was therefore not inserted in the diptychs of Constantinople. Accordingly the next patriarch, Theodore, sent no synodical, and, supported by Macarius of Antioch, urged Constantine IV to have Vitalian's name expunged from the diptychs. The Emperor, not wishing to perpetuate the schism, refused the request and wrote to Pope Donus (676-678), asking him, as the war prevented a general synod, to send deputies to discuss the disputed points with the two patriarchs. When the letter arrived, Donus was dead; and, as his successor, Agatho (678-681), had no intention of sending deputies to confer with Theodore, no answer came, and the Emperor was persuaded to allow Vitalian's name to be struck off. The original purpose of Monotheletism however, the reconciliation of the Monophysites, had been nullified by the Arab conquests; and, as the pope conceded nothing, Constantine saw that to restore unity he would have to sacrifice the patriarch. Theodore was therefore deposed, and his place taken by George (Nov. or Dec. 679). Agatho then summoned a synod, which met at Rome on 27 Mar. 680, maintained the doctrine of two operations and two wills, condemned Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul, Peter, Cyrus, and Theodore of Faran, and sent its decree to the Emperor with a long dogmatic letter from Agatho on the model of the Tome of Leo. Similar decrees were passed by synods at Milan and at Hatfield in England (17 Sept.). The deputies from Rome, who reached Constantinople on 10 Sept., were also accredited as representatives of the pope and the synod at the proposed conference: and, peace having now been made, Constantine requested the patriarchs to summon the bishops under their jurisdiction to a synod, which met in the domed hall (trullus) of the palace in the presence of the Emperor and the chief officers of state (7 Nov.), and, as representatives of the non-existent patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem were somehow procured, called itself oecumenical. The sittings, of which there were eighteen, continued to 16 Sept. 681; and the synod agreed as well with the pope in dogmatic matters as that of Chalcedon. The letter of Menas was pronounced spurious, as were also two letters ascribed to Vigilius. Macarius brought forward patristic passages in support of Monotheletism; but they were declared to prove nothing, and quotations were produced on the other side. George now professed himself in agreement with the letters of the pope and the Roman synod; and at his request Vitalian's name was restored to the diptychs. Macarius on the other hand refused to abandon his Monothelete opinions and was deposed together with his disciple, the archimandrite Stephen, and Theophanes was appointed to succeed him. All the Monothelete leaders mentioned in the Roman decree were then condemned with the addition of Honorius, and their writings ordered to be burnt. An attempt at a compromise made by the presbyter Constantine of Apamea in Syria was