Newsgroup: it.cultura.cybersocieta
Titolo: Moorish Orthodox to canonize dissident 7th-century Roman Pope

The Moorish Orthodox Diocese of New Jersey
Cathedral of Saints Sergius & Bakkhus
Ong's Hat Road
Pemberton Township, New Jersey 08068
Tel/Fax: 
(973) 776-3901, Ext. 8683
E-Mail: MoorishOrthodox Church @
post.com
Web: 
http://www.welcome.to/moorishorthodoxy
PRESS RELEASE:
For immediate release
February 26, 2002 - 11:15am (EST)
Moorish Orthodox Church to Declare 7th-century Roman Pope a Saint: Was
Only Pope Condemned by Rome
Pope Honorius I occupied the See of Rome from 625 until his death on
12 October, 638. A native of the Campania, he was consecrated on
either 27 October or 3 November (recorded dates vary), in succession
to Boniface V.
His chief notoriety has come to him from the fact that he was
condemned as a heretic by the sixth general council (680) in
connection with his apparent espousal of Monothelitism, a theological
position holding that Jesus of Nazareth was possessed of a single
Divine will, made manifest in two natures, Davine and human.  This is
the doctrine held to to this day by the Armenian, Coptic (Egyptian),
Syriac/Jacobite and Ethiopian Apostolic Orthodox Churches, amongst the
oldest branches of Christianity still existing.
The Monothelite question was raised about 634 in a letter to this pope
from the Patriarch of Constantinople, Sergius. He related that Emperor
Heraclius, when in Armenia in 622, in refuting a Monophysite of the
Severian sect, had made use of the expression "one operation" (energy,
energeia) of the Incarnate Word. Cyrus, Bishop of the Lazi, had
considered this doubtfully orthodox, and had asked advice of Sergius.
Sergius replied (he says) that he did not wish to decide the matter,
but had learned that the expression had been used by his predecessor
Mennas in a letter to Pope Vigilius, whence it came to fall
sequentially into the hands of his successor Honorius.
The critical phrase in Honorius' letter sent in reply is:
"Wherefore we acknowledge one Will of our Lord Jesus Christ, for
evidently it was our nature and not the sin in it which was assumed by
the Godhead, that is to say, the nature which was created before sin,
not the nature which was vitiated by sin."
Sergius, after receiving the pope's letter approving his cautiousness,
composed an "Ecthesis", or exposition, which was issued by the Emperor
towards the end of 638. In conformity with the words of Honorius it
orders all the subjects of Heraclius to confess one Will in our Lord,
and to avoid the expressions "one operation" and "two operations".
Under Emporer Constantine Pogonatus, and with the connivance of Pope
Agatho, a general council met at Constantinople on 7 Nov. 680. On 12
March, 681, a packet was produced which one hierarch Macarius had sent
to the emperor, but which had not opened. It proved to contain the
letter of Sergius to Cyrus and to Honorius, the forged letter of
Mennas to Vigilius, and the letter of Honorius to Sergius.
Having been made privy to the brief's content, the thirteenth session
of the Council sitting on 28 March condemned Honorius thus:
"Those whose impious dogmas we execrate, we judge that their names
also shall be cast out of the holy Church of God", that is, Sergius,
Cyrus, Pyrrhus, Peter, Paul, Theodore, all which names were mentioned
by the holy Pope Agatho in his letter to the pious and great emperor,
"and were cast out by him, as holding views contrary to our orthodox
faith; and these we define to be subject to anathema. And in addition
to these we decide that Honorius also, who was pope of elder Rome, be
with them cast out of the holy Church of God, and be anathematized
with them, because we have found by his letter to Sergius that he
followed his opinion in all things, and confirmed his wicked dogmas".
According to the Moorish Orthodox Bishop of New Jersey, Dr. Sotemohk
Beeyayelel, "There lies in the secret archive of the Vatican Library
to this day a text known as the "Grimoire of Honorius," whose
existence was only recently made known to us by a revered academic,
and one of the attendants of those archives. Notwithstanding his years
of standing as a habitue of the Vatican and in spite of his
immeasurably valuable service to the Holy See, he is in constant fear
that were his having made us privy to the existence of this volume,
his life - and that of his family - would be placed in real danger. 
Knowing what we do of the 'Holy See's modus operandi,' we have no
choice but to lend this brave man credence in his fears."
According to the Bishop, the substance of this volume is a collection
of
statements by Honorius defending his theological and political
positions against contemporary as well as future opponents, but the
monothelite issue plays but a very insubstantial part in it.
Rather, the Grimoire of Honorius, whose existance the Vatican has
until now made no statement on, contains in the most part defenses by
Honorius of his work to accept, reconcile with and embrace in the life
of the Church a dissident faction of Egyptian and Levantine Christians
who had formed a sect which, in addition to exhibiting both
Carpocratian as well as Valentinian "heretical" features, was
most pronouncedly a "proto-Freemasonic" body.
Its utilization of contemporary Masonic devices is remarkable,
according to Bishop Sotemohk, including both graphical (such as, e.g.,
the 'compass and square' familiar to all) as well as textual
appurtenences (e.g., the reference to the Deity as the "Supreme
Architect" and the incorporation into its liturgy of a wide variety of
terms taken from the stonebuilding trade).
Moreover, the sect (which was nameless) appears to have conceived of
itself as being the anti-Roman, anti-authoritarian and antinomian
"Underground Stream" of the Johannine Church, whose task it was to
remain underground until the time of its public work was come.
According to its spokespersons, the reasons for the canonization of
Pope
Honorius by the Moorish Orthodox Church include the Saint's
scholarship, life of holy asceticism, courage in defending hmself and
his beliefs against the slanders of the self-denominated Orthodox of
his day, the attacks he has suffered at the hands of Rome and her
minions until the present, and most emphatically, his seeking to bring
the Johannine, esoteric tradition hidden within Christianity into the
forefront of Christendom.
The Moorish Orthodox Church's Bishop of New Jersey, the Right Reverend
Sotemohk A. Beeyayelel, has not set a date for the canonization rites.
 According to Dr. Beeyayelel, these will most likely take place over
the period of Summer or Fall of 2002 at the diocese's Cathedral of
Saints Sergius & Bakkhus, Ong's Hat, Pemberton Township, New Jersey.
Please contact the diocese's public information office by telephone or
e-mail or see its website (
http://www.welcome.to/moorishorthodoxy
) for
more detailed information.
--
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Oh, no, not again. Call for the Spanish Inquisition.... put that Moor in
the comfy chair, and hurry with that rack....
M.
