Pope Honorius I

Lore & Background

Honorius was the son of Petronius, who held the honorary rank of consul. Almost nothing is known of his life before he became pope, two days after the death of Boniface V. The short vacancy is often put down to the presence in Rome of the exarch Isaac the Armenian, who could confirm the election. Honorius modelled his rule on Gregory I and staffed the Lateran Palace with monks rather than secular clergy. He supported Adaloald, the deposed Catholic king of the Lombards, while keeping relations with his Arian rival Arioald, and he tried, without success, to end the Schism of the Three Chapters in Venetia and Istria.

Reader's Guide

In 635 Honorius answered Sergius by agreeing that debate over one or two energies in Christ should stop and by speaking of a single will in Jesus. Defenders, including his secretary John Symponus, his successor John IV and Maximus the Confessor, said he meant only Christ's human will. The council nonetheless condemned him, and Pope Leo II confirmed the verdict for failing to stamp out the heresy. Centuries later, opponents of papal infallibility cited his case at the First Vatican Council in 1870.

Did You Know?

• Bede described Honorius as a holy pastor, a view later used by Robert Bellarmine in his defence.
• His condemnation was read in the Roman Breviary on the Feast of St. Leo II until the eighteenth century.
• J. B. Bury thought Honorius treated the dispute more as grammar than theology.
• Honorius saw the teachings of early Islam as close to the Arian heresy.