From:
Orthodox Life"After the unsuccessful attempts of the Emperor Justinian to heal the rift between the Orthodox and the Monophysites, a long period of time ensued, during which there were no significant developments regarding these theological disputes. When the Emperor Heracleus, who reigned from 610 to 641, came to the throne, serious theological discussions with the goal of returning the heretics to the bosom of the Church once again began to take place. Patriarch Sergius, as well as the Roman Pope Honorius, proposed a compromise between the Orthodox teaching that there are two natures in Christ and the Monophysite teaching that Christ has but one divine nature. They proposed a new teaching whose central idea was that, in Christ, there truly are two natures, a human and a divine, but that there is only one will, the divine. This doctrine is called Monothelitism. The Church battled against this heresy for over forty years. The main defenders of the Orthodox faith in these years were the Holy Hierarch Sophronius of Jerusalem, the Holy Hierarch Martin the Pope of Rome, who died in exile in the Crimea, and the Holy Monk Maximus the Confessor, who had his tongue cut out and his right hand cut off so as to deny him the ability to preach and write the truth."
Read More...
