agree to all this, and then they go back to Rome, and Photius sends the Acts of his council to the Pope for his confirmation. Instead, the Pope, of course, again excommunicates him. The schism had once more broken out. It lasted till Basil I's death (886). Photius and his friends had by now definitely taken up their line. They were a National Church, and, in spite of all their former appeals to Rome, now that Rome had pronounced against them, they were not going to recognize the authority of any foreigner. Let Old Rome look after the West, the Queen of the East was New Rome.
8. The End of Photius.
There is one more change before Photius dies. Again the wheel turns, and, after all his trouble, Photius once more has to go into exile. Basil I was succeeded by his son, Leo VI (886–912)—the eldest son, Constantine, was dead. And Leo, although he had been Photius's pupil, did not like his former tutor—it is difficult to know exactly why. So Photius is deposed and banished for high treason,[1] just as Ignatius had been thirty years before. Prince Stephen, the Emperor's younger brother, for whom no suitable provision had yet been made, becomes Patriarch (886–893)—a circumstance that probably explains the whole business. Whether Photius in exile again began making plans for his restoration we do not know; we do not even know where he was exiled. Suddenly, at this moment (886) the man who had made his name famous throughout Europe entirely drops out of history. He never got another chance, never reappeared in the city that had taken up his cause as her own. There is not even a letter that can be certainly dated as belonging to this second banishment. Where, in what distant monastery the old man ate out his heart during his last years, what bitter memories of his chequered career, what vain plans he
- ↑ He had conspired to depose the Emperor, and to put one of his own relations on the throne. These charges never mean anything. If the Court did not want a man, he was always condemned for treason on some absurd charge (aiding and abetting the Saracens was the favourite), and then banished, or blinded, or strangled—anything as long as he did not trouble Cæsar any more.
