Pope Leo II
Leo II,
pope from August
682 to July
683, was a
Sicilian by birth, and succeeded
Agatho. Agatho had been represented at the
Sixth Ecumenical Council (that of
Constantinople in
680) where
Pope Honorius I was anathematized for his views in the
Monothelite controversy as a favourer of heresy, and the only fact of permanent historical interest with regard to Leo is that he wrote once and again in approbation of the decision of the council and in condemnation of Honorius, whom he regarded as one who "profana proditione immaculatem fidem subvertare conatus est." In their bearing upon the question of
papal infallibility these words have excited considerable attention and controversy, and prominence is given to the circumstance that in the Greek text of the letter to the emperor which the phrase occurs, the milder expression "subverti permisit" is used for "subvertare conatus est".
This Hefel in his Conciliengeschichte (iii, 294) regards as alone expressing the true meaning of Leo. It was during Leo's pontificate that the dependence of the see of Ravenna upon that of Rome was finally settled by imperial edict.
original text taken from the 9th edition (1882) of a famous encyclopedia.