Patriarch John IX of Constantinople
Encyclopedia
John IX Agapetos or Hieromnemon was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople between 1111 and 1134. John's nickname is because before his election to the Patriarchal throne he held the office of hieromnemon within the Patriarchate. He was the nephew of a prominent Metropolitan
of Chalcedon
.
He was a cleric from within the scholarly, philosophical branch of the Church hierarchy, and had risen through the ranks of the patriarchal clergy. He sought to reverse the secularising trend within the clergy by banning them from acting as advocates in civil courts. A lifelong scholar, he sought to reclaim the great, but dispersed, collection of books within the capital, as there was no central library. He made it a practice to acquire the book collections of deceased powerful men, and then had the patriarchal staff recopy them. His measures greatly expanded the range of titles held in the Great Church to which teachers were attached.
Within religious matters, he pushed the trend of making the patriarchal clergy, rather than the monastic community, the authoritative voice of Orthodoxy. He also convened a synod in Constantinople in 1117 which condemned the doctrine of Eustratius of Nicaea
as Nestorian, despite the defence offered by the Patriarch. During his patriarchate some efforts were made by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos
to bridge the schism
between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church but these failed, as Pope Pascal II in late 1112 pressed the demand that the Patriarch of Constantinople recognise the Pope's primacy over "all the churches of God throughout the world". This was something the patriarch could not do in face of opposition from the majority of secular clergy, the monastic world, and the laity.
Metropolitan bishop
In Christian churches with episcopal polity, the rank of metropolitan bishop, or simply metropolitan, pertains to the diocesan bishop or archbishop of a metropolis; that is, the chief city of a historical Roman province, ecclesiastical province, or regional capital.Before the establishment of...
of Chalcedon
Chalcedon
Chalcedon , sometimes transliterated as Chalkedon) was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor, almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari . It is now a district of the city of Istanbul named Kadıköy...
.
He was a cleric from within the scholarly, philosophical branch of the Church hierarchy, and had risen through the ranks of the patriarchal clergy. He sought to reverse the secularising trend within the clergy by banning them from acting as advocates in civil courts. A lifelong scholar, he sought to reclaim the great, but dispersed, collection of books within the capital, as there was no central library. He made it a practice to acquire the book collections of deceased powerful men, and then had the patriarchal staff recopy them. His measures greatly expanded the range of titles held in the Great Church to which teachers were attached.
Within religious matters, he pushed the trend of making the patriarchal clergy, rather than the monastic community, the authoritative voice of Orthodoxy. He also convened a synod in Constantinople in 1117 which condemned the doctrine of Eustratius of Nicaea
Eustratius of Nicaea
Eustratius of Nicaea was Metropolitan bishop of Nicaea in the early 12th century. He wrote commentaries to Aristotle's second book of Analytica and the Ethica Nicomachea....
as Nestorian, despite the defence offered by the Patriarch. During his patriarchate some efforts were made by Emperor Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos
Alexios I Komnenos, Latinized as Alexius I Comnenus , was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118, and although he was not the founder of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during his reign that the Komnenos family came to full power. The title 'Nobilissimus' was given to senior army commanders,...
to bridge the schism
East–West Schism
The East–West Schism of 1054, sometimes known as the Great Schism, formally divided the State church of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Roman Catholic Church, respectively...
between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church but these failed, as Pope Pascal II in late 1112 pressed the demand that the Patriarch of Constantinople recognise the Pope's primacy over "all the churches of God throughout the world". This was something the patriarch could not do in face of opposition from the majority of secular clergy, the monastic world, and the laity.
Source
- Ecumenical Patriarchate
- Hussey, J.M.. The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford: University Press, 1986.
- Magdalino, Paul. The Empire of Manuel Komnenos. Cambridge: University Press, 1993.