Chapter 3 3. Exile Pope

Constance is slightly harder than Heraclitus. The new emperor began to rule in the year when Princess Wencheng entered Tibet (641 AD, the fifteenth year of Zhenguan in the Tang Dynasty).At this time, the territory of the empire had already been lost piece by piece under the iron hooves of the Arabs.Only six years after recovering the lost land from the Persians, the Muslim army loyal to Allah rushed over with a loud noise.Jerusalem and Syria fell one after another, and the captured imperial officials were even sewn into dead camels. The rapid rise of the Arabs is the subject of the next chapter.But one thing is certain, that is, they do not have the Christ of the dilemma.As a strictly monotheistic religion, Islam explicitly declares that the Prophet Muhammad was a man and not a god.The only God is Allah, Muhammad is only the messenger of Allah.Therefore, Muslims do not argue whether the Prophet had two natures or only one.Because of this, they can wholeheartedly follow Allah's will and do what they should do.

But Heraclius could only helplessly let the clerics fight with each other, and watched his country fall into the hands of the enemy one after another.Nine months after his death, the city of Alexandria also raised its flag to the Muslim army.It was the richest commercial center of Byzantium, the center of Greek culture and the capital of the Christian world! The empire has reached this stage, but the priests are still chattering ignorantly, which really chills and annoys His Majesty the Emperor.In 648 AD, Constans, who had been on the throne for seven years, issued an edict prohibiting any discussion of the nature and will of Christ. Violators would be punished with corporal punishment, imprisonment or even exile.

Constance's decision was mostly trying to draw fire from the bottom of the pot, but unexpectedly, the actual effect was to add fuel to the fire.In the second year after the edict was issued, the Roman province and the western region were reversed, and the leader was Pope Martin I (Martin I). This is of course serious. We know that Christianity has a strict organization.Their academic administrative regions are called parishes, and large parishes are called provinces.The head of the diocese is called the bishop, the province is called the archbishop, the capital or metropolis is called the metropolitan, and the highest level is called the patriarch (Patriarch, the Orthodox Church is called the patriarch).The so-called pope is actually the bishop of Rome, the metropolitan of the Roman province and the patriarch of the western region.

Of course, the Bishop of Rome is not the only patriarch, but because of a document written by the Western Roman Emperor Valentinian III (Valentinianus III), he was able to proclaim himself the supreme head of the church, and was gradually accepted by the Western Church as the universal supreme bishop. Called Papa (father), Chinese translation of the Pope. However, although the Pope at that time was elected, according to the convention, he still needed the approval of the Roman emperor, even though Rome was actually Byzantium.However, in 649 A.D., the second year after Constans issued the decree, the clergy in Rome blatantly ignored the authority of the Eastern Roman Emperor, let Martin take over the post of the deceased pope, and began Exercising powers.

Martin also did his part, and a synod of bishops was held three months later. 105 bishops from Italy, Sicily and Africa came together to denounce and denounce Monophysiteism and Monophysiteism.Martin had the meeting painted on a mural, and wrote an open letter to Constance.Of course, he did not forget to submit the resolution to His Majesty the Emperor for review, and at the same time spread copies of it throughout the country. Obviously, this is tantamount to provocation, even a showdown. At this time, Constance was not yet twenty years old, and he was just young.Therefore, despite Martin's letter expressing his loyalty to the Imperial Head of State, the young His Majesty was still furious.After experiencing a series of nightmares, the Pope lying on the hospital bed was escorted to Constantinople by unreasonable warriors, and after three months of solitary confinement, he was sent to the dock of the imperial court .

The charge was treason. The pope faced the trial with integrity.He even suggested that witnesses do not have to take an oath to tell the truth when they appeared in court, so that they could speak freely without scruple.He also praised the people who ran it.They were so dedicated and professional that every procedure was well-done and clearly rehearsed carefully and efficiently. After completing the legal procedures, the pope was taken to the courtyard of the palace, stripped of his cassock and accepted the flogging.The young emperor watched the whole process from the balcony, and then changed the death sentence to exile.The year Wu Zetian was made empress, that is, in September of 655 AD, the former pope died in Crimea, north of the Black Sea, a place that was far from ancient times for Rome, the former center of civilization.

Martin survived only two years in exile, and of course he did not see what happened to Constance.This king was murdered in the bathroom by his subjects in the year of Goguryeo's demise (668), fifteen years after he was exiled to Martin. However, as a martyr charged with treason, Martin saw the cruelty of the world.His position was soon succeeded by someone acceptable to the Byzantine emperor, and the bishops who had fought alongside him no longer cared about his pain, as if he had long since disappeared from the earth.According to Martin himself on his deathbed, those people had forgotten him so completely that they didn't want to know whether he was dead or alive.

The lonely Martin had to die alone. It is difficult to condemn the indifference of the bishops.After all, Martin can die, but the church lives.This cannot make it too rigid with Constantinople, and at the same time must maintain the independence and authority of Rome. Such a balance beam is not easy to walk. Therefore, when Constans decided to put Martin to death, even at the expense of accusing him of colluding with the Arabs, the Roman Church had to make concessions.This is not only because they are still nominally subjects of the Byzantine Empire, but also because the Christian world has been torn apart, and the Eastern Church does not agree with them.

In fact, there were five patriarchs at that time, ranked as Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and the jurisdictions of the last four patriarchs were all in the East—Asia Minor, Egypt, Syria and Palestine.Although there are differences of opinion among the four major dioceses in the East, there is even more estrangement from the West in terms of cultural traditions, which cannot but put pressure on Rome. With Constantinople, there are even more contradictions. In fact, since the capital was moved, the relationship between Rome and Constantinople has been very delicate, and this subtlety is different from Chang'an and Luoyang in the Tang Dynasty.Luoyang is only an accompanying capital, while Rome is an abandoned capital.This former world center has been reduced from an international metropolis with a population of one million to a small city with only tens of thousands of people, and it has been devastated and ravaged.Its former glory was buried in the ruins, leaving only countless innocent souls moaning in the dark night and wandering in the sky.

Thankfully there is a church. Indeed, after the demise of the Western Roman Empire, the prestige, order and even the survival of the citizens of Rome could only be maintained by the church.The pope actually assumed the responsibility of the Roman emperor, and the emperor who was far away in the sky could neither send a single soldier nor spend a penny.So, why does he dictate to Rome? Obviously, although Rome, the former center of civilization, knew that it could no longer become the political capital of the empire, it had to make every effort to maintain its status as the religious capital.Moreover, in the view of the Bishop of Rome, as the heirs of St. Peter, the great disciple of Jesus, they should have enjoyed such a lofty status and absolute authority.

In contrast, the eastern church remained under the control of the Byzantine emperor.These princes, who were originally laymen, presided over synods, appointed bishops, and punished priests.Such a combination of the power of the religious and secular circles is itself intolerable.It would be even more unacceptable if he still claimed to be the spokesperson of God and let Constantinople replace Rome.Render to Caesar what is Caesar's and what is to God to God. This is the teaching of Jesus Christ and the bottom line of Rome. Rome must say no, and is entitled to say no. Perhaps, this is why Martin wants to make trouble.In other words, the Roman Church feels more urgently than ever that it must not cede the right to interpret doctrines to the Byzantine emperor, and must use the orthodoxy of the Trinity to unify the thoughts and beliefs of the Christian world, otherwise it cannot defend The authority and dignity of the Church and also of God. Therefore, although the Roman Church has made concessions in terms of personnel this time, the struggle between the church and the emperor will not stop, and there will always be a difference between the west and the east.Therefore, when the Byzantine emperor once again brutally interfered in religious affairs and tried to impose his own ideas on others, a new storm would rise.

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