494 FOUKTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
The theological contest was carried on chiefly in the Eastern church which had the necessary learning and speculative talent ; but the final decision was brought about by the weight of Roman authority, and Pope Agatho exerted by his dogmatic epistle the same controlling influence over the sixth oecumenical Council, as Pope Leo I. had exercised over the fourth. In this as well as the older theological controversies the Roman popes — with the significant exception of Honorius — stood firmly on the side of orthodoxy, while the patriarchal sees of the East were alternately occupied by heretics as well as orthodox.
The Dyotheletic decision completes the Christology of the Greek and Roman churches, and passed from them into 'the Protestant churches ; but while the former have made no further progress in this dogma, the latter allows a revision and recon struction, and opened new avenues of thought in the contem plation of the central fact and truth of the divine-human personality of Christ.
§ 111. History of Monotheletism and Dyotheletism.
The triumph of Dyotheletism was the outcome of a bitter conflict of nearly fifty years (633 to 680). The first act reaches to the issue of the Ekthesis (638), the second to the issue of the Type (648), the third and last to the sixth oecumenical Council (680). The theological leaders of Monophysitism were Theo dore, bishop of Pharan in Arabia (known to us only from a few fragments of his writings), Sergius and his successors
decision (Mansi, XI. 239 ; Gieseler, I. 540 ; Hefele, III. 255) : " Cum duos autem naturas duasque naturales votuntcttes, et duas naturales operationes confitemur in uno Domino nostro J. Ch., non contrarian eas, nee adversas ad alterutrum dicimns (sicut a via veritatis wrantes apostolicam traditionem accusant, absit hcec impietas a fidelium cordibus), nee tanquam separatas in duabus personis vel subsistentiis, sed duas dicimus unum eundemque Dominum nostrum J. Ch., sicut naturas, ita et naturales in se voluntates et operationes habere, divinam scilicet et humanam : divinam quidem voluntatem et operationem habere ex ceterno cum co'essentiali Patre communem ; humanam temporaliter ex nobis cum nostra natura susceptam." Agatho quotes Scripture passages and testimonies of the fathers, but does not define the mode in which the two wills co-operate.
I 111. MONOTHELETISM AND DYOTHELET1SW. 495
Pyrrhus and Paul in the patriarchal see of Constantinople, and C'yrus, patriarch of Alexandria; the political leaders were the Emperors Ileraclius and Constans II.
The champions of the Dyotheletic doctrine were Sophronius of Palestine, Maxirnus of Constantinople, and the popes Martin and Agatho of Rome ; the political supporter, the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus (668-685).
1. The strife began in a political motive, but soon assumed a theological and religious aspect. The safety of the Byzantine empire was seriously threatened, first by the Persians, and then by the Arabs, and the danger was increased by the division among Christians. The Emperor Ileraclius (610-640) after his return from the Persian campaign desired to conciliate the Monophysites, who were more numerous than the orthodox in Armenia, Syria, and Egypt.1 He hoped, by a union of the parties, to protect these countries more effectually against the Mohammedan invaders. The Monophysites took offence at the catholic inference of two energies (^so^tac) in the person of Christ. The emperor consulted Sergius, the patriarch of Con stantinople (since 610), who was of Syrian (perhaps Jacobite) descent. They agreed upon the compromise-formula of " one divine-human energy'7 (fiia fieavdptxy suso-feea).'2 Sergius secured the consent of Pope Honorius (625-638), who was afterwards condemned for heresy. Cyrus, the orthodox patri arch of Alexandria, published the formula (633), and converted thousands of Monophysites.3
But. Sophronius, a learned and venerable monk in Palestine^
1 In Egypt the Monophysitic or national Coptic church numbered between five and six millions, the orthodox and imperial party only three hundred thousand heads. Ren au dot, Jfist. Patriarch. Alexandr. lacob. (Par., 1713), p. 163 sq., as quoted by Hefrle, III. 130.
2 The phrase was borrowed from the mystic writings of Dionysius Areopagita (Epixt. IV- ad Cojum). Maxirnus, who was an admirer of Pseudo-Dionysius, gave this passage and a similar one from Cyril of Alexandria a different meaning. See Hefele, III. 129.
3 See the nine chapters of Cyrus in Mansi, XI. 563, and Hefele, III. 138.