The monophysite monks appealed to his authority, but could not prevent Justinian and the fifth oecumenical council at Constantinople (553) from anathematizing his teaching.
The Eastern bishops subscribed, these edicts, and even Pope Vigilius yielded, in spite of the protests of the Western bishops, and at the 5th General Council (Constantinople, 553) agreed to the condemnation of the "three chapters" 1 and the anathematizing of any who should defend them by an appeal to the Definitions of Chalcedon.
On the accusation of the orthodox he was deposed by the "Robber Synod" of Ephesus, but at Chalcedon in 451 was pardoned on condition of anathematizing both Nestorius and Eutyches and accepting the Tome of Leo.
It was in connexion with this controversy that Charlemagne wrote the so-called Libri Carolini, to which Adrian replied by letter, anathematizing all who refused to worship the images of Christ, or the Virgin, or saints.
The pope's choice of a book to condemn fell on Quesnel's Reflexions; in 1713 appeared the bull Unigenitus, anathematizing no less than one-hundredand-one of its propositions.