Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/171



846 Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople, died. At that time all the Orthodox Eastern Churches were in full communion with Rome. The Iconoclast troubles were just over. They had broken out again after the seventh general council (Nicænum II, 787) under the Iconoclast Emperor Leo V (the Armenian, 813–820), but at last Theodora, widow of the Emperor Theophilus (829–842) and Regent for her son, Michael III (842–867), had recalled the holy images on the first "Feast of Orthodoxy" (February 19, 842), and the Church of Constantinople had finally returned to communion with Rome. Throughout the Iconoclast persecution the Popes had steadily defended the images. We have seen how the image-worshippers in the East had appealed to the faith of Rome and to the authority of the Pope (St. Theodore of Studium, pp. 65–66). Methodius had been one of the champions of the same cause; he had formerly taken refuge in Rome during the persecution, and he was a friend of Pope Nicholas I (858–867), as well as a devout client of St. Peter and a defender of the rights of his see. Now he was dead and the clergy of Constantinople met to choose his successor. By the advice of the Empress Theodora, but also by a free, canonical, and unanimous election, they chose the Hegoumenos (Abbot) of the monastery of Satyrus, Ignatius.