Agatho
Pope, Sicilian by birth, who answered the emperor’s call for a council with a long letter teaching two wills in Christ and sent the legates who led the Roman side at Constantinople in 680–681. He died before it ended.
The Liber Pontificalis says that Agatho was a Sicilian, that he held the see for two years and six months, and that he was buried at St Peter’s on 10 January. It records that he received the emperor’s request for delegates, which had been addressed to his predecessor, and sent three bishops with priests, a deacon and monks to Constantinople (Liber Pontificalis Agatho (ed. Duchesne, vol. 1, pp. 350–355)).
The letter he gave them teaches two natural wills and two natural operations in Christ and says that the Roman church has never strayed from the apostolic tradition (Council of Constantinople (680–681), letter of Agatho). The Third Council of Constantinople adopted it, and its bishops told the emperor that Peter had spoken through Agatho (Council of Constantinople (680–681), address to the emperor). Bede records that Agatho also sent John, the chief cantor of St Peter’s, to England with Benedict Biscop, both to teach the Roman chant and to report on the faith of the English church (Bede, Ecclesiastical History 4.18).
In the timeline
- AD 680 to AD 681, firm dateThe Third Council of Constantinople
A council called by the emperor Constantine IV defines that Christ has two wills and two operations, divine and human, never opposed. It condemns the teaching of one will and those who had upheld it, among them four patriarchs of Constantinople and Pope Honorius.