Lateran Council of 649
Most members of the contemporary Roman clergy would have been too uneducated in theology to "grasp even the fundamental issues presented in the Monothelite controversy" due to centuries of decay in both religious and secular learning in the city.
"[4] In a letter to a Cypriot priest, Maximus referred to the council as the "sixth synod, which through the divine inspiration of God set forth with all pure piety the doctrines of the holy Fathers.
"[7] The Roman clergy was faced with the impossible dilemma of finding a successor with the intellectual reputation to convene the Council who would not be denied the iussio of the emperor required for consecration.
[8] News of the impending council reached Constantinople as Martin prepared for it during the summer and fall, but the empire was "far too occupied with crises in the East to divert its attention.
[12] The other ninety-eight bishops were essentially spectators, speaking (allegedly) in unison only five times, present only to bolster the council's claim to ecumenical status.
[12] The council was convoked on 5 October 649 by the Greek cleric Theophylaktos, the principal notary of the Apostolic See, chief of the papal chancery and library, invoking the regnal year of the "august and most pious lord Constantine.
"[10] Pope Martin I then read a pre-prepared speech criticizing Monothelitism (a view held by the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria), denouncing the Ekthesis and Typos, and claiming for Rome the apostolic authority to weed out heresy.
[10] The second session was convened on 8 October by Theophylaktos, who acknowledged the presence of late arrival Stephen of Dor, the papal vicar in Palestine, deputized to depose the Monothelite clergy of Sergius of Joppa.
[14] A delegation of Greek abbots, priests, and monks (many of whom had been resident in Rome for years) were then admitted to the synod by Theophylaktos to present their own tract denouncing Monothelitism.
[14] The presence of these Easterners was designed to bolster the claim to ecumenical status of the council, anticipating that Constantinople would decry it as a regional assembly.
[15] The third session took place on 17 October and consisted of Pope Martin responding to eleven excerpts of pro-Monothelite arguments by Theodore of Pharan's letter to Sergius of Arsinoe, and the citing of Eastern patristic sources in response.
[17] The council's acts and decrees were disseminated along with a papal encyclical claiming the "faith of the universal church" by virtue of having "exercised the collective power of the episcopate.
[17] Canons X and XI are the ones which specifically take up the subject of Christ's two wills and two energies, based predominately on Maximus's earlier disputation against Pyrrhus while in Carthage.
[17] The Roman public, independent of their distaste for Monothelitism, harbored a "growing resentment toward Byzantine political domination," as expressed by the recent revolt of Mauricius against Isaac, Exarch of Ravenna.
[3] Two years later, Theodore I took the "bold and unprecedented act of presuming to depose" Patriarch Paul II of Constantinople, one of the leading proponents of Monothelitism.
"[3] Theodore did not believe his own authority ex cathedra nor his attempted deposition of the Patriarch to be sufficient to defeat Monothelitism; rather he hoped that the strength of the argument of the Council itself would win the day.
[3] Within four years of the closing of the council, Pope Martin I and Maximus the Confessor were arrested and brought to Constantinople for trial, for violating the Typos's prohibition on discussing the subject.
