Pope Benedict II

To continue yesterday's post and talk about "re-orienting" wayward bishops with "wrong" ideas, we have to first look at there Bishop of Rome, Benedict. By Bishop of Rome (elected by the clergy) I mean he was the pope, of course.

He was born Benedict, son of John. (This was before it was common for popes to take regnal names. The first pope to do so was Mercurius, who was elected pope in 533 and felt it was improper for a Christian pope to be named for a Roman god, so he took the name John II. But many popes had names that they considered already suitable.) Benedict had been involved in the courts of Popes Agatho and Leo II, and was known for his knowledge of Scriptures from an early age.

His confirmation as pope at the time had to come from the emperor, and the emperor at the time for the Roman Empire (what there was of it) was Constantine IV. It took a year for the request to go to Constantinople and for the reply to come back to Rome. He tried to persuade Constantine that they could save time by allowing the Exarch in Ravenna (the Byzantine emperor's local administrator) to ratify papal elections. Constantine was interested in the idea, but request for papal confirmations continued to go to Constantinople.

One of Benedict's acts that connects to recent posts here was his confirmation of Pope Agatho's decree that Wilfrid should be returned to the See of York as archbishop.

Then, after the Sixth Ecumenical Council to determine once and for all the official stand on Monothelitism, bishops who adhered to Monothelitism were sent to Rome for re-education. Benedict did not want to simply condemn Macarius, who had been the Patriarch of Antioch: he wanted to convince him that Monothelitism was wrong and Macarius should relent. According to the notes of the Second Council of Nicaea, which addressed how to manage heretical bishops, Benedict spent 30 days trying to persuade Macarius.

A motive for not simply leaving Macarius deposed has been suggested: his successor at Antioch had just died, and Benedict might have wanted to reinstate Macarius. Macarius was not about to change his stance. He had told the emperor in the Sixth Ecumenical Council that he would rather be cut to pieces and thrown in the sea than admit the doctrine of two wills in Jesus.

So far as we know, Benedict's attempts failed. Macarius drops out of the historical record. As for Benedict, he was pope from 26 June 684 to 8 May 685.

The Second Council of Nicaea was also called the Seventh General Council; it was the last of seven general councils between both the Western Roman and Eastern Byzantine Churches. We'll look at its subjects tomorrow.

The Sixth Ecumenical Council

The Sixth Ecumenical Council was called to settle a matter that had bothered the Byzantine Church for several years. The issue was Monothelitism, the idea that Jesus only had a single nature to him, either human or divine. There were lots of clergy who felt that he had a dual nature.

The Emperor Constans II had been so annoyed (or uninterested) in the debate over the two that he published a decree that the issue should not even be discussed. His son, Constantine IV, decided that the issue needed resolution, but that the emperor was not qualified to make that decision (and suffer the wrath of the losing side), so he wrote to the pope in Rome to find a way to solve the problem. Pope Agatho took up the challenge with several synods in the west that came up with an answer, which was then taken to Constantinople for the Sixth Ecumenical Council (which was also known as the Third Council of Constantinople, as depicted above in a painting in a church in Bucharest).

The imperial palace hosted 37 bishops on 7 November 680, with the patriarchs of Antioch and Constantinople. Patriarchs of Alexandria and Jerusalem were represented by proxy. A few priests and bishops from Rome were present, to represent the conclusion of the West that Jesus had dual natures. Constantine was present for many of the sessions, participating in the discussions; he was present at the closing session on 16 September 681, at which 151 bishops were present.

A letter from Pope Agatho was read, stating that Jesus was both human and divine; this had been commonly accepted for centuries. The majority accepted this. There were champions for Monothelitism, however. One of them, Patriarch Macarius of Antioch, claimed that Monothelitism had been proposed by ecumenical councils in the past and by statements from popes, but he was challenged to present that evidence. A letter from Pope Honorius to an earlier patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius I, seemed to express support for Monothelitism. The papal legates had no problem declaring that Honorius was wrong and needed to be condemned in the light of the current stance on Monothelitism.

During the months of debate, one proponent of Monothelitism attempted to prove the rightness of it (and of his faith in it) by declaring that he could in fact bring the dead back to life, proving that God was on his side in the debate. A corpse was found, and the priest whispered prayers into its ears, but the result one would expect took place. The corpse remained dead.

Macarius was deposed by the council; he and four others who would not relent on their belief were sent to Rome for "further instruction." Tomorrow, I'll tell you about the man who took on the responsibility of bringing Macarius back "into the fold" so to speak.