Showing posts with label Theodore of Stoudios. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Theodore of Stoudios. Show all posts

Sunday, January 26, 2025

Constantine VI, Part 2

As I mentioned yesterday, Constantine VI (771 - c.805) had proven himself a poor excuse for a Byzantine emperor to the military and government. He also got on the wrong side of the religious leaders when dealing with the lack of a male heir.

He had married Maria of Amnia (pictured here), who had been chosen by Constantine's mother, the Empress Irene, in a "bride show." Thirteen candidates were brought before Irene (this was after Irene called off the engagement to Rotrude, daughter of Charlemagne). The emperor and his bride were married in 788, but after six years of marriage they had produced two daughters and no son.

So Constantine took the steps taken by so many others in his position: he divorced his wife, sending her and their two daughters (Euphrosyne and Irene) to a convent on an island. This was bad enough so far as the Church was concerned, but it didn't solve his dynastic problem. For that he decided to marry his mistress, Theodote, who had been a lady-in-waiting to Empress Irene. Theodote was 15 or 16 at the time.

The wedding of an emperor was usually conducted by the patriarch, but Patriarch Tarasios refused to perform the ceremony. Theodote's uncle Plato, a minor official, expressed his disapproval of the relationship, and condemned Tarasios for not speaking out publicly against the emperor's actions. Constantine found a monk named Joseph who would perform the ceremony.

This second marriage created what is known as the Moechian Controversy, from the Greek moicheia, "adultery." Abbot Theodore of Stoudios of the Sakkudion monastery loudly condemned the pair and demanded the excommunication of the emperor and of Joseph. Constantine responded by sending his men to the Sakkudion Monastery, having Theodore flogged, and exiling him and his monks to Thessalonica. Theodote's uncle was imprisoned in Constantinople.

Constantine had lost the support of almost everyone. Irene organized a conspiracy against her son, for which she found many willing supporters to aid her. In August 797 Constantine was deposed, blinded, and confined to a private palace. Theodote went with him. We do not know how long he lived after that. Ironically, Theodote had born him a son, Leo, in 796, but the child lived less than a year. Abbot Theodore mentions in a letter that another son was born sometime after Constantine was deposed.

Maria remained a nun; the last mention of her is c.823. Constantine's attempts to create a dynasty by divorcing her did not bear fruit, but his daughter with Maria, Euphrosyne, did become empress of the Byzantine Empire! Let's look at that story next time.

Wednesday, November 13, 2013

Iconoclasm

The word "iconoclast" today usually denotes someone who challenges tradition, but the origin of the word was in the religiously and politically charged world of Constantinople in the Early Middle Ages.

To be honest, "iconoclast" (a destroyer of religious images belonging to his own culture) and its opposite, "iconodule" or "iconophile," were terms created much later by historians to describe the iconomachia (war of icons) of the late 8th and early 9th centuries in the Byzantine Empire.

Each side had its arguments, of course. The iconoclasts invoked the third of Moses 10 Commandments against "making graven images." They argued that any proper image had to be made from the same substance as the original, and therefore wood and stone were not appropriate to portray flesh. The only substance available to represent Christ was the Eucharist, which had been decreed to be Christ's flesh. Also, images were incapable of representing Christ's divinity as well as his humanity. Images had been condemned in churches by the Synod of Elvira in 305, because they might distract people from the true reason for being in church.

The iconodules had their own reasons. Once God incarnated as Jesus, representations of the divine on Earth became justified. God did tell Moses to add cherubim to the Ark. Although idols might be false, icons represented important real people and things. Also, there were miracles associated with icons, attesting to divine approval.

There were two periods, called the First Iconoclasm—from 726-787, begun by Emperor Leo III when he replaced an image of Christ with a cross at the entrance to the palace—and the Second Iconoclasm—in 814-842, when Emperor Leo V thought his military failures were the result of displeasing God. Leo III's major opponent was the venerable St. John of Damascus. Leo V had to contend with the prolific pen of St. Theodore of Stoudios.

Iconoclasm was largely an Eastern Christian conflict. Western Christianity never became seriously concerned with it, to the delight of art historians.

Tuesday, November 12, 2013

The First Abolitionist

St. Theodore of Stoudios (759-11 November 826 CE) was a highly educated member of a well-connected family in Constantinople. His father and uncle were public officials who controlled a large part of the finances in the reign of Constantine V (741-755). He was probably in line for a very nice civil service position, but his uncle's influence changed his fate.

The uncle, Platon, left civil service during the reign of Constantine's successor, Leo IV (775-780), and entered a monastery in Bithynia (east of Constantinople, on the shore of the Black Sea). Upon the death of Leo, Platon persuaded his sister's entire family to take monastic vows. They all returned with him to Bithynia, and established the Sakkudion Monastery on the family estate.

The family did not exactly stay away from politics, however. Leo was succeeded by Constantine VI (776-797), who decided to put aside his first wife and marry her lady-in-waiting. In the absence of evidence that the first wife was an adulterer, this was not easy for anyone to swallow. The Patriarch Tarasios eventually consented to the divorce, but he refused to perform the second wedding (as was customary for a ruler), leaving it to a priest named Joseph of the Hagia Sophia.

Despite the fact that the new wife was a cousin of Theodore, he objected to the whole affair and called for the excommunication of Joseph and everyone who received sacraments from him, which would necessarily include Constantine and his new wife. He had no authority to enforce this, so no actions were taken. The emperor tried to make peace with his new wife's relatives; they refused; Constantine sent troops to the monastery to disperse the community and send Theodore and other monks to exile in Thessalonika. A year later, however, Constantine was deposed and his mother became the Empress Irene. She undid many of her wayward son's actions, including lifting the exile on the monks of the Sakkudion Monastery and imprisoning Joseph.

When an Arab attack in Bithynia forced the monks of Sakkudion to flee to Constantinople, Empress Irene offered Theodore the leadership of the defunct Stoudios monastery. He set about restoring the library and scriptorium, and redecorating the church. (Theodore was opposed to the strong Byzantine element of iconoclasm that forbade images.) He also started writing letters; lots of letters, which he sent to fellow monks near and far. In one of them he makes the first known statement against slavery. Writing to one Nicolas, he says:
Do not obtain any slave nor use in your private service or in that of the monastery over which you preside, or in the fields, man who was made in the image of God. For such an indulgence is only for those who live in the world. For you should yourself be as a servant to the brethren like-minded with you, at least in intention, even if in outward appearance you are reckoned to be master and teacher. [source]
It is interesting that he seems to condemn slavery because it is a "worldly" activity, not necessarily because it is inherently "bad." But it was a start.