- Pontianus Africae
Pontianus was a sixth century bishop from an African diocese (not known), who was a figure in the
Schism of the Three Chapters .He wrote a critical letter to
Emperor Justinian in 544-5,in reply to a request for his signature to an edict of condemnation. In it he asks Justinian to withdraw theanathematization ofTheodore of Mopsuestia and otherMonothelite s involved in the matter of the Three Chapters [ [http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14707b.htm CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Three Chapters ] ] . This letter is extant [Migne , "Patrologia Latina " 67, pp.996-7.] . He argues that the condemned writings were not known to him, and that dead men shouldn't be damned by the living, which is God's prerogative; in this he ignored precedents forposthumous condemnation [Michael Maas, "Exegesis and Empire in the Early Byzantine Mediterranean" (2003),p. 63.] . He also argues that the outcome of theCouncil of Chalcedon of 451, againstEutychianism , should not be undermined.Reference
*William Smith and Hery Wace, "A Dictionary of Christian Biography, Literature, Sects and Doctrines" (1887), vol.IV-1, article p. 438.
Notes
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