Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/72

 PHOTIUS

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PHOTIUS

must have been extraordinary, his industry was colos- sal. Photius does not appear to have had any teach- ers worthy of being remembered; at any rate he never alludes to his masters. Hergenrother, however, notes that there were many good scholars at Constantinople while Photius was a child and young man, and argues from his exact and systematic knowledge of all branches of learning that he could not have been on- tirelj^ self-taught (op. cit., I, 322). His enemies ap- preciated his learning. Nicetas, the friend and biog- rapher of his rival Ignatius, praises Photius's skill in grammar, poetry, rhetoric, philosophy, medicine, law, "and all science" ("Vita S. Ignatii" in Mansi, XVI, 229). Pope Nicholas I, in the heat of the quarrel, writes to the Emperor Michael III: "Consider very carefully how Photius can stand, in spite of his great virtues and universal knowledge" (Ep. xcviii "Ad Mich.", P. G., CXIX, 1030). It is curious that so learned a man never knew Latin. While he was still a young man he made the first draft of his encyclopa?dic "Myrobiblion". At an early age, also, he began to teach grammar, philosophy, and theology in his own house to a steadily increasing number of students.

His public career was to be that of a statesman, coupled with a military command. His brother Sergius married Irene, the emperor's aunt. This connexion and his undoubted merit procured Photius speedy advancement. He became chief secretary of State (TrpuiToffTjKpijTis) and captain of the Life Guard (ii-puToffwaSipios). He was unmarried. Probably about 83S ho was sent on an embassy "to the Assyr- ians" ("Myrobiblion", preface), i. e., apparently, to the Khalifa at Bagdad. In the year 857, then, when the crisis came in his life, Photius was already one of the most prominent members of the Court of Constan- tinople. That crisis is the story of the Great Schism (see Greek Church). The emperor was Michael III (842-67), son of the Theodora who hadHnally re- stored the holy images. When he succeeded his father Theophilus (829-842) he was only three years old; he grew to be the wretched boy known in Byzan- tine history as Michael the Drunkard (6 yuefli/o-T^s). Theodora, at first regent, retired in 856, and her brother Bardas succeeded, with the title of Caesar. Bardas lived in incest with his daughter-in-law Eudocia, wherefore the Patriarch Ignatius (846-57) refused him Holy Communion on the Epiphany of 857. Ignatius was depo.sed and banished (Nov. 23, 857), and the more pliant Photius was intruded into his place. He was hurried through Holy Orders in six days; on Christmas Day, 857, Gregory Asbestas of Syracuse, himself excommunicate for insubordina- tion by Ignatius, ordained Photius patriarch. By this act Photius committed three offences against canon law: he was ordained bishop without having kept the interstices, by an excommunicate consecrator, and to an already occupied see. To receive ordination from an excommunicate person made him too ex- communicate ipso facto.

After vain attempts to make Ignatius resign his see, the emperor tried to obtain from Pope Nicholas I (858-67) recognition of Photius by a letter grossly misrepresenting the facts and asking for legates to come and decide the question in a synod. Photius also wrote, very respectfully, to the same purpose (Hergenrother, "Photius", I, 407-11). The pope sent two legates, Rodoald of Porto and Zachary of Anagni, with cautious letters. The legates were to hear both sides and report to him. A synod was held in St. Sophia's (May, 861). The legates took heavy bribesand agreed to Ignatius's deposition and Photius's succession. They returned to Rome with further letters, and the emperor sent his Secretary of State, Leo, after them with more explanations (Hergen- rother, op. cit., I, 439-460). In all the.se letters both the emperor and Photius emphatically acknowledge the Roman primacy and categorically invoke the

pope's jurisdiction to confirm what has happened. Meanwhile Ignatius, in exile at the island Terebinth, sent his friend the Archimandrite Theognostus to Rome with an urgent letter setting forth his case (Her- genrother, I, 460-61). Theognostus did not arrive till 862. Nicholas, then, having heard both sides, decided for Ignatius, and answered the letters of Michael and Photius by insisting that Ignatius must be restored, that the usurpation of his see must cease (ibid., I, 511-16, 516-19). He also wrote in the same sense to the other Eastern patriarchs (510-11). From that attitude Rome never wavered : it was the immedi- ate cause of the schism. In 863 the pope held a synod at the Lateran in which the two legates were tried, degraded, and excommunicated. The synod repeats Nicholas's decision, that Ignatius is lawful Patriarch of Constantinople; Photius is to be excommunicate unless he retires at once from his usurped place.

But Photius had the emperor and the Court on hia side. Instead of obeying the pope, to whom he had appealed, he resolved to deny his authority altogether. Ignatius was kept chained in prison, the pope's letters were not allowed to be published. The emperor sent an answer dictated by Photius' saying that nothing Nicholas could do would help Ignatius, that all the Eastern Patriarchs were on Photius's side, that the excommunication of the legates must be explained and that unless the pope altered his decision, Michael would come to Rome with an army to punish him. Photius then kept his place undisturbed for four years. In 867 he carried the war into the enemy's camp by excommunicating the pope and his Latins. The reasons he gives for this, in an encyclical sent to the Eastern patriarchs, are: that Latins (1) fast on Saturday, (2) do not begin Lent till Ash ^^'ednesday (instead of three days earlier, as in the East), (3) do not allow priests to be married, (4) do not allow priests to administer confirmation, (5) have added the filiogve to the creed. Because of these errors the pope and all Latins are: "forerunners of aposta.sy, servants of Antichrist who deserve a thousand deaths, Uars, fighters against God" (Her- genrother, I, 642-46). It is not easy to say what the IVIelchite patriarchs thought of the quarrel at this juncture. Afterwards, at the Eighth General Coun- cil, their legates declared that they had pronounced no sentence against Photius because that of the pope was obviously sufficient.

Then, suddenly, in the same year (Sept., 867), Photius fell. Michael III was murdered and Basil 1 (the Macedonian, 867-86) seized his place as emperor. Photius shared the fate of all Michael's friends. He was ejected from the patriarch's palace, and Ignatius restored. Nicholas I died (Nov. 13, 867). Adrian II (867-72), his successor, answered Ignatius's appeal for legates to attend a synod that should examine the whole matter by sending Donatus, Bishop of Oetia, Stephen, Bishop of Nepi, and a deacon, Marinus. They arrived at Constantinople in Sept., 869, and in October the synod was opened which Catholics recog- nize as the Eighth General Council (Fourth of Con- stantinople). This synod tried Photius, confirmed his deposition, and, as he refused to renounce his claim, excommunicated him. The bishops of his party received light penances (Mansi, XVI, 308-409). Photius was banished to a monastery at Stenos on the Bosphorus. Here he spent seven years, writing let- ters to his friends, organizing his party, and waiting for another chance. Aleanwhile Ignatius reigned as patriarch. Photius, as part of his policy, professed great admiration for the emperor and sent him a fictitious pedigree showing his descent from St. Gregory the Ilhuninator and a forged prophecy fore- telling his greatness (Mansi, XVI, 284). Basil was so pli'iiscil with this that he recalled him in 876 and api"iiiit('(i him tutor to his son Constantine. Photius ingratiated himself with everyone and feigned recon-