HONORIUS I, Pope. - He was consecrated eight days after the death of his predecessor Boniface V, on 3 November 625, without waiting for the confirmation of the emperor Heraclius. The most notable event of his pontificate was the Monothelite question.
In the hope of bringing the Monophysites back to the Church, the patriarch Sergius of Constantinople sought to make them admit that the twofold nature of Christ was moved, in its action, by a single operation (μία ἐνάργεια). Deceived by the cunning of Sergius and having in view solely Christian unity, H. admitted the equivocal formula of the single will of Christ. The attempt was destined to fail. Turned to derision by the Monophysites, opposed by the patriarch of Jerusalem, Sophronius, it was compromised by the emperor Heraclius who, desirous of political unity, wished to impose it by an edict known as the Ecthesis. H. meanwhile died, and his successor Severinus disavowed the document.
In the West, the Lombard problem remained in the foreground. H. could not prevent the accession to the throne of the Arian princes Ariwald and Rothari, nor check the spoliations they carried out to the detriment of the Churches, but thanks to the influence of the Catholic queen Gundeperga, successively the wife of the two kings, he was at least able to safeguard the authority of the bishops of the Lombard Kingdom.
Moreover, he had occasion to exercise the pontifical magisterium in matters of discipline with many bishops of Italy, Epirus, and Sardinia. In Rome, following the examples of St. Gregory the Great, he carried out a vast program of building works and was generous with gifts (St. Peter's, St. Agnes outside the Walls, St. Apollinaris, St. Adrian in the Forum, the monastery of the Tre Fontane, etc.); under him the administration of the Patrimony developed; he entrusted the government of Naples to a notary and a magister militum.