Pope Honorius Was Condemned as a Heretic by a Church Council

Pope Honorius was condemned as a heretic by a church council in 681 — and Rome confirmed the verdict. The Third Council of Constantinople anathematized Honorius by name, forty-two years after his death, over a single sentence he wrote to end an argument about the will of Christ. His successor Leo II ratified it. Two later ecumenical councils repeated it. For centuries the papal chancery's own profession of faith required a new pope to affirm a condemnation containing his predecessor's name. Then, in 1650, the Vatican censors locked the document in a room. This is the full case with the documents in it — Sergius and the Monothelite compromise, Sophronius, Maximus the Confessor, Pope Martin I, Leo II's four contradictory letters, the Liber Diurnus, and the Honorius objection that shadowed the First Vatican Council in 1870. Both the Protestant overreach and the Catholic overreach get retired, and the disputed claims are flagged as disputed. Sources: Primary: Acts of the Third Council of Constantinople (681), sessions XIII and XVI — condemnation and acclamations Honorius, first and second letters to Sergius (c. 634–635), preserved in the conciliar acts Leo II, letters to Emperor Constantine IV, to the Spanish bishops, and to King Ervig (682) Liber Diurnus Romanorum Pontificum, formula 84 — papal profession of faith Second Council of Nicaea (787); Fourth Council of Constantinople (869–870); Quinisext Council (692), canon 1 Pastor Aeternus, First Vatican Council, 18 July 1870 Gregory of Nazianzus, Letter 101 to Cledonius Secondary: John Chapman, The Condemnation of Pope Honorius (1907), and the Catholic Encyclopedia article (1910) Karl Josef von Hefele, Honorius und das sechste allgemeine Concil (Tübingen, 1870), and A History of the Councils of the Church Peter Le Page Renouf, The Condemnation of Pope Honorius (1868); Paul Botalla's reply (1869) "Janus" (Ignaz von Döllinger), Der Papst und das Konzil (1869) Philip Schaff and Henry Percival, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, ser. 2 vol. 14, excursus on Honorius Disputed or uncertain: The mutilation of Maximus the Confessor (662) — reported by sympathetic hagiographers; details questioned by some modern scholars. Exile and death not in question. The dating range of Liber Diurnus formula 84 — the popular "fifth to eleventh century" claim is impossible, since the text refers to the council of 681. Late seventh or eighth century onward is the defensible range. Whether Pastor Aeternus was narrowed specifically to survive the Honorius objection — interpretation, not documented intent. Sophronius's surrender of Jerusalem — 637 by most reckonings, 638 in some sources. Baronius's forgery theory regarding the conciliar acts — abandoned; included only as a retired argument. #ChurchHistory #Theology #CatholicChurch