Pope Honorius I

Pope Honorius I
Installed	October 27, 625
Term ended	October 12, 638
Predecessor	Boniface V
Successor	Severinus
Personal details
Born	??? ???
Died	October 12, 638
Other popes named Honorius

For other people named Honorius, see Honorius (disambiguation).

Honorius I (died October 12, 638) was pope from 625 to 638.

Honorius, according to the Liber Pontificalis, came from Campania and was the son of the consul Petronius. He became pope on October 27, 625, two days after the death of his predecessor, Boniface V. The festival of the Elevation of the Cross is said to have been instituted during the pontificate of Honorius, which was marked also by considerable missionary enterprise. Much of this was centered on England, especially Wessex. He also succeeded in bringing the Irish Easter celebrations in line with the rest of the Catholic Church.

Honorius in his lifetime appeared in some letters to favour the formula proposed by the emperor Heraclius with the design of bringing about a reconciliation between the Monophysites and the Catholics, which bore that Christ had accomplished His work of redemption by one manifestation of his will as the God-man. For this he was, more than forty years after his death, anathematized by name along with the Monothelite heretics by the Council of Constantinople (First Trullan) in 680. The anathema read, after mentioning the Monothelites, "and with them Honorius, who was Prelate of Rome, as having followed them in all things". This condemnation was subsequently confirmed by Leo II (a fact disputed by such persons as Baronius and Bellarmine, but which has since become commonly accepted) in the form, "and also Honorius, who did not attempt to sanctify this Apostolic Church with the teaching of Apostolic tradition, but by profane treachery permitted its purity to be polluted" (quotations from the Catholic Encyclopedia).

This anathema was later one of the main arguments against Papal infallibility in the discussions surrounding the First Vatican Council of 1870, where the episode was not ultimately regarded as contrary to the proposed dogma. This was because some Roman theologians held that(1) Honorius was not considered to be speaking ex cathedra in the letters in question, and did not claim to be so speaking at the time, and (2) he was never condemned as a Monothelite, nor was he condemned for teaching heresy, but rather he was condemned for gross negligence and a lax leadership at a time when his letters and guidance were in a position to quash the heresy at its roots.

Yet the Acts of the Thirteenth Session of the Council clearly state, "And with these we define that there shall be expelled from the holy Church of God and anathematized Honorius who was some time Pope of Old Rome, because of what we found written by him to Sergius, that in all respects he followed his view and confirmed his impious doctrines."

and further, the Sixteenth Session states:

"To Theodore of Pharan, the heretic, anathema! To Sergius, the heretic, anathema! To Cyrus, the heretic, anathema! To Honorius, the heretic, anathema! To Pyrrhus, the heretic, anathema!"

These excerpts from the Acts show that Honorius was, contrary to the assertions of some modern apologists, anathematized as a Monothelite who taught that particular heresy.

Original text taken from a paper copy of the 9th edition Encyclopædia Britannica (1881) and the Catholic Encyclopedia