Pope Martin I

Pope Martin I, pope (649-655), succeeded [Theodore I]? in June or July 649. He had previously acted as papal apocrisiarius or legate at Constantinople, and was held in high repute for learning and virtue. Almost his first official act was to summon a synod (the first Lateran) for dealing with the Monothelite? heresy. It met in the Lateran church, was attended by one hundred and five bishops (chiefly from Italy, Sicily, and Sardinia, a few being from Africa and other quarters), held five sessions or "secretarrii" from the 5th to the 31st of October 649, and in twenty canons condemned the Monothelite heresy, its authors, and the writings by which it had been promulgated. In this condemnation were included, not only the "Ecthesis" or exposition of faith of the patriarch Sergius for which the emperor [Heraclius I]? has stood sponsor, but also the "typus" of Paul, the successor of Sergius, which had the support of the reigning emperor ([Constans II]?). Martin was very energetic in publishing the decrees of his Lateran synod in an encyclical, and Constans replied by enjoining his exarch or governor in Italy to seize the pope, should he persist in this line of conduct, and send him prisoner to Constantinople.

These orders were found impossible to carry out for a considerable space of time, but at last Martin was arrested in the Lateran (June 15, 653), hurried out of Rome, and conveyed first to Naxos? and subsequently to Constantinople (September 17, 654). After suffering an exhausting imprisonment and many public indignities, he was ultimately banished to Cherson? in the Crimea?, where he arrived on March 26, 655, and died on the 1th of September following. His successor was [Eugenius I]?

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Original text from the 9th edition (1880s) of an unnameable encyclopedia

preceded by [Pope Theodore I]? (642-649)

succeeded by Pope Eugene I (654-657)