MAXIMUS CONFESSOR
- I. His Life.
- Early Life and Success (§ 1).
- Later Life. Trials, and Death (§ 2).
- II. His Writings.
- Exegetical Works on Scripture and the Fathers (§ 1).
- Dogmatic and Polemical Writings (§ 2).
- Ethical, Ascetic, and other works (§ 3).
- III. His Theology.
- The Component Elements (§ 1).
- His Christology (§ 2).
- His Mysticism (§ 3).
I. His Life
Maximus, usually known as the
Confessor, was the leading representative of the
orthodox doctrine against the Monothelites of the
seventh century. He was born in Constantinople
about 580; d. at
Shemari, on the shore of the Black
Sea, Aug. 13, 662. He came of a distinguished
family, and received an excellent
1. Early education after the ideals of the time.
Life and Of delicate constitution and quiet
Success. loving temperament, he seems at
first, to have been inclined to a life of
contemplation and study, but was called away
from it for a time to a political career. The Emperor
Heraclius (610-641) summoned him to court and
made him his first secretary. When he exchanged
this position for the monastic state is uncertain. He
entered the monastery of Chrysopolis at what is
now Scutari, and before long became abbot. Soon
after the beginning of the Monothelite controversy,
when the monk Sophronius stood forth as the
champion of orthodoxy against Cyrus, patriarch
of Alexandria, Maximus was in that city and received the stimulus which led him to devote himself
to combating Monothelitism. In a series of treatises and letters he defended the Chalcedonian
orthodoxy as to the two natures and the two wills
of Christ against both Monophysites and Monothelites, as well as against the imperial efforts at
compromise. It was through his influence that
North Africa became the headquarters of the
orthodox party after the death of Heraclius. On
the accession of Conatans II. (642-668), the patriarch of Constantinople, Pyrrhus, was forced to
flee on account of participation in the intrigues of
Martins, the widow of Heraclius, and took refuge
in North Africa, where the prefect, Gregory, was a
strong supporter of Maximus; and there took place,
probably at Carthage in 645, the disputation between Pyrrhus and Maximus which is one of the
most remarkable documents in the history of the
controversy. Maximus was victorious, and followed
up his triumph energetically. The bishops of North
Africa and the adjacent islands held a synod in 646
to condemn Monothelitism, and requested Pope
Theodore to confirm their decision. Maaimus went
to Rome with Pyrrhus, who abjured his errors
before the pope, and was recognized as rightful
patriarch of Constantinople. Maximus was the
soul of this apparently formidable coalition, which,
however, soon fell to pieces. Gregory fell the neat
year in battle with the Mohammedans; Pyrrhus
retracted his recantation, and made his peace with
the emperor. In 648 appeared the Typos, a decree
of Constans forbidding under heavy penalties any
discussion of the question of one or two wills. Man
imus, still in Rome, was again the most active
spirit in opposition to this, denying the emperor's
right to interfere in dogmatic questions and declaring the language of the document irreconcilable
with the creeds of the Church. He determined the
new pope, Martin I., to call the Lateran synod of
649, and inspired its decision unhesitatingly condemning Monothelitism and the imperial decree.
