g upon
the physical rather than the spiritual effects of the Divine power
revealed in the incarnation of the Son of God. Theologians arose to
controvert it and to develop the theological decisions of the Council;
chief among them was Leontius of Byzantium, a philosophic apologist of
real {87} eminence, whose work was taken up later and completed by John
of Damascus.

[Sidenote: The Emperor Heraclius as a theologian.]

It is not to be wondered at that a great soldier, filled with a deep
sense of the necessity of uniting the Empire against its foes, should
be led to accept a theological development which seemed to offer the
hope of a reconciliation. From 622, under the advice of Sergius, as a
Patriarch of Constantinople, a basis of reunion was sought in the
formula that though the Lord had two Natures He had yet only "one
theandric energy." The emperor Heraclius turned unwisely from the army
to the Church, which, like many able military men, he thought might be
coerced or led into opinions which seemed to him to be common sense.
For a time it appeared that he would succeed: three patriarchs of
Constantinople, one of Antioch, one of Alexandria, one of Rome
(Honorius I.), were in agreement, if a little tepidly, favourable to
the phrase. Honorius definitely stated that he confessed "_one_ WILL
of our Lord Jesus Christ." [1] [Sidenote: The Ecthesis, 638.] Only
Sophronius, Patriarch of Jerusalem (634), held out. In 638 the emperor
issued the Ecthesis,[2] or Confession of Faith, drawn up by the
patriarch Sergius. It professed adherence to orthodox definitions, and
continued, "Wherefore, following the Holy Fathers in all things, and in
this, we confess one Will of our Lord Jesus Christ, the very God, so
that never was there a separate Will of His Body animated {88} by the
intellect, nor one of contrary motion natural to itself, but one which
operated when and how and to what purpose He who is God the Word
willed." This statement was repudiated by Rome, and in 649 condemned
in a synod at the Lateran under Martin I., who ended his days in exile
for disobeying the imperial power. The quarrel became one between Rome
and Constantinople, at a time when the popes had recovered their
orthodoxy and the patriarchs were subservient to impetuous emperors.
[Sidenote: The Type, 648.] In 648 the _Type_ issued from New Rome as an
attempt at pacification; but the Old Rome rejected it, with anathemas.
In 680 a synod, under Pope Agatho,