Indestructible Towers

Father George Poullas

 

It is not unusual to find in encyclopedic entries on the Orthodox Church, or even in some otherwise decent scholarly surveys of Orthodoxy, the hackneyed and ridiculous claim that a key feature of Eastern Christianity is caesaro-papism, or the constant submission of the Church to the state (the Empire). Notwithstanding the fact that there was never a Pope in the Orthodox Church—despite the trend towards a kind of neo-Papal Patriarchalism, in contemporary times, modelled on medieval Roman Catholicism, which was in fact more characteristically caesaro-papistic in polity than the Eastern Church—this myth persists. Father George presents us, here, with select evidence that Orthodox Bishops, in fact, called the Byzantine (Roman) Emperors to task, and even in matters related to their personal lives and comportment. His accounts are worthy of our careful attention, and especially since the courage of our Bishops through the centuries is sadly lacking today.

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The Holy Fathers of our Holy Orthodox Church fought not only against heresies, but also against every kind of transgression. We will mention, here, a few heroic examples from the lives of these holy stragglers.

1. The Holy Patriarch Nicholas I Mystikos, who was “a model of Christian conscientiousness and courage,” according to the historian P. Paparregopoulos, did not hesitate to enter into conflict with Emperor Leo VI (the Wise) on account of his unlawful fourth marriage. He implored Leo not to persist in this iniquitous desire of his. The Emperor, however, paid no heed to him and went ahead with the marriage. Then the Saint, not reckoning with imperial authority, stopped the miscreant emperor on the threshold of Hagia Sophia, forbidding him to enter. Moreover, he deposed the Priest Thomas, who had celebrated this unlawful marriage. As a result of his valiant resistance, he was immediately exiled by the emperor. But not even did exile intimidate the Saint, who had no hesitation in writing a letter to the Bishop of Rome, to the effect that an emperor who gave orders to slander, to murder through treachery, to celebrate unlawful marriages, and to seize other people’s property, was not an emperor, but a brigand, a slanderer, an adulterer, and a thief (see “Epistle XXXII,” Patrologia Grceca, Vol. CXI, cols. 209-213).

2. About fifty years later, the Holy Patriarch Polyeuctos prevented Emperor Nikephoros Phokas from entering a Church and imposed a lengthy penance on him, because there was an impediment arising from spiritual kinship between him and his wife Theophano. But the strength of the Saint proved still more resplendent when John Tsimiskes murdered Nikephoros Phokas, with the cooperation of Theophano, in order to seize the throne. The Saint in that instance demanded that the murderers be punished and the Empress Theophano be exiled. This is, in fact, what happened.

3. Later on, the Holy Patriarch Leontios II of Jerusalem rebuked Emperor Andronicos I Comnenos for his unlawful marriage, and was, for this reason, persecuted and exiled.

4. Almost immediately after the Fall of Constantinople, Patriarch Joasaph I (1465-1466), together with Maximos, the Grand Ecclesiarch, who subsequently became Patriarch, opposed the evil desire of the ruler, Amiroutzes, a friend of the Sultan, to contract an illicit marriage. For this, the Patriarch was banished, while the Ecclesiarch had his nose split open. Let us see, therefore, with what great courage our Holy Fathers stood up to imperial transgressions, without fearing persecution, exile or death.

Today, on the other hand....

 

Source: Orthodox Tradition, Vol. XXVI (2009), No. 2, pp. 15-16.