OF THE ROMAN EMPIEE 369 Greeks may be traced in the emulation of the leading prelates, who maintained the supremacy of the old metropolis superior to all, and of the reigning capital inferior to none, in the Christian world. About the middle of the ninth century, Photius,^ an ambitious layman, the captain of the guards and principal sec- retary, was promoted by merit and favour to the more desirable office of patriarch of Constantinople.^ In science, even ecclesi- [25 Dec, sss] astical science, he surpassed the clergy of the age ; ^° and the purity of his morals has never been impeached ; but his or- dination was hasty, his rise was ii-regular ; and Ignatius, his abdicated predecessor, was yet supported by the public compas- sion and the obstinacy of his adherents. They appealed to the tribunal of Nicholas the First, one of the proudest and most aspiring of the Roman pontiffs, who embraced the welcome op- portunity of judging and condemning his rival of the East. Their quarrel was embittered by a conflict of jurisdiction over the king and nation of the Bulgarians ; nor was their recent conversion to Christianity of much avail to either prelate, unless he could number the proselytes among the subjects of his power. With the aid of his court, the Greek patriarch was victorious ; but in the furious contest he deposed, in his turn, the successor of St. Peter, and involved the Latin Church in the reproach of heresy and schism. Photius sacrificed the peace of the world to a short and precarious reign ; he fell with his patron, the Caesar Bardas ; and Basil the Macedonian performed an act of [a.d.sst] justice in the restoration of Ignatius, whose age and dignity had not been sufficiently respected. From his monastery, or prison, Photius solicited the favour of the emperor by pathetic com- plaints and artful flattery ; and the eyes of his rival were scarcely closed when he was again restored to the throne of[A.D. stt] Constantinople. After the death of Basil, he experienced the vicissitudes of courts and the ingratitude of a royal pupil ; the [a.d. 886] patriarch was again deposed, and in his last solitary hours he might regret the freedom of a secular and studious life. In [Photius died each revolution, the breath, the nod, of the sovereign had been accepted by a submissive clergy ; and a synod of three hundred 8 The xth volume of the Venice edition of the Councils contains all the acts of the synods, and history of Photius ; they are abridged with a faint tinge of prejudice or prudence, by Dupin and Fleury. [The fullest modern history of Photius is Hergenrother's Biography, cp. Appendix i.] 9 [As successor of Ignatius, who was deposed because he excommunicated the Caesar Bardas for incest with his stepdaughter.] i[Cp. Appendix i.] VOL. VI. 24
