After the condemnation of Monothelitism at the provincial Synod of Rome, in the presence of St. Maximos the Confessor, what did St. Martin of Rome call on all Orthodox Christians to do?
For this reason, as has already been said, we too, having assembled together in the inseparable communion of the Spirit, have exerted ourselves in the minuted proceedings to set out side by side in clear distinction the sacred decrees of the holy fathers and of the ecumenical five councils and the doctrines of the faithless heretics, both those of old and those who have now sprung up against the faith with their impious Ekthesis and the yet more impious Typos, in order to demonstrate to all our readers the difference between light and darkness, that is, between patristic truth and heretical error, and that there is no common ground between the heretics and the holy fathers, but that, "as far as the East is from the west," so far are the impious heretics in word and thought from the men who speak of God. Therefore we have by a decree confirmed the holy fathers together with all their sacred teachings and all those who together with us sincerely accept both the one and the other, and we have anathematised the impious heretics together with all their profane doctrines and the impious Ekthesis and the yet more impious Typos and all those who heed or defend them or any of the tenets they published or who speak out in defence of them, so that all of you the pious and Orthodox, dwelling throughout the world, when you learn of these our pious proceedings for the protection of the catholic church, may conduct similar proceedings in harmony with us, and confirm all the holy fathers in writing, concurring with them and with us in the Orthodox faith, while anathematising all the heretics, both of former and present times, who warred shamelessly against our most holy faith, together with the impious Ekthesis and the yet more impious Typos and with those who accept them or any of their perverse declarations, so that as the fruit of a pious confession you may attain the salvation of your souls.
- Encyclical Letter of St. Martin the Confessor, Pope of Rome, "to all Christians everywhere," after the closing of the provincial Lateran Council of 649 A.D., condemning Monothelitism.
Source: The Acts of the
Lateran Synod of 649, translated by Richard Price (Liverpool: Liverpool
University Press, 2014), pp. 402-403. Emphasis added.
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