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Home , 650s, 660s, Apocrisiarius

Bronwen Neil

Narrating the Trials and Death in Exile of Martin I and

1. lntroduction In the and , the Greek Maximus the Confessor (580-662) and his ally Martin, of (649-53) were both found guilty of opposition to 's doctrinal policy of - the teaching that Christ had only one will, which subsumed the human and divine wills. Both Maximus and Martin were condemned to exile, and Maximus also had his tongue and hand amputated. A sympathetic presentation of the events of their trials and exiles can be found in three texts. The first is the Narrationes de exilio sancti papae Martini commemorating Pope Martin. 1 The second text, entitled Relalio Molionis, is presented as a 'transcript' by an eye-witness of Maximus' trial along side his Anastasius the Monk in 655. 2 Third is the Hypomneslicon of Theodore Spoudaeus, describing Martin's and Maximus' exiles in Cherson and respectively, and also the exile of several of their dyothelite supporters. 3 Maximus, Anastasius the Monk, and Anastasius the Apocrisiarius 4 entered their

1. This text has been recently edited and translated by B. Neil: see B. Neil. Seventh• Century and Martyrs: The Politica/ Hagiography of Anastasius the librarian. Studia Antiqua Australiensia (in press). Elements of this paper will appear in a modified form in that volume. This research was funded by an Australian Research Council Postdoctoral Fellowship undertaken at Australian Catholic University. 2. The Greek and texts of the Relatio Motionis have been edited, and the Greek text translated, by P. Allen and B. Neil: see Scripta saeculi VII vitam Maximi Confessoris i/lustrantia Greek and Latin text ed. P. Allen & B. Neil. CCSG 39 (Turnhout 1999) 12-51; Maximus the Confessor and his Companions: Documents /rom Exile Greek ed. and tr. P. Allen & B. Neil (Oxford 2002) 49-73. 3. Their supporters included Theodore and Euprepius, Anastasius the Apocrisiarius, Theodore Spoudaeus and Theodosius of Gangra, and a certain Stephan (probably Stephan of Dora, the associate of Sophronius of Jerusalem). The Greek Hypomnesticon, written in late 668 or early 669, an English translation and the Latin version have been published by P. Allen and B. Neil: see Theodori Spudaei Hypomnesticon; Greek and Latin text Scripta 196-227: Greek ed. and tr. Maximus 148-71. 4. While the second recension of the Vita Maximi Confessoris claims that Anastasius the Apocrisiarius was also present at the first trial in 655, it has been demonstrated that the Apocrisiarius was in exile himself in Mesembria at this stage (Scripta xv• xvi, where the events of the Relatio Motionis in 655 and the Disputatio Bizyae in the following year are discussed). The chronology of the Vita Maximi is notoriously contorted, and varies between the three recensions whose authors have reworked the source texts of the Relatio Motionis and Disputatio Bizyae in different ways. None of the three recensions can be relied upon to provide accurate dating of events. For further information, see my introduction in life of Maximus the Confessor (Recension 3) ed. and tr. B. Neil & P. Allen. Early Christian Studies 6 (Sydney 2003) 15-20. The Greek title of the Relatio Motionis, which reads ·An account of the process which took place between lord Father Maximus and his companions'

Byzantine Narrative. Papers in Honour of Roger Scott. Edited by J. Burke et al. (Melbourne 2006). 72 Bronwen Neil final exile to Lazica after a second trial in Constantinople in 662. The doctrine of two wills in Christ (dyothelitism) was finally upheld as the orthodox position at the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680/1 ). A fourth sub-text, the Commemoratio of Pope Martin, is incorporated in the larger Narrationes de exilio sancti papae Martini, and makes up just over half of that larger text. lt purports to be a verbatim account of the trial which took place before the senate in Constantinople in 653/4. The Commemoratio was written by an anonymous supporter of Martin and the dyothelite cause. The commemorative pamphlet is described as 'a simpte letter of a certain most Christian person sent to those orthodox fathers who are in the West, or in Rome and Africa'. 5 While the author of the Commemoratio clearly has a western audience in mind, the Narrationes has a broader target, that of all dyothelites in East and West. The trial of Maximus Confessor has rightly been called 'one of the most significant single events of the seventh century.' 6 The similarities between the trials of Martin and Maximus the Confessor indicate that in both cases the process was conducted by a small number of imperia! delegates whose intention was to give a semblance of legal process to what was essentially an ecclesiastical matter. Thus the real reasons for their arrest and trial - their challenging of the imperia! right to determine doctrinal matters - were disguised as civil offences, namely high treason or conspiracy against the emperor. Troianos notes that high treason was the one exception to the general rule that crimes of clerics and carne under the jurisdiction of the . 7 The charges against Maximus and Martin were deemed sufficiently serious to warrant being tried by the senate and presided over by the sacel/arius. Allegations ofheresy or blasphemy, which were properly ecclesiastical offences, normally feit under the jurisdiction of the of Constantinople and a local synod of . 8 In this respect the

(Maç[µou Kal Twv ailv auT0), suggests that more than one companion was tried with Maximus in 655. The Latin translation by Anastasius Bibliothecarius however, which was based on a very early Greek tradition (ninth century or earlier), mentions only one companion: Relatio factae motionis inter damnum Maximum monachum et socium eius ... 5. Narrationes de exilio sancti papae Martini ed. and tr. B. Neil 10. All references to chapters in the Narrationes follow the division of the text in my recent edition (see note 1). 6. J. Haldon, ·Jdeology and the Byzantine State in the Seventh Century: The '"Trial" of Maximus the Confessor' From to Early Byzantium: Proceedings of the Byzantinological Symposium in the 16th International Eirene Conjèrence ed. V. Vavi'inek (Prague 1985) 90. 7. S. Troianos, 'Die Strafen im byzantinischen Recht: Eine Übersicht' JÖB 42 ( 1992) 63 and n. 49, citing Eisagoge 11.14, ed. J. & P. Zepi, Jus graecoromanum 2: Leges imperatorum Jsaurorum et Macedonum (Athens 193 L rp. Aaien 1962). See also G. Thür& P.E. Pieler, 'Gerichtsbarkeit', RAC 10:479-83. 8. For example, the local synod convened in November 448 at Constantinople by Patriarch Flavian. The original cause was a dispute at Sardis, but Eusebius of Dorylaeum used the occasion to challenge the doctrinal teachings of Eutyches on the one nature of Christ. See The Ecclesiastical History of Evagrius with the Schol ia ed J. Bidez & C. Pannentier (London 1898, rp. Amsterdam 1964) 1.9, tr. M.