Constantine IV
Emperor who ended his dynasty’s support for the doctrine of one will in Christ. He called the council that met in his palace in 680–681, presided over it, and confirmed its definition of two wills.
Constantine succeeded his father Constans II, who was murdered in Sicily, and ruled at first with his two brothers (Theophanes, Chronicle AM 6160 (pp. 351–352)). He wrote to Rome asking for delegates to a meeting on the unity of the churches, received the legates of Pope Agatho in the palace in November 680, and sat in state at the council’s sessions (Liber Pontificalis Agatho (ed. Duchesne, vol. 1, pp. 350–354)).
Theophanes, who calls him “most Christian”, says that he gathered 289 bishops for the Third Council of Constantinople, and that he died after a reign of seventeen years (Theophanes, Chronicle AM 6171–6177 (pp. 359–361)).
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.