Bishop Hefele on Pope Honorius [pp. 273-301]

1872.1 VON HEFELE ON POPE HONORIUS. 291
Se~oud bivision.
THE ATTEMPTS TO EXPLAIN AWAY THE FACTS.
Various attempts have been made by different writers to
diminish as far as possible the pressure of these facts and argum cuts.
1. The Roman abbot, Johannes, who as scribe wrote the
epistle of Honorius to Sergius, asserted in his letters to the
Greek Emperor, Constantine Heraclius, that "in that epistle
of Honorius nothing at all is said of the d~vine will in Christ,
but Honorius meant to deny that Christ had a sinful human
will, and to assert that he had only a good human will. Tiiis
last is the one will of which Honorius is speaking; he says
nothing about the divine will, because he only replle~ to the
question of Sergius." (See Mansi, Collect. Concil. vol. x. p.
739.)
In the same way John IV., the second successor of Honorius, endeavored to defend him. (Mansi, as above, p. 682.)
a. But this allegation is simply not true, as Sergius expressly
says: "The phrase t?VO energies gave offense, because it led
to the conclusion that we must ascribe to Christ two antagonistic wills, a DIvINE, which was willing to suffer, and a human,
which was opposed to suffering." (Mansi, vol. xi. p. 534.)
I only ask, is Sergius here speaking of two sorts of will in
the human nature, or of the human and divine will?
So that it is a vain and false expedient on the part of Abbot
Johannes to assert that Honorius had nothing to say of the
divine will, because Sergius did not a~lude to it.
b. It is true that Hon onus denies that there was in Christ
a sinful human will, and in this he is right; but instead of
going on and saying-" consequently there remains in the
human nature of Christ only the good human will, and this is
ever conformed to the will of the divine nahire"-he makes a
leap and says, "consequently there is only one will in Christ,"
and by this he means the divine-as appears from the following:
Honorius thinks that when Christ says, "Not my will, but
thine, be done," he is not speaking in a strict personal sense,