Third Council of Constantinople (680–681 AD)

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Background

In the seventh century, Persia and later the Arab armies threatened the empire, and Emperor Heraclius sought a formula that could reunite the Chalcedonian and non-Chalcedonian Christians. Patriarch Sergius suggested that Christ, though of two natures, had only one energy (Monoenergism), and then only one will (Monothelitism). The emperor's Ecthesis (638) endorsed it, and later the Typos (648) banned further discussion [9].

Resistance came from Sophronius of Jerusalem, and above all from Maximus the Confessor, who argued that to deny Christ a human will was to deny that He saved the human will. Maximus was tried, mutilated (his tongue and right hand were cut off), and exiled; he died in 662 [9].

The Council

Emperor Constantine IV called the council in the domed hall of the imperial palace (the Trullus). It met from 680 to 681, with Pope Agatho's letter as a guide. Among those condemned was Pope Honorius I, who had written that there was "one will" in Christ, a notorious case in later debates about papal authority [9].

What Was Decided

The council taught that in Christ there are two natural wills and two natural energies, "without division, without change, without separation, without confusion." The human will "follows" the divine will, "not as resisting or struggling against it, but rather as being subject to it" [9].

Scripture Behind the Decision

• A human will in Gethsemane. "Father, if thou be willing, remove this cup from me: nevertheless not my will, but thine, be done" (Luke 22:42).
• A will distinct from the Father's. "For I came down from heaven, not to do mine own will, but the will of him that sent me" (John 6:38).
• Obedience requires a human will. "Though he were a Son, yet learned he obedience by the things which he suffered" (Hebrews 5:8). "He humbled himself, and became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross" (Philippians 2:8).
• Redemption of the whole person. "For we have not an high priest which cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities" (Hebrews 4:15). What Christ did not assume, the later saying goes, He did not heal.

Heresy Spotlight: Monothelitism

Monothelitism was a compromise, a politically attractive one. It sounded like a bridge, but it undid Chalcedon's logic: a nature without its own will is incomplete. Its lasting lesson is that unity bought with imprecision about Christ does not last [9].

CHAPTER 7