The Thirteenth Session: The Sentence Against the Monothelites

The holy council said: “As we promised your highness, we have looked again at the doctrinal letters of Sergius, at one time patriarch of this royal, God-protected city, to Cyrus, who was then bishop of Phasis, and to Honorius, at one time pope of Old Rome, as well as the letter of Honorius in reply to the same Sergius. We find that these documents are wholly foreign to the apostolic doctrines, to the declarations of the holy councils, and to all the accepted fathers, and that they follow the false teachings of the heretics. Therefore we entirely reject them, and we abhor and condemn them as harmful to the soul. But the names of the men whose doctrines we abhor must also be thrust out of the holy church of God. They are: Sergius, at one time bishop of this God-preserved royal city, who was the first to write on this impious doctrine; Cyrus of Alexandria; Pyrrhus, Paul, and Peter, who died as bishops of this God-preserved city and were of one mind with them; and Theodore, at one time bishop of Pharan. The most holy and thrice-blessed Agatho, pope of Old Rome, rejected all of these in his suggestion to our most pious and God-preserved lord and mighty emperor, because their minds were set against our orthodox faith. We define that all of them are to be subjected to anathema. And along with them we define that Honorius, who was at one time pope of Old Rome, is to be expelled from the holy church of God and anathematized, because of what we found written by him to Sergius: that in all respects he followed Sergius’s view and confirmed his impious doctrines. We have also examined the synodal letter of Sophronius of holy memory, at one time patriarch of the holy city of Christ our God, Jerusalem, and have found it in accordance with the true faith, with the apostolic teachings, and with those of the holy approved fathers. Therefore we have received it as orthodox and as wholesome for the holy catholic and apostolic church, and we have decreed that it is right for his name to be inserted in the diptychs of the holy churches.” [a]