MARTIN I

MARTIN I, Pope of Rome, St. (?–655). Pope from 649 to 653, Martin convened the Lateran Synod of 649 at the urging of Maximus the Confessor (qq.v.) in order to condemn the Monothelite Formula sponsored by the Emperors Heraclius and Constans II. In consequence of the Pope’s opposition, Constans had both him and Maximus brought to Constantinople (q.v.) where they were imprisoned, tried, and condemned to exile for treason. Martin was the last of the popes to be so treated by Byzantium (q.v.), and his example was surely in the mind of Pope Stephen II, facing the Isaurian Dynasty (q.v.), when he made his decision for the Franks a century later (see Carolingians). Martin died a martyr (q.v.) in exile in the Crimea in 655, anticipating Maximus’s fate by seven years.