Photius of Constantinople (2), also an Eastern ecclesiastic, flourished in the 5th century as presbyter of the Church at Constantinople, and was one of the most decided and active supporters of the unfortunate heresiarch Nestorius (q. v.). When Antonius and Jacobus were sent, some time before the Council of Ephesus, A.D. 431, to convert, by persecution, the Quar- tadecimans and Novatians of Asia Minor, they presented to some of their converts at Philadelphia, not the Nicene Creed, but one that contained a passage deemed heret- ical on the subject of the Incarnation, which excited against them Charisius, who was ceconomus of the Church at Philadelphia. In these proceedings Antonius and Jacobus were supported by Photius, who not only gave them letters at the commencement of their mission, attesting their orthodoxy, but procured the deposition of their opponent Charisius, who thereupon presented a complaint to the Council of Ephesus (Concilia, vol. iii, col. 673, etc., ed. Labbe). Tillcmont is disposed to ascribe to Photius the answer which was drawn up to the Epistola ad Solitarios of Cyril of Alexandria. A certain Photius, a supporter of Nestorius, was banished to Petra, about A.D. 436 (Lupus, Ad Ephcsin L'oncil. rarior. J']'. Ejiis- tolm, cap. clxxxviii), whom, notwithstanding the ob- jections of Lupus (not. in loc), we agree with Tillemont in identifying with the presbyter of Constantinople (Tillemont, Memoires, xiv, 30O, 332, 494, 607, 787).— Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. s. v.
Photius of Constantinople (3), one of the most eminent men whose names occur in the long series of the Byzantine annals, flourished in the 9th century. In the preparation of this article we depend very largely upon Smith, Diet, of Gr. and Rom. Biog. s. v.
Life. — The year and place of his birth, and the name of his father, appear to be unknown. His mother's name was Irene : her brother married one of the sisters of Theodora, wife of the emperor Theophilus (Theoph. Continuat. lib. iv, 22) ; so that Photius was connected by affinity with the imperial family. We have the testimony of Nicetas David, the Paphlagonian. that his lineage was illustrious. He had at least four brothers (Mountagu, Not. ad Epistol. Pkotii, p. 138), one of whom, the eldest, enjoyed the dignity of patrician. Photius himself, in speaking of his father and mother, celebrates their crown of martyrdom, and the patient spirit by which they were adorned, during the reign of Theoph- ilus or some other of the iconoclastic emperors. This is the more likely, as Photius elsewhere (Epistol. 2. Encycl. § 42, and Epistol. ad Nieol. Papam) claims as his rela- tive Tarasius (probably great-uncle), partriarch of Con- stantinople, who was one of the great champions of im-
age worship, which shows the side taken by his fam- ily in the controversy. The ability of Photius would have adorned any lineage, and his capacious mind was cultivated, as the testimony even of his opponents and his extant works show, with great diligence. "He was accounted," says Nicetas David, the biographer and panegyrist of his competitor Ignatius, " to be of all men most eminent for his secular acquirements, and his un- - derstanding of political affairs. For so superior were his attainments in grammar and poetry, in rhetoric and philosophy, yea, even in medicine, and in almost all the branches of knowledge beyond th*e limits of theology, that he not only appeared to excel all the men of his own day, but even to bear comparison with the ancients. For all things combined in his favor: natural adapta- tion, diligence, wealth, which enabled him to form a comprehensive library; and more than all these, the love of glory, which induced him to pass whole nights without sleep, that he might have time for reading. And when the time came (which ought never to have arrived) for him to intrude himself into the Church, lie became a most diligent reader of theological works" ( Vita Ignatii apud Concil. vol. viii, ed. Labbe). It must not, however, be supposed that Photius had wholly neglected the study of theology before his entrance on an ecclesiastical life : so far was this from being the case, that he had read and carefully analyzed, as his Bibliotheca attests, the chief works of the Greek ecclesiastical writers of all ages, so that his attainments in sacred literature might have shamed many a profes- sional divine. Thus highly connected, and with a mind so richly endowed and highly cultivated, Photius ob- tained high advancement at the Byzantine court. He held the dignity of a p7-oto-a-secretis, or chief-justice (Codin. De Officiis CP. p. 36. ed. Bonn) ; and, if we trust the statement of Nicetas David (I.e.), of protospatha- rius, a name originally denoting the chief sword-bearer or captain of the guards, but which became, in later times, a merely nominal office (Codin. ibid. p. 33). To these dignities may be added, on the authority of An- astasius Bibliothecarius (Concil. Octavi Hist, apud Con- cil. vol. viii, col. 962, ed. Labbe), that of senator; but this is, perhaps, only another title for the office of p?-oto- a-secretis (Gretser. et Goar. Not. in Codin. p. 242). Be- sides these official duties at the capital, he was also occa- sionally employed on missions abroad ; and it was during an embassy " to the Assyrians" (a vague and unsuitable term, denoting apparently the court of the caliphs, or of some of the other powers of Upper Asia) that he read the works enumerated in his Bibliotheca, and wrote the critical notices of them which that work contains — a striking instance of the energy and diligence with which he continued to cultivate literature in the midst of his secular duties and when away from home. Of the date of this embassy, while engaged in which he must have resided several years at the Assyrian court, as well of the other incidents of his life before his elevation to the patriarchate of Constantinople, we have no knowledge. He could hardly have been a young man at the time he became patriarch.