A Dictionary of Greek and Roman biography and mythology. By various writers. Ed. by William Smith. Illustrated by numerous engravings on wood.

348 PHOTIUS. PHOTIUS.
in his favour: natural adaptation, diligence, wealth, choice of Bardas fell upon Photius, who had alwhich enabled him to form an all-comprehensive ready given countenance to Gregory and the other
library; and more than all these, the love of glory, opponents of the patriarch. Ignatius was dewhich induced him to pass whole nights without posed, and Photius elected in his place. The latter
sleep, that he might have time for reading. And was a layman, and, according to some statements,
when the time came (which ought never to have was under excommunication for supporting Grearrived) for him to intrude himself into the church, gory; but less than a week served, according to
he became a most diligent reader of theological Nicetas David (ibid.), for his rapid passage through
works." (Nicet. Vita Ignatii apud Concil. vol. viii. all the needful subordinate gradations: the first
ed. Labbe.) day witnessed his conversion from a layman to a
It must not, however, be supposed that Photius monk; the second day he was made reader; the
had wholly neglected the study of theology be- third day, sub-deacon; the fourth, deacon; the
fore his entrance on an ecclesiastical life: so far fifth, presbyter; and the sixth, Christmas-day
was this from being the case, that he had read A. D. 858, beheld his promotion to the patriarchate,
and carefully analysed, as his Bibliotheca attests, the highest ecclesiastical dignity in the empire.
the chief works of the Greek ecclesiastical writers Nicetas (ibid.) states that his office was irregularly
of all ages, so that his attainments in sacred li- committed to him by secular hands. Photius himself,
terature might have shamed many a professional however, in his apologetic epistle to Pope Nicodivine. There is not sufficient evidence to support laus I. (apud Baron.Annal. ad ann. 859, ~ lxi. &c.),
the statement of Baronius, that Photius was an states that the patriarchate was pressed upon his
eunuch. acceptance by a numerous assembly of the metroThus highly connected, and with a mind so richly politans, and of the other clergy of his patriarchate:
endowed and highly cultivated, Photius obtained nor is it likely that the Byzantine court would
high advancement at the Byzantine court. He fail to secure a sufficient number of subservient
held the dignity of a Proto-a-Secretis or chief jus- bishops, to give to the appointment every possible
tice (Codin. De O/ficiis C'. p. 36, ed. Bonn); appearance of regularity.
and, if we trust the statement of Nicetas David A consciousness that the whole transaction was
(l. c.), of Protospatharins, a name originally de- violent and indefensible, whatever care might be
noting the chief sword-bearer or captain of the taken to give it the appearance of regularity, made
guards, but which became, in later times, a merely it desirable for the victorious party to obtain from
nominal office. (Codin. ibid. p. 33.) To these dig- the deposed patriarch a resignation of his office;
nities may be added, on the authority of Anasta- but Ignatius was a man of too lofty a spirit to
sius Bibliothecarius (Concil. Octavi Hist. apud consent to his own degradation, and his pertinaConcil. vol. viii. col. 962, ed. Labbe), that of se- cious refusal entailed severe persecution both on
nator; but this is perhaps only another title for himself and his friends. [IGNATius, No. 3.] Phothe office of "Proto-a-Secretis." (Gretser. et Goar. tius, however, retained his high dignity; the senrot. in Codin. p. 242.) cular power was on his side; the clergy of the
Though his official duties would chiefly confine patriarchate, in successive councils, confirmed his
him to the capital, it is probable that he was oc- appointment, though we are told by Nicetas David
casionally employed elsewhere. It was during an (ibid.) that the metropolitans exacted from him a
embassy" to the Assyrians" (a vague and unsuit- written engagement that he would treat his deposed
able term, denoting apparently the court of the rival with filial reverence, and follow his advice;
Caliphs or of some of the other powers of Upper and even the legates of the Holy See were induced
Asia) that he read the works enumerated in his to side with him, a subserviency for which they
Bibliotheca, and wrote the critical notices of them were afterwards deposed by the Pope Nicolaus I:
which that work contains, a striking instance of The engagement to treat Ignatius with kindness
the energy and diligence with which he continued was not kept; in such a struggle its observance
to cultivate literature in the midst of his secular could hardly be expected; but how far the seduties. Of the date of this embassy, while en- verities inflicted on him are to be ascribed to Phogaged in which he must have resided several tius cannot now be determined. The critical
years at the Assyrian court, as well of the other position of the latter would be likely to aggravate
incidents of his life, before his elevation to the any disposition which he might feel to treat his
patriarchate of Constantinople, we have no means rival harshly; for Nicolaus, in a council at Rome,
of judging. He could hardly have been a young embraced the side of Ignatius, and anathematized
man at the time he became patriarch. Photius and his adherents; various enemies rose
The patriarchal throne of Constantinople was up against him among the civil officers as well as
occupied in the middle of the ninth century by the clergy of the empire; and the minds of many,
Ignatius [IGNATIUS, No. 3], who had the mis- including, if we may trust Nicetas (ibid.), the kinfortune to incur the enmity of some few bishops dred and friends of Photius himself, were shocked
and monks, of whom the principal was Gregory by the treatment of the unhappy Ignatius. To add
Asbestus, an intriguing bishop, whom he had de- to his troubles, the Caesar Bardas appears to have
posed from the see of Syracuse in Sicily [GRE- had disputes with him, either influenced by the
GORIUS, No. 35], and also of Bardas, who was natural jealousy between the secular and eccleall-powerful at the court of his nephew Michael, siastical powers, or, perhaps, disappointed at not
then a minor. [MICHAEL III.] Ignatius had ex- finding in Photius the subserviency he had anticommunicated Bardas, on a rumour of his being cipated. The letters of Photius addressed to Bardas
guilty of incest, and Bardas, in retaliation, threat- -(Epistolae, 3, 6, 8) contain abundant complaints of
ened the patriarch with deposition. It was im- the diminution of his authority, of the ill-treat.
portant from the high character of Ignatius, that ment of those for whom he was interested, and of the
whoever was proposed as his successor should be inefficacy of his own intercessions and complaints.
able to compete with him in reputation, and the However, the opposition among his own clergy