Oxford history of the christian church

5. Photius — churchman and humanist.

As well as the controversies with the Ignatians and Rome there were certain other aspects of the work of Photius and his near contemporaries. Photius himself, like his friend Nicholas Mysticus, was active in the mission field, not only in Great Moravia where Byzantine and Frankish interests clashed, or in the Balkans where both Constantinople and Rome sought to win over Bulgaria, but also in the Black Sea and Caucasian regions where the Rus and the Khazars were involved. ⁶² The patriarchal duty in this respect was made clear in the Epanagoge, a document with which Photius was concerned, designed as an introduction to legal works, though never officially issued as such. ⁶³ Here the Patriarch was exhorted to win over all unbelievers. Apostolic activity of this kind was also in accordance with the Byzantine conception of its world role, a view which seemed all the more justified during the period of its triumphant expansion from the mid-ninth to the mid-eleventh centuries. Other specifically patriarchal duties laid down in the Epanagoge were the promotion of orthodoxy and the elimination of heresy. Photius himself never had to face the full flood of a major official confrontation with heresies such as monophysitism or iconoclasm, though his family suffered from the latter. But where there were differences of belief and custom, as with the Franks, he supported Orthodox doctrine and usage. In his encyclical to the three eastern patriarchs he strongly condemned certain Latin usages and particularly the Frankish insertion of the filioque into the creed. ⁶⁴ He set out Orthodox teaching on the filioque at length in his Mystagogia. This was not at the time a specific attack on Rome since the addition to the creed was not yet being used there. But the work was to provide material for future polemicists from the late twelfth century onwards when the filioque had become a burning issue between Rome and Constantinople. ⁶⁵ The question of different usages which arose in Photius's day in connection with rival activities in the mission field did not really spring into prominence again until the patriarchate of the pugnacious Cerularius. A more deep-rooted and persistent problem of heresy was that of dualism. Here Photius took a stand against the 'Manichaeans' who in various guises were insidiously infiltrating into the Church throughout its medieval life. ⁶⁶

Yet however excellently Photius fulfilled the many demands of his patriarchal office, there was quite another equally, if not more, important side to him. He was a scholar of far-ranging interests and considerable intellectual power, and he was a key figure in the history of classical studies in Byzantium. ⁶⁷ His philological bent was reflected in his Lexicon, a work which was used by later compilers and writers, as in the Suda, or by Eustathius of Thessalonica. He explored secular and religious topics alike, as can be seen from two of his major works, the Bibliotheca (Myriobiblon) and the Amphilochia.

The Bibliotheca is a remarkable literary history, the only one of its kind to be found in Byzantium. ⁶⁸ It was written at the request of his brother Tarasius who wanted to have notes on the books read by Photius while he was away. Photius said in his opening address to Tarasius that he was going on an embassy to the 'Assyrians' (Arabs). It has been suggested that this was in 838, but it is not clear where in Baghdad Photius would have found all the books commented on in the Bibliotheca; presumably he had access to them somewhere in Constantinople before 838. ⁶⁹ The 279 entries in the Bibliotheca vary from a few lines to a full-length study. The authors chosen are both pagan and Christian, ranging from Demosthenes and Plutarch to Eusebius and Chrysostom. In some cases, as the fifth-century historian Olympiodorus, Photius gives the only available information on an author now completely lost. His excellent judgement is shown by forthright and penetrating comment. His powers of criticism enabled him to detect spuria sheltering, as often happened, under some famous name, for instance that of Chrysostom. ⁷⁰ The Amphilochia, written later in life, was in the form of answers to questions apparently put by Photius's friend Amphilochius, metropolitan of Cyzicus. Here there were many religious topics and the answers often drew on Photius's powers as philologist and biblical exegete. But, as in his other works, he never discarded secular learning which in his view had its proper place as an aid to Christian understanding.

Photius's literary activities and his preferences witness to the availability of texts and the use which could be made of nonChristian material in a Christian society. With his lively intellectual curiosity, his critical sense and his use of so many classical authors, he may seem something of an innovator. He was certainly a prominent figure in promoting the humanist, and to some extent patristic and biblical, studies which were to characterize the posticonoclastic period — witness his Bibliotheca and Amphilochia and commentaries. ⁷¹ Like his near successor Nicholas Mysticus he did not share the more ascetic and detached attitude of the monastic world of his day towards scholarship in general and Hellenism in particular. He became a churchman against his inclination, though nevertheless retaining his humanist interests and independent outlook. But he was by no means the only scholar in the field.

Photius's career and writings underline two striking facts — the number of available texts, and the pleasure which people took in using them, as he himself stresses. His brother Tarasius is known because the Bibliotheca was written for him. But in assessing the intellectual climate of the day it is equally important to remember the unknown friends and younger men who enjoyed discussion with him and met in his house. In a letter to Nicholas Mysticus he describes how they eagerly awaited his return as he hurried back from his ministerial duties in the palace ⁷² — he did in fact for a time hold high government office as protoasecretis before he became patriarch. Though not a professional teacher at a patriarchal school as Dvornik suggested, he obviously gave freely of his spare time both to beginners and to the more advanced, all of whom remain anonymous.

But there are certain names besides that of Photius which come to mind — Leo the Mathematician, or Nicholas Mysticus. Then there was Photius's near contemporary Arethas, archbishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, a cantankerous and difficult man, continually changing sides in the ecclesiastical controversies of his day. Arethas was a bibliophile with lively intellectual interests and is famed for the manuscripts which he copied or had copied. These embrace a wide range of works from the classical world and they have an added value in that Arethas liked to fill the wide margins on which he insisted with his own comments. Evidence still remains to be explored but enough has emerged to illuminate the work of the ninth and early tenth centuries of which Photius was a leading exponent. Ignatian and papal quarrels were of vital concern to their own day and have significance for later generations in that they heralded the course which the future would take. But it may be suggested that they have unfairly overshadowed more constructive interests and developments involving both churchmen and laity which resulted in what Paul Lemerle has called 'le premier humanisme byzantin'.