Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/115

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ROME AND THE EASTERN CHURCHES
79

Christian princes (Marcian and his wife Pulcheria), and by the consent of the Apostolic See."[1] There is no question as to who presided. First sat the Roman Legates, then Anatolius of Constantinople, Maximus of Antioch, &c. (p. 36).[2] The Legates in the Pope's name condemn and suspend Dioscur of Alexandria (p. 14). The council accepts St. Leo's dogmatic letter, "Peter has spoken by Leo" (p. 37). We have also seen how (although it was no longer necessary) the council begs for the Pope's approval, how he confirms the dogmatic decrees it had passed with his Legates, and rejects the Canons drawn up in their absence (pp. 40–42).

Passing over for the present the fifth council, we come to the sixth, Constantinople III, in 680. It met in a hall of the Emperor's palace under a great cupola, and is therefore also called the first council in Trullo (Trullanum I).[3] This is the council that came at the end of the Monothelite troubles; it has become famous because it counted Pope Honorius (625–638) among the Monothelite heretics. In the thirteenth session: "We also anathematize Honorius, the former Pope of Old Rome, because we find in his letter to Sergius that he followed this one in all things and confirmed his impious dogmas." And in the sixteenth session: "Anathema to the heretic Sergius, Anathema to the heretic Honorius, Anathema to the heretic Pyrrhus."[4] In spite of this, the council has several things to say in favour of the Roman Primacy. The Emperor Constantine IV (Pogonatus, 668–685), before summoning it wrote to Pope Donus (676–678) asking for his co-operation and for legates.[5] Donus died too soon, but Agatho, his successor (678–681), first held a Roman Synod (Easter, 680) to prepare the great one, then sent two priests, Theodore and George, and a deacon John, as his Legates to Constantinople, besides writing a dogmatic letter to Constantine condemning

  1. Ep. 114, I. Ibid. 1029.
  2. Mansi, vi. 566, &c., passim.
  3. Τροῦλλος is a late Greek word for a hollow vessel, then for a tortoiseshell and lastly for a dome or cupola. Trullus also occurs in late Latin. The second council in Trullo was not œcumenical, see p. 92, n. 2.
  4. Mansi, xi. 195–736, 738–922. Hard. iii. 1043, seq.
  5. Hard. iii. 1043.