See NESTORIAN AND MONOPHYSITE CONTROVERSY;
also, JACOBITE CHURCH.
MONOTHELITE CONTROVERSY, The.
"The Council of Chalcedon having decided that our Lord
possessed two natures, united but not confused, the Eutychian
error condemned by it is supposed to have been virtually
reproduced by the Monothelites, who maintained that the two
natures were so united as to have but one will. This heresy is
ascribed to Heraclius the Greek emperor, who adopted it as a
political project for reconciling and reclaiming the
Monophysites to the Church, and thus to the empire. The
Armenians as a body had held, for a long time, the Monophysite
(a form of the Eutychian) heresy, and were then in danger of
breaking their allegiance to the emperor, as they had done to
the Church; and it was chiefly to prevent the threatened
rupture that Heraclius made a secret compromise with some of
their principal men. … Neither … the strenuous efforts of
the Greek emperors Heraclius and Constans, nor the concession
of Honorius the Roman pontiff to the soundness of the
Monothelite doctrine, could introduce it into the Church.
Heraclius published in A. D. 639 an Ecthesis, or a formula, in
which Monotheism was covertly introduced. The sixth general
council, held in Constantinople A. D. 680, condemned both the
heresy and Honorius, the Roman pontiff who had countenanced it.
{2225}
'The doctrine of the Monothelites, thus condemned and exploded
by the Council of Constantinople, found a place of refuge
among the Mardaites, a people who inhabited the mountains of
Libanus and Anti-Libanus, and who, about the conclusion of
this century, received the name of Maronites from John Maro,
their first bishop-a name which they still retain.' … In the
time of the Crusaders, the Maronites united with them in their
wars against the Saracens, and subsequently (A. D. 1182) in
their faith. After the evacuation of Syria by the Crusaders,
the Maronites, as their former allies, had to bear the
vengeance of the Saracenic kings; and for a long time they
defended themselves as they could, sometimes inflicting
serious injury on the Moslem army, and at others suffering the
revengeful fury of their enemies. They ultimately submitted to
the rule of their Mohammedan masters, and are now good
subjects of the sultan. … The Maronites now … are entirely
free from the Monothelite heresy, which they doubtless
followed in their earlier history; nor, indeed, does there
appear a single vestige of it in their histories, theological
books, or liturgies. Their faith in the person of Christ and
in all the articles of religion is now, as it has been for a
long time past, in exact uniformity with the doctrines of the
Roman Church."
_J. Wortabet,
Researches into the Religions of Syria,
pages 103-111; with foot-note._
ALSO IN:
_H. F. Tozer,
The Church and the Eastern Empire,
chapter 5._
_E. Gibbon,
Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire,
chapter 47._
_P. Schaff,
History of the Christian Church,
volume 4, chapter 11, sections 109-111._
MONROE, James,
Opposition to the Federal Constitution.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1787-1789.
Presidential election and administration.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1816, to 1825.
MONROE DOCTRINE, The.
See UNITED STATES OF AMERICA: A. D. 1823.