Editing Maximus the Confessor (section)

===Early life===
Very little is known about the details of Maximus' life prior to his involvement in the theological and political conflicts of the Monothelite controversy.<ref>The following account is based on the lengthy tenth-century biography catalogued as BHG 1234 and printed in Migne's Patrologia Graeca (90, 68A1-109B9). In recent years, however, this account has been called into question on the basis of new scholarly research. The author, or rather compiler, of BHG 1234 turns out to have used one of the biographies of Theodore the Studite (BHG 1755) to fill the gaps in the information he had on Maximus (See W. Lackner, Zu Quellen und Datierung der Maximosvita (BHG<sup>3</sup> 1234), in Analecta Bollandiana 85 [1967], p. 285-316). The information the compiler of BHG 1234 did have he drew from the passions extant at the time, in which nothing is said about Maximus' early years (See B. Roosen, Maximi Confessoris Vitae et Passiones Graecae. The Development of a Hagiographic Dossier, in Byzantion 80 [2010], forthcoming). On the basis of mostly internal evidence from Maximus' writings, C. Boudignon advocates a Palestinian birth for Maximus instead (See C. Boudignon, Maxime le Confesseur était-il constantinopolitain?, in B. Janssens – B. Roosen – P. Van Deun [ed.], Philomathestatos. Studies in Greek and Byzantine Texts Presented to Jacques Noret for his Sixty-Fifth Birthday [= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 137], Leuven – Paris – Dudley, MA, 2004, p. 11-43; and id., Le pouvoir de l'anathème ou Maxime le Confesseur et les moines palestiniens du VIIe siècle, in A. Camplani – G. Filoramo, Foundations of Power and  Conflicts of Authority in Late-Antique Monasticism. Proceedings of the International Seminar, Turin, 2–4 December 2004 [= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta, 157], Leuven – Paris – Dudley, MA, 2007, p. 245-274). If this is true, it confirms the value of the Maronite biography, even though it is clearly anti-Maximian.</ref> Numerous Maximian scholars call substantial portions of the Maronite biography into question, including Maximus' birth in Palestine, which was a common seventh century trope to discredit an opponent. Moreover, the exceptional education Maximus evidently received could not have been had in any other part of the Byzantine Empire during that time except for Constantinople, and possibly Caesarea and Alexandria. It is also very unlikely that anyone of low social birth, as the [[Maronite Church|Maronite]] biography describes Maximus, could have ascended by the age of thirty to be the [[Protasekretis|Protoasekretis]] of the Emperor Heraclius, one of the most powerful positions in the Empire. It is more likely that Maximus was born of an aristocratic family and received an unparalleled education in philosophy, mathematics, astronomy, etc. It is true, however, that Maximus did not study rhetoric as he himself notes in the prologue to his Earlier Ambigua to John,<ref name="Constas">{{cite book | last = Constas | first = Nicholas |editor= Nicholas Constas| title = On Difficulties in the Church Fathers: The Ambigua, Volume 1| publisher = Harvard University Press, Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library Series, Volume 28| location = Cambridge, MA | year = 2014 | isbn = 978-0-674-72666-6 }}</ref> to which his lack of high stylistic by Byzantine standards attests. Nevertheless, for reasons not explained in the few autobiographical details to be gleaned from his texts, Maximus left public life and took [[monastic vows]] at the monastery of [[Philippicus (comes excubitorum)|Philippicus]] in [[Üsküdar|Chrysopolis]], a city across the [[Bosporus]] from Constantinople. Maximus was elevated to the position of [[Hegumen|abbot]] of the monastery.<ref name="cathency">{{CathEncy| wstitle =St. Maximus of Constantinople| title =St. Maximus of Constantinople |author=  M. Gildas| first = | last = | authorlink = }} ''"This great man was of a noble family of Constantinople."''</ref>

When the [[Sasanian Empire|Persians]] conquered [[Anatolia]], Maximus was forced to flee to a monastery near [[Carthage]]. It was there that he came under the tutelage of [[Sophronius of Jerusalem|Saint Sophronius]], and began studying in detail with him the [[Christology|Christological]] writings of [[Gregory of Nazianzus]] and [[Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite]]. According to I P Sheldon Williams his achievement was to set these doctrines into a framework of Aristotelian logic, which both suited the temper of the times and made them less liable to misinterpretation.<ref>The Cambridge History of Later Greek and Early Medieval Philosophy. ed A H Armstrong Cambridge 1967. p 492</ref> Maximus continued his career as a theological and spiritual writer during his lengthy stay in Carthage.<ref name="Berthold">{{cite book | last = Berthold | first = George C.|editor= Everett Ferguson| chapter=Maximus Confessor|title = Encyclopedia of Early Christianity | publisher = Garland Publishing| location = New York | year = 1997 | isbn = 0-8153-1663-1 }}</ref> Maximus was also held in high esteem by the [[exarch of Africa|exarch]] [[Gregory the Patrician|Gregory]] and the eparch [[George (eparch)|George]].<ref>{{cite book | last=Pringle | first=Denys | title=The Defence of Byzantine Africa from Justinian to the Arab Conquest: An Account of the Military History and Archaeology of the African Provinces in the Sixth and Seventh Century | location=Oxford, United Kingdom | publisher=British Archaeological Reports | year=1981 | isbn=0-86054-119-3 | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=4DIjAQAAIAAJ | page= 46}}</ref>