Oxford history of the christian church

2. Photius's first patriarchate (858-867).

The protoasecretis Photius was a layman and civil servant at the head of the imperial chancery. His father was related to Patriarch Tarasius and he himself may have been connected by marriage with the ruling house. He also had a well-founded reputation as one of the leading scholars of his day which was likely to commend him to Bardas. His lay status was not necessarily a bar to his rapid elevation to the patriarchate since there was precedent for ecclesiastical dispensation on this point, as in the earlier case of Tarasius. After being tonsured, Photius was quickly ordained reader, subdeacon, deacon, and priest, in time to be enthroned just before the Christmas festivities. He was certainly not the kind of man to be a puppet in the hands of the Ignatian party and at the outset he plainly indicated his attitude by appointing Gregory Asbestas to be one of his consecrating bishops, even though Gregory's case was still being considered by Rome (to whom he had appealed when he was condemned by the Ignatian synod). The Ignatians were clearly disappointed and friction was further aggravated by considerable misunderstanding as to the interpretation of the conditions agreed to by Photius in return for Ignatius's retirement. They evidently expected Photius to follow their line of policy and to do nothing which Ignatius (and by implication his followers) did not approve, treating Ignatius as if he was 'his own father'. ¹¹ They therefore claimed that Photius had broken his word. They were also proTheodora and hostile to the new regime which accounted for the severity (unjustly attributed to Photius) with which some of them were treated by the government. The refusal to acknowledge Photius soon came to a head when a meeting was held by the rebels in the church of St Irene. Here Photius was declared deposed and Ignatius restored as legitimate Patriarch. Shortly afterwards in the early spring of 859 Photius retaliated by calling a synod of bishops in the church of the Holy Apostles. In the presence of 170 bishops Ignatius was declared deposed. ¹² Certain of the extremist leaders, including Metrophanes of Smyrna and Antony of Cyzicus, were also removed from office, possibly at the same synod. ¹³

Photius then prepared to consolidate his position. He sent to Rome the customary letter announcing his enthronement and containing his profession of faith (his synodica). ¹⁴ This also went as usual to the eastern patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. ¹⁵ In this he mentioned in discrete terms the 'retirement' or 'departure' of Ignatius, ¹⁶ and pointed out that he himself had been raised to his high office somewhat against his will. At the same time Michael III wrote to the Pope asking for legates to be sent to a council to be held in Constantinople, ostensibly to clear up iconoclasm but in reality to confirm Ignatius's deposition. In his reply to Michael III Pope Nicholas I stressed his surprise that he had not been consulted in the affair of the Patriarch Ignatius whom Michael had reported as having already given up his see of his own free will. He was therefore charging his legates, Radoald bishop of Porto and Zacharias bishop of Anagni, with the task of looking into, rather than merely confirming, Ignatius's resignation. The Pope added that his two legates were to make a careful enquiry in the synod which was to be held as to whether canonical procedure had been observed and were to report to him. He would then give his apostolic pronouncement as to the best course of action for the Church of Constantinople. This was an approach that was hardly likely to be acceptable to the Byzantines, implying as it did that the deposition of Ignatius was not necessarily valid. Further, Nicholas made what was by now becoming a perennial papal demand. He asked for the restoration of the lost papal jurisdiction in Illyricum (that is, most of the Balkans) with its vicariate in Thessalonica, as well as the return of its patrimonies in Sicily and Calabria. ¹⁷ This insistence on Rome's claim to jurisdiction in Illyricum was no doubt all the more urgent now in view of the growing rivalry between the Roman and Byzantine Churches over responsibility for the conversion to Christianity of the young Bulgarian principality. A letter was also sent to Photius in which the Pope reproached him for his rapid and uncanonical ascent through the clerical grades. For this reason he wrote that he could not at once confirm Photius's consecration as patriarch, but if his legates reported favourably on the ecclesiastical situation in Constantinople he hoped then to be able to honour him as befitted the prelate of so great a see. ¹⁸ Thus in this letter too Nicholas implied that he had the right to the final decision, though he carefully left his options open.

The papal legates duly reached Constantinople and the council, presided over by the Emperor in its first session, was held in the church of the Holy Apostles in April 861. The records of its proceedings are incomplete because the acta were destroyed by the pro-Ignatian council of 869-70 and what has survived comes from a Latin extract in the canonical collection of Cardinal Deusdedit. This can be supplemented by material from Ignatius's partisans even though this is rather one-sided and in any case probably represents 'Ignatian' policy rather than the views of Ignatius himself. At the council Ignatius was declared rightly deposed because he had been appointed by a secular ruler thus infringing 'Apostolic' canon 30 (= 29). ¹⁹ The Roman legates formally approved the deposition. This was not what Nicholas I had intended. The legates however were under considerable pressure in Constantinople and the Byzantines had indeed only agreed to bring up the case again on the understanding that a final decision would be given and the matter not referred back to the Pope for his ruling. But at least the legates had asserted the Roman right to intervene in a matter of this kind.

At some time after the deposition of Ignatius, the council of 861, at which the Roman legates were still present, registered its condemnation of the iconoclast heresy. This was a problem which had been specifically mentioned in the letters of Michael III and Photius to Nicholas I. Opinions vary on the importance which should be attached to this. It may have been a diversionary move by Photius, but even so it is reasonable to suppose with Dvornik that the heresy had not disappeared overnight in 843. ²⁰ Another topic considered before the legates left Constantinople in September 861 concerned monastic and episcopal abuses. These are dealt with in 17 disciplinary canons signed by 130 bishops. ²¹ They included a ruling which would make it impossible in future for a layman or monk to pass per saltum to the episcopacy, as Photius and others before him had done. ²²

After the council letters were sent to the Pope by Photius ²³ and by Michael III with the acta of the 861 council. ²⁴ Photius's apologia was a moving appeal for charity and understanding. He contrasted the idyllic tranquillity of his life as a scholar and tutor with the troubles which he knew would beset him if he became patriarch. Hence his reluctance to accept this office. He defended himself from the charge of having violated canonical procedure by his rapid ascent from lay status to the episcopate, since the canons of Sardica forbidding this were not recognized by the Byzantine Church. He pointed out that it was indeed quite legitimate for the two Churches to maintain traditions which differed in discipline and rite. He did however add that the 861 council had now decided that in future Constantinople would adopt the Roman usage on the particular point at issue. The problem of rooting out iconoclasm was referred to. Then — most important of all both to the papacy and to Byzantium — Photius broached the question of papal jurisdiction in Illyricum. He affirmed that he himself would willingly have acceded to Rome's demands, but ecclesiastical affairs involving imperial territory were matters of state outside his competence. Finally, the Pope was asked not to give credence to those who came from Constantinople without patriarchal letters of introduction, since under pretence of being on pilgrimage to Rome such people were in fact only interested in stirring up trouble. This last was an attempt to counter the intrigues of the Ignatians, notably abbot Theognostus who was only too likely to engage in anti-Photian propaganda in Rome.

However clearly he might profess his own willingness to meet Nicholas's demands, Photius knew very well that there was no possibility of imperial concessions in the question of papal authority in the Balkans. The Byzantine ambassador Leo who brought the imperial letter to Rome must have made this clear and it is probably the reason why Nicholas I changed his ground between the autumn of 861 and the spring of 862. Thus in letters of 18 March 862 to Photius ²⁵ and Michael III ²⁶ he repudiated his legates' action in deposing Ignatius at the council of 861 and he declared that the case was still open. Meanwhile in view of this he could not recognize Photius, though he did not rule out the possibility of this later on, should he find that Ignatius had been rightly condemned. At the same time he went even further in a letter to the three eastern patriarchs, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, ²⁷ calling Photius a most wicked intruder. He made it clear that by reason of his position in Christendom the final decision was his alone. As Photius had foreseen, the situation may well have been aggravated by the arrival in Rome of the pro-Ignatian abbot Theognostus to present a Libellus to the Pope on Ignatius's behalf, though at the council of 861 Ignatius himself had expressly refused to appeal to the papacy.

In the event, a council was held in Rome, either in April or possibly during the summer, 863. Ignatius was declared to be still the legitimate Patriarch and Photius was deprived of his title and degraded to lay status; Gregory Asbestas was likewise degraded. The papal legates were declared to have exceeded their mandate at the council of 861. The legate Zacharias of Anagni, who was at hand, was deposed and excommunicated. Radoald was out of reach in Frankish territory. Then there was a brief reference to the traditional use of icons, but no mention of the council of Nicaea II. It was made clear that the holy apostolic see reserved to itself the right of final judgement. ²⁸ Nicholas evidently expected that if he backed Ignatius he would in return get control over Bulgaria, as the papacy later admitted. ²⁹

But the Byzantines made no concessions to Rome. They went ahead with an attack on Bulgaria thus inducing the khan Boris to capitulate and receive baptism at the hands of the Greeks in 864. When Michael III did write to Nicholas I in the late summer of 865 he firmly denied Nicholas's right to intervene in the internal affairs of the Byzantine Church and he asked for the return of the proIgnatian monks who had given Rome such false information. He pointed out that the retrial of Ignatius by the papal legates in Constantinople had been (as was asserted at the time) merely out of courtesy to the Pope. This letter is not extant but it can be reconstructed from the Pope's answer. It evidently caused offence by its aggressive tone; Michael even attacked the Latin language as 'barbaram et scythicam'. ³⁰ Nicholas's reply (28 September 865) ³¹ defended the papal primacy, as Gelasius I and Leo I had done before him, stressing that Rome, unlike Constantinople, had an unassailable apostolic tradition. He even said that only the Pope could summon a council, which was against accepted Byzantine usage. Nevertheless, as a conciliatory gesture, Nicholas expressed his willingness to reconsider the rival claims of Ignatius and Photius and they were invited to come to Rome themselves, or to send proxies for this purpose.

While this letter was on its way to Constantinople the newly converted Bulgarian Boris (now baptized ' Michael', with Michael III as his godfather) was pressing Constantinople to grant him a patriarch for his Church. When he failed to get his way, he turned to Rome (August 866) and Nicholas seized the opportunity. He did not provide the desired Patriarch, but he dealt adroitly with Bulgarian religious problems in such a way as to belittle Byzantine ecclesiastical usage and status. ³² Consequently Boris then turned to the Latin Church.

Enraged by Nicholas's policy Photius and Michael III were in no mood to consider any of the Pope's proposals. Photius set about defending his Church's discipline and usage from the criticisms made by the Pope and by the western missionaries in Bulgaria. On one particular point he opened the way to future trouble in Byzantino-papal relations. Western Frankish missionaries in Bulgaria had introduced the creed with the addition of the filioque. This was a western innovation and was not sanctioned by any general council, nor was it at that time papal usage. It was attacked by Photius who went as far as to mention that it was heretical since to make the Holy Spirit proceed from both the Father and the Son was to admit of two principles. This was all set out at length in an encyclical to the eastern patriarchs. ³³ They were invited to send representatives to Constantinople to deal with the troubled situation. The detailed criticisms of Latin theology contained in this letter were to feature constantly in future polemic between Rome and Constantinople.

Photius then held a synod about which there is little detailed information. It is however clear that Nicholas I was deposed and anathematized. ³⁴ Both before and after the council Photius had approached the Frankish ruler Louis II and his wife asking for support against Nicholas ³⁵ and evidently their reward was to be Byzantine recognition of the western imperial title. In making this move, and indeed throughout, Photius must have had the support of Michael III and the issues were never purely ecclesiastical but had strong political undertones. The target was Pope Nicholas, not the Latin Church as a whole which Nicholas seemed to imply when he appealed to Hincmar of Rheims to mobilize western help against Byzantium. ³⁶ Nicholas himself died on 13 November 867 before the news of his deposition by the Byzantine synod reached Rome. In any case the deposition was an unwise move and one of Photius's few errors of judgement. It roused the enmity of Rome and made reconciliation more difficult. Of more immediate importance for Photius was the fact that it played into the hands of Basil the Macedonian, the favourite of Michael III and by now co-Emperor. He assassinated Michael on 23-4 September 867. Bardas, another of Photius's supporters had already been killed on 21 April 866. The new Emperor needed recognition and was ready to sacrifice Photius to the Ignatians and the papacy.