History of the Christian Church, Volume IV: Mediaeval Christianity. A.D. 590-1073.

(Rick Simeone) #1

In the year 648 the Emperor Constans II. (642–668) tried in vain to restore peace by means
of a new edict called Typos or Type, which commanded silence on the subject under dispute without


giving the preference to either view.^615 It set aside the Ekthesis and declared in favor of neutrality.
The aim of both edicts was to arrest the controversy and to prevent a christological development
beyond the fourth and fifth oecumenical councils. But the Type was more consistent in forbidding
all controversy not only about one energy (miva ejnevrgeia), but also about one will (e{n qevlhma).
Transgressors of the Type were threatened with deposition; if clergymen, with excommunication;
if monks, with the loss of dignity and place, of military or civil officers.



  1. An irrepressible conflict cannot be silenced by imperial decrees. Pope Martin I., formerly
    Apocrisiarios of the papal see at Constantinople, and distinguished for virtue, knowledge and
    personal beauty, soon after his election (July 5th, 649), assembled the first Lateran Council (Oct.,
    649), so called from being held in the Lateran basilica in Rome. It was attended by one hundred
    and five bishops, anathematized the one-will doctrine and the two imperial edicts, and solemnly
    sanctioned the two-will doctrine. It anticipated substantially the decision of the sixth oecumenical


council, and comes next to it in authority on this article of faith.^616
The acts of this Roman council, together with an encyclical of the pope warning against the
Ekthesis and the Type, were sent to all parts of the Christian world. At the same time, the pope sent
a Greek translation of the acts to the Emperor Constans II., and politely informed him that the
Synod had confirmed the true doctrine, and condemned the heresy. Theodore of Pharan, Sergius,
Pyrrhus, and Paulus had violated the full humanity of Christ, and deceived the emperors by the
Ekthesis and the Type.
But the emperor, through his representative, Theodore Calliopa, the exarch of Ravenna,
deposed the pope as a rebel and heretic, and removed him from Rome (June, 653). He imprisoned
him with common criminals in Constantinople, exposed him to cold, hunger, and all sorts of injuries,
and at last sent him by ship to a cavern in Cherson on the Black Sea (March, 655). Martin bore this
cruel treatment with dignity, and died Sept. 16, 655, in exile, a martyr to his faith in the doctrine
of two wills.
Maximus was likewise transported to Constantinople (653), and treated with even greater
cruelty. He was (with two of his disciples) confined in prison for several years, scourged, deprived
of his tongue and right hand, and thus mutilated sent, in his old age, to Lazica in Colchis on the
Pontus Euxinus, where he died of these injuries, Aug. 13, 662. His two companions likewise died
in exile.
The persecution of these martyrs prepared the way for the triumph of their doctrine. In the
meantime province after province was conquered by the Saracens.


§ 112. The Sixth Oecumenical Council. a.d. 680.
Constans II. was murdered in a bath at Syracuse (668). His son, Constantine IV. Pogonatus
(Barbatus, 668–685), changed the policy of his father, and wished to restore harmony between the


(^615) Also calledτύποςπερὶπίστεως. In Mansi, X. 1029; Walch, IX. 167; Hefele, III. 210; also Gieseler, 1. 539, note 9. The
Typos was composed by Paul, the second successor of Sergius, who had written the Ekthesis.
(^616) See the acts in Mansi, X., and Hefele, III. 212-230.

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