Page:Orthodox Eastern Church (Fortescue).djvu/197

Rh rather that one offence, even against the rights of the Holy See, cannot outweigh the whole of a long and really saintly life. St. Ignatius was the type of a stern and God-fearing bishop, who was not afraid to rebuke the wickedness of an atrociously corrupt Court, even at the cost of his own fortunes. He was severe, perhaps even harsh, to his clergy, demanding from them in a bad time and at a luxurious and immoral city the ideal of earlier ages. That is why he was unpopular with some. But he was even more severe to himself. No one has questioned the austerity of his own life, and when he was persecuted he bore his trial with the firmness and dignity he had learnt during years of restraint in the Patriarch's palace. He stood out for the liberty of the Church against the State at a time when the worst Erastianism that has ever troubled the Church was at its height, and he was loyal to the real authority in the Church, that of the first throne. We, too, may forget his one offence, the attempt upon Bulgaria, and remember him as one of the best bishops who ever sat on the soul-endangering throne of New Rome.

Long before Ignatius died Photius had managed to gradually get back the favour of the Court. He was always servile to the civil authority. Now that he was deposed he professed to accept very respectfully the command of the Emperor. Then he began flattering the murderer of his former patron. Pride of good blood is a weakness upon which one may always count. So Photius set about to establish that Basil I was a gentleman. He worked up a mythical pedigree for him. As Basil was an Armenian by birth, he could not well be made to descend from King David, or Alexander, or Julius Cæsar; the one possibility was St. Gregory the Illuminator, the Apostle and national hero of Armenia. And so from St. Gregory he did descend, through King Tiridates, in a younger but true branch of the noble house