Byzantine patriarchal ambitions had been mounting ever since the transfer of the imperial
capital to Constantinople in 330. By way of recapitulation, it may be recalled that first the bishop
of Byzantium must needs be independent of the metropolitan jurisdiction of Heraclea. Next
patriarchal rank was claimed in the third canon of the Council of Constantinople (381). By the
time of Chacedon (451) Byzantine pretensions as expressed in the twenty-eighth Canon took a
suprapatriarchal status for granted: the "New Rome" is second only to "Old Rome." Though these
claims were never confirmed by the Holy See, Byzantine patriarchs enjoyed imperial backing in
asserting a de facto rule over the other eastern patriarchs. John the Faster (582-95) advertised
these claims by assuming, despite the protests of St. Gregory the Great, the style of "ecumenical
bishop." After the other Oriental patriarchal sees had been weakened by heresy and schism and
overwhelmed by the Moslem flood, the Synod in Trullo (692) found no dissent in the East to its
declaration of a primacy of jurisdiction in the Orient analogous to that of the bishop of Rome in the
West. To be sure, the pope was still conceded a certain precedence, yet the same Trullan Synod
did not hesitate to criticize Latin discipline and liturgy severely, while intimating that these
contained errors of which the Greek church was free.

Iconoclasm, it would seem in retrospect, proved to be a decisive point in the alienation of
the East from the West. During that schism the Byzantine court had retaliated against papal
intransigence toward doctrinal innovations by an arbitrary transfer of the Illyrian papal vicariate
from the Latin to the Byzantine patriarchate. This uncanonical realignment of jurisdiction
nevertheless became fixed in practice, and later bishops of Constantinople, even St. Ignatius,
were unable to understand continued papal protests on the subject. The prospect of the
conversion of the Slavs who had moved into the Balkan area, moreover, renewed the tension
during the ninth century. In the course of the iconoclast schism the Greek rulers had also tried to
Hellenize what remained of their possessions in southern Italy and to detach the hierarchy of that
region from direct dependence upon Rome. This process, which was ultimately unsuccessful,
continued down to the final Cerularian schism. By Roman toleration, however, the Italo-Greek rite
survives to the present in Calabria and Sicily. Even after the healing of iconoclasm at Nicea II,
Frankish misunderstandings had reopened the scars. To this the addition of the Filioque to the
Creed by the Westerners added friction. Finally all these germs of strife were exaggerated by the
suspicious jealousy entertained by a waning Byzantine power for the bishops of Rome whom they
had seen confer the sacred diadem of Caesar and Constantine upon "barbarian upstarts."

St. Ignatius (799-877). Though Patriarch St. Methodius (842-47) had signalized the
cessation of doctrinal strife by the celebration of the Feast of Orthodoxy in 843, occasions for
disciplinary disputes survived. The regent Theodora used her influence to have Ignatius
Porphyrigenitos named to the patriarchate in succession to St. Methodius, for as abbot he had
distinguished himself in the defense of images. But other circumstances were to make the new
episcopate a stormy one. Ignatius had formerly been Crown Prince Nicetas, son of the iconodule
Basileus Michael Rhangabe, who had been deposed in 813. In the monastery Nicetas had
become the monk and priest Ignatius. Though there seems to be no reason to question the

sincerity of his vocation, foes could always accuse him of aiming at the throne. Nor did Ignatius
at first enjoy great favor at Rome. With crass ignorance of protocol, the new patriarch sent the
pallium to the pope; St. Leo IV courteously reminded him that the bishop of Rome bestowed, but
did not receive this symbol. When, moreover, Ignatius censured Gregory Asbestas, refugee
bishop of Syracuse, the pope seems to have disapproved of the rigor of the sentence; at any rate
he refused to confirm it. Unrelenting, the stern patriarch excommunicated Gregory and his
partisans in 854.

King Michael III (842-67) began his personal rule in 856 with the retirement of his mother
Theodora. His impressionable mind was quickly captivated by his paternal uncle, Bardas, a
brilliant but utterly depraved courtier. The better to indulge his passions, the king forced his
mother into a convent against the protests of St. Ignatius. Next Michael, leaving public affairs to
Bardas, plunged into a career of debauchery which his epithet of "The Drunkard" inadequately
describes. Bardas himself, having dismissed his wife, lived in notorious incest with his daughter-
in-law Eudoxia. We are told, moreover, that Bardas inspired veritable sexual orgies at court,
which were varied by sacrilegious parodies of liturgical rites and mockery of ecclesiastics.

Deposition of St. Ignatius. Any conscientious bishop would have been obliged to
denounce these transactions, and Ignatius did so with the vigor of an Elias. When his
admonitions were answered with ridicule, the patriarch took the extreme measure of publicly
refusing Holy Communion to Bardas at Epiphany, 857. Deposition of the fearless bishop thus
became Bardas's only alternative to repentance. This was easily arranged. Ignatius was
accused of complicity in an obscure conspiracy of a certain Gebo. The unsubstantiated charge,
however, seemed plausible from the fact that Ignatius was of royal blood, while the Asbestas
clerical faction provided willing prosecutors. On November 23, 857, the patriarch was declared
deposed and exiled to Terbinthus. Far from resigning, St. Ignatius laid an interdict on Hagia
Sophia before going into exile. His courageous stand won for him ardent adherents, some of
whom, it must be recalled for the sequel, later degenerated into fanatical partisans who did not
hesitate to exaggerate, perhaps even to falsify in his cause. Presently a babel of voices reached
the Holy See.

The following topic has more than chronological proximity to justify its
insertion here. Byzantine-Latin jurisdictional disputes and Greek-German political rivalry are
illustrated by the events surrounding the mission of Sts. Cyril and Methodius to Moravia. This
was the first large-scale attempt to convert the Slavs, and success for either sector of
Christendom could mean a great addition of subjects and prestige. Though the holy pioneers
were interested chiefly in souls, behind them a political contest took shape.

The Slavs were the fourth of the Indo-European races to come into contact with the
Church. They were a numerous people whose earliest known habitation was Polesie, the area of
the Pripet Marsh in Russia. Here they dwelt outside the pale of history until the invasion of the
Huns, 375, set them in motion westward to occupy lands vacated by the Teutons. Eventually they
reached as far as the Elbe, whence the German Drang nach Osten pushed them back to the
Oder. As will be noted later, they also entered the Balkans. III-equipped for war and lacking
political unity, the Slavs were long dominated by Asiatic hordes or Teutonic tribes. The Goths had
subjected some of them before 375; then followed the Huns until 455; next the Gepidae held
sway till crushed by the Lombards in 565; finally Khan Bajan of the Avars built up a strong power
in modern Hungary and Czechoslovakia. When Avar strength was crushed by the Franks in 796,
the Moravians inherited their dominions until themselves defeated by the Magyars in 906. While
these largely Mongoloid overlords were not Slavs, they were eventually in large part absorbed by

Slavic paganism, like that of other primitive Indo-Europeans, included a large element of
naturalism, with superstitious awe for good and evil genii of rivers and groves. The Slavs had
almost lost their original notion of a "Being supreme and eternal" for a complicated polytheism.
These gods were dominated by Bielobog and Czernobog, black and white deities reminiscent of
Persian dualism of good and evil. To the worship of these gods were devoted a priesthood and
sanctuaries, the chief ones located at Kiev and Novgorod. Human sacrifice is frequently
reported. Hideous crude images of the gods were constructed, but poets were lacking to conjure
up a literary mythology. Ideas on the future life were. dim, but ancestor worship and belief in
vampires and werewolves were prevalent. All in all, Slavic paganism by the ninth century had
become quite debased.

Christianity was to be enthusiastically accepted, once it was known, although among the
Slavs, as among the Celts and Teutons before them, pagan superstitions survived for a long time
under a veneer of Christianity. Of no land would this remark he more widely applicable than
Russia. In the long run, the Slavs were divided between the Byzantine and Latin patriarchates,
and many, though by no means all, of the former jurisdiction were involved in the Great Eastern
Schism.

Moravian nationalism had resented tributary subservience to the Franks imposed by
Charles the Great, and accordingly regarded German missionaries coming to them from Salzburg
as political agents. Thus, though Princes Moimir and Ratislas found it expedient to declare
themselves Christians, the latter seized the opportunity of Carolingian decline to appeal in 862 to
Michael of Byzantium for Greek missionaries to counteract German influence.

St. Cyril (827-69), as he is known after his monastic profession, was born Constantine at
Thessalonica. This city was now on the frontier of Slavonic settlement in the Balkans, and from
youth St. Cyril was familiar with Slavic language and customs. Later he appeared at
Constantinople as a learned priest and professor. He gained considerable missionary experience
among the Khazars in the Chersonese, and devised a Slavonic alphabet whereby he translated
the Gospels and liturgy into familiar terms. Cyril was, therefore, an ideal response to Prince
Ratislas's petition, and was sent to Moravia. Accompanied by his brother Methodius, as yet only
a lay monk, he arrived in Moravia in 863. The natives were overjoyed to hear of Christianity in
their own tongue and flocked to receive instruction. But the Germans grumbled that the liturgy, as
was evident a priori, ought to be celebrated only in Hebrew, Greek, or Latin, the biblical tongues.
King Louis the German backed up the Teutonic missionaries with menaces to Prince Ratislas.
About 867 the missionary brothers deemed it prudent to go to Italy for helpers and papal
authorization. Though the Venetians were scandalized at their Slavonic liturgy, Pope Adrian II
received them kindly and sanctioned the new usage. The pope also designated St. Cyril bishop
for the Moravian mission, but this delicate scholar, his health already undermined by
unaccustomed exertion, died in Rome in 869.

St. Methodius (826-85), consecrated bishop in his brother's stead, now came to the fore
in the Moravian mission. When he returned there in 870, he found that his patron Ratislas had
been deposed in favor of his nephew Swatopulk (870-94), at first a German puppet. As soon as
St. Methodius began to make use of his Slavonic liturgy, he was cited before a Bavarian synod at
which the German bishops of Salzburg, Passau, and Freising condemned him to imprisonment.
Pope John VIII on bearing of this sent his legate, Paul of Ancona, to liberate St. Methodius and
reassert papal jurisdiction over the Moravian mission. The pope, however, advised him to limit
the Slavonic language to his preaching. Either because he believed the papal instruction a
forgery of his foes, or that circumstances gave him discretion, Methodius resumed his use of the
Slavonic liturgy. Denounced to Rome for this by the Germans-who pointed out that there was no