2. Later Life. Trials, and Death
Maximus spent several years in Rome in a monastery, actively engaged in work for his cause, and
thoroughly imbued with the hierarchical and
dogmatic views of the Roman see.
Life, He was
finally
arrested by the empelTrials, and or's orders and taken to Constantinople
Death. where all endeavors were made to
induce him to accept the Typos, but
without avail. In the winter of 654-655 his first
formal trial took place before the privy council in
the imperial palace.
The opening charges were
political-of hatred of the emperor, responsibility
for the loss to the Mohammedans of Egypt and
North Africa, participation in the revolt of Gregory,
and the like. There were further charges of Origen
istie heresy, and some based on his dealings with
Pyrrhus in Africa and Rome. Maximus was able to
justify himself on most of the counts, but refused to
hold communion with the church of Constantinople
as having departed from "the four holy synods."
He rejected a compromise formula, and declared
that peace could be attained only by the emperor's
withdrawing the Typus. Fresh
proceedings were
conducted on May 18, 655, by representatives of
Pyrrhus, and again a few months later by two
patriarchs, Peter of Constantinople and Macedonius of Antioch. Maximus refused to make any
concessions, and the next day a synod
held by the
patriarchs recommended that the penalty of banish'
ment be inflicted on him and his disciple Anastasius.
Maximus was sent to the fortress of Bizya in Thrace,
where he remained for a year amid great discomfort.
In August, 656, Bishop Theodosius of
Cæsarea
and two secular envoys appeared for the purpose of
effecting an agreement; but he still firmly declared
that nothing would serve but the recall of the
Typus and the acceptance of the Lateran synod of
649. On Sept. 8 he was transferred to the monastery of St. Theodore near Reggio, where another
attempt to win him failed, after which he was
subjected to greater severities by the imperial emissaries, and he was removed first to Salembria and
then to Berberis, where Anastasius already was.
Here the authentic documents of the
Codlectio
Anastasii
end. According to another account, the
historical value of which is disputed, he was brought
once more to Constantinople and after a formal
discussion solemnly anathematized in a synod,
together with all upholders of Dyothelitism; then
he and his disciples were delivered to the prefect to
be scourged and have their tongues cut out and their
hands chopped off. Thus mutilated, they were
sent to Lazica on the eastern shore of the Black
Sea. They arrived on June 8, 662; Maximus was
separated from the others and sent to the fortress
of Shemarum (modern
Shemari), where he died.
Yet his heroic constancy was not without effect.
Constans II. fell a victim, only a few years later, to
the hatred he had aroused partly by these cruel and
arbitrary proceedings, and the faith for which
Maximus had suffered was solemnly proclaimed by
the sixth ecumenical council in 680.
