Our study approaches the religious politics of Emperor Heraclius (610-641). Early on in his reign, the Emperor had two religious matters to face: the Judeans, who had taken advantage of the disputes in the cities of Syria, between the demes of the Greens and the Blues, in order to rebel and who, at the same time, were accused of favouring the Persian invasion; the other issue was the religious conflict between Chalcedonians and Monophysites, which threatened the political unity of the Empire. Heraclius followed the goal of rebuilding the unity of the Eastern Church through the reconciliation of Constantinople and the Non-Chalcedonian churches of the East. The Monothelitistic heresy was conceived deliberately in order to bring back the Monophysites to the Imperial Church; that had been the main objective of the religious policy of Emperor Heraclius. Patriarch Sergius supported the Emperor’s religious politics. Heraclius’s religious politics reached a climax after the Ekthesis decree was passed (638), which led to the Monothelism crisis. This decree is a manifest expression of Heraclius’s Caesaropapism, since he used the Church as an instrument for the advancement of his political goals.
