A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology

(ὁ ὁμολουητής), known also as the MONK (ὁ μοναχός), an eminent Greek ecclesiastic of the sixth and seventh centuries. He was born at Constantinople about A. D. 580. His parents were eminent for their lineage and station, and still more for their piety. Maximus was educated with great strictness; and his careful education, diligence, and natural abilities enabled him to attain the highest excellence in grammar, rhetoric, and philosophy. He gave his especial attention to the last, cherishing the love of truth and seeking its attainment, and rejecting all sophistical reasonings.

His own inclination would have led him to a life of privacy and study, but his merit had attracted regard; and Heraclius, who had obtained the Byzantine sceptre in A. D. 610, made him his chief secretary, and treated him with the greatest regard and confidence. How long Maximus held his important office is not clear; but long before the death of Heraclius (who died A. D. 641), probably about the middle of that emperor's reign, he resigned his post; and leaving the palace, embraced a monastic life at Chrysopolis, on the Asiatic side of the Bosporus, opposite Constantinople. Here he was distinguished by the severity of his ascetic practices, and was soon appointed hegumenus or abbot of his monastery.

Maximus did not spend his life at Chrysopolis: he withdrew into Africa (i. e. the Roman province so called, of which Carthage was the capital); but at what time and on what account is not clear. Whether Maximus returned to Chrysopolis is not known: he was still in Africa in A. D. 645, when he had his disputation with Pyrrhus, the deposed patriarch of Constantinople, in the presence of the patrician, Gregorius [GREGORIUS, historical, No. 4] and the bishops of the province. He had already distinguished himself by his zealous exertions to impede the spread of the Monothelite heresy, which he had induced the African bishops to anathematise in a provincial council. In this disputation, so cogent were the arguments of Maximus, that pyrrhus owned himself vanquished, and recanted his heresy, to which, however, he subsequently returned, and ultimately (A. D. 654 or 655) recovered his see. Maximus, apparently on the accession of Martin I. to the papal throne (A. D. 649), went to Rome, and so successfully stimulated the zeal of the new pope against the Monothelites, that he convoked the council of Lateran, in which the heresy and all its abettors were anathematized. This step so irritated the emperor, Constans II., who had endeavoured to extinguish the controversy by a "Typus " (Τύρος) or edict, forbidding all discussion of the subject [CONSTANS II.], that on various pretexts he ordered (A. D. 653) the pope and Maximus, with two disciples of the latter, Anastasius Apocrisiarius and another Anastasins, and several of the Western (probably Italian) bishops to be sent as prisoners to Constantinople. The pope arrived at Constantinople A. D. 654, and was treated with great severity; and after some time was exiled to Chersonae, in the Chersonesus Taurica or Crimea, where he died A. D. 655. Maximus, the time of whose arrival is not stated, was repeatedly examined, and afterwards sentenced to banishment at Bizya, in Thrace. The two Anastasii were also banished, but to different places; Maximus was not suffered to remain at peace in his place of exile. Theodosius, bishop of the Bithynian Caesareia, and two nobles, Paulus and another Theodosius, and

some others, were sent to him apparently to get him to renounce his opposition to the Monothelites. Blows, kicks, and spitting, were resorted to by the messengers and their servants, but in vain; nothing could shake his firmness. He was brought back after some time to Constantinople, and subjected to still greater severities. He was severely scourged; and the two Anastasii, who had been also brought back to the city, were similarly treated, apparently in his presence. They were then all remanded to prison, but were brought out again in a few days, when their tongues were cut out, their right hands cut off, and they were again sent into exile. Maximus, from age and the effects of his tortures, was scarcely able to bear the journey. They were confined in separate places in the Caucasus, where Maximus and one of the Anastasii soon died from the effects of their sufferings, A. D. 662. Anastasius Apocrisiarius survived, and his recital of their sufferings is one of the authorities employed for this article. Various miraculous circumstances were reported to have attended the sufferings of these unhappy men. (Εἰς τὸν Βίον, κ.τ.λ., In Vitam ac Certamen S. Patris nostri ac Confessoris Maximi, published by Combéfis in his edition of the works of Maximus. This biography is not by Anastasius Apocrisiarius, as Fabricius has erroneously stated (Bibl. Graee. vol. ix. p. 635, and vol. x. p. 291); but Combéfis has subjoined some other ancient documents, including the narrative of Anastasius Apocrisiarius, already noticed, and has added some valuable notes. Theophan. Chronog. pp. 275, 276, 288, ed. Paris, pp. 219, 229, ed. Venice, vol. i. p. 509, 510, 530, 531, ed. Bonn; Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 645, vol. i. p. 585; Fahric. Bibl. Graec. vol. ix. p. 635; Bolland. Acta Santor. August. vol. iii. p. 97, &c.)

Maximus is reverenced as a saint both by the Greek and Latin churches; by the former his memory is celebrated on the 21st of January, and the 12th and 13th August; by the latter on the 13th August.

[J.C.M]