32 - Typos of 647/8

Summary

The Ekthesis had made monothelitism imperial orthodoxy in 638 and remained in force under Constans II, who assumed the throne in 641. While this doctrine was apparently popular in some regions, it faced stern opposition from North Africa, whither Maximus and his companions had fled and whence they mounted a dyothelite insurgency. Anti-imperial fervor even inspired the North African exarch Gregory in 646/7 to proclaim himself emperor against Constans II. Faced with this emergency, in 647/8 Paul, the patriarch of Constantinople, in the name of Constans II, published a compromise document known as the Typos, which in this context means something like “general instruction.” This document replaced the Ekthesis that had previously hung in the narthex of the Great Church. The Typos forbade all discussion of Christ’s activities and wills, aiming to set the clock back to the time of the fifth ecumenical council (553). However, a synod the following year (649) at the Lateran in Rome rejected both the Typos and the Ekthesis, which led to a major clash between imperial forces, on one side, and Martin of Rome, Maximus the Confessor, and their allies, on the other.