Oxford history of the christian church

IV. Leo VI's Dilemma: Nicholas Mysticus and Euthymius (886-925).

1. Leo VI: the Emperor's fourth marriage.

During Photius's lifetime and throughout the tenth century Byzantine prestige steadily grew and the Empire became once more a dominating factor in Balkan and East Mediterranean politics, successfully meeting the challenge of the Slav world, and to some extent of the Muslims. The patriarchate, though on occasion its activities reflected Byzantine addiction to controversy, continued to promote the interests of Orthodoxy.

In the early years of Leo VI's reign the Church was occupied in allaying the opposition which still lingered after Photius's forced resignation and relegation to a monastery (he eventually came back to favour though not to office). The Ignatian party held that his ordinations were invalid and that he had not been recognized by Pope John VIII. But his second fall was really instigated by Leo's minister Stylianus Zaoutzes for political reasons. He was suspected of working against Leo VI during his father's lifetime. He may also have been considered too powerful a figure with unacceptable views on the authority of the Church (if the ideas of church and state expressed in the Epanagoge are his, perhaps significantly the Epanagoge did not become an official publication).

Photius was followed in the patriarchate by Stephen (18 December 886-17/18 May 893), presumably a more acceptable candidate since he was Leo VI's brother. But Stephen had been ordained to the diaconate by Photius and was therefore not recognized by the Ignatians led by Stylianus of Neocaesarea, though to their discomfiture he was recognized by Rome. After a brief and comparatively uneventful term of office Stephen was succeeded by Zaoutzes' candidate, Antony II Cauleas (August 893-12 February 981). He was a monk from Mount Olympus, a pro-Studite, who had been ordained by either Ignatius or Methodius and was therefore not suspect to the Ignatians. By now the opposition which

had had no support from Rome had virtually petered out ¹ and it was said that by his death in 901 Antony had achieved 'the union of the whole Church'. ² In any case it was to be swept into the background by the major internal controversy which arose over Leo's marriages in the early decades of the tenth century.

The brunt of this problem fell upon Antony Cauleas's successor in the patriarchate, Nicholas I Mysticus (1 March 901-February 907; 15 May 912-15 May 925) He had been private secretary to Leo VI. Like Photius he had an outstanding personality. He was one of the few Byzantine patriarchs to leave a full corpus of letters in which he is revealed not only in his better-known political activities but also as a much occupied churchman and pastor, yet with true and generous concern for supplicants and for his many personal friends. ³

Nicholas was inevitably closely involved in Leo's marriage problems and to a lesser extent so was the abbot Euthymius who for a time supplanted him in the patriarchate (February 907-15 May 912). The dispute, known as the affair of the tetragamy, arose when circumstances impelled the Emperor to override the canonical prohibitions against third and fourth marriages. The rulings of the state and of the Orthodox Church concerning marriage were well established and had indeed been reinforced by Leo VI himself. Second marriages were frowned on, third and fourth prohibited, and indeed fourth marriages were counted invalid and any offspring illegitimate. ⁴ Like the English Henry VIII, Leo VI (886-912) understandably wished for a legitimate male heir to succeed him. The controversy certainly illustrated the way in which Byzantines unhesitatingly used Rome if it suited them to do so. Leo VI was unlucky in his wives — hence his 'great matter'. His first wife, the devout Theophano died in 893 without giving him a male heir. In 898 he took a second wife, Zoe, the daughter of his minister Stylianus Zaoutzes, and she died in 899, also leaving no son. His third wife, the ravishing beauty Eudocia Baïane, died in childbirth (12 April 901). This third marriage had been tolerated, but only just. Leo then took a mistress, Zoe Carbonopsina, and it was in the palace itself that in 905 her son Constantine was born in the purple. To Leo it was vital that the infant should be legitimated and his position further strengthened by the marriage of his mother and father.

Rome might show a measure of economy over fourth marriages, but the Byzantine Church was horrified at such a suggestion which contravened all the canons. And after all, as one of the most violent leaders of the opposition, Arethas, said, God only thought it necessary to create one wife for Adam. ⁵ Still, it was recognized that Leo's desire for a son was only human, ⁶ but even so there was opposition to any ceremonial baptism of the child. The nearcontemporary life of Euthymius, the monk from Mount Olympus who became the friend of Leo VI and a familiar figure in Constantinopolitan circles, abounds in detail showing the Emperor's anxious efforts to solve the dilemma and further secure his dynasty. Apart from attempts to influence the Patriarch and bishops at imperial dinner parties, according to the Vita Euthymii and other sources Leo had some evidence that Nicholas had been engaged in treasonable activities connected with the rebellion of Andronicus Ducas and could therefore bring further pressure to bear on the Patriarch.

In the event Nicholas agreed to the imperial baptism of the baby, possibly to conciliate the Emperor. There was strong opposition from the metropolitans. The ceremony was performed by the Patriarch himself in the Great Church at Epiphany (6 January 906) with Euthymius's support. He acted as godfather, though he was too old and weak to carry the child. ⁷ Nicholas, in a letter to Pope Anastasius III setting out his position in the tetragamy, said that he only performed the baptism on condition that Leo immediately separated from his mistress Zoe Carbonopsina. But on the third day after the baptism 'the mother was introduced into the palace with an escort of imperial guards, just like an emperor's wife'. ⁸ Subsequently, probably around Easter 906, Leo and Zoe were married by the priest Thomas. She was crowned Augusta by the Emperor himself.

The Byzantine hierarchy stood united in condemnation. Leo was forbidden the usual ceremonial imperial entry to the Great Church through the royal gates and was only permitted to enter as far as the sacristy (metatorion) and then only by a side door. His wife was not proclaimed Empress in church, her name was not in the diptychs. In view of Byzantine ceremonial activities (apart from other considerations) this was an impossible situation. Leo appealed to Rome and the three eastern patriarchs ⁹ for a dispensation which he obtained. The papal legates came to Constantinople in early 907. But the Byzantine bishops, though willing to bless the child when he was brought in to them after the banquet in the palace on St Trypho's day, remained obdurate. Likewise the Patriarch after much vacillation. According to the Vita Euthymii Leo castigated Nicholas, once his fellow student, as an inveterate schemer. The metropolitans were then immediately exiled. Likewise Nicholas who was rushed off to his monastery in Galacrenae without even a shirt or a book, so he says. His letter to the Pope stating his view of the situation was aflame with indignation both at his own treatment and at the papal dispensation concerning the fourth marriage. ¹⁰

It was the abbot Euthymius who followed Nicholas as patriarch in February 907. He was the friend and confessor of Leo who had built him the monastery of Psamathia and had the habit of dropping in unexpectedly to visit the community. But Euthymius's close relations with the Emperor did not incline him to condone the fourth marriage. He deposed the priest who had performed the ceremony ¹¹ and the synod probably in 907 came out against the dispensation. ¹² Euthymius resolutely refused ever to proclaim the 'head-strong and high-handed' Empress Zoe in church or to put her name in the holy diptychs. ¹³ This attitude did nothing however to appease the deposed Patriarch Nicholas. The bitterness felt by Nicholas and his followers is reflected in the atrocious maltreatment given to Euthymius when on the death of Leo VI in 912 Nicholas returned to office under Leo's brother the Emperor Alexander. In the struggle to turn him out Euthymius lost two teeth and was pummelled into unconsciousness. ¹⁴ This vindictiveness even extended to his small foal which was to be drowned; in the end it was turned loose to die and was rescued by a wandering peasant who fled by night with the animal. Euthymius's nominees were ejected, his name was removed from the diptychs, and the Nicholaites restored. Once again the Byzantine Church was divided.

According to the Vita Euthymii, Nicholas and Euthymius were eventually reconciled before the latter died on 20 August 917. Some would have liked to have seen Euthymius back as patriarch but he resolutely refused to consider leaving his 'long-desired' way of life. ¹⁵ But as so often in Byzantium, underlying antagonisms lingered on. There were problems over Euthymius's burial. There was even strong feeling later in the century when Patriarch Polyeuctus restored his name to the diptychs.

With Nicholas's return to the patriarchate in 912, soon to be followed by the death in 913 of the ineffective Emperor Alexander, the situation changed. As the most powerful of the regents for the young Constantine VII Porphyrogenitus Nicholas's authority was in the ascendant, despite the antagonism of the Dowager Empress Zoe. She cast off the nun's habit forced on her by Nicholas and returned to the palace and her small son, claiming the regency and for a short term ousting Nicholas. But failure to deal with foreign policy, particularly the Bulgarian offensive, or to control those manŒuvring for power, brought her rule to a speedy end. Nicholas again took charge only to give way (to some extent) to the competent and ambitious Grand Admiral of the Fleet, Romanus Lecapenus. With the blessing of Nicholas he was crowned coEmperor as Romanus I (920-44) thus providing the strong secular control needed during the minority in the established dynasty.

Nicholas remained in the patriarchate until he died on 15 May 925. In the circumstances he was too useful (and perhaps too dominant) a figure to be relegated to the background by Romanus I.¹⁶ The difficulties caused by the fourth marriage and particularly by Rome's part in the affair were smoothed over early in Romanus's reign. The acquiescence of the three eastern patriarchs does not seem to have roused strong feeling in Constantinople. Rome was another matter as the vehement protest of Nicholas's letters show. In the event the legality of Leo VI's fourth marriage was tacitly accepted, if under protest. As Nicholas later wrote to Pope John X, 'It was done at that time out of regard for the imperial status, but it was improper and not in accord with the canons of the Church.' ¹⁷ The principles of the Orthodox Church were made clear in the Tome of Union of 9 July 920. Discreetly avoiding particular cases, a synodical ruling laid down the strictest penalties for third marriages (allowing that here there might just conceivably be mitigating circumstances), but for the future it utterly forbade fourth marriages. ¹⁸ Euthymians were to be reinstated in their sees if they wished, though understandably there were many problems in so doing, as Nicholas's later letters show.

Nicholas made a strong appeal to Rome to support the Constantinopolitan synod's ban on fourth marriages. He asked for legates to be sent to end the troubles which had arisen partly by reason of the attitude of the heads of the Roman Church. Thus schism would be eliminated and the normal commemoration of the Pope could be made in the diptychs. ¹⁹ Nicholas was writing after the Tome of Union and in the end Roman legates did arrive in the spring of 923 and some kind of peace between Rome and Constantinople seems to have been restored, though dissidents within the Byzantine Church continued until well towards the end of the tenth century. ²⁰ The position of Rome in the tetragamy dispute contrasts sharply with the attitude of the papacy towards Constantinople in the post-1204 period. In the late middle ages Rome was constantly exerting pressure on the Byzantine Church, assuming that it was the highest authority acting as of right. In the days of Patriarch Nicholas Constantinople certainly accorded primacy of honour to Rome. Both Leo VI and Nicholas had understandably been anxious to consult Rome (though for different reasons). But Constantinople tended to resent unilateral action by Rome. It clearly wished to act within the framework of the pentarchy and therefore thought it desirable to settle the principles involved in the tetragamy on the basis of the consensus of the five ancient patriarchates, which meant in practice by agreement with Rome after discussion as between equals. Leo VI had appealed to all four in order to strengthen his position. But the three eastern patriarchates did not carry the same weight as Rome. Hence Nicholas's pressing appeals to the papacy to support him in his stand against Leo.