Honorius I.

Honorius I., who succeeded Boniface V. as Bishop of Rome in 625, was born of a consular family in Campania. His name is connected with the history of the paschal controversy in Ireland and with that of the early Anglo-Saxon Church. During his pontificate the bishopric of York was elevated to the rank of an archbishopric, and the festival of the Elevation of the Cross was instituted. At the height of the Monothelete (q.v.) controversy Honorius, at the suggestion of Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, abstained from condemning the new doctrines, and for his lukewarmness in so doing was stigmatised as a heretic at the Council of Constantinople (680). He died in 638, and was succeeded by Severinus. Some letters of his are preserved in Labbe's Collectio Conciliorum, vol. iii.