Constans and Monothelitism

So Constans II survived the attempt by Valentinus to become emperor in 644, and ruled for another 22 years, accomplishing a few "firsts" for an eastern Roman (Byzantine) Emperor. 

He was the first Byzantine Emperor to visit Rome (in 663) since the fall of the Western Empire in 476. Pope Vitalian greeted him warmly (since 476, the emperor in Constantinople was also the emperor of the entire Roman Empire, west as well as east, and so the pope's secular lord). Constans, however, did not respect Rome: he took (stole) treasures from several buildings, including the Pantheon, to be sent back to Constantinople.

Three years later, he declared that the pope did not have authority over the Archbishop of Ravenna, since Ravenna was the city of Constans' representative, the Exarch. The Exarchate of Ravenna was an administrative district that owed allegiance to Constantinople. It was the Exarch Theodore I Calliopas in 652 who arrested Pope Martin I on Constans' orders, dragging him from the Lateran and putting him on a ship to Constantinople for trial, for daring to get involved in Constans' decree about Monothelitism.

The other victim of this move was Maximus the Confessor. Maximus had been an important figure in the administration of Constans' grandfather, Heraclius, rising to the position of protoasekretis (literally "first secretary"; the top notary in the government). Later in life he chose the contemplative lifestyle of a monk. He went to Rome to debate against Monothelitism. When Maximus' arguments helped 105 bishops in synod to condemn Monothelitism, Constans order him arrested. Put on trial in Constantinople, he was convicted of heresy.

The aftermath was that his tongue was cut out and his right hand cut off so that he could neither speak nor write anything heretical. (The illustration shows his tongue being removed on the right while others on the left bow before the emperor.) Pope Martin and Maximus would both be vindicated by the Sixth Ecumenical Council in 680 that found that Christ had both a human and divine will.

By that time, however, the emperor that championed Monothelitism would be dead, and not of natural causes. I'll tell you about his untimely and ignoble death tomorrow.