Ebook: The Acts of the Lateran Synod of 649

Translated with notes by Richard Price. With contributions by Phil Booth and Catherine Cubitt.

The Lateran Synod of 649 was a major event in the 'monothelete' controversy of the seventh century over 'wills' and 'operations' in Christ. It represented a determined attempt by the papacy to frustrate and reverse the ecclesiastical policy of the emperor and patriarch at Constantinople. It represented the boldest challenge to imperial authority by churchmen that late antiquity had seen. The theology adopted by the synod and its expression in a series of speeches was the work of a team of Greek monks under the leadership of St Maximus the Confessor. This translation will add to the still limited body of material available in English for the study of a writer who is widely held to have been the greatest of all Byzantine theologians. The Acts of the synod have been a major puzzle ever since their editor, Rudolf Riedinger, demonstrated that the Greek version, not the Latin, is the original, even though the council must have conducted its business in Latin. This edition offers a new explanation of this anomaly, which restores authenticity to the synodal sessions, without denying that the Acts, as published, were not a straight factual record but propaganda intended to convince the Roman world of the orthodoxy and authority of the papacy.

In view of the variety and range of these points of significance, study of the synod requires scholarly collaboration. The "General Introduction" in this volume is the work of several hands. Sections I and II. 1–2 and the final section of IV ("Events before the Synod", "The Constantinopolitan Perspective", "The Palestinian Perspective", "The fate of Maximus the Confessor") have been written by Phil Booth. Sections II. 3 and IV ("The Roman Perspective", "The Lateran Synod, its Course and Aftermath") are the work of Catherine Cubitt (save for the final section of IV). The rest of the book is the work of Richard Price.