March 1213-1215 A.D. Theodore II Eirenikos—Constantinople’s 127th; High Ranking Byzantine Official; Fled Constantinople after Crusaders’ Sack;
March
1213-1215 A.D. Theodore II
Eirenikos—Constantinople’s 127th;
High Ranking Byzantine Official;
Fled Constantinople after Crusaders’ Sack; Openly Confronts Old Rome’s Lustophilic,
Inconquerable & Impenitent Claim to Ecclesiastical Jurisdiction (Then Like
Now)
Theodore II of
Constantinople
Contents
Political career
Exile and church career
References
Sources
From Wikipedia, the free
encyclopedia
Seal of Theodore Eirenikos when he washypatos ton
philosophon, ca. 1208–1214
Theodore II Eirenikos (Greek: Θεόδωρος Β' Εἰρηνικός),
also known as Theodore Kopas or Koupas (Κωπάς/Κουπάς),[1] was a high-ranking Byzantine official and chief minister during most of the reign of the Byzantine emperor Alexios III
Angelos (r.
1195–1203). After the fall of Constantinople to the Fourth Crusade, he fled to the Empire of Nicaea, where he became a monk and served as Patriarch of Constantinople in exile in 1214–1216.
Contents
Political career
An intelligent, well-spoken
and educated man, he rose to power following the disgrace and exile of Alexios'
hitherto favourite official, Constantine Mesopotamites, in autumn 1197. Eirenikos succeeded Mesopotamites in
his confidential and influential palace post of epi tou
kanikleiou (secretary
of the imperial inkpot), and as chief minister. He also held the senior court
rank of pansebastos sebastos.[1][2] According to the account of the contemporary
historian Niketas Choniates, Eirenikos feared
that he would share Mesopotamites' fate, and therefore exercised his power with
great restraint. He was anxious not to displease the hereditary aristocracy
that dominated the imperial court and that had undermined Mesopotamites'
position. To that effect he also neglected to undertake any of the reforms that
the Empire desperately needed.[3]
Exile and church career
In April 1204, Constantinople fell to
the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, and like many Byzantine leaders, Theodore fled the city
and sought refuge in Asia Minor. There Theodore was tonsured as a monk.[1] In 1209, the newly proclaimed Nicaean emperor, Theodore I
Laskaris, named him to the post of chartophylax of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, re-established in Nicaean exile. Laskaris also awarded him with the title hypatos ton philosophon,[1] a prestigious title given to the head of the faculty of philosophy in Constantinople.[4]
On 28 September 1214,
Eirenikos was elected as Patriarch of Constantinople by the patriarchal synod. His tenure was marked by his open confrontation with the Catholic Church, especially over the legitimacy of the Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople and of Catholic control over the Greek Orthodox
populations ruled by Latin princes.[5]
References
Sources
·
Brand, Charles M. (1968). Byzantium Confronts the West, 1180–1204. Cambridge, Massachusetts:
Harvard University Press.
·
Kazhdan, Alexander, ed. (1991), Oxford
Dictionary of Byzantium, Oxford University Press, ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6
·
Vougiouklaki, Penelope (2003). "Theodore
II Irenikos". Encyclopedia of the Hellenic World, Eastern
Mediterranean. Foundation of the Hellenic World. Retrieved
21 June 2012.
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