7th centuryDocumented
Monothelitism and St Maximus the Confessor
Μονοθελητισμός
A saint out of communion with the great sees while they held an imperially backed error, vindicated only after his death by an ecumenical council.
Established chronology
- 638 / 648The Ekthesis and then the Typos promote one will in Christ / forbid debate.
- 649The Lateran Synod under Pope Martin I condemns Monothelitism.
- 655 to 662St Maximus is tried, exiled, and (per the trial record) mutilated; he dies in exile in 662.
- 680 to 681The Sixth Ecumenical Council vindicates his confession of two wills.
Synodal decisions
- The Sixth Ecumenical Council confessed two natural wills and energies and condemned the Monothelite teachers.
Actions of the saints
- St Maximus refused communion with the hierarchy while it held the error, holding that orthodoxy of faith conditions communion; he founded no rival church and awaited the Church's judgment.
Competing interpretations
- Invoked both as proof that faith conditions communion, and, by others, as a case whose extreme, open circumstances must be matched before the parallel holds.
Related councils
Related saints
Bibliography
- P. Allen & B. Neil, Maximus the Confessor and his Companions (CCSG 39).
- ACO ser. 2, tom. 2 (Sixth Council).