The Rejuvenating Reception of Nicaea in Maximus the Confessor’s Epistle 14
This paper will examine the “Dogmatic Epistle” (Ep. 14) (c. 633–34) of Maximus the Confessor in light of Mark Smith’s claim that the ‘Idea of Nicaea’ was received in ‘episodic reformulations,’ in which ‘the past is constantly re-received afresh in the present,’ in a process of ‘rejuvenating reception’ that cannot be reduced to a specific historical moment. Writing to Peter the Illustrious to recommend the Deacon Cosmas, apparently a recent convert from miaphysitism, to the Patriarch of Alexandria for ordination, Maximus articulates the ‘profession’ (ὁμολογίαν) that Maximus had apparently received from Cosmas as believing (πιστεύων). Given that Maximus received Cosmas, ostensibly as a convert from a moderate Miaphysitism (perhaps Severan), it is odd that the profession only denounces the ‘confusion of Apollinaris’ and the ‘division of Nestorius,’ unlike other Maximian polemics against ‘Eutyches,’ ‘Severus,’ and contemporary Miaphysites. This paper will argue that the reason for this omission is related to the claim Maximus makes that he was glad to receive Cosmas’ profession ‘knowing his simple disposition according to Christ’ (τὴν ἁπλῆν αὐτοῦ κατὰ Χριστὸν διάθεσιν γνούς). In the tumultuous period of the Pact of Union in Alexandria, Maximus presents Cosmas’ conversion as intimately connected to his ‘simple disposition’ with reference to Christ, with only a minimal renunciation of the doctrines of the Miaphysite divines and a profession of faith resembling the Nicene Creed with a few additions and clarifications. In short, as in the fifth century controversies, effective reception of Nicaea in simplicity remained a concern for the seventh century, as a faint echo of its contested reception in the previous generation.