IN CHURCH HISTORY. 69 



general council, but its authority is not universally 

 admitted. 



The heresy condemned by this sixth council was 

 called the Monothelite heresy. It was really a 

 branch of the Eutychian heresy. Its main point 

 was that after the incarnation there was but one 

 will in Christ, that of the incarnate God. The 

 Council declared the faith of the Church to be 

 that as there were two perfect natures, so there 

 were two wills, the divine and the human. 



It must not be supposed because one leading 

 heresy has been singled out, in this account, as 

 condemned by each Council, that these were the 

 only heresies which arose in all the period from 

 a. d. 325 to a. p. 680, or that the work of each 

 Council consisted simply in condemning heresies. 

 The sad truth meets us as we turn over the pages 

 of the past, that there was rarely a period when 

 efforts were not made to corrupt the faith of the 

 Church. Sometimes, indeed, the heresies were the 

 result of earnest, but one-sided, unbalanced, search- 

 ing for the truth ; but the orthodox writers were 

 wont to ascribe them to the efforts of the evil one 

 to lead men from the simple truth as God had 

 revealed it. 



There was a great deal of bitterness, too, mixed 

 up with these controversies, and sometimes the 

 factions came into actual contact, resorting to 



