Enough has been said, I
think, to prove this; I shall, therefore, conclude my examples by
referring to that of Pope Honorius, the history of which is so well
known. At the commencement of the seventh century, the Church being
troubled by the heresy of the Monothelites, that pope, with the view
of terminating the controversy, passed a decree which seemed
favourable to these heretics, at which many took offence. The
affair, nevertheless, passed over without making much disturbance
during his pontificate; but fifty years after, the Church being
assembled in the sixth general council, in which Pope Agathon presided
by his legates, this decree was impeached, and, after being read and
examined, was condemned as containing the heresy of the
Monothelites, and under that character burnt, in open court, along
with the other writings of these heretics. Such was the respect paid
to this decision, and such the unanimity with which it was received
throughout the whole Church, that it was afterwards ratified by two
other general councils, and likewise by two popes, Leo II and Adrian
II, the latter of whom lived two hundred years after it had passed;
and this universal and harmonious agreement remained undisturbed for
seven or eight centuries. Of late years, however, some authors, and
among the rest Cardinal Bellarmine, without seeming to dread the
imputation of heresy, have stoutly maintained, against all this
array of popes and councils, that the writings of Honorius are free
from the error which had been ascribed to them; "because," says the
cardinal, "general councils being liable to err in questions of
fact, we have the best grounds for asserting the sixth council was
mistaken with regard to the fact now under consideration; and that,
misconceiving the sense of the Letters of Honorius, it has placed this
pope most unjustly in the rank of heretics.
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