The Church Fathers · 638
The Ecthesis
Heraclius, drafted by Sergius · Heraclius, c. 575 – 641
What it is
Posted in the narthex of Hagia Sophia. It forbids anyone to speak of one energy or two in Christ, and requires the confession of a single will — imperial law settling a question the councils had left open, in the year Jerusalem fell.
Why it lasted
An emperor legislating Christology as the empire lost its eastern provinces, on the theory that a united church could hold what the army could not. It failed at both, and produced the controversy that killed Maximus and Martin.
Scripture it works from
Where to read it
Public domain and free to read in full, though not held here. The archives below have it.
These open a search on each archive rather than a direct link, which is the honest way to point at an edition nobody here has checked line by line.
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