It was now for the
pope to pronounce a
dogmatic decision and save the situation. He did nothing of the sort. His answer to Sergius did not decide the question, did not authoritatively declare the
faith of the
Roman Church, did not claim to speak with the voice of Peter; it condemned nothing, it defined nothing. Honorius entirely agrees with the caution which Sergius recommends. He praises Sergius for eventually dropping the new expression “one operation”, but he unfortunately also agrees with him that it will be well to avoid “two operations” also; for if the former sounds
Eutychian, the latter may be judged to be
Nestorian. Another passage is even more difficult to account for. Following the lead of Sergius, who had said that “two operations” might lead people to think two contrary wills were admitted in Christ, Honorius (after explaining the
communicatio idiomatum, by which it can be said that
God was crucified, and that the
Man came down from
heaven) adds: “Wherefore we acknowledge one Will of
our Lord Jesus Christ, for evidently it was our
nature and not the
sin in it which was assumed by the
Godhead, that is to say, the
nature which was
created before
sin, not the
nature which was vitiated by
sin.” Other passages in the letter are
orthodox. But it is plain that the
pope simply followed Sergius, without going more deeply into the question. The letter cannot be called a private one, for it is an official reply to a formal consultation. It had, however, less publicity than a modern
Encyclical. As the letter does not define or condemn, and does not bind the
Church to accept its teaching, it is of course impossible to regard it as an
ex cathedra utterance. But before, and even just after, the
Vatican Council such a view was sometimes urged, though almost solely by the opponents of the
dogma of
Papal Infallibility. Part of a second letter of Honorius to Sergius was read at the eighth council. It disapproves rather more strongly of the mention of either one operation or two; but it has the
merit of referring to the words of
St. Leo which Sergius had cited.