THE SIXTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL.

THE THIRD COUNCIL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

A.D. 680-681

Emperor.--CONSTANTINE POGONATUS. Pope.--AGATHO I.

Elenchus.

Historical Introduction.

Extracts from the Acts, Session I.

The Letter of Pope Agatho to the Emperor.

The Letter of the Roman Synod to the Council.

Introductory Note.

Extracts from the Acts, Session VIII.

The Sentence against the Monothelites, Session XIII.

The Acclamations, Session XVI.

The Definition of Faith.

Abstract of the Prosphoneticus to the Emperor.

The Synodal Letter to Pope Agatho.

Excursus on the Condemnation of Pope Honorius.

The Imperial Edict in abstract.

HISTORICAL INTRODUCTION.

The Sixth Ecumenical Council met on November 7, 680, for its

first session, and ended its meetings, which are said to have been

eighteen in number, on September 16th of the next year. The number

of bishops present was under three hundred and the minutes of the

last session have only 174 signatures attached to them.

When the Emperor first summoned the council he had no intention

that it should be ecumenical. From the Sacras it appears that he had

summoned all the Metropolitans and bishops of the jurisdiction of

Constantinople, and had also informed the Archbishop of Antioch that

he might send Metropolitans and bishops. A long time before he had

written to Pope Agatho on the subject.

When the synod assembled however, it assumed at its first

session the title "Ecumenical," and all the five patriarchs were

represented, Alexandria and Jerusalem having sent deputies although

they were at the time in the hands of the infidel.

In this Council the Emperor presided in person surrounded by

high court officials. On his right sat the Patriarchs of

Constantinople and Antioch and next to them the representative of

the Patriarch of Alexandria. On the Emperor's left were seated the

representatives of the Pope. In the midst were placed, as usual, the

Holy Gospels. After the eleventh session however the Emperor was no

longer able to be present, but returned and presided at the closing

meeting.

The sessions of the council were held in the domed hall (or

possibly chapel) in the imperial palace; which, the Acts tell us,

was called Trullo (en <S235w

sekretw tou qeiou

palatiou tm outm

legomenw Troullw).

It may be interesting to remark that the Sacras sent to the

bishops of Rome and Constantinople are addressed, the one to "The

Most holy and Blessed Archbishop of Old Rome and Ecumenical Pope,"

and the other to "The Most holy and Blessed Archbishop of

Constantinople and Ecumenical Patriarch." Some of the titles given

themselves by the signers of the "Prosphoneticus" are

interesting--"George, an humble presbyter of the holy Roman Church,

and holding the place of the most blessed Agatho, ecumenical Pope of

the City of Rome ... ," "John, an humble deacon of the holy Roman

Church and holding the place of the most blessed Agatho, and

ecumenical Pope of the City of Rome

," "George, by the mercy of God bishop of Constantinople which

is New Rome," "Peter a presbyter and holding the place of the

Apostolic See of the great city Alexandria

," "George, an humble presbyter of the Holy Resurrection of

Christ our God, and holding the place of Theodore the presbyter,

beloved of God, who holds the place of the Apostolic See of

Jerusalem ... ," "John, by the mercy of God bishop of the City of

Thessalonica, and legate of the Apostolic See of Rome," "John, the

unworthy bishop of Portus, legate of the whole Council of the holy

Apostolic See of Rome," "Stephen, by the mercy of God, bishop of

Corinth, and legate of the Apostolic See of Old Rome."

EXTRACTS FROM THE ACTS.

SESSION I.

(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 609 et seqq.)

[After a history of the assembly of the Council, the Acts begin

with the Speech of the Papal Legatee, as follows:]

Most benign lord, in accordance with the Sacra to our most holy

Pope(1) from your God-instructed majesty, we have been sent by him

to the most holy footsteps of your God-confirmed serenity, bearing

with us his suggestion (a,s225>aForas,

suggestions) as well as the other suggestion of his Synod equally

addressed to your divinely preserved Piety by the venerable bishops

subject to it, which also we offered to your God-crowned Fortitude.

Since, then, during the past forty-six years, more or less, certain

novelties in expression, contrary to the Orthodox faith, have been

introduced by those who were at several times bishops of this, your

royal and God-preserved city, to wit: Sergius, Paul, Pyrrhus, and

Peter, as also by Cyrus, at one time archbishop of the city of

Alexandria, as well also as by Theodore, who was bishop of a city

called Pharan, and by certain others their followers, and since

these things have in no small degree brought confusion into the

Church throughout the whole world, for they taught dogmatically that

there was but one will in the dispensation of the Incarnation of our

Lord Jesus Christ, one of the Holy Trinity, and one operation; and

since many times your servant, our apostolic see, has fought against

this, and then prayed against it, and by no means been able, even up

to now, to draw away from such a depraved opinion its advocates, we

beseech your God-crowned fortitude, that such as share these views

of the most holy church of Constantinople may tell us, what is the

source of this new-fangled language.

[Answer of the Monothelites made at the Emperor's bidding:]

We have brought out no new method of speech, but have taught

whatever we have received from the holy Ecumenical Synods, and from

the holy approved Fathers, as well as from the archbishops of this

imperial city, to wit: Sergius, Paul, Pyrrhus, and Peter, as also

from Honorius who was Pope of Old Rome, and from Cyrus who was Pope

of Alexandria, that is to say with reference to will and operation,

and so we have believed, and so we believe, so we preach; and

further we are ready to stand by, and defend this faith.

THE LETTER OF AGATHO, POPE OF OLD ROME, TO THE EMPEROR, AND THE

LETTER OF AGATHO AND OF BISHOPS OF THE ROMAN SYNOD, ADDRESSED TO THE

SIXTH COUNCIL.

(Read at the Fourth Session, November 15, at the request of

George, Patriarch of Constantinople and his Suffragans.)

INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

(Bossuet, Defensio Cler. Gal. Lib. VII., cap. xxiv.)

All the fathers spoke one by one, and only after examination

were the letters of St. Agatho and the whole Western Council

approved. Agatho, indeed, and the Western Bishops put forth their

decrees thus ['We have directed persons from our humility to your

valour protected of God, which shall offer to you the report of us

all, that is, of all the Bishops in the Northern or Western Regions,

in which too we have summed up the confession of our Apostolic

Faith, yet(1)] not as those who wished to contend about these things

as being uncertain, but, being certain and unchangeable to see them

forth in a brief definition, [suppliantly beseeching you that, by

the favour of your sacred majesty, you would command these same

things to be preached to all, and to have force with all.']

Undoubtedly, therefore, so far as in them lay, they defined the

matter. The question was, whether the other Churches throughout the

world would agree, and a matter so great was only made clear after

Episcopal examination. But the high, magnificent, yet true

expressions, which St. Agatho had used of his See, namely, that

resting on the promise of the Lord it had never turned aside from

the path of truth, and that its Pontiffs, the predecessors of

Agatho, who were charged in the person of Peter to strengthen their

brethren, had ever discharged that office, this the Fathers of the

Council hear and receive. But not the less they examine the matter,

they inquire into the decrees of Roman Pontiffs, and, after inquiry

held, approve Agatho's decrees, condemn those of Honorius: a certain

proof that they did not understand Agatho's expressions as if it

were necessary to receive without discussion every decree of Roman

Pontiffs even deride, inasmuch as they are subjected to the supreme

and final examination of a General Council: but as if these

expressions taken as a whole, in their total, hold good in the full

and complete succession of Peter, as we have often said, and in its

proper place shall say at greater length.

THE LETTER OF POPE AGATHO.

(Found in Migne, Pat. Lat., Tom. LXXXVII., col. 1161; L. and C.,

Tom. VI., col. 630.)

Agatho a bishop and servant of the servants of God to the most

devout and serene victors and conquerors, our most beloved sons and

lovers of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Emperor Constantine

the Great, and to Heraclius and Tiberius, Augustuses.

While contemplating the various anxieties of human life, and

while groaning with vehement weeping before the one true God, in

prayer that he might impart to my wavering soul the comfort of his

divine mercy, and might lift me by his right hand out of the depths

of grief and anxiety, I most gratefully recognize, my most

illustrious lords and sons, that your purpose [i.e. of holding a

Council] afforded me deep and wonderful consolation. For it was most

pious and emanated from your most meek tranquillity, taught by the

divine benignity for the benefit of the Christian

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commonwealth divinely entrusted to your keeping, that your imperial

power and clemency might have a care to enquire diligently

concerning the things of God (through whom Kings do reign, who is

himself King of Kings and Lord of Lords) and might seek after the

truth of his spotless faith as it has been handed down by the

Apostles and by the Apostolic Fathers, and be zealously affected to

command that in all the churches the pure tradition be held. And

that no one may be ignorant of this pious intention of yours, or

suspect that we have been compelled by force, and have not freely

consented to the carrying into effect of the imperial decrees

touching the preaching of our evangelical faith which was addressed

to our predecessor Donus, a pontiff of Apostolic memory, they have

through our ministry been sent to and entirely approved by all

nations and peoples; for these decrees Holy Spirit by his grace

dictated to the tongue of the imperial pen, out of the treasure of a

pure heart, as the words of an adviser not of an oppressor,

defending himself, not looking with contempt upon others; not

afflicting, but exhorting; and inviting to those things which are of

God in godly wise, because he, the Maker and Redeemer of all men,

who had he come in the majesty of his Godhead into the world, might

have terrified mortals, preferred to descend through his inestimable

clemency and humility to the estate of us whom he had created and

thus to redeem us, who also expects from us a willing confession of

the true faith.

And this it is that the blessed Peter, the prince of the

Apostles, teaches: "Feed the flock of Christ which is among you, not

by constraint, but willingly, exhorting it according to God."

Therefore, encouraged by these imperial decrees, O most meek lords

of all things, and relieved from the depths of affliction and raised

to the hope of consolation, I have begun, refreshed somewhat by a

better confidence, to comply with promptness with the flyings which

were sometime ago bidden by the Sacra of your gentlest fortitude,

and am endeavouring in obedience therewith to find persons, such as

our deficient times and the quality of this obedient province

permit, and taking advice with my fellow-servant bishops, as well

concerning the approaching synod of this Apostolic See, as

concerning our own clergy, the lovers of the Christian Empire, and,

afterwards concerning the religious servants of God, that I might

exhort them to follow in haste the footsteps of your most pious

Tranquillity. And, were it not that the great compass of the

provinces, in which our humility's council is situated had caused so

great a loss of time, our servitude a while ago could have fulfilled

with studious obedience what even now has scarcely been done. For

while from the various provinces a council has been gathering about

us, and while we have been able to select some persons of those from

this very Roman city immediately subject to your most serene power,

or from those near by, others again we have been obliged to wait for

from far distant provinces, in which the word of Christian faith was

preached by those sent by the predecessors of my littleness; and

thus quite a space of time has elapsed: and I pass over my bodily

pains in consequence of which life to a perpetually suffering person

is neither possible nor pleasant. Therefore, most Christian lords

and sons, in accordance with the most pious jussio of your

God-protected clemency, we have had a care to send, with the

devotion of a prayerful heart (from the obedience we owe you, not

because we relied on the [superabundant] knowledge of those whom we

send to you), our fellow-servants here present, Abundantius, John,

and John, our most reverend brother bishops, Theodore and George our

most beloved sons and presbyters, with our most beloved son John, a

deacon, and with Constantine, a subdeacon of this holy spiritual

mother, the Apostolic See, as well as Theodore, the presbyter legate

of the holy Church of Ravenna and the religious servants of God the

monks. For, among men placed amid the Gentiles, and earning their

daily bread by bodily labour with considerable distraction, how

could a knowledge of the Scriptures, in its fulness, be found unless

what has been canonically defined by our holy and apostolic

predecessors, and by the venerable five councils, we preserve in

simplicity of heart, and without any distorting keep the faith come

to us from the Fathers, always desirous and endeavouring to possess

that one and chiefest good, viz.: that nothing be diminished from

the things canonically defined, and that nothing be

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changed nor added thereto, but that those same things, both in words

and sense, be guarded untouched? To these same commissioners we also

have given the witness of some of the holy Fathers, whom this

Apostolic Church of Christ receives, together with their books, so

that, having obtained from the power of your most benign

Christianity the privilege of suggesting, they might out of these

endeavour to give satisfaction, (when your imperial Meekness shall

have so commanded) as to what this Apostolic Church of Christ, their

spiritual mother and the mother of your God-sprung empire, believes

and preaches, not in words of worldly eloquence, which are not at

the command of ordinary men, but in the integrity of the apostolic

fifth, in which having been taught from the cradle, we pray that we

may serve and obey the Lord of heaven, the Propagator of your

Christian empire, even unto the end. Consequently, we have granted

them faculty or authority with your most tranquil mightiness, to

afford satisfaction with simplicity whenever your clemency shall

command, it being enjoined on them as a limitation that they presume

not to add to, take away, or to change anything; but that they set

forth this tradition of the Apostolic See in all sincerity as it has

been taught by the apostolic pontiffs, who were our predecessors.

For these delegates we most humbly implore with bent knees of the

mind your clemency ever full of condescension, that agreeably to the

most benign and most august promise of the imperial Sacra, your

Christlike Tranquillity may deem them worthy of acceptance and may

deign to give a favourable hearing to their most humble suggestions.

Thus may your meekest Piety find the ears of Almighty God open to

your prayers, and may you order that they return to their own

unharmed in their rectitude of our Apostolic faith, as well as in

the integrity of their bodies. And thus may the supernal Majesty

restore to the benign rule of your government through the most

heroic and unconquerable labours of your God-strengthened clemency,

the whole Christian commonwealth, and may he subdue hostile nations

to your mighty sceptre, that there may be satisfaction from this

time forth to every soul and to all nations, because what you

deigned to promise solemnly by your most august letters about the

immunity and safety of those who came to the Council, you have

fulfilled in all respects. It is not their wisdom that gave us

confidence to make bold to send them to your pious presence; but our

littleness obediently complied with what your imperial benignity,

with a gracious order, exhorted to. And briefly we shall intimate to

your divinely instructed Piety, what the strength of our Apostolic

faith contains, which we have received through Apostolic tradition

and through the tradition of the Apostolical pontiffs, and that of

the five holy general synods, through which the foundations of

Christ's Catholic Church have been strengthened and established;

this then is the status [and the regular tradition(1)] of our

Evangelical and Apostolic faith, to wit, that as we confess the holy

and inseparable Trinity, that is, the Father, the Son and the Holy

Ghost, to be of one deity, of one nature and substance or essence,

so we will profess also that it has one natural will, power,

operation, domination, majesty, potency, and glory. And whatever is

said of the same Holy Trinity essentially in singular number we

understand to refer to the one nature of the three consubstantial

Persons, having been so taught by canonical logic. But when we make

a confession concerning one of the same three Persons of that Holy

Trinity, of the Son of God, or God the Word, and of the mystery of

his adorable dispensation according to the flesh, we assert that all

things are double in the one arm the same our Lord and Saviour Jesus

Christ according to the Evangelical tradition, that is to say, we

confess his two natures, to wit the divine and the human, of which

and in which he, even after the wonderful and inseparable union,

subsists. And we confess that each of his natures has its own

natural propriety, and that the divine, has all filings that are

divine, without any sin. And we recognize that each one (of the two

natures) of the one and the same incarnated, that is, humanated

(humanati) Word of God is in him unconfusedly, inseparably and

unchangeably, intelligence alone discerning a unity, to avoid the

error of confusion. For we equally detest the blasphemy of division

and of commixture. For when we confess two natures and

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two natural wills, and two natural operations in our one Lord Jesus

Christ, we do not assert that they are contrary or opposed one to

the other (as those who err from the path of truth and accuse the

apostolic tradition of doing. Far be this impiety from the hearts of

the faithful!), nor as though separated (per se separated) in two

persons or subsistences, but we say that as the same our Lord Jesus

Christ has two natures so also he has two natural wills and

operations, to wit, the divine and the human: the divine will and

operation he has in common with the coessential Father from all

eternity: the human, he has received from us, taken with our nature

in time. This is the apostolic and evangelic tradition, which the

spiritual mother of your most felicitous empire, the Apostolic

Church of Christ, holds. This is the pure expression of piety. This

is the true and immaculate profession of the Christian religion, not

invented by human cunning, but which was taught by the Holy Ghost

through the princes of the Apostles. This is the firm and

irreprehensible doctrine of the holy Apostles, the integrity of the

sincere piety of which, so long as it is preached freely, defends

the empire of your Tranquillity in the Christian commonwealth, and

exults [will defend it, will render it stable; and exulting], and

(as we firmly trust) will demonstrate it full of happiness. Believe

your most humble [servant], my most Christian lords and sons, that I

am pouring forth these prayers with my tears, or its stability and

exultation [in Greek exaltation]. And these things I (although

unworthy and insignificant) dare advise through my sincere love,

because your God-granted victory is our salvation, the happiness of

your Tranquillity is our joy, the harmlessness of your kindness is

the security of our littleness. And therefore I beseech you with a

contrite heart and rivers of tears, with prostrated mind, deign to

stretch forth your most clement right hand to the Apostolic doctrine

which the co-worker of your pious labours, the blessed apostle

Peter, has delivered, that it be not hidden under a bushel, but that

it be preached in the whole earth more shrilly than a bugle: because

the true confession thereof for which Peter was pronounced blessed

by the Lord of all things, was revealed by the Father of heaven, for

he received from the Redeemer of all himself, by three

commendations, the duty of feeding the spiritual sheep of the

Church; under whose protecting shield, this Apostolic Church of his

has never turned away from the path of truth in any direction of

error, whose authority, as that of the Prince of all the Apostles,

the whole Catholic Church, and the Ecumenical Synods have faithfully

embraced, and followed in all things; and all the venerable Fathers

have embraced its Apostolic doctrine, through which they as the most

approved luminaries of the Church of Christ have shone; and the holy

orthodox doctors have venerated and followed it, while the heretics

have pursued it with false criminations and with derogatory hatred.

This is the living tradition of the Apostles of Christ, which his

Church holds everywhere, which is chiefly to be loved and fostered,

and is to be preached with confidence, which conciliates with God

through its truthful confession, which also renders one commendable

to Christ the Lord, which keeps the Christian empire of your

Clemency, which gives far-reaching victories to your most pious

Fortitude from the Lord of heaven, which accompanies you in battle,

and defeats your foes; which protects on every side as an

impregnable wall your God-sprung empire, which throws terror into

opposing nations, and smites them with the divine wrath, which also

in wars celestially gives triumphal palms over the downfall and

subjection of the enemy, and ever guards your most faithful

sovereignty secure and joyful in peace. For this is the rule of the

true faith, which this spiritual mother of your most tranquil

empire, the Apostolic Church of Christ, has both in prosperity and

in adversity always held and defended with energy; which, it will be

proved, by the grace of Almighty God, has never erred from the path

of the apostolic tradition, nor has she been depraved by yielding to

heretical innovations, but from the beginning she has received the

Christian faith from her founders, the princes of the Apostles of

Christ, and remains undefiled unto the end, according to the divine

promise of the Lord and Saviour himself, which he uttered in the

holy Gospels to the prince of his disciples: saying, "Peter, Peter,

behold, Satan hath desired to have you, that he might sift

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you as wheat; but I have prayed for thee, that (thy) faith fail not.

And when thou art converted, strengthen thy brethren." Let your

tranquil Clemency therefore consider, since it is the Lord and

Saviour of all, whose faith it is, that promised that Peter's faith

should not fail and exhorted him to strengthen his brethren, how it

is known to all that the Apostolic pontiffs, the predecessors of my

littleness, have always confidently done this very thing: of whom

also our littleness, since I have received this ministry by divine

designation, wishes to be the follower, although unequal to them and

the least of all. For woe is me, if I neglect to preach the truth of

my Lord, which they have sincerely preached. Woe is me, if I cover

over with silence the truth which I am bidden to give to the

exchangers, i.e., to teach to the Christian people and imbue it

therewith. What shall I say in the future examination by Christ

himself, if I blush (which God forbid!) to preach here the truth of

his words? What satisfaction shall I be able to give for myself,

what for the souls committed to me, when he demands a strict account

of the office I have received? Who, then, my most clement and most

pious lords and sons, (I speak trembling and prostrate in spirit)

would not be stirred by that admirable promise, which is made to the

faithful: "Whoever shall confess me before men, him also will I

confess before my Father, who is in heaven"? And which one even of

the infidels shall not be terrified by that most severe threat, in

which he protests that he will be full of wrath, and declares that

"Whoever shall deny me before men, him also will I deny before my

Father, who is in heaven"? Whence also blessed Paul, the apostle of

the Gentiles, gives warning and says: "But though we, or an angel

from the heaven should preach to you any other Gospel from what we

have evangelized to you, let him be anathema." Since, therefore,

such an extremity of punishment overhangs the corruptors, or

suppressors of truth by silence, would not any one flee from an

attempt at curtailing the truth of the Lord's faith? Wherefore the

predecessors of Apostolic memory of my littleness, learned in the

doctrine of the Lord, ever since the prelates of the Church of

Constantinople have been trying to introduce into the immaculate

Church of Christ an heretical innovation, have never ceased to

exhort and warn them with many prayers, that they should, at least

by silence, desist from the heretical error of the depraved dogma,

lest from this they make the beginning of a split in the unity of

the Church, by asserting one will, and one operation of the two

natures in the one Jesus Christ our Lord: a thing which the Arians

and the Apollinarists, the Eutychians, the Timotheans, the Acephali,

the Theodosians and the Gaianitae taught, and every heretical

madness, whether of those who confound, or of those who divide the

mystery of the Incarnation of Christ. Those that confound the

mystery of the holy Incarnation, inasmuch as they say that there is

one nature of the deity and humanity of Christ, contend that he has

one will, as of one, and (one) personal operation. But they who

divide, on the other hand, the inseparable union, unite the two

natures which they acknowledge that the Saviour possesses, not

however in an union which is recognized to be hypostatic; but

blasphemously join them by concord, through the affection, of the

will, like two subsistences, i.e., two somebodies. Moreover, the

Apostolic Church of Christ, the spiritual mother of your God-founded

empire, confesses one Jesus Christ our Lord existing of and in two

natures, and she maintains that his two natures, to wit, the divine

and the human, exist in him unconfused even after their inseparable

union, and she acknowledges that each of these natures of Christ is

perfect in the proprieties of its nature, and she confesses that all

things belonging to the proprieties of the natures are double,

because the same our Lord Jesus Christ himself is both perfect God

and perfect man, of two and in two natures: and after his wonderful

Incarnation, his deity cannot be thought of without his humanity,

nor his humanity without his deity. Consequently, therefore,

according to the rule of the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of

Christ, she also confesses and preaches that there are in him two

natural wills and two natural operations. For if anybody should mean

a personal will, when in the holy Trinity there are said to be three

Persons, it would be necessary that there should be asserted three

personal wills, and three personal operations (which is absurd

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and truly profane). Since, as the truth of the Christian faith

holds, the will is natural, where the one nature of the holy and

inseparable Trinity is spoken of, it must be consistently understood

that there is one natural will, and cue natural operation. But when

in truth we confess that in the one person of our Lord Jesus Christ

the mediator between God and men, there are two natures (that is to

say the divine and the human), even after his admirable union, just

as we canonically confess the two natures of one and the same

person, so too we confess his two natural wills and two natural

operations. But that the understanding of this truthful confession

may become clear to your Piety's mind from the God-inspired doctrine

of the Old and the New Testament, (for your Clemency is incomparably

more able to penetrate the meaning of the sacred Scriptures, than

our littleness to set it forth in flowing words), our Lord Jesus

Christ himself, who is true and perfect God, and true and perfect

man, in his holy Gospels shews forth in some instances human things,

in others, divine, and still in others both together, making a

manifestation concerning himself in order that he might instruct his

faithful to believe and preach that he is both true God and true

man. Thus as man he prays to the Father to take away the cup of

suffering, because in him our human nature was complete, sin only

excepted, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from me;

nevertheless not as I will, but as thou wilt." And in another

passage: "Not my will, but thine be done." If we wish to know the

meaning of which testimony as explained by the holy and approved

Fathers, and truly to understand what "my will," what "thine"

signify, the blessed Ambrose in his second book to the Emperor

Gratian, of blessed memory, teaches us the meaning of this passage

in these words, saying: "He then, receives my will, he takes my

sorrow, I confidently call it sorrow as I am speaking of the cross,

mine is the will, which he calls his, because he bears my sorrow as

man, he spoke as a man, and therefore he says: 'Not as I will but as

thou wilt.'" Mine is the sadness which he has received according to

my affection.(1) See, most pious of princes, how clearly here this

holy Father sets forth that the words our Lord used in his prayer,

"Not my will," pertain to his humanity; through which also he is

said, according to the teaching of Blessed Paul the Apostle of the

Gentiles, to have "become obedient unto death, even the death of the

Cross." Wherefore also it is taught us that he was obedient to his

parents, which must piously be understood to refer to his voluntary

obedience, not according to his divinity (by which he governs all

things), but according to his humanity, by which he spontaneously

submitted himself to his parents. St. Luke the Evangelist likewise

bears witness to the same thing, telling how the same our Lord Jesus

Christ prayed according to his humanity to his Father, and said,

"Father, if it be possible let the cup pass from me; nevertheless

not my will but thine be done,"--which passage Athanasius, the

Confessor of Christ, and Archbishop of the Church of Alexandria, in

his book against Apollinaris the heretic, concerning the Trinity and

the Incarnation, also understanding the wills to be two, thus

explains: And when he says, "Father, if it be possible, let this cup

pass from me, nevertheless not my will but thine be done," and

again, "The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak;" he shews that

there are two wills, the one human which is the will of the flesh,

but the other divine. For his human will, out of the weakness of the

flesh was fleeing away from the passion, but his divine will was

ready for it. What truer explanation could be found? For how is it

possible not to acknowledge in him two wills, to wit, a human and a

divine, when in him, even after the inseparable union, there are two

natures according to the definitions of the synods? For John also,

who leaned upon the Lord's breast, his beloved disciple, shews forth

the same self-restraint in these words: "I came down from heaven not

to do mine own will but the will of the Father that sent me." And

again: "This is the will of him that sent me, that of all that he

gave me I should lose nothing, but should raise it up again at the

last day." Again he introduces the Lord as disputing with the Jews,

and saying among other things: "I seek not mine own will, but the

will of him that sent me." On the meaning of which divine words

334

blessed Augustine, a most illustrious doctor, thus writes in his

book against Maximinus the Arian. He says, "When the Son says to the

Father 'Not what I will, but what thou wilt,' what doth it profit

thee, that thou broughtest thy words into subjection and sayest, It

shews truly that his will was subject to his Father, as though we

would deny that the will of man should be subject to the will of

God? For that the Lord said this in his human nature, anyone will

quickly see who studies attentively this place of the Gospel. For

therein he says, 'My soul is exceeding sorrowful even unto death.'

Can this possibly be said of the nature of the One Word? But, O man,

who thinkest to make the nature of the Holy Ghost to groan, why do

you say that the nature of the Only-begotten Word of God cannot be

sad? But to prevent anyone arguing in this way, he does not say 'I

am sad;' (and even if he had so said, it could properly only have

been understood of his human nature) but he says 'My soul is sad,'

which soul he has as man; however in this also which he said, 'Not

what I will' he shewed that he willed something different from what

the Father did, which he could not have done except in his human

nature, since he did not introduce our infirmity into his divine

nature, but would transfigure human affection. For had he not been

made man, the Only Word could in no way have said to the Father,

'Not what I will.' For it could never be possible for that immutable

nature to will anything different from what the Father willed. If

you would but make this distinction, O ye Arians, ye would not be

heretics."

In this disputation this venerable Father shews that when the

Lord says "his own" he means the will of his humanity, and when he

says not to do "his own will," he teaches us not chiefly to seek our

own wills but that through obedience we should submit our wills to

the Divine Will. From all which it is evident that he had a human

will by which he obeyed his Father, and that he had in himself this

same human will immaculate from all sin, as true God and man. Which

thing St. Ambrose also thus treats of in his explanation of St. Luke

the Evangelist.

[After this follows a catena of Patristic quotations which I

have not thought worth while to produce in full. After St. Ambrose

he cites St. Leo, then St. Gregory Nazianzen, then St. Augustine.

(L. & C., col. 647.)]

From which testimonies it is clear that each of those natures

which the spiritual Doctor has here enumerated has its own natural

property, and that to each one a will ought to be assigned. For an

angelic nature cannot have a divine or a human will, neither can a

human nature have a divine or an angelic will. For no nature can

have anything or any motion which pertains to another nature but

only that which is naturally given by creation. And as this is the

truth of the matter it is most certainly clear that we must needs

confess that in our Lord Jesus Christ there are two natures and

substances, to wit, the Divine and human, united in his one

subsistence or person, and that we further confess that there are in

him two natural wills, viz.: the divine and the human, for his

divinity so far as its nature is concerned could not be said to

possess a human will, nor should his humanity be believed to have

naturally a divine will: And again, neither of these two substances

of Christ must be confessed as being without a natural will; but his

human will was lifted up by the omnipotency of his divinity, and his

divine will was revealed to men through his humanity. Therefore it

is necessary to refer to him as God such things as are divine, and

as man such things as are human; and each must be truly recognized

through the hypostatic union of the one and the same our Lord Jesus

Christ, which the most true decree of the Council of Chalcedon sets

forth--[Here follows citation.] This same thing also the holy synod

which was gathered together in Constantinople in the time of the

Emperor Justinian of august memory, teaches in the viith. chapter of

its definitions. [Here follows the citation,] Moreover it is

necessary that we should faithfully keep what those Venerable Synods

taught, so that we never take away the difference of natures as a

result of the union, but confess one Christ, true and perfect God

and also true and perfect man, the propriety of each nature being

kept intact. Wherefore, if in no respect the difference of the

natures of our Lord

335

Jesus Christ has been taken away, it is necessary that we preserve

this same difference in all its proprieties. For whoso teaches that

the difference is in no respect to be taken away, declares that it

must be preserved in all things. But when the heretics and the

followers of heretics say that there is but one will and one

operation, how is this difference recognized? Or where is the

difference which has been defined by this holy Synod preserved?

While if it is asserted that there is but one will in him (which is

absurd), those who make this assertion must needs say that that will

is either human or divine, or else composite from both, mixed and

confused, or (according to the teaching of all heretics) that Christ

has one will and one operation, proceeding from his one composite

nature (as they hold). And thus, without any doubt, the difference

of nature is destroyed, which the holy synods declared to be

preserved in all respects even after the admirable union. Because,

though they taught that Christ was one, his person and substance

one, yet on account of the union of the natures which was made

hypostatically, they likewise decreed that we should clearly

acknowledge and teach the difference of those natures which were

united in him, after the admirable union. Therefore if the

proprieties of the natures in the same our one Lord Jesus Christ

were preserved on account of the difference [of the natures], it is

congruous that we should with full faith confess also the difference

of his natural wills and operations, in order that we may be shown

to have followed in all respects their doctrine, and may admit into

the Church of Christ no heretical novelty.

And although there exist numerous works of the other holy

Fathers, nevertheless we subjoin to this our humble exposition a few

testimonies out of the books which are in Greek, for the sake of

fastidiousness.(1)

[Here follows a catena of passages from the Greek fathers, viz.:

St. Gregory Theologus, St. Gregory Nyssen, St. John bishop of

Constantinople, St. Cyril, bishop of Alexandria. (L. & C., col.

654.)]

From these truthful testimonies it is also demonstrated that

these venerable fathers predicated in the one and the same Lord

Jesus Christ two natural wills, viz.: a divine and a human, for when

St. Gregory Nazianzen says," The willing of that man who is

understood to be the Saviour," he shows that the human will of the

Saviour was deified through its union with the Word, and therefore

it is not contrary to God. So likewise he proves that he had a

human, although deified will, and this same he had (as he teaches in

what follows) as well as his divine will, which was one and the same

with that of the Father. If therefore he had a divine and a deified

will, he had also two wills. For what is divine by nature has no

need of being deified; and what is deified is not truly divine by

nature. And when St. Gregory Nyssen, a great bishop, says that the

true confession of the mystery is, that there should be understood

one human will and another a divine will in Christ, what does he bid

us understand when he says one and another will, except that there

are manifestly two wills?

[He next proceeds to comment upon the passage cited from St.

John, then upon that from St. Cyril of Alexandria. After this follow

quotations from St. Hilary, St. Athanasius, St. Denys the

Areopagite, St. Ambrose, St. Leo, St. Gregory Nyssen, St. Cyril of

Alexandria, which are next commented on in their order. He then

proceeds: (L. & C., col. 662.)]

There are not lacking most telling passages in other of the

venerable fathers, who speak clearly of the two natural operations

in Christ, not to mention St. Cyril of Jerusalem, St. John of

Constantinople, or those who afterwards conducted the laborious

conflicts in defence of the venerable council of Chalcedon and of

the Tome of St. Leo against the heretics from whose error the

assertion of this new dogma has arisen: that is to say, John, bishop

of Scythopolis, Eulogius, bishop of Alexandria, Euphraemius and

Anastasius the elder, most worthy rulers of the church of Theopolis,

and above all that emulator of the true and apostolic faith, the

Emperor Justinian of pious memory, whose uprightness of faith

exalted the Christian State as much as his sincere confession

pleased God. And his pious memory is esteemed worthy

336

of veneration by all nations, whose uprightness of faith was

disseminated with praise throughout the whole world by his most

august edicts: one of these, to wit, that addressed to Zoilus, the

patriarch of Alexandria, against the heresy of the Acephali to

satisfy them of the rectitude of the apostolic faith, we offer to

your most tranquil Christianity, sending it together with this paper

of our lowliness through the same carriers. But lest this

declaration should be thought burdensome on account of its length,

we have inserted in this declaration of our humility only a few of

the testimonies of the Holy Fathers, especially [when writing to

those] on whom the care and arrangement of the whole world as on a

firm foundation are recognized to rest; since this is altogether

incomparable and great, that the care of the whole Christian State

being laid aside for a little out of love and zeal for true

religion, your august and most religious clemency should desire to

understand more clearly the doctrine of apostolical preaching. For

from the different approved fathers the truth of the Orthodox faith

has become clear although the treatment is short. For the approved

fathers thought it to be superfluous to discourse at length upon

what was evident and clear to all; for who, even if he be dull of

wit, does not perceive what is evident to all? For it is impossible

and contrary to the order of nature that there should be a nature

without a natural operation: and even the heretics did not dare to

say this, although they were, all of them, hunting for human

craftiness and cunning questions against the orthodoxy of the faith,

and arguments agreeable to their depravities.

How then can that now be asserted which never was said by the

holy orthodox fathers, nor even was presumptuously invented by the

profane heretics, viz.: that of the two natures of Christ, the

divine and the human, the proprieties of each of which are

recognized as being preserved in Christ, that anyone in sound mind

should declare there was but one operation? Since if there is one,

let them say whether it be temporal or eternal, divine or human,

uncreated or created: the same as that of the Father or different

from that of the Father. If therefore it is one, that one and the

same must be common to the divinity anti to the humanity (which is

absurd), therefore while the Son of God, who is both God and man,

wrought human things on earth, likewise also the Father worked with

him according to his nature (naturaliter, fusikws);

for what things the Father doeth these the Son also doeth likewise.

But if (as is the truth) the human acts which Christ did are to be

referred to his person alone as the Son, which is not the same as

that of the Father; in one nature Christ worked one set of works,

and in the other another, so that according to his divinity the Son

does the same things that the Father does; and likewise according to

his humanity, what things are proper to the manhood, those same, he

as man, did because he is truly both God and man. For which reason

we rightly believe that that same person, since he is one, has two

natural operations, to wit, the divine and the human, one uncreated,

and the other created, as true and perfect God and as true and

perfect man, the one and the same, the mediator between God and men,

the Lord Jesus Christ. Wherefore from the quality of the operations

there is recognized a difference void of offence

(aproskopos) of the natures which are joined in

Christ through the hypostatic union. We now proceed to cite some

passages from the execrable writings of the heretics hated of God,

(1) whose words and sayings we equally abominate, for the

demonstration of those things which our inventors of new dogma have

followed teaching that in Christ there is but one will and one

operation.

[Then follow quotations from Apollinaris, Severus, Theodosius of

Alexandria. (L. & C., col. 667.)]

Behold, most pious lords and sons, by the testimonies of the

holy Fathers, as by spiritual rays, the doctrine of the Catholic and

Apostolic Church has been illustrated and the darkness of heretical

blindness, which is offering error to men for imitation, has been

revealed. Now it is necessary that the new doctrine should follow

somebody, and by whose authority it is supported, we shall note.

[Here follow quotations from Cyrus of Alexandria, Theodore of

Pharon, Sergius of Constantinople, Pyrrhus, Paulus his succes-

337

sor, Peter his successor. (L. & C., col. 670.)]

Let then your God-rounded clemency with the internal eye of

discrimination, which for the guidance of the Christian people you

have been deemed worthy to receive by the Grace of God, take heed

which one of such doctors you think the Christian people should

follow, the doctrine of which one of these they should embrace so as

to be saved; for they condemn all, and each one of them the other,

according as the various and unstable definitions in their writings

assert sometimes that there is one will and one operation, sometimes

that there is neither one nor two operations, sometimes one will and

operation, and again two wills and two operations, likewise one will

and one operation, and again neither one, nor two, and somebody else

one and two.

Who does not hate, and rage against, and avoid such blind

errors, if he have any desire to be saved and seek to offer to the

Lord at his coming a right faith? Therefore the Holy Church of God,

the mother of your most Christian power, should be delivered and

liberated with all your might (through the help of God) from the

errors of such teachers, and the evangelical and apostolic

uprightness of the orthodox faith, which has been established upon

the firm reek of this Church of blessed Peter, the Prince of the

Apostles, which by his grace and guardianship remains free from all

error, [that faith I say] the whole number of rulers and priests, of

the clergy and of the people, unanimously should confess and preach

with us as the true declaration of the Apostolic tradition, in order

to please God and to save their own souls.

And these things we have taken pains to insert in the tractate

of our humility, for we have been afflicted and have groaned without

ceasing that such grievous errors should be entertained by bishops

of the l Church, who are zealous to establish their own peculiar

views rather than the truth of the faith, and think that our sincere

fraternal admonition has its spring in a contempt for them. And

indeed the apostolic predecessors of my humility admonished, begged,

upbraided, besought, reproved, and exercised every kind of

exhortation that the recent wound bright receive a remedy, moved

thereto not by a mind filled with hatred (God is my witness) nor

through the elation of boasting, nor through the opposition of

contention, nor through an inane desire to find some fault with

their teachings, nor through anything akin to the love of arrogance,

but out of zeal for the uprightness of the truth, and for the rule

of the confession of the pure Gospel, and for the salvation of

souls, and for the stability of the Christian state, and for the

safety of those who rule the Roman Empire. Nor did they cease from

their admonitions after the long duration of this domesticated

error, but always exhorted and bore record, and that with fraternal

charity, not through malice or pertinacious hatred (far be it from

the Christian heart to rejoice at another's fall, when the Lord of

all teaches, "I desire not the death of a sinner, but that he be

converted and live;" and who rejoiceth over one sinner that

repenteth more than over ninety-and-nine just persons: who came down

from heaven to earth to deliver the lost sheep, inclining the power

of his majesty), but desiring them with outstretched spiritual arms,

and exhorting to embrace them returning to the unity of the orthodox

faith, and awaiting their conversion to the full rectitude of the

orthodox faith: that they might not make themselves aliens froth our

communion, that is from the communion of blessed Peter the Apostle,

whose ministry, we (though unworthy) exercise, and preach the faith

he has handed down, but that they should together with us pray

Christ the Lord, the spotless sacrifice, for the stability of your

most strong and serene Empire.

We believe, most pious lords [singular in the Latin] of all

things, that there has been left no possible ambiguity which can

prevent the recognizing of those who have followed the inventors of

new dogma. For the sweetness of spiritual understanding with which

the sayings of the Fathers are full has become evident to the eyes

of all; and the stench of the heretics, to be avoided by all the

faithful, has been made notorious. Nor has it remained unknown that

the inventors of new dogma have been shewn to be the followers of

heretics, and not the walkers in the footsteps of the holy Fathers:

therefore whoever wishes to colour any error of his whatever, is

condemned by the light of truth, as the Apostle of the Gentiles

338

says, "For everything that doth make manifest is light," for the

truth ever remains constant and the same, but falsehood is ever

varying, and in its wanderings adopting things mutually

contradictory. On this account the inventors of the new dogma have

been shewn to have taught things mutually contradictory, because

they were not willing to be followers of the Evangelical and

Apostolic faith. Wherefore since the truth has shone forth by the

observations of your God-inspired piety, and falsity which has been

exposed has attained the contempt which it deserved, it remains that

the crowned truth may shine forth victoriously through the pious

favours of your God-crowned clemency; and that the error of novelty

with it inventors and with those who follow their doctrine, may

receive the punishment due their presumption, and be cast forth from

the midst of the orthodox prelates for the heretical pravity of

their innovation, which into the holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church

of Christ they have endeavoured to introduce, and to stain with the

contagion of heretical pravity the indivisible and unspotted body of

the Church [of Christ]. For it is not just that the injurious should

injure the innocent, nor that the offences of some should be visited

upon the inoffensive, for even if in this world to the condemned

mercy is extended, yet they who are thus spared reap for that

sparing no benefit in the judgment of God, and by those thus sparing

them there is incurred no little danger for their unlawful

compassion.

But we believe that Almighty God has reserved for the happy days

of your gentleness the amending of these things, that filling on

earth the place and zeal of our Lord Jesus Christ himself, who has

vouchsafed to crown your rule, ye may judge just judgment for his

Evangelical and Apostolical truth: for although he be the Redeemer

and Saviour of the human race yet he suffered injury, and bore it

even until now, and inspired the empire of your fortitude, so that

you should be worthy to follow the cause of his faith (as equity

demanded, and as the determination of the Holy Fathers and of the

Five General Synods decreed), and that you should avenge, through

his guardianship, on the spurners of his faith, the injury done your

Redeemer and Colleague in reigning, thus fulfilling magnanimously

with imperial clemency that prophetic utterance with which David the

King and Prophet, spake to God, saying, "The zeal of thine house

hath eaten me up." Wherefore having been extolled for so

God-pleasing a zeal, he was deemed fit to hear that blessed word

spoken by the Creator of all men, "I have found David, a man after

my heart, who will do all my will." And to him also it was promised

in the Psalms, "I have found David, my servant, with my holy oil

have I anointed him: My hand shall aid him and my arm shall comfort

him," so that the most pious majesty of your Christian clemency may

work to further the cause of Christ with burning zeal for the sake

of remuneration, and may he make all the acts of your most powerful

empire both happy and prosperous, who hath stored up his promise in

the Holy Gospels, saying," Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all

these things shall be added unto you." For all, to whom has come the

knowledge of the sacred heads, (1) have been offering innumerable

thanksgivings and unceasing praises to the defender of your most

powerful dominion, being filled with admiration for the greatness of

your clemency, in that you have so benignly set forth the kind

intention of your august magnanimity; for in truth, as most pious

and most just princes, you have deigned to treat divine things with

the fear of God, having promised every immunity to those persons

sent to you from our littleness.

And we are confident that what your pious clemency has promised,

you are powerful to carry out, in order that what has been vowed and

promised to God by the religious philanthropy beyond your Christian

power, may nevertheless be fulfilled by the aid of his omnipotency.

Wherefore let praise by all Christian nations, and eternal

memory, and frequent prayer be poured forth before the Lord Christ,

whose is the cause, for your safety, and your triumphs, and your

complete victory, that the nations of the Gentiles, being impressed

by the terror of the supernal majesty, may lay down most humbly

their necks beneath the sceptre of your most powerful rule, that the

power of your most pious kingdom may continue until the ceaseless

joy of the eternal kingdom succeeds to this temporal reign. Nor

could

339

anything be found more likely to commend the clemency of your

unconquerable fortitude to the divine majesty, than that those who

err from the rule of truth should be repelled and the integrity of

our Evangelical and Apostolic faith should be everywhere set forth

and preached.

Moreover, most pious and God-instructed sons and lords, if the

Archbishop of the Church of Constantinople shall choose to hold and

to preach with us this most unblameable rule of Apostolic doctrine

of the Sacred Scriptures, of the venerable synods, of the spiritual

Fathers, according to their evangelical understanding, through which

the form of the truth has been set forth by us through the

assistance of the Spirit, there will ensue great peace to them that

love the name of God, and there will remain no scandal of

dissension, and that will come to pass which is recorded in the Acts

of the Apostles, when through the grace of the Holy Spirit the

people had come to the acknowledging of Christianity, all of us will

be of one heart and of one mind. But if (which God forbid!) he shall

prefer to embrace the novelty but lately introduced by others; and

shall ensnare himself with doctrines which are alien to the rule of

orthodox truth and of our Apostolic faith, to decline which as

injurious to souls' these have put off, despite the exhortation and

admonitions of our predecessors in the Apostolic See, down to this

day, he himself should know what kind of an answer he will have to

give for such contempt in the divine examination of Christ before

the judge of all, who is in heaven, to whom when he cometh to

judgment also we ourselves are about to give an account of the

ministry of preaching the truth which has been committed to us, or

for the toleration of things contrary to the Christian religion: and

may we (as I humbly pray) preserve unconfusedly and freely, with

simplicity and purity, whole and undefiled, the Apostolic and

Evangelical rule of the right faith as we have received it from the

beginning. And may your most august serenity, for the affection and

reverence which you bear to the Catholic and Apostolic right faith,

receive the perfect reward of your pious labours from our Lord Jesus

Christ himself, the ruler with you of your Christian empire, whose

true confession you desire to preserve undefiled, because nothing in

any respect has been neglected or omitted by your God-crowned

clemency, which could minister to the peace of the churches,

provided always that the integrity of the true faith was maintained:

since God, the Judge of all, who disposes the ending of all matters

as he deems most expedient, seeks out the intent of the heart, and

will accept a zeal for piety. Therefore I exhort you, O most pious

and clement Emperor, and together with my littleness every Christian

man exhorts you on bended knee with all humility, that to all the

God-pleasing goodnesses and admirable imperial benefits which the

heavenly condescension has vouchsafed to grant to the human race

through your God-accepted care, this also you would order, for the

redintegration of perfect piety, to offer an acceptable sacrifice to

Christ the Lord your fellow-ruler, granting entire impunity, and

free faculty of speech to each one wishing to speak, and to urge a

word in defence of the faith which he believes and holds, so that it

may most manifestly be recognized by all that by no terror, by no

force, by no threat or aversion any one wishing to speak for the

truth of the Catholic and Apostolic faith, has been prohibited or

repulsed, and that all unanimously may glorify your imperial

(divinam) majesty, throughout the whole since of their lives for so

great and so inestimable a good, and may pour forth unceasing

prayers to Christ the Lord that your most strong empire may be

preserved untouched and exalted. The Subscription. May the grace

from above keep your empire, most pious lords, and place beneath its

feet the neck of all the nations.

THE LETTER OF AGATHO AND OF THE ROMAN SYNOD OF 125 BISHOPS WHICH WAS

TO SERVE AS AN INSTRUCTION TO THE LEGATES SENT TO ATTEND THE SIXTH

SYNOD.

(Found in Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 677 et

seqq., and in Migne, Pat. Lat. Tom. LXXXVII., col. 1215 et seqq.

[This last text, which is Mansi's, I have followed].)

To the most pious Lords and most serene victors and conquerors,

our own sons beloved of God and of our Lord Jesus Christ,

Constantine, the great Emperor, and Heraclius and Tiberius,

Augustuses, Agatho, the bishop and servant of the servants of God,

together with all the synods subject to the council of the Apostolic

See.

[The Letter opens with a number of compliments to the Emperor,

much in style and matter like the introduction of the preceding

letter. I have not thought it worth while to translate this, but

have begun at the doctrinal part, which is given to the reader in

full. (Labbe and Cossart, col. 682.)]

We believe in God the Father Almighty, maker of heaven and

earth, and of all things visible and invisible; and in his

only-begotten Son, who was begotten of him before all worlds; very

God of Very God, Light of Light, begotten not made, being of one

substance with the Father, that is of the same substance as the

Father; by him were all things made which are in heaven and which

are in earth; and in the Holy Ghost, the Lord and giver of life, who

proceedeth from the Father, and with the Father and the Son together

is worshipped and glorified; the Trinity in unity and Unity in

trinity; a unity so far as essence is concerned, but a trinity of

persons or subsistences; and so we confess God the Father, God the

Son, and God the Holy Ghost; not three gods, but one God, the

Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost: not a subsistency of three

names, but one substance of three subsistences; and of these persons

one is the essence, or substance or nature, that is to say one is

the godhead, one the eternity, one the power, one the kingdom, one

the glory, one the adoration, one the essential will and operation

of the same Holy and inseparable Trinity, which hath created all

things, hath made disposition of them, and still contains them.

Moreover we confess that one of the same holy consubstantial

Trinity, God the Word, who was begotten of the Father before the

worlds, in the last days of the world for us and for our salvation

came down from heaven, and was incarnate of the Holy Ghost, and of

our Lady, the holy, immaculate, ever-virgin and glorious Mary, truly

and properly the Mother of God, that is to say according to the

flesh which was born of her; and was truly made man, the same being

very God and very man. God of God his Father, but man of his Virgin

Mother, incarnate of her flesh with a reasonable and intelligent

soul: of one substance with God the Father, as touching his godhead,

and consubstantial with us as touching his manhood, and in all

points like unto us, but without sin. He was crucified for us under

Pontius Pilate, he suffered, was buried and rose again; ascended

into heaven, and sitteth at the right hand of the Father, and he

shall come again to judge both the quick and the dead, and of his

kingdom there shah be no end.

And this same one Lord of ours, Jesus Christ, the only-begotten

Son of God, we acknowledge to subsist of and in two substances

unconfusedly, unchangeably, indivisibly, inseparably, the difference

of the natures being by no means taken away by the union, but rather

the proprieties of each nature being preserved and concurring in one

Person and one Subsistence, not scattered or divided into two

Persons, nor confused into one composite nature; but we confess one

and the same only-begotten Son, God the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ,

not one in another, nor one added to another, but himself the same

in two natures--that is to say in the Godhead and in the man-

341

hood even after the hypostatic union: for neither was the Word

changed into the nature of flesh, nor was the flesh transformed into

the nature of the Word, for each remained what it was by nature. We

discern by contemplation alone the distinction between the natures

united in him of which inconfusedly, inseparably and unchangeably he

is composed; for one is of both, and through one both, because there

are together both the height of the deity and the humility of the

flesh, each nature preserving after the union its own proper

character without any defect; and each form acting in communion with

the other what is proper to itself. The Word working what is proper

to the Word, and the flesh what is proper to the flesh; of which the

one shines with miracles, the other bows down beneath injuries.

Wherefore, as we confess that he truly has two natures or

substances, viz.: the Godhead and the manhood, inconfusedly,

indivisibly and unchangeably [united], so also the rule of piety

instructs us that he has two natural wills and two natural

operations, as perfect God and perfect man, one and the same our

Lord Jesus Christ. And this the apostolic and evangelical tradition

and the authority of the Holy Fathers (whom the Holy Apostolic and

Catholic Church and the venerable Synods receive), has plainly

taught us.

[The letter goes on to say that this is the traditional faith,

and is that which was set forth in a council over which Pope Martin

presided, and that those opposed to this faith have erred from the

truth, some in one way, and some in another. It next apologizes for

the delay in sending the persons ordered by the imperial Sacra, and

proceeds thus: (Labbe and Cossart, col. 686; Migne, col. 1224).]

In the first place, a great number of us are spread over a vast

extent of country even to the sea coast, and the length of their

journey necessarily took much time. Moreover we were in hopes of

being able to join to our humility our fellow-servant and brother

bishop, Theodore, the archbishop and philosopher of the island of

Great Britain, with others who have been kept there even till

to-day; and to add to these divers i bishops of this council who

have their sees in different parts, that our humble suggestion

[i.e., the doctrinal definition contained in the letters] might

proceed from a council of wide-spread influence, lest if only a part

were cognizant of what was being done, it might escape the notice of

a part; and especially because among the Gentiles, as the

Longobards, and the Sclavi, as also the Franks, the French, the

Goths, and the Britains, there are known to be very many of our

fellow-servants who do not cease curiously to enquire on the

subject, that they may know what is being done in the cause of the

Apostolic faith: who as they can be of advantage so long as they

hold the true faith with us, and think in unison with us, so are

they found troublesome and contrary, if (which may God forbid!) they

stumble at any article of the faith. But we, although most humble,

yet strive with all our might that the commonwealth of your

Christian empire may be shown to be more sublime than all the

nations, for in it has been rounded the See of Blessed Peter, the

prince of the Apostles, by the authority of which, all Christian

nations venerate and worship with us, through the reverence of the

blessed Apostle Peter himself. (This is the Latin, which appears to

me to be corrupt, the Greek reads as follows: "The authority of

which for the truth, all the Christian nations together with us

worship and revere, according to the honour of the blessed Peter the

Apostle himself.")

[The letter ends with prayers for constancy, and blessings on

the State and Emperor, and hopes for the universal diffusion and

acceptance of the truth.]

EXTRACTS FROM THE ACTS.

SESSION VIII.

(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 730.)

[ The Emperor said]

Let George, the most holy archbishop of this our God-preserved

city, and let Macarius, the venerable archbishop of Antioch, and let

the synod subject to them [i.e., their suffragans] say, if they

submit to the force (ei stoikousi

dunamei) of the suggestions sent by the most holy

Agatho Pope of Old (1) Rome and by his Synod.

[The answer of George, with which all his bishops, many of them,

speaking one by one, agreed except Theodore of Metilene (who handed

in his assent at the end of the Tenth Session).]

I have diligently examined the whole force of the suggestions

sent to your most pious Fortitude, as well by Agatho, the most holy

Pope of Old(1) Rome, as by his synod, and I have scrutinized the

works of the holy and approved Fathers, which are laid up in my

venerable patriarchate, and I have found that all the testimonies of

the holy and accepted Fathers, which are contained in those

suggestions agree with, and in no particular differ from, the holy

and accepted Fathers. Therefore I give my submission to them and

thus I profess and believe.

[The answer of all the rest of the Bishops subject to the See of

Constantinople. (Col. 735.)]

And we, most pious Lord, accepting the teaching of the

suggestion sent to your most gentle Fortitude by the most holy and

blessed Agatho, Pope of Old Rome, and of that other suggestion which

was adopted by the council subject to him, and following the sense

therein contained, so we are minded, so we profess, and so we

believe that in our one Lord Jesus Christ, our true God, there are

two natures unconfusedly, unchangeably, undividedly, and two natural

wills and two natural operations; and all who have taught, and who

now say, that there is but one will and one operation in the two

natures of our one Lord Jesus Christ our true God, we anathematize.

[The Emperor's demand to Macarius. (Col. 739.)]

Let Macarius, the Venerable Archbishop of Antioch, who has now

heard what has been said by this holy and Ecumenical Synod

[demanding the expression of his faith], answer what seemeth him

good.

[The answer of Macarius.]

I do not say that there are two wills or two operations in the

dispensation of the incarnation of our Lord Jesus Christ, but one

will and one theandric operation.

THE SENTENCE AGAINST THE MONOTHELITES.

SESSION XIII.

(L. and C., Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 943.)

The holy council said: After we had reconsidered, according to

our promise which we had made to your highness, the doctrinal

letters of Sergius, at one time patriarch of this royal

god-protected city to Cyrus, who was then bishop of Phasis and to

Honorius some time Pope of Old Rome, as well as the letter of the

latter to the same Sergius, we find that these documents are quite

foreign to the apostolic dogmas, to the declarations

343

of the holy Councils, and to all the accepted Fathers, and that they

follow the false teachings of the heretics; therefore we entirely

reject them, and execrate them as hurtful to the soul. But the names

of those men whose doctrines we execrate must also be thrust forth

from the holy Church of God, namely, that of Sergius some time

bishop of this God-preserved royal city who was the first to write

on this impious doctrine; also that of Cyrus of Alexandria, of

Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter, who died bishops of this God-preserved

city, and were like-minded with them; and that of Theodore sometime

bishop of Pharan, all of whom the most holy and thrice blessed

Agatho, Pope of Old Rome, in his suggestion to our most pious and

God-preserved lord and mighty Emperor, rejected, because they were

minded contrary to our orthodox faith, all of whom we define are to

be subjected to anathema. And with these we define that there shall

be expelled from the holy Church of God and anathematized Honorius

who was some time Pope of Old Rome, because of what we found written

by him to Sergius, that in all respects he followed his view and

confirmed his impious doctrines. We have also examined the synodal

letter of Sophronius of holy memory, some time Patriarch of the Holy

City of Christ our God, Jerusalem, and have found it in accordance

with the true faith and with the Apostolic teachings, and with those

of the holy approved Fathers. Therefore we have received it as

orthodox and as salutary to the holy Catholic and Apostolic Church,

and have decreed that it is right that his name be inserted in the

diptychs of the Holy Churches.

SESSION XVI.

(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1010.)

[The Acclamations of the Fathers.]

Many years to the Emperor! Many years to Constantine, our great

Emperor! Many years to the Orthodox King! Many years to our Emperor

that maketh peace! Many years to Constantine, a second Martian! Many

years to Constantine, a new Theodosius! Many years to Constantine, a

new Justinian! Many years to the keeper of the orthodox faith! O

Lord preserve the foundation of the Churches!O Lord preserve the

keeper of the faith!

Many years to Agatho, Pope of Rome! Many years to George,

Patriarch of Constantinople! Many years to Theophanus, Patriarch of

Antioch! Many years to the orthodox council! Many years to the

orthodox Senate!

To Theodore of Pharan, the heretic, anathema! To Sergius, the

heretic, anathema! To Cyrus, the heretic, anathema! To Honorius, the

heretic, anathema! To Pyrthus, the heretic, anathema!

To Paul

To Peter

To Macarius the heretic, anath-

To Stephen ema!

To Polychronius

To Apergius of Perga

To all heretics, anathema! To all who side with heretics, anathema!

May the faith of the Christians increase, and long years to the

orthodox and Ecumenical Council!

THE DEFINITION OF FAITH.

(Found in the Acts, Session XVIII., L. and C., Concilia, Tom. VI.,

col. 1019.)

The holy, great, and Ecumenical Synod which has been assembled

by the grace of God, and the religious decree of the most religious

and faithful and mighty Sovereign Constantine, in this God-protected

and royal city of Constantinople, New Rome, in the Hall of the

imperial Palace, called Trullus, has decreed as follows.

The only-begotten Son, and Word of God the Father, who was made

man in all things like unto us without sin, Christ our true God, has

declared expressly in the words of the Gospel, "I am the light of

the world he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall

have the light of life." And again, "My peace I leave with, you, my

peace I give unto you." Our most gentle Sovereign, the champion of

orthodoxy, and opponent of evil doctrine, being reverentially led by

this divinely uttered doctrine of peace, and having convened this

our holy and Ecumenical assembly, has united the judgment of the

whole Church. Wherefore this our holy and Ecumenical Synod having

driven away the impious error which had prevailed for a certain time

until now, and following closely the straight path of the holy and

approved Fathers, has piously given its full assent to the five holy

and Ecumenical Synods (that is to say, to that of the 318 holy

Fathers who assembled in Nice against the raging Arius; and the next

in Constantinople of the 150 God-inspired men against Macedonius the

adversary of the Spirit, and the impious Apollinaris; and also the

first in Ephesus of 200 venerable men convened against Nestorius the

Judaizer; and that in Chalcedon of 630 God-inspired Fathers against

Eutyches and Dioscorus hated of God; and in addition to these, to

the last, that is the Fifth holy Synod assembled in this place,

against Theodore of Mopsuestia, Origen, Didymus, and Evagrius, and

the writings of Theodoret against the Twelve Chapters of the

celebrated Cyril, and the Epistle which was said to be written by

Ibas to Maris the Persian), renewing in all things the ancient

decrees of religion, and chasing away the impious doctrines of

irreligion. And this

our holy and Ecumenical Synod inspired of God has set its seal to

the Creed which was put forth by the 318 Fathers, and again

religiously confirmed by the 150, which also the other holy synods

cordially received and ratified for the taking away of every

soul-destroying heresy.

The Nicene Creed of the 318 holy Fathers.

We believe, etc.

The Creed of the 150 holy Fathers as-

sembled at Constantinople. We believe, etc.

The holy and Ecumenical Synod further says, this pious and

orthodox Creed of the Divine grace would be sufficient for the full

knowledge and confirmation of the orthodox faith. But as the author

of evil, who, in the beginning, availed himself of the aid of the

serpent, and by it brought the poison of death upon the human race,

has not desisted, but in like manner now, having found suitable

instruments for working out his will (we mean Theodorus, who was

Bishop of Pharan, Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, who were

Archbishops of this royal city, and moreover, Honorius who was Pope

of the elder Rome, Cyrus Bishop of Alexandria, Macarius who was

lately bishop of Antioch, and Stephen his disciple), has actively

employed them in raising up for the whole Church the

stumbling-blocks of one will and one operation in the two natures of

Christ our true God, one of the Holy Trinity; thus disseminating, in

novel terms, amongst the orthodox people, an heresy similar to the

mad and wicked doctrine of the impious Apollinaris, Severus, and

Themistius, and endeavouring craftily to destroy the perfection of

the incarnation of the same our Lord Jesus Christ, our God, by

blasphemously representing his flesh endowed with a rational soul as

devoid of will or operation. Christ, therefore, our God, has raised

up our faithful Sovereign, a new David, having found him a man after

his own heart, who as it is written, "has not suffered his eyes to

sleep nor his eyelids to slumber," until he has found a perfect

declaration of orthodoxy by this

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our God-collected and holy Synod; for, according to the sentence

spoken of God, "Where two or three are gathered together in my name,

there am I in the midst of them," the present holy and Ecumenical

Synod faithfully receiving and saluting with uplifted hands as well

the suggestion which by the most holy and blessed Agatho, Pope of

ancient Rome, was sent to our most pious and faithful Emperor

Constantine, which rejected by name those who taught or preached one

will and one operation in the dispensation of the incarnation of our

Lord Jesus Christ who is our very God, has likewise adopted that

other synodal suggestion which was sent by the Council holden under

the same most holy Pope, composed of 125 Bishops, beloved of God, to

his God-instructed tranquillity, as consonant to the holy Council of

Chalcedon and to the Tome of the most holy and blessed Leo, Pope of

the same old Rome, which was directed to St. Flavian, which also

this Council called the Pillar of the right faith; and also agrees

with the Synodal Epistles which were written by Blessed Cyril

against the impious Nestorius and addressed to the Oriental Bishops.

Following the five holy Ecumenical Councils and the holy and

approved Fathers, with one voice defining that

our Lord Jesus Christ must be confessed to be very God and very man,

one of the holy and consubstantial and life-giving Trinity, perfect

in Deity and perfect in humanity, very God and very man, of a

reasonable soul and human body subsisting; consubstantial with the

Father as touching his Godhead and consubstantial with us as

touching his manhood; in all things like unto us, sin only excepted;

begotten of his Father before all ages according to his Godhead, but

in these last days for us men and for our salvation made man of the

Holy Ghost and of the Virgin Mary, strictly and properly the Mother

of God according to the flesh; one and the same Christ our Lord the

only-begotten Son of two natures un-confusedly, unchangeably,

inseparably indivisibly to be recognized, the peculiarities of

neither nature being lost by the union but rather the proprieties of

each nature being preserved, concurring in one Person and in one

subsistence, not parted or divided into two persons but one and the

same only-begotten Son of God, the Word, our Lord Jesus Christ,

according as the Prophets of old have taught us and as our Lord

Jesus Christ himself hath instructed us, and the Creed of the holy

Fathers hath delivered to us; defining all this we likewise declare

that in him are two natural wills and two natural operations

indivisibly, inconvertibly, inseparably, inconfusedly, according to

the teaching of the holy Fathers. And these two natural wills are

not contrary the one to the other (God forbid!) as the impious

heretics assert, but his human will follows and that not as

resisting and reluctant, but rather as subject to his divine and

omnipotent will. For it was right that the flesh should be moved but

subject to the divine will, according to the most wise Athanasius.

For as his flesh is called and is the flesh of God the Word, so also

the natural will of his flesh is called and is the proper will of

God the Word, as he himself says: "I came down from heaven, not that

I might do mine own will but the will of the Father which sent me!"

where he calls his own will the will of his flesh, inasmuch as his

flesh was also his own. For as his most holy and immaculate animated

flesh was not destroyed because it was deified but continued in its

own state and nature (orw te

kai logw), so also his human will,

although deified, was not suppressed, but was rather preserved

according to the saying of Gregory Theologus: "His will [i.e., the

Saviour's] is not contrary to God but altogether deified."

We glorify two natural operations indivisibly, immutably,

inconfusedly, inseparably in the same our Lord Jesus Christ our true

God, that is to say a divine operation and a human operation,

according to the divine preacher Leo, who most distinctly asserts as

follows: "For each form (morfh) does in communion

with the other what pertains properly to it, the Word, namely, doing

that which pertains to the Word, and the flesh that which pertains

to the flesh."

For we will not admit one natural operation in God and in the

creature, as we will not exalt into the divine essence what is

created, nor will we bring down the glory of the divine nature to

the place suited to the creature.

We recognize the miracles and the sufferings as of one and the

same [Person], but of one or of the other nature of which he is and

in which he exists, as Cyril admirably says. Preserving therefore

the inconfused-

ness and indivisibility, we make briefly this whole confession,

believing our Lord Jesus Christ to be one of the Trinity and after

the incarnation our true God, we say that his two natures shone

forth in his one subsistence in which he both performed the miracles

and endured the sufferings through the whole of his economic

conversation (di oolhs

autou ths oikonomkhs

anastrofhs), and that not in appearance only but in

very deed, and this by reason of the difference of nature which must

be recognized in the same Person, for although joined together yet

each nature wills and does the things proper to it and that

indivisibly and inconfusedly. Wherefore we confess two wills and two

operations, concurring most fitly in him for the salvation of the

human race.

These firings, therefore, with all diligence and care having

been formulated by us, we define that it be permitted to no one to

bring forward, or to write, or to compose, or to think, or to teach

a different faith. Whosoever shall presume to compose a different

faith, or to propose, or teach, or hand to those wishing to be

converted to the knowledge of the truth, from the Gentiles or Jews,

or from any heresy, any different Creed; or to introduce a new voice

or invention of speech to subvert these things which now have been

determined by us, all these, if they be Bishops or clerics let them

be deposed, the Bishops from the Episcopate, the clerics from the

clergy; but if they be monks or laymen: let them be anathematized.

THE PROSPHONETICUS TO THE EMPEROR.

(Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1047 et seqq.)

[This address begins with many compliments to the Emperor,

especially for his zeal for the true faith.]

But because the adversary Satan allows no rest, he has raised up

the very ministers of Christ against him, as if armed and carrying

weapons, etc.

[The various heretics are then named and how they were condemned

by the preceding five councils is set forth.]

Things being so, it was necessary that your beloved of Christ

majesty should gather together this all holy, and numerous assembly.

Thereafter being inspired by the Holy Ghost, and all agreeing

and consenting together, and giving our approval to the doctrinal

letter of our most blessed and exalted pope, Agatho, which he sent

to your mightiness, as also agreeing to the suggestion of the holy

synod of one hundred and twenty-five fathers held under him, we

teach that one of fire Holy Trinity, our Lord Jesus Christ, was

incarnate, and must be celebrated in two perfect natures without

division and without confusion. For as the Word, he is

consubstantial and eternal with God his father; but as taking flesh

of the immaculate Virgin Mary, the Mother of God, he is perfect man,

consubstantial with us and made in time. We declare therefore that

he is perfect in Godhead and that the same is perfect likewise in

manhood, according to the pristine tradition of the fathers and the

divine definition of Chalcedon.

And as we recognize two natures, so also we recognize two

natural wills and two natural operations. For we dare not say that

either of the natures which are in Christ in his incarnation is

without a will and operation: lest in taking away the proprieties of

those natures, we likewise take away the natures of which they are

the proprieties. For we neither deny rite natural will of his

humanity, or its natural

operation: lest we also deny what is the chief thing of the

dispensation for our salvation, and lest we attribute passions to

the Godhead. For this they were attempting who have recently

introduced the detestable novelty that in him there is but one will

and one operation, renewing the malignancy of Arius, Apollinaris,

Eutyches and Severus. For should we say that the human nature of our

Lord is without will and operation, how could we affirm in safety

the perfect humanity? For nothing else constitutes the integrity of

human nature except the essential will, through which the strength

of free-will is marked in us; and this is also the case with the

substantial operation. For how shall we call him perfect in humanity

if he in no wise suffered and acted as a man? For like as the union

of two natures preserves for us one subsistence without confusion

and without division; so this one subsistence, shewing itself in two

natures, demonstratesas its own what

things belong to each.

Therefore we declare that in him there are two natural wills and

two natural operations, proceeding commonly and without division:

but we cast out of the Church and rightly subject to anathema all

superfluous novelties as well as their inventors: to wit, Theodore

of Pharan, Sergius and Paul, Pyrrhus, and Peter (who were

archbishops of Constantinople), moreover Cyrus, who bore the

priesthood of Alexandria, and with them Honorius, who was the ruler

(proedron) of Rome, as he followed them in these

things. Besides these, with the best of cause we anathematize and

depose Macarius, who was bishop of Antioch, and his disciple Stephen

(or rather we should say master), who tried to defend the impiety of

their predecessors, and in short stirred up the whole world, and by

their pestilential letters and by their fraudulent institutions

devastated multitudes in every direction. Likewise also that old man

Polychronius, with an infantile intelligence, who promised he would

raise the dead and who when they did not rise, was laughed at; and

all who have taught, or do teach, or shall presume

348

to teach one will and one operation in the incarnate Christ. . . But

the highest prince of the Apostles fought with us: for we had on our

side his imitator and the successor in his see, who also had set

forth in his letter the mystery of the divine word

(qeolo gias). For the ancient city of

Rome handed thee a confession of divine character, and a chart from

the sunsetting raised up the day of dogmas, and made the darkness

manifest, and Peter spoke through Agatho, and thou, O autocratic

King, according to the divine decree, with the Omnipotent Sharer of

thy throne, didst judge.

But, O benign and justice-loving Lord,

do thou in return do this favour to him who hath bestowed thy power

upon thee; and give, as a seal to what has been defined by us, thy

imperial ratification in writing, and so confirm them with the

customary pious edicts and constitutions, that no one may contradict

the things which have been done, nor raise any fresh question. For

rest assured, O serene majesty, that we have not falsified anything

defined by the Ecumenical Councils and by the approved fathers, but

we have confirmed them. And now we all cry out with one mind and one

voice, "O God, save the King! etc., etc."

[Then follow numerous compliments to the Emperor and prayers for

his preservation.]

LETTER OF THE COUNCIL TO ST. AGATHO.

(Found in Migne, Pat. Lat., Tom. LXXXVII., col. 1247 et seqq.;

and Labbe and Cossart, Concilia, Tom. VI., col. 1071 et seqq.)

A copy of the letter sent by the holy and Ecumenical Sixth

Council to Agatho, the most blessed and most holy pope of Old Rome.

The holy and ecumenical council which by the grace of God and

the pious sanction of the most pious and faithful Constantine, the

great Emperor, has been gathered together in this God-preserved and

royal city, Constantinople, the new Rome, in the Secretum of the

imperial (qeiou, sacri) palace called Trullus, to the

most holy and most blessed pope of Old Rome, Agatho, health in the

Lord.

Serious illnesses call for greater helps, as you know, most

blessed [father]; and therefore Christ our true God, who is the

creator and governing power of all things, gave a wise physician,

namely your God-honoured sanctity, to drive away by force the

contagion of heretical pestilence by the remedies of orthodoxy, and

to give the strength of health to the members of the church.

Therefore to thee, as to the bishop of the first see of the

Universal Church, we leave what must be done, since you willingly

take for your standing ground the firm rock of the faith, as we know

from having read your true confession in the letter sent by your

fatherly beatitude to the most pious emperor: and we acknowledge

that this letter was divinely written (perscriptas) as by the Chief

of the Apostles, and through it we have cast out the heretical sect

of many errors which had recently sprung up, having been urged to

making a decree by Constantine who divinely reigns, and wields a

most clement sceptre. And by his help we have overthrown the error

of impiety, having as it were laid siege to the nefarious doctrine

of the heretics. And then tearing to pieces the foundations of their

execrable heresy, and attacking them with spiritual and paternal

arms, and confounding their tongues that they might not speak

consistently with each other, we overturned the tower built up by

these followers of this most impious heresy; and we slew them with

anathema, as lapsed concerning the faith and as sinners, in the

morning outside the camp of the tabernacle of God, that we may

express ourselves after the manner of David,(1) in accordance with

the sentence already given concerning them in your letter, and their

names are these: Theodore, bishop of Pharan, Sergius, Honorius,

Cyrus, Paul, Pyrrhus and Peter. Moreover, in addition to these, we

justly subjected to the anathema of heretics those also who live in

their impiety which they have received, or, to speak more

accurately, in the impiety of these God - hated persons,

Apollinaris, Severus and Themestius, to wit, Macarius, who was the

bishop of the great city of Antioch (and him we also stripped

deservedly of his pastor's robes on account of his impenitence

concerning the orthodox faith and his obstinate stubbornness), and

Stephen, his disciple in craziness and his teacher in impiety, also

Polychronius, who was inveterate in his heretical doctrines, thus

answering to his name; and finally all those who impenitently have

taught or do teach, or now hold or have held similar doctrines.

Up to now grief, sorrow, and many tears have been our portion.

For we cannot laugh at the fall of our neighbours, nor exult with

joy at their unbridled madness, nor have we been elated that we

might fall all the more grievously because of this thing; not thus,

O venerable and sacred head, have we been taught, we who hold

Christ, the Lord of the universe, to be both benign and man-loving

in the highest degree; for he exhorts us to be imitators of him in

his priesthood so far as is possible, as becometh the good, and to

obtain the pattern of his pastoral and conciliatory government. But

also to true repentance the most Serene Emperor and ourselves have

exhorted them in various ways, and we have conducted the whole

matter with great religiousness and care. Nor

350

have we been moved to do so for the sake of gain, nor by hatred, as

you can easily see from what things have been done in each session,

and related in the minutes, which are herewith sent to your

blessedness: and you will understand from your holiness's vicars,

Theodore and George, presbyters beloved of God, and from John, the

most religious deacon, and from Constantine, the most venerable

sub-deacon, all of them your spiritual children and our well-loved

brethren. So too you will hear the same things from those sent by

your holy synod, the holy bishops who rightly and uprightly, in

accordance with your discipline, decreed with us in the first

chapter of the faith.

Thus, illuminated by the Holy Spirit, and instructed by your

doctrine, we have cast forth the vile doctrines of impiety, making

smooth the right path of orthodoxy, being in every way encouraged

and helped in so doing by the wisdom and power of our most pious and

serene Emperor Constantine. And then one of our number, the most

holy praesul of this reigning Constantinople, in the first place

assenting to the orthodox compositions sent by you to the most pious

emperor as in all respects agreeable to the teaching of the approved

Fathers and of the God-instructed Fathers, and of the holy five

universal councils, we all, by the help of Christ our God, easily

accomplished what we were striving after. For as God was the mover,

so God also he crowned our council.

Thereupon, therefore, the grace of the Holy Spirit shone upon

us, displaying his power, through your assiduous prayers, for the

uprooting of all weeds and every tree which brought not forth good

fruit, and giving command that they should be consumed by fire. And

we all agree both in heart and tongue, and hand, and have put forth,

by the assistance of the life-giving Spirit, a definition, clean

from all error, certain, and infallible; not 'removing the ancient

landmarks, as it is written (God forbid!), but remaining steadfast

in the testimonies and authority of the holy and approved fathers,

and defining that, as of two and in two natures (to wit, the

divinity and the humanity) of which he is composed and in which he

exists, Christ our true God is preached by us, and is glorified

inseparably, unchangeably, unconfusedly, and undividedly; just so

also we predicate of him two natural operations, undividedly,

incontrovertibly, unconfusedly, inseparably, as has been declared in

our synodal definition. These decrees the majesty of our God-copying

Emperor assented to, and subscribed them with his own hand. And, as

has been said, we rejected and condemned that most impious and

unsubstantial heresy which affirmed but one will and one operation

in the incarnate Christ our true God, and by so doing we have

pressed sore upon the crowd who confound and who divide, and have

extinguished the inflamed storm of other heresies, but we have set

forth clearly with you the shining light of the orthodox faith, and

we pray your paternal sanctity to confirm our decree by your

honourable rescript; through which we confide in good hope in Christ

that his merciful kindness will grant freely to the Roman State,

committed to the care of our most clement Emperor, stability; and

will adorn with daily yokes and victories his most serene elemency;

and that in addition to the good things he has here bestowed upon

us, he will set your God-honoured holiness before his tremendous

tribunal as one who has sincerely confessed the true faith,

preserving it unsullied and keeping good ward over the orthodox

flocks committed to him by God.

We and all who are with us salute all the brethren in Christ who

are with your blessedness.

351

EXCURSUS ON THE CONDEMNATION OF POPE HONORIUS.

To this decree attaches not only the necessary importance and

interest which belongs to any ecumenical decision upon a disputed

doctrinal question with regard to the incarnation of the Son of God,

but an altogether accidental interest, arising from the fact that by

this decree a Pope of Rome is stricken with anathema in the person

of Honorius. I need hardly remind the reader how many interesting

and difficult questions in theology such an action on the part of an

Ecumenical Council raises, and how all important, not to say vital,

to such as accept the ruling of the recent Vatican Council, it is

that some explanation of this fact should be arrived at which will

be satisfactory. It would be highly improper for me in these pages

to discuss the matter theologically. Volumes on each side have been

written on this subject, and to these I must refer the reader, but

in doing so I hope I may be pardoned if I add a word of counsel--to

read both sides. If one's knowledge is derived only from modern

Eastern, Anglican or Protestant writers, such as "Janus and the

Council," the Pere Gratry's "Letters," or Littledale's controversial

books against Rome, one is apt to be as much one-sided as if he took

his information from Cardinal Baronius, Cardinal Bellarmine,

Rohrbacher's History, or from the recent work on the subject by

Pennacchi.(1) Perhaps the average reader will hardly find a more

satisfactory treatment than that by Bossuet in the Defensio. (Liber

VII., cap. xxi, etc.)

It will be sufficient for the purposes of this volume to state

that Roman Catholic Curialist writers are not at one as to how the

matter is to be treated. Pennacchi, in his work referred to above,

is of opinion that Honorius's letters were strictly speaking Papal

decrees, set forth auctoritate apostolica, and therefore

irreformable, but he declares, contrary to the opinion of almost all

theologians and to the decree of this Council, that they are

orthodox, and that the Council erred in condemning them; as he

expresses it, the decree rests upon all error in facto dogmatico. To

save an Ecumenical Synod from error, he thinks the synod ceased to

be ecumenical before it took this action, and was at that time only

a synod of a number of Orientals! Cardinal Baronius has another way

out of the difficulty. He says that the name of Honorius was forged

and put in the decree by an erasure in the place of the name of

Theodore, the quondam Patriarch, who soon after the Council got

himself restored to the Patriarchal position. Baronius moreover

holds that Honorius's letters have been corrupted, that the Acts of

the Council have been corrupted, and, in short, that everything

which declares or proves that Honorius was a heretic or was

condemned by an Ecumenical Council as such, is untrustworthy and

false. The groundlessness, not to say absurdity, of Baronius's view

has been often exposed by those of his own communion, a brief but

sufficient summary of the refutation will be found in Hefele, who

while taking a very halting and unsatisfactory position himself, yet

is perfectly clear that Baronius's contention is utterly

indefensible.(2)

Most Roman controversialists of recent years have admitted both

the fact of Pope Honorius's condemnation (which Baronius denies),

and the monothelite (and therefore heretical) character of his

epistles, but they are of opinion that these letters were not his ex

cathedra utterances as Doctor Universalis, but mere expressions of

the private opinion of the Pontiff as a theologian. With this matter

we have no concern in this connexion.

I shall therefore say nothing further on this point but shall

simply supply the leading proofs that Honorius was as a matter of

fact condemned by the Sixth Ecumenical Council.

1. His condemnation is found in the Acts in the xiiith Session,

near the beginning.

2. His two letters were ordered to be burned at the same

session.

352

3. In the xvith Session the bishops exclaimed "Anathema to the

heretic Sergius, to the heretic Cyrus, to the heretic Honorius,

etc."

4. In the decree of faith published at the xviijth Session it is

stated that "the originator of all evil ... found a fit tool for his

will in ... Honorius, Pope of Old Rome, etc."

5. The report of the Council to the Emperor says that "Honorius,

formerly bishop of Rome" they had "punished with exclusion and

anathema" because he followed the monothelites.

6. In its letter to Pope Agatho the Council says it "has slain

with anathema Honorius."

7. The imperial decree speaks of the "unholy priests who

infected the Church and falsely governed" and mentions among them

"Honorius, the Pope of Old Rome, the confirmer of heresy who

contradicted himself." The Emperor goes on to anathematize "Honorius

who was Pope of Old Rome, who in everything agreed with them, went

with them, and strengthened the heresy."

8. Pope Leo II. confirmed the decrees of the Council and

expressly says that he too anathematized Honorius.(1)

9. That Honorius was anathematized by the Sixth Council is

mentioned in the Trullan Canons (No. j.).

10. So too the Seventh Council declares its adhesion to the

anathema in its decree of faith, and in several places in the acts

the same is said.

11. Honorius's name was found in the Roman copy of the Acts.

This is evident from Anastasius's life of Leo II. (Vita Leonis II.)

12. The Papal Oath as found in the Liber Diurnus(2) taken by

each new Pope from the fifth to the eleventh century, in the form

probably prescribed by Gregory II., "smites with eternal anathema

the originators of the new heresy, Sergius, etc., together with

Honorius, because he assisted the base assertion of the heretics."

13. In the lesson for the feast of St. Leo II. in the Roman

Breviary the name of Pope Honorius occurs among those excommunicated

by the Sixth Synod. Upon this we may well hear Bossuet: "They

suppress as far as they can, the Liber Diurnus: they have erased

this from the Roman Breviary. Rave they therefore hidden it? Truth

breaks out from all sides, and these things become so much the more

evident, as they are the more studiously put out of sight."(3)

With such an array of proof no conservative historian, it would

seem, can question the fact that Honorius, the Pope of Rome, was

condemned and anathematized as a heretic by the Sixth Ecumenical

Council.

THE IMPERIAL EDICT POSTED IN THE THIRD ATRIUM OF THE

GREAT CHURCH NEAR WHAT IS CALLED DICYMBALA.

In the name of our Lord and Master Jesus Christ, our God and

Saviour, the most pious Emperor, the peaceful and Christ-loving

Constantine, an Emperor faithful to God in Jesus Christ, to all our

Christ-loving people living in this God-preserved and royal city.

[The document is very long, Hefele gives the following epitome,

which is all sufficient for the ordinary reader, who will remember

that it is an Edict of the Emperor and not anything proceeding from

the council.]

Hefele's Epitome (Hist. of the Councils, Vol.

v., p. 178).

"The heresy of Apollinaris, etc., has been renewed by Theodore

of Pharan and confirmed by Honorius, sometime Pope of Old Rome, who

also contradicted himself. Also Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Paul, Peter; more

recently. Macarius, Stephen, and Polychronius had diffused

Monothelitism. He, the Emperor, had therefore convoked this holy and

Ecumenical Synod, and published the present edict with the

confession of faith, in order to confirm and establish its decrees.

(There follows here an extended confession of faith, with proofs for

the doctrine of two wills and operations.) As he recognized the five

earlier Ecumenical Synods, so he anathematized all heretics from

Simon Magus, but especially the originator and patrons of the new

heresy, Theodore and Sergius; also Pope Honorius, who was their

adherent and patron in everything, and confirmed the heresy

(ton kata panta

toutois sunairethn kai

bebaiwthn ths airesews,

further, Cyrus, etc., and ordained that no one henceforth should

hold a different faith, or venture to teach one will and one energy.

In no other than the orthodox faith could men be saved. Whoever did

not obey the imperial edict should, if he were a bishop or cleric be

deposed; if an official, punished with confiscation of property and

loss of the girdle (zwnh); if a private person,

banished from the residence and all other cities."