MONOTHELITISM

A 7th-century Christological heresy that originated in an attempt to return the Monophysites to orthodox doctrine by means of formulas that stated that in Christ there was only one operation, energeia, proceeding from a unique will, monon thelēma. The history of Monothelitism covers a period of 60 years ending with its condemnation in the Sixth Ecumenical Council, constanti nople iii (681).

The background to the Monothelite development is furnished by Severian monophysitism, which employed the terminology of St. cyril of alexandria concerning the one nature in Christ to express the oneness of His Person. As a result, an expression such as one will and one operation in Christ had come into theological usage, although errors such as apollinarianism had been condemned for denying that Christ had a human soul and maintaining that He had only one divine will. severus of antioch (512–518) had insisted that since Christ was a unity, the divine and human natures were so coordinated that one could speak of but one will and one action.

Patriarch Eulogius of Alexandria (580–607) had defended the doctrine of two wills and two activities in Christ. His adversaries, relying on the doctrine of Severus, spoke of one sole will proceeding from one sole subject willing. While for Severus this formula was susceptible of an orthodox interpretation, it led to the heresy of Monothelitism. Sergius I of Constantinople (610–638) had proposed to Emperor heraclius that the Monophysites of Syria and Egypt could be brought back into the Church by speaking of one energy or operation in Christ, and advances were made to George Arsas, head of the Monophysite section of Egypt, and to Paul the Blind in Armenia without great success. But in 626 the emperor contacted Cyrus, Metropolitan of Sebastopolis, who accepted the explanations given by Sergius and interested Theodore of Pharan, Arabia, in the same. In 631 Heraclius named Cyrus patriarch of Alexandria, commissioning him to bring the Monophysites back into the Church. The Act of Union (June 3, 633) explicitly professed "one Christ and Son, performing things attributable to God and man in one theandric operation" (Mansi 11:565). At the same time Heraclius completed a treaty of union with the Armenian Church.

The difficulty with this doctrine lay in the fact that monoenergism connotes a unique operation that could proceed from the coordination of divine and human wills in Christ and would therefore be orthodox; but it can also mean a unique source of operation and would deny the human will in Christ.

sophronius of jerusalem, while still a monk in Alexandria, protested the monoenergism doctrine to Sergius of Constantinople; and the latter suggested that instead of speaking of two operations in Christ, the Fathers and Councils had spoken rather of the one sole Person operating in the divine and human actions of the Word Incarnate. In 634 Sergius wrote in this sense to Pope HONORIUS I (625–638), and his doctrinal explanation (psēphos ) served as a basis for the Ecthesis published by Heraclius in 638. The doctrine of one will in Christ, though not explicitly asserted, is implicit in this document.

The reply of Pope Honorius accepted the suggested prohibition against speaking of one or two operations (energeiai ) in Christ and, to exclude the possibility of a conflict between the human and divine wills in Christ, spoke of one will. In Christ the one Person there can be no dualism or antagonism in His willing. In 634 Sophronius, now patriarch of Jerusalem, sent the pope his Epistula Synodica, in which he clearly distinguished the operations of the two natures and spoke of theandric acts as intermediary between operations proceeding from the human nature alone and operations proceeding from the divine nature alone.

The doctrine expressed in the Ecthesis of Heraclius stressed the one will in Christ in a sense of the act of the will; but it was interpreted generally to mean a suppression or fusion of the human will in Christ, and as a consequence it was condemned by Pope john iv (640–642) in a Roman synod. Both Pope theodore i and maximus the confessor further condemned Monothelitism, appealing to the doctrine of the Greek Fathers of the 4th century and stressing the indissoluble union between Christology and the dogma of the Redemption. In 647 Pope Theodore I excommunicated Patriarch Paul of Constantinople when the latter refused to condemn Monothelitism, and Emperor Constans II (641–668) in 647 issued a Typos (rule for faith) prohibiting all discussion of one or two wills and operations in Christ (Mansi 10:1029–32). Pope martini held a synod in the Lateran basilica that condemned Monothelitism and the Typos. In reprisal both the pope and St. Maximus were seized, taken to Constantinople, tortured, and exiled. Only after the assassination of Emperor Constans II in 668 did the Typos become a dead letter. Later Emperor Constantine IV (668–685) authorized the convocation of the Council of Constantinople III (680–681) by Pope Agatho. Two natural activities and two natural wills were defined as well as the preservation of free will in Christ; and misunderstanding was eliminated by stressing the inseparability, distinction, and harmony of the two wills in Christ.

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[g. owens]