Sean O L:
In colloquial language, another person replied:
“He was denounced by the council as a heretic but the council document was ALTERED by Pope St. Leo II before it was promulgated. No Council document has any force until it is approved by the Pope, and NO COUNCIL CAN JUDGE A POPE (even posthumously) unless the then reigning pontiff sign the decree. Pope Honorius was not found to be a heretic himself, only NEGLIGENT in his duty. The particular wording of the final document approved by Pope Saint Leo II was this ‘he failed to enlighten the world with the apostolic doctrines’.
Someone was not given you the full quote! Pope Saint Leo’s condemnation was much stronger…
**“profana proditione immaculatem fidem subvertare conatus est.” **
“…also Honorius, who did not illuminate the Apostolic See with the doctrines of the Apostolic tradition, but
by profane prodition attempted to subvert the immaculate faith; and all, who died in his error…”
See the thread Honorius and Infallibility
forums.catholic-questions.org/showthread.php?t=15826
- His condemnation is found in the Acts of the 13th Session of the 6th Ecumenical Council.
- His two letters were ordered to be burned at the same Session.
- In the 17th session of the 6th Ecumenical Council, the Council Fathers proclaimed:
“Anathema to the heretic Sergius, to the heretic Cyrus, to the heretic Honorius, etc.”
- In the decree of faith published at the17thSession it is stated that “the originator of all evil the Devil… found a fit tool for his will in … Honorius, Pope of Old Rome, etc.”
- The report of the Council to the Emperor says that “Honorius,
formerly bishop of Rome” they had “punished with exclusion and
anathema” because he followed the monothelites.
- In its letter to Pope Agatho the Council says it “has slain Honorius with an anathema”
- The imperial decree speaks of the “unholy priests who
infected the Church and falsely governed” and mentions among them
“Honorius, the Pope of Old Rome, the confirmer of heresy who
contradicted himself.”
The Emperor goes on to anathematize “Honorius who was Pope of Old Rome, who in everything agreed with them, went with them, and strengthened the heresy.”
- Pope Leo II. confirmed the decrees of the Council and expressly says that he too anathematized Honorius.(1)
- That Honorius was anathematized by the Sixth Council is
mentioned in the Trullan Canons (No. I).
- So too the Seventh Council declares its adhesion to the
anathema in its decree of faith, and in several places in the acts
the same is said.
- Honorius’s name was found in the Roman copy of the Acts. This is evident from Anastasius’s life of Leo II. (Vita Leonis II.)
- The Papal Oath as found in the Liber Diurnus(2) taken by
each new Pope from the fifth to the eleventh century, in the form
probably prescribed by Gregory II:
“smites with eternal anathema the originators of the new heresy, Sergius, together with Honorius because he assisted the base assertion of the heretics.”
- In the lesson for the feast of St. Leo II. in the Roman Breviary the name of Pope Honorius occurs among those excommunicated by the Sixth Synod.
With such an array of proof no conservative historian, it would seem, can question the fact that Honorius, the Pope of Rome, was condemned and anathematized as a heretic by the Sixth Ecumenical Council and that the Popes after him used their infallibility to uphold the decision against him.
