RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Philoxenus Photius
to them frequently not as a sect but as persons in general who think after the Photinian manner; i.e., persons who regard Christ as a mere man.
Photinus was a dynamic monarchian (see Monarchianism) who, without denying the virgin birth, regarded the person of Christ as essentially human; and denied a hypostatic distinction of the Logos from the Father and a hypostasis of the Spirit. He attached himself to the Marcellian doctrine and argumentation: " the Son is known simply according to his appearance in the flesh " and Daniel (vii. 13) speaks " prophetically, not as of the Son existing." His most significant writings, according to Jerome, were Contra gentes and Libri ad Valentinianum. Socrates knows of a book " Against All Heresies " and Rufinus of a tract on the symbol (MPL, xxi. 336). (F. Loofs.)
Bibliography: The principal sources are Epiphanius, Hoer., Ixxi.; Hilary, Fragments 1—3, and De Trinitate, vii. 3-7; Socrates, Hist, eccl., ii. 30, Eng. transl., NPNF. 2ser., ii. 44-45, 56-58; Vigilius of Thapsus, MPL, lxii. 179 sqq., and MPL, xxxv. 2213-2214. These are mostly collected in M. de Larroque, Dissertatio duplex, Geneva, 1670. Consult, besides the literature under Arianism and Monarchianism, especially that under Diodorus and Marcellus of Ancyra; DCB, iv. 394-395; C. R. W. Klose, Geschichte und Lehre des Marcellus und Photinus, Hamburg, 1837; C. W. F. Walch, Historie der Ketzereien, iii. 1-70, Leipsic, 1766; Fabricius-Harles, Bibliotheca Grasca, ix. 222-226, Hamburg, 1804; Tillemont, Memoires, vol. vi.; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, vols, i.-ii., Eng. transl., ii. 188-189, Fr. transl., vol. i., passim; Harnack, Dogma, vols. i.-v. passim; Neander, Christian Church, vol. ii. passim.
PHOTIUS, fo'shi-us. I. Life.
Early Life (§1). First Patriarchate (§ 2). Decisive Break with Rome (§ 3). Years of Retirement (§ 4). Second Patriarchate (§ 5). II. Writings.
Bibliotheca (§1). Amphilochia (§ 2). Polemical Works (§ 3). Other Writings (§ 4). Editions (§ 5).
Photius, twice patriarch of Constantinople in the ninth century, enjoys an almost unparalleled preeminence in both the Greek and the Russian Church of the present day. Though in his own time he had enemies, and though circumstances clouded his fame at Rome and at the Byzantine court, he took deep hold among his people from the first, and soon after his death his Church put his name in her calendar of saints. To judge his character is not easy. He was not the tyrant that his opponents represented him to be, though he could be hard and domineering. He was crafty, double-tongued, and vain, but to be so lay in the character of his time and in the atmosphere of the Constantinople in which he lived. He was a sort of universal genius — philologian, philosopher, theologian, jurist, mathematician, man of science, orator, and poet; no original thinker but of powerful memory, of iron industry, of good esthetic sense, of great dialectic skill, far-seeing and clever in practical matters, of commanding will-power, a profound judge of men, and true in friendship, though also always exacting the return. His piety in its way was real. To him the Orthodox Church owes her understanding and appreciation of her distinction from the Latin.
Proud already of her inheritance, Photius intensified and confirmed her self-consciousness, and gave her the pregnant catchwords which have never been forgotten.
1. Life: Photius was born at Constantinople, probably between 815 and 820, and died in the Armenian monastery of Bordi Feb. 6, 897 or 898.
He was of a family of quality, rigidly
i. Early orthodox, and friendly to images. His
Life. parents died early, " adorned with the
martyr's crown," this probably meaning that, as friends of images, they were despoiled of their property and honors. It is known that they, with Photius, were excommunicated by an iconoclastic synod, but Photius himself appears never to have been in pecuniary straits. It is not possible to follow the course of his life closely before he became patriarch. When hardly more than a boy he began to give public lectures, first on grammar, then on philosophy and theology — an activity which was interrupted by an embassy " to the Assyrians," mentioned without further explanation in the preface to the Bibliotheca (see below, II., § 1); probably a visit to the court of the calif in Bagdad is meant. After the death of the Emperor Theophilus in 842, the Empress Theodora became regent for her young son, Michael III., called the Drunkard, assisted by her brother, Bardas, who from his sister's counselor speedily developed into her rival. Learning was now held in higher esteem than it had been by the preceding iconoclastic emperors, and Photius' relations with the court became very intimate. He was first secretary of state and captain of the bodyguard, and his brother Sergius was married to Irene, a younger sister of Theodora and Bardas. Photius himself was never married nor was he a monk. Bardas succeeded in entirely supplanting Theodora as regent, probably in 857, and, to nullify her influence, which was feared by the young Michael as well as by his uncle, it was proposed to immure her in a convent. The Patriarch Ignatius, however (see Ignatius of Constantinople), was a partizan of Theodora and refused to lend himself to this plan, so that, on Nov. 23, 858 (or, according to others, 857)^Bardas deposed him and chose Photius for his successor.
Photius undoubtedly belonged to a powerful party antagonistic to Ignatius, which included Bardas and was led by a certain Gregorius Asbesta. He was not a cleric, but the elevation of a layman to
the patriarch's chair was not unprece-
2. First dented. On five successive days (Dec. Patriarch- 20-24, 858) Gregorius hurried the canate, didate through the five grades necessary for the assumption of the patriarchate, and on Christmas Day he was enthroned. Ignatius, however, did not retire quietly, in spite of the efforts of Bardas and Photius to make him yield, and he had a large following, the monks being especially hostile to Photius. The ill-treatment of Ignatius and his friends was doubtless exaggerated, and, so far as it really occurred, was due to Bardas rather than to Photius. Photius exerted himself to secure episcopal sees for his friends and accomplished Ignatius' deposition, in apparently canonical form, by a synod in 859. Ignatius went
Photius