Honorius (died 638)

Pope, 625–38. He wrote a letter to Edwin, King of Northumbria, urging him to be true to the Roman faith, and at his request conferred the pallium on the bishops of York and Canterbury. The Celtic church was a source of continual anxiety to him, as it failed first of all to acknowledge his supremacy, and secondly continued to fix the date of Easter in accordance with a rule which Rome had discarded.

Honorius also corresponded with Sergius, patriarch of Constantinople, who supported the emperor Heraclius's attempt to impose a comprehensive formulary of faith acceptable to the Monothelite heretics. Honorius in two letters sent to Sergius did not define the faith of the Roman church on this point but confined himself to supporting Sergius's attitude. At a General Council at Constantinople in 681 Sergius and Honorius were both shunned, and the formula presented by the reigning pope, St Agatho, was accepted.