Pontianus was a sixth century bishop from an African diocese (not known), who was a figure in the Three-Chapter Controversy

Three-Chapter Controversy

The Three-Chapter Controversy, a phase in the Chalcedonian controversy, was an attempt to reconcile the Non-Chalcedonian Christians of Syria and Egypt with Chalcedonian Eastern Orthodoxy, following the failure of the Henotikon...

.

He wrote a critical letter to Emperor Justinian in 544-5,in reply to a request for his signature to an edict of condemnation. In it he asks Justinian to withdraw the anathematization of Theodore of Mopsuestia

Theodore of Mopsuestia

Theodore the Interpreter was bishop of Mopsuestia from 392 to 428 AD. He is also known as Theodore of Antioch, from the place of his birth and presbyterate...

 and other Monothelites involved in the matter of the Three Chapters. This letter is extant. He argues that the condemned writings were not known to him, and that dead men shouldn't be damned by the living, which is God's prerogative; in this he ignored precedents for posthumous condemnation. He also argues that the outcome of the Council of Chalcedon

Council of Chalcedon

The Council of Chalcedon was a church council held from 8 October to 1 November, 451 AD, at Chalcedon , on the Asian side of the Bosporus. The council marked a significant turning point in the Christological debates that led to the separation of the church of the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th...

 of 451, against Eutychianism

Eutychianism

Eutychianism refers to a set of Christian theological doctrines derived from the ideas of Eutyches of Constantinople . Eutychianism is a specific understanding of how the human and divine relate within the person of Jesus Christ .At various times, Eutyches taught that the human nature of Christ was...

, should not be undermined.