by the Latins, yet Pelagius, Gregory, Pascal and Boniface
acknowledged this council, thereby placing the seal of infallibility
upon it as much as they ever did upon other councils.

In 553 Justinian assembled a council at Constantinople to discuss the
three chapters, as they were designated, composed by Ibas, Theodoret and
Theodorus. Vigilius, bishop of Rome, with bishops and deacons from
Italy, Africa and the east, was in Constantinople during the entire
sittings of this council, and refused to attend although invited. But
the council went on, all the same. His infallibility, supported by his
clique, opposed the emperor and his council, but in vain. He formed his
bishops and deacons into a separate council, published a constitution
defending, in _modified terms_, the three chapters, and interdicting all
further discussion upon the subject by the authority of the Apostolic
See; pronounced anathemas against the persons and defenders of the
authors of the three chapters. Having now made himself a partisan of the
authors, who were condemned by the emperor's council, he was cursed for
promoting heresy, and banished in dishonor. This served to bring him to
his senses upon several matters, and so he turned about and approved
what he had before condemned. And so heresy was converted into orthodoxy
by the magical power of an emperor at the expense of the infallibility
of Vigilius. The Italians, Tuscans, Ligurians, Istrians, French,
Illyrians and Africans, who took a stand against the emperor, were like
the pope, the "vicar general of God," converted by the sword of
Justinian. The Italian clergy who resisted were banished.

"In 681 there was a council at Constantinople, convoked by Constantine,
_the bearded_. This council was called by the Latins '_in trullo_,'
because it was held in an apartment of the imperial palace. The emperor
himself presided. The bishops of Constantinople and Antioch were on his
right hand, and the deputies from Jerusalem and Rome were on his left.
In this council it was decided that Jesus Christ had two wills." Here
"Pope Honorius I. was condemned as a monothelite, that is, as wishing
Jesus Christ to have but one will." O, shame! What will come next? Well,
we are out at sea in the very darkest periods of the dark ages, and
there is no telling how much our senses may be shocked. We find next
what is known as the Second Council of Nice. It was assembled by a
woman, Mrs. Irene, in the name of her son, whos