Arsenites
Creators: name: Georgiadi, Phoebe
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2023

description: On Christmas 1261 the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos had his eleven-year-old co-emperor John IV Laskaris blinded (thus losing the ability to claim the throne), exiled and imprisoned in Bithynia. This action led to Michael’s excommunication by the patriarch Arsenios and, subsequently, to the Arsenite schism. Three years after his excommunication, the emperor deposed and exiled Arsenios, and in 1266 he enthroned Germanos III at the patriarchate. As a result, the former patriarch’s supporters, the Arsenites, who considered his deposition uncanonical, refused to recognise any of the following patriarchs, considering their election invalid and illegal, and broke away from the church, remaining loyal to Arsenios and the Laskarids. This is why the movement was more influential in Asia Minor, while its social character should also be noted, as it mainly represented the lower social strata that had been favoured by Theodore II Laskaris, along with its political motives, since the Arsenites opposed Michael’s usurpation of the throne, his indifference to the eastern provinces, and his ecclesiastical, economic and pro-aristocratic policy, alongside his role in the patriarch’s enthronement and the extent to which an emperor could intervene in ecclesiastical affairs. Germanos soon resigned and was replaced by Joseph I who lifted Michael’s excommunication, causing a conflict between his supporters, the Josephites, and the Arsenites. After Andronikos II, Michael’s son, succeeded to the throne, he deposed the current unionist patriarch Bekkos and reinstated Joseph, thus giving control of the ecclesiastical affairs to the Josephites and at the same time embittering the Arsenites. Although they presented a greater threat though, Joseph had crowned Andronikos co-emperor, and therefore questioning the legality of his election would be impossible. After his death in 1283, Andronikos tried to compromise the two factions by choosing the scholar Gregory II of Cyprus for the patriarchate, thinking he would be accepted by both of them; both sides though opposed him, while the Arsenites were disappointed and felt deceived by the emperor. During Gregory’s tenure, an effort was made to reconcile the two parties and bring the Arsenites, whose power had grown, back into the official church. In 1284 Andronikos convoked a church synod at Atramyttion, where it was eventually decided that it was up to God to judge which of them should rule the church by casting into a fire two volumes, each containing their opinions, and considering the one that would not be burnt the worthiest. As both were immediately burnt though, the two parties were temporarily appeased and agreed to accept Gregory. The following day though some of the most adamant Arsenites regretted this. As the members of the movement were divided into two groups, with the leading one emphasising its religious character and wishing to eventually gain positions in the church, and the majority of the members being interested in punishing those they considered to have sinned and prioritising a political opposition to the Palaiologoi, the emperor approached the former, and they agreed to accept the jurisdiction of the patriarchate of Constantinople on the condition that all the ordinations made by Bekkos would be annulled and those who had persecuted the Arsenites would be deposed. At the same time, the Arsenite movement had grown in Constantinople and its political nature was strengthened as it spread within the city, where antiLatin and anti-Unionist sentiments prevailed and the people were also faced with heavy taxation and state arbitrariness, something that made their turn to the Arsenites, who were leading the social struggles of the time, easier. According to a letter to the emperor by the patriarch, they could freely gather in public places and propagate their ideas, convert new members even by force and defy the official church’s rules. It seems that the party had gradually become one of simple opposition to the Palaiologoi and the official church, a religious, political and social movement that would often participate in riots and anti-government conspiracies. Andronikos however kept trying to reunite them, but they argued that they should take control of the church in order to cleanse it, as they had never been excommunicated, and that if their leader became patriarch, they would return to the official church. Subsequently, the emperor allowed them to bring the body of Arsenios in Constantinople in order to rebury it with the honours appropriate for a patriarch, granted them the monastery of Mosele and later visited John Laskaris in Asia Minor and ameliorated his living conditions. The Arsenites though were still not satisfied, and in 1289 they contributed to Gregory’s resignation, again hoping that one amongst them would be elected. Nevertheless, their demands, which included the election of a patriarch from their ranks, the removal of Joseph’s name from the diptychs, the restoration of orthodoxy and the cancellation of previous excommunications, were so extreme that Andronikos could not accept them, and finally chose the monk Athanasios to be the next patriarch. The emperor was again under the impression that the latter would be accepted by both parties, but the Arsenites felt discontent, while Athanasios was also intransigent in dealing with them. He soon became very unpopular and abdicated in 1293. His successor was the more compromising monk John XII Kosmas, who, however, was also received with opposition, came into conflict with the emperor and eventually resigned in 1303. Andronikos negotiated with the Arsenites in order to appoint a patriarch they would approve, and they nominated an elderly bishop who had been ordained while Arsenios was patriarch and urged the emperor to overlook some of his irregularities since he had not taken part in any religious scandal. Although he initially agreed, he soon recalled Athanasios to the patriarchate because he was impressed by his prophetic abilities and because he wanted him to get an earlier implied anathema lifted, leaving the Arsenites feeling deceived once again. However, Athanasios’ attitude towards the Arsenites had not changed, and therefore Andronikos’ attempts to reunite them with the Byzantine church failed. In 1304 he called their leaders to a synod where he blamed them for dividing both the church and the society despite all his efforts and good will, and stated that since they did not question the doctrine, they had to obey the official hierarchy. Although some Arsenites claimed that they were only interested in the official church’s purification and insisted that it was heretical because of its common liturgy with the Westerners, Andronikos asked them to return to the church and warned them that otherwise the responsibility for the schism would fall solely on them. However, they were not convinced and the council ended without an agreement. Eventually, the emperor decided that in order to end the controversy he had to replace Athanasios with a more compromising patriarch. In September 1309 the latter resigned, and in 1310, after lengthy negotiations with the Arsenites, he was replaced by Niphon. By that time the Arsenites had been weakened due to the loss of many territories, and therefore followers, in Asia Minor, and wished to return to the official church as they had realised that their opposition to it was leading nowhere. Since both Andronikos and Niphon also wanted to heal the schism, the Arsenites presented their terms which included repudiation of any other dogma, cancellation of earlier excommunications, removal of any members of the clergy that had practiced simony and of those that had been ordained by Bekkos, removal of Joseph’s name from the diptychs, and guarantee that neither John XII nor Athanasios would be allowed to become patriarchs again. As they did not insist on their demand for the election of one of their number to the patriarchate, they indirectly recognised the legitimacy of the ecclesiastical hierarchy and the Palaiologan dynasty, a great relief for the emperor, who, until then, always had to take them into account whenever he made a political decision. The settlement took place in 1310 during a ceremony at Hagia Sophia, where Arsenios’ corpse was brought and set up, dressed in patriarchal clothes and holding a document, according to which his excommunications were revoked, and the terms of their agreement, which Andronikos approved for the sake of ecclesiastical peace, were confirmed. The most intransigent among the Arsenites and the followers of the official church disagreed, while some of the former were again separated because they did not get the offices they wanted and which had been promised to them by Niphon; any reactions however were not taken into account. Thus, after forty-five years, the Arsenite schism that had divided both church and society and embodied religious, political and social phenomena, was resolved, and at the same time a danger to the church and the state was eliminated.