On learning of the death of Honorius, Sergius convinced Emperor Heraclius to issue this document as an imperial edict in December 638, thus valid across the entire empire.
Eustachius, the magister militum, carried it to Isaac the Armenian, the exarch of Ravenna, with instructions that he was to ensure the new pope's acceptance of the Monothelite teaching.
[3] Isaac was determined to achieve his aim, so he commissioned Maurice, the chartoularios, to plunder the Lateran Palace and force Severinus to agree to the Ecthesis.
Isaac soon appeared, and after exiling the leading clergy within the Lateran, spent the next eight days looting the palace, prudently sending a share to the emperor at Constantinople to prevent his displeasure.
The legates sought to persuade an unwell and slowly dying Heraclius that they were not there to make professions of faith, but to transact business.
They made it clear that if the emperor was going to force Severinus to sign it, that all the clergy of the See of Rome would stand together, and such a route would only end in a lengthy and destructive stalemate.