The repercussions of the Council of Chalcedon for both doctrinal questions and religious politics between east and west extended well beyond the fifth and sixth centuries into the seventh. The monothelete doctrine which prompted the papal Lateran Council of 649 was but the latest in a series of attempts by the Byzantine emperors to achieve reconciliation amongst the dissenting religious groups of the empire. The activities of the emperor Justinian to enforce doctrinal agreement had rather provoked disagreement and division, particularly a damaging schism in the west between the papacy – who had been forced into agreement with the emperor – and those bishops and areas which refused to accept the condemnation of the Three Chapters. Thus the aftermath of Chalcedon continued to shape relations between east and west, with the Byzantine emperors still seeking compromise and pacification within the east and the papacy anxious to avoid further schism amongst the western churches. The theological and linguistic divide between east and west, manifest in the mid-fifth century, had become wider and deeper by the seventh.

While the complexities of monotheletism have concerned historians and theologians rather less than those of miaphysitism, the controversy is a highly significant one, both theologically and politically. The questions concerning the will of Christ are of central importance to Christology. Their exposition at the Lateran Council of 649 was extensive and penetrating, and the council itself, as I will argue below, should be seen as a key moment in relations between the Byzantine emperors and the papacy.