The Sardinian Church 183
Church also took a strong position against the Monothelitism, which was being
advocated by the Byzantine church, according the imperial religious policy. It
was an offspring of Monophysitism, which held that after the union of divine
and human nature in Christ, only the divine nature remained.19
Sardinia too got a taste of the imperial reaction, because its bishops had
joined Pope Martin I (649–653) in the Lateran Synod (649) and condemned
Monothelitism. Of the major theological debates of the ancient church,
Sardinia experienced only that regarding the Trinity, but not the Christological
debate over the relation between Christ’s divine nature and his human nature,
as defined by the councils of Ephesus (431) and Chalcedon (450).20 Now, the
Sardinian church was drawn into the Monothelitic controversy, whose propo-
nents obeyed imperial orders and used forceful proselytization techniques.
Eutalios, bishop of Sulci, allowed himself to be intimidated by a functionary
of the dux of Sardinia, who requisitioned the books in the bishop’s library
(ca. 663–680) and obliged him to accept a confession of faith favorable to
Monothelitism. In the document disclosing this account and retracting his
previous conduct, Eutalios reaffirmed his close relations with Rome: “We also
reject and condemn those who have been condemned by the great Apostolic
Church of Rome.”21
copatuum ecclesiae constantinopolitanae: texte critique, introduction et notes (Paris, 1981).
Secondary Sources: Georgije Ostrogorski, History of the Byzantine State (Oxford, 1968);
Andreas Nikolaou Stratos, Byzantium in the Seventh Century, vol. 5 (Amsterdam, 1968);
Guglielmo Cavallo, “Le tipologie della cultura nel riflesso delle testimonianze scritte,” in
Bisanzio, Roma e l’Italia nell’alto Medioevo, 3–9 aprile 1986 (Spoleto, 1988), pp. 467–516;
Jean-Marie Sansterre, “Des moines grec dans la région de Marseille vers le milieu du
XIe siècle,” Byzantion 67 (1997), pp. 563–564; André Guillou, “La diffusione della cultura
bizantina,” in Storia dei Sardi e della Sardegna, ed. Massimo Guidetti (Milan, 1988–1990),
pp. 373–423; Paola Corrias and Salvatore Cosentino, eds, Ai confini dell’Impero: storia,
arte e archeologia della Sardegna bizantina (Cagliari, 2002); Turtas, Storia della Chiesa in
Sardegna, pp. 140–175; Andrea Lai, Il codice Laudiano greco 35: l’identità missionaria di un
libro nell’Europa altomedievale (Cargeghe (Sassari), 2011); Lucio Casula, Antonio M. Corda,
and Antonio Piras, Orientis radiata fulgore: la Sardegna nel contesto storico e culturale bi-
zantino: atti del convegno di studi, Cagliari, 30 novembre–1 dicembre 2007 (Cagliari, 2008).
19 Gerardus Frederik Diercks, Luciferi Calaritani opera quae supersunt ad fidem duorum
codicum qui adhuc extant necnon adhibitis editionibus veteribus (Turnhout, 1978); Turtas,
Storia della Chiesa in Sardegna, pp. 55–71, 147–148.
20 Gilbert Dagron, “L’Église et la Chrétienté byzantine entre les invasions et l’iconoclasme
(VIIe–début VIIIe siècle),” in Histoire du Christianisme dès origines à nos jours, vol. 4,
ed. Jean-Marie Mayeur (Paris, 1993), pp. 9–91.
21 Hermann von Soden, Die Schriften des Neuen Testaments: in ihrer ältesten erreichbaren
Textgestalt hergestellt auf Grund ihrer Textgeschichte (Göttingen, 1911), 1:1, pp. 637–682.