Fourth Council of Constantinople

Technically, there were two of these synods, both held in Constantinople. One of them was called by Emperor Basil I, with the cooperation of Pope Adrian II, whose support Basil wanted after his recent coup (he had assassinated the previous emperor, Michael III).  So although it was held in Constantinople, it is considered a council of the Roman Catholic Church, not of the Eastern Orthodox Church. The catalyst for calling this council (October 869 - February 870) was to depose Patriarch Photios I, who was appointed inappropriately by Michael III, and to reinstate his predecessor, Ignatios. Clergy who were supporters of Photios were defrocked. Photios himself was incarcerated in a monastery.

There were over two dozen other decisions laid down as canons from this council that carried great weight doctrinally, even thought it was poorly attended; the first meeting had only 12 bishops, and the total in the few months it was held barely exceeded 100 clerics. The council was held in the Hagia Sophia (the illustration is a 16th century depiction by Cesare Nebbia). 

One of its statements was a re-affirmation of the Second Council of Nicaea's support of the use of icons and holy images. It even declared that an image of Jesus was to be venerated equally as the Gospel itself:

We decree that the sacred image of our Lord Jesus Christ, the liberator and Savior of all people, must be venerated with the same honor as is given the book of the holy Gospels. For as through the language of the words contained in this book all can reach salvation, so, due to the action which these images exercise by their colors, all wise and simple alike, can derive profit from them. For what speech conveys in words, pictures announce and bring out in colors.

It went further to declare that holy images of subjects other than Jesus were also considered worthy of veneration:

The image of his all-pure Mother and the images of the holy angels as well as the images of all the saints are equally the object of our homage and veneration.

The Roman Catholic popes were pleased to have the Eastern Orthodox Church looking to it for guidance, and Pope Adrian II got the credit, though he was not a particularly powerful pope, serving exactly five years. I'll tell you more about him tomorrow and his good luck with family connections and his bad luck with temporal authority.

Photios I of Constantinople

Poor Photios! One of the most powerful and influential church leaders in Eastern Orthodox history, tutor of a future emperor whom he tried to protect from a vengeful father, and then replaced by that same emperor with an unqualified teenage boy. His time as Patriarch of Constantinople was broken into two periods because of imperial fickleness, 858–866 and 877–886 CE. He accomplished so much more than being mistreated by the imperial family, however.

One example was his role in the Christianization of Bulgaria. Bulgaria in the early 9th century wanted to ally and trade with the Byzantine and Frankish Empires, but because it was pagan there were barriers to equal treatment. Photios in 864 went to the Bulgarian capital and converted Khan Boris, who took the Christian name Michael. Photios also baptized the Khan's family and high-ranking dignitaries. (The illustration shows him preaching to the Bulgarians.)

He had enemies outside of any upset emperors. His ethnicity is uncertain because chroniclers called him many different things that sound like they intended to demean him: he was Armenian, a Greek Byzantine, or Khazar-faced. He also antagonized people. In his younger years he was a scholar and teacher with a large library. He was the tutor of the sons of Emperor Basil I. He wrote texts analyzing and explaining earlier theological writings.

His brilliance sometimes put him in opposition to other religious leaders. He once proposed the fanciful theory to the Patriarch Ignatios that people had two souls. Once Ignatios tried to argue in earnest against this, Photios embarrassed him by telling him he wasn't serious, and just wanted to see if Ignatios would fall into his trap.

It was the conflict between Patriarch Ignatios and Emperor Michael III that catapulted Photios into the top position in the Church. Michael's uncle, Bardas, was refused entry into the Hagia Sophia by Ignatios because Bardas was thought to be having an affair (more shockingly, with his widowed daughter-in-law). Bardas and Michael accused Ignatios of treason, imprisoned him, and chose Photios (related to Bardas), as his replacement.

At this point, Photios was a scholar and teacher, not a cleric. Photios was tonsured as a monk on 20 December 858, then on the next four days was ordained a lector, then a sub-deacon, then a deacon and priest, and on Christmas Day was consecrated a bishop and made the new Patriarch.

This was disputed by other church leaders, and the pope in Rome himself, but that's a story for tomorrow.

Leo VI the Wise, Part 1

Emperor Leo VI (866 - 912) had a rocky relationship with his father, or did he? It all depends on whom you think his father was. In the records, his father was Basil I, but Basil was absolutely not a loving father.

No one disputes that Leo's mother was Eudokia Ingerina (c.840 - 882), but prior to marrying Basil she was the mistress of Michael III, emperor from 842 until 867. Michael was assassinated by Basil, who assumed the imperial throne.

So many historians believe that Leo was actually the son of Eudokia and Michael, as clearly did Basil, so he treated his "son" poorly. To be fair, Leo was different from Basil's other sons, preferring bookish education over imperial management, hence his nickname of "Leo the Wise."

When Basil died in 886 and Leo became Emperor Leo VI, his first official action was to remove Michael III's remains from a monastery on the far side of the Bosphorus and re-inter them in the imperial mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles in Constantinople. For historians (and no doubt for Leo's contemporaries), this confirmed not only that Leo was Michael's son, but that Eudokia had made sure Leo knew his proper parentage.

He then elevated Stylianos Zaoutzes, the father of Leo's mistress, Zoe Zaoutzaina, to the position essentially of a prime minister, running administrative affairs. Not only was Stylianos the father of Leo's mistress, but when Basil imprisoned Leo on suspicion of an assassination attempt, Stylianos had argued for Leo's release. Leo even created a new title for Stylianos, basileopator ("father of the emperor"). There were no known duties attached to the title, but it seemed clear that it was Leo's way of honoring the father of his mistress.

There is a story offered by Bishop Liudprand of Cremona that Leo would disguise himself and walk around Constantinople looking for injustice and corruption. At times he would be accosted by the city guards, who did not recognize him. One time, he bought off two patrols, but a third arrested him and put him in jail overnight. The next morning, he was recognized by a panicked guard. The company that arrested him was rewarded; the two patrols that accepted bribes to let a wandering stranger go were found and dismissed from service.

Tomorrow we'll look at how he interfered with religion, and dismissed someone who had been his tutor and ally.

Leo, Son of Basil

As Byzantine Emperor Basil I (811 - 886) reached his later years, his mood and health declined. He was depressed at the death of his eldest son, Constantine, who was also his favorite. He chose to make his youngest son, Alexander, his co-emperor to prepare him for the succession. A middle son, Leo, was more interested in books, which annoyed his father, who occasionally beat Basil over his frustration with a son he considered unsuitable for the royal dynasty. (Basil and his preferred child, Constantine, are seen in the gold coin to the left.) There was another reason Basil was suspicious of Leo, but I'll save that for part two.

In fact, after Basil learned of a plot against him, he suspected Leo of involvement and had his son imprisoned. He wanted to blind Leo, which would not only punish him but would render him completely unsuitable to ever become emperor. He was persuaded not to do this by the Orthodox Patriarch, Photios.

Basil was also unhappy when Leo ignored his wife Theophano in favor of a mistress, Zoe Zaoutzaina. Basil married her off to a minor official to get her out of the way. In 882, after the death of Basil's wife, Eudokia, the relationship between father and son deteriorated further. Basil died in a bizarre hunting accident when his belt got caught in the antlers of a deer and he was dragged for several miles through a forest. Someone caught up and cut him loose, but Basil claimed the man also tried to assassinate him, and on his deathbed ordered the man executed.

Leo's brother Alexander was only 16 years old, so it was agreed that Leo should succeed his father. His first official act as emperor was to re-bury a man his father had killed. Not just any re-burial, either. He did it in a very grand ceremony, and that man might have been part of the reason why Basil had such difficulty with Leo. I'll go into that more tomorrow.

The Siege of Ragusa

A 9th-century Arab dynasty almost ended the city of Dubrovnik in its infancy. At the time, it was called Ragusa, founded about 615CE by refugees fleeing the destruction of the Roman city Epidaurum during the war between the Avars and Slavs. Ragusa/Dubrovnik was an ideal spot, having a sandy shore onto which boats could be dragged when not plying the waves, and a source of fresh water for the inhabitants.

They built their town with the natural timber found all over, namely the Holm Oak, whose name in Croatian, dubrava, gave the town its later name. Mindful of their war-torn origin, they fortified the town against possible invaders.

Invaders came in the form of the Aghlabids of Ifriqiya, functioning as pirates and looking for new territory to conquer. Byzantine records state that the Aghlabids launched a campaign against the south-eastern coasts of the Adriatic in 866. They succeeded in plundering cities along the coast until they reached Ragusa. Finding the city fortified, they set up a siege, intending to wait out the inhabitants.

Ragusa turned out to be better prepared than expected; they withstood the siege for fifteen months! They could not last indefinitely, however, and snuck messengers out of the city to request aid from the Byzantine Empire. Byzantium had once controlled and patrolled the region but had allowed that vigilance to subside; it was their absence that enabled the Aghlabids to invade.

The latest emperor, however, wished to re-assert control over areas to the west. Emperor Basil I sent a fleet of 100 ships under the command of admiral Niketas Oryphas. News of the Byzantine fleet's approach caused the Aghlabids to withdraw. Admiral Oryphas planned future expeditions to push Saracens out of the region, slowly returning the Adriatic and southern Italy to Christian rule.

Every 3 February modern Dubrovnik celebrates with parades and several days of festivities in honor of their patron saint, Sveti Vlaho, or, as he is better known in the West, Saint Blaise. Let me tell you his story next time.

The New Church

Explanation of cross-in-square from this fascinating site.

Today is May Day, and the anniversary of the consecration of the Nea Ekklesia [Greek: "New Church"] in 880.

It was built by Emperor Basil I the Macedonian (c.830 - 886). Although he started as a peasant, he advanced politically until he was in a position to usurp the throne of Emperor Michael III in 867. He set out to create a new golden age of Byzantine art, and he wound up being considered one of the greatest Byzantine emperors. In his desire to reproduce the glory of the reign of Justinian I, he started a building campaign. The pinnacle of this campaign was the Nea Ekklesia, which he considered his answer to the magnificent Hagia Sophia.

One of the things that made it "new" was the floor plan, something called "cross-in-square." Typical churches before that time—and, truthfully, after that time as well—were laid out like a cross, longer than they were wide. Nea Ekklesia broke that mold. Byzantine architecture had already shown a preference and flair for domes, and mounting them on a square base with a feature called a pendentive. Nea Ekklesia was a new style that filled out the cross shape by centering it in a square and putting several domes over the four additional sections. (See the illustration above for an example of a standard cross-in-square.)

As important as the Nea was, it was eventually turned into a monastery (called, perhaps predictably, "New Monastery") in the 11th century. After the Ottomans conquered the Byzantine Empire in 1453, the building was used to store gunpowder. It was destroyed in 1490 when it was struck by lightning.