The canons were signed first, by the emperor; the second place was left blank for the pope,
but was never filled; then follow the names of Paul of Constantinople, Peter of Alexandria,
Anastasius of Jerusalem, George of Antioch (strangely after that of the patriarch of Jerusalem), and
others, in all 211 bishops and episcopal representatives, all Greeks and Orientals, of whom 43 had
been present at the sixth oecumenical council.
The emperor sent the acts of the Trullan Council to Sergius of Rome, and requested him to
sign them. The pope refused because they contained some chapters contrary to ecclesiastical usage
in Rome. The emperor dispatched the chief officer of his body guard with orders to bring the pope
to Constantinople. But the armies of the exarch of Ravenna and of the Pentapolis rushed to the
protection of the pope, who quieted the soldiers; the imperial officer had to hide himself in the
pope’s bed, and then left Rome in disgrace.^642 Soon afterwards Justinian II. was dethroned and sent
into exile. When he regained the crown with the aid of a barbarian army (705), he sent two
metropolitans to Pope John VII. with the request to call a council of the Roman church, which
should sanction as many of the canons as were acceptable. The pope, a timid man, simply returned
the copy. Subsequent negotiations led to no decisive result.
The seventh oecumenical Council (787) readopted the 102 canons, and erroneously ascribed
them to the sixth oecumenical Council.
The Roman church never committed herself to these canons except as far as they agreed
with ancient Latin usage. Some of them were inspired by an anti-Roman tendency. The first canon
repeats the anathema on Pope Honorius. The thirty-sixth canon, in accordance with the second and
fourth oecumenical Councils, puts the patriarch of Constantinople on an equality of rights with the
bishop of Rome, and concedes to the latter only a primacy of honor, not a supremacy of jurisdiction.
Clerical marriage of the lower orders is sanctioned in canons 3 and 13, and it is clearly hinted that
the Roman church, by her law of clerical celibacy, dishonors wedlock, which was instituted by
God and sanctioned by the presence of Christ at Cana. But second marriage is forbidden to the
clergy, also marriage with a widow (canon 3), and marriage after ordination (canon 6). Bishops are
required to discontinue their marriage relation (canon 12). Justinian had previously forbidden the
marriage of bishops by a civil law. Fasting on the Sabbath in Lent is forbidden (canon 55) in express
opposition to the custom in Rome. The second canon fixes the number of valid apostolical canons
at eighty-five against fifty of the Latin church. The decree of the Council of Jerusalem against
eating blood and things strangled (Acts 15) is declared to be of perpetual force, while in the West
it was considered merely as a temporary provision for the apostolic age, and for congregations
composed of Jewish and Gentile converts. The symbolical representation of Christ under the figure
of the lamb in allusion to the words of John the Baptist is forbidden as belonging to the Old
Testament, and the representation in human form is commanded (canon 82).
These differences laid the foundation for the great schism between the East. and the West.
The supplementary council of 692 anticipated the action of Photius, and clothed it with a
quasi-oecumenical authority.
§ 115. Reaction of Monotheletism. The Maronites.(^642) This is related by Anastasius, Bede, and Paulus Diaconus. See Mansi, XII. 3, Baronius ad a. 692, and Hefele, III. 346.