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XLVII.

vailing) party devifed new modes of fpeech, and CHAP.
argument, and interpretation: to either nature of
Chrift, they fpeciously applied a proper and dif-
tinct energy; but the difference was no longer
vifible when they allowed that the human and the
divine will were invariably the fame 2. The
disease was attended with the customary fymptoms;
but the Greek clergy, as if fatiate with the end-
lefs controverfy of the incarnation, inftilled a heal
ing council into the ear of the prince and people.
They declared themselves MONOTHELITES (afferters
of the unity of will), but they treated the words as
new, the questions as fuperfluous; and recom
mended a religious filence as the most agreeable to
the prudence and charity of the gofpel. This law
of filence was fucceffively impofed by the ethefis or
expofition of Heraclius, the type or model of his
grandson Conftans 3; and the Imperial edicts
were fubfcribed with alacrity or reluctance by the
four patriarchs of Rome, Conftantinople, Alex-
andria, and Antioch. But the bishop and monks
of Jerufalem founded the alarm; in the language,
or even in the filence, of the Greeks, the Latin
churches detected a latent herefy: and the obe

102 See the orthodox faith in Petavius (Dogmata Theolog. tom. v. I. ix. c. 6-10. p. 433-447.): all the depths of this controversy are founded in the Greek dialogue between Maximus and Pyrrhus (ad calcem tom. viii. Annal. Baron. p. 755-794.), which relates a real conference, and produced as a fhort-lived conversion,

103 Impiiffimam ecthefim . . . . fcelerofum typum (Concil. tom. vii. p. 366.) diabolicæ operationis genimina (forf. germina, or elfe the Greek years, in the original. Concil. p. 363, 364.) are the expreflions of the xviiith anathema. The epiftle of Pope Martin to Amandus, a Gallican bishop, ftiginatifes the Monothelites and their herefy with equal virylence (p. 392.).

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A.D. 639
of Cox.
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A. D. 648,

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XLVII.

CHAP. dience of pope Honorius to the commands of his fovereign was retracted and cenfured by the bolder ignorance of his fucceffors. They condemned the execrable and abominable heresy of the Monothelites, who revived the errors of Manes, Appollinaris, Eutyches, &c; they figned the fentence of excommunication on the tomb of St. Peter; the ink was mingled with the facramental wine, the blood of Christ ; and no ceremony was omitted that could fill the fuperftitious mind with horror and affright. As the representative of the western church, pope Martin and his Lateran fynod anathematifed the perfidious and guilty filence of the Greeks: one hundred and five bifhops of Italy, for the most part the fubjects of Conftans, prefumed to reprobate his wicked type and the impious ecthefts of his grandfather, and to confound the authors and their adherents with the twenty-one notorious heretics, the apoftates from the church, and the organs of the devil. Such an infult under the tameft reign could not pafs with impunity. Pope Martin ended his days on the inhofpitable fhore of the Tauric Cherfonefus, and his oracle, the abbot Maximus, was inhumanly chaftifed by the ampu tation of his tongue and his right hand 104. But the fame invincible fpirit furvived in their fucceffors, and the triumph of the Latins avenged

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104 The fufferings of Martin and Maximus are defcribed with pathetic fimplicity in the original letters and acts (Concil. tom. vii. p. 63-8. Baron. Annal. Ecclef. A. D. 656, N° 2. et annos fubfequent.). Yet the chastisement of their disobedience, iĝogia and σωματος αικισμός, had been previously announced in the Type of Conftans (Concil. tom. vii. p. 240.).

3.

their

XLVII.

Vith ge

neral

IId of

nople,

AD. 680,
Nov. 7

A. D. 681,

Sept. 16.

their recent defeat, and obliterated the difgrace of CHAP. the three chapters. The fynods of Rome were confirmed by the fixth general council of Conftantinople, in the palace and the prefence of a new council: Conftantine, a defcendant of Heraclius. The Conftantiroyal convert converted the Byzantine pontiff and a majority of the bishops 105; the diffenters, with their chief, Macarius of Antioch, were condemned to the spiritual and temporal pains of heresy; the East condescended to accept the leffons of the Weft; and the creed was finally fettled, which teaches the Catholics of every age, that two wills or energies are harmonised in the perfon of Chrift. The majesty of the pope and the Roman fynod was represented by two priefts, one deacon, and three bishops; but these obscure Latins had neither arms to compel, nor treasures to bribe, nor language to perfuade; and I am ignorant by what arts they could determine the lofty emperor of the Greeks to abjure the catechism of his infancy, and to perfecute the religion of his fathers. Perhaps the monks and people of Conftantinople were favourable to the Lateran creed, which is indeed the least favourable of the two: and the suspicion is

106

105 Eutychius (Annal. tom. ii. p. 368.) moft erroneously fuppofes that the 124 bishops of the Roman fynod transported themselves to Conftantinople; and by adding them to the 168 Greeks, thus compofes the fixth council of 292 fathers.

106 The Monothelite Conftans was hated by all a rus TAUTŲ (fays Theophanes, Chron. p. 292.) quiolo in opodęz woga navtav. When the Monothelite monk failed in his miracle, the people shouted, i λa aveßonte (Concil. tom. vii. p. 1032.). But this was a natural and tranfient emotion; and I much fear that the latter is an anticipation of orthodoxy in the good people of Conftantinople.

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XLVII.

CHA P. countenanced by the unnatural moderation of the Greek clergy, who appear in this quarrel to be conscious of their weakness. While the fynod debated, a fanatic proposed a more fummary decifion, by raising a dead man to life the prelates affisted at the trial, but the acknowledged failure may serve to indicate, that the paffions and pre judices of the multitude were not enlisted on the fide of the Monotholites. In the next generation, when the fon of Conftantine was depofed and flain by the difciple of Macarius, they tafted the feaft of revenge and dominion: the image or monument of the fixth council was defaced, and the original acts were committed to the flames. But in the fecond year, their patron was caft headlong from the throne, the bishops of the East were releafed from their occafional conformity, the Roman faith was more firmly replanted by the orthodox fucceffors of Bardanes, and the fine problems of the incarnation were forgotten in the more popular and visible quarrel of the worship of images 107.

Union of

the Greek

Before the end of the feventh century, the creed and Latin of the incarnation, which had been defined at Rome churches. and Conftantinople, was uniformly preached in the remote islands of Britain and Ireland 10: the fame

ideas

107 The hiftory of Monothelitifm may be found in the Acts of the Synods of Rome (tom. vii. p. 77-395. 601-608.) and Conftantinople (p. 609-1429.). Baronius extracted fome original docunients from the Vatican library; and his chronology is rectified by the diligence of Pagi. Even Dupin (Bibliotheque Ecclef. tom. vi. P. 57-71.) and Bafnage (Hift. de l'Eglife, tom. i. p. 541-555-} afford a tolerable abridgment.

198 In the Lateran fynod of 679, Wilfrid, an Anglo-Saxon bishop, fubfcribed pro omni Aquilonati parte Britannia et Hiberniæ,

que

ideas were entertained, or rather the fame words were repeated, by all the Chriftians whofe liturgy was performed in the Greek or the Latin tongue. Their numbers, and visible splendour, bestowed an imperfect claim to the appellation of Catholics: but in the Eaft, they were marked with the lefs honourable name of Melchites or Royalists "; of men, whose faith, inftead of refting on the basis of scripture, reason, or tradition, had been established, and was still maintained, by the arbitrary power of a temporal monarch. Their adverfaries might allege the words of the fathers of Conftantinople, who profess themselves the flaves of the king; and

quæ ab Anglorum et Brittonum, necnon Scotorum et Pictorum gen-
tibus colebantur (Eddius, in Vit. St. Wilfrid. c. 31. apud Pagi,
Critica, tom. iii. p. 88.). Theodore (magnæ infulæ Britanniæ
archiepifcopus et philofophus) was long expected at Rome (Concil.
tom. vii. p. 714.); but he contented himself with holding (A. D.
680) his provincial fynod of Hatfield, in which he received the de-
crees of pope Martin and the first Lateran council against the Mono-
thelites (Concil. tom. vii. p. 597, &c.). Theodore, a monk of Tar-
fus in Cilicia, had been named to the primacy of Britain by pope
Vitalian (A. D. 668. See Baronius and Pagi), whofe efteem for his
learning and piety was tainted by some distrust of his national cha-
racter-ne quid contrarium veritati fidei, Græcorum more, in eccle- !
fiam cui præeffet introduceret. The Cicilian was fent from Rome to
Canterbury under the tuition of an African guide (Bedæ Hift. Ecclef.
- Anglorum, 1. iv. c. 1.). He adhered to the Roman doctrine; and
the fame creed of the incarnation has been uniformly transmitted
from Theodore to the modern primates, whose found understanding
is perhaps feldom engaged with that abftruse mystery.

109 This name, unknown till the xth century, appears to be of Syriac origin. It was invented by the Jacobites, and eagerly adopted by the Neftorians and Mahometans; but it was accepted without fhame by the Catholics, and is frequently used in the Annals of Eutychius (Affeman. Bibliot. Orient. tom. ii. p. 507, &c. tom. iii. p. 355. Renaudot, Hift. Patriarch, Alexandrin. p. 119.). 'HMEIC λo TY Back, was the acclamation of the fathers of Conftantinople (Concil. tom. vii. p. 765).

they

CHA P.

XLVII.

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