Council of Nymphaeum

The **Council of Nymphaeum** (Greek: Νυμφαῖον, *Nymphaion*) was a council of Eastern Orthodox bishops convened in the imperial Palace of Nymphaion between 1312 and 1313 by Byzantine emperor Theodore III Laskaris to answer the demands of the religious Eusebian movement, then under the leadership of former emperor and monk John-Eusebios Komnenos Laskaris. The Nymphene creed set the tone for religious life and debate in the Byzantine 14th century, with the consolidation of hesychasm as church doctrine, the rejection of notions of holy wars, the forced christianization of Muslim Turks and consequentially the establishment of the *Exétasis*. A union with the Armenian Church was also successfully negotiated at the Council of Nymphaeum.

## In-game text

When Romanos VI Melissenos, Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, was deposed by his wife's hand in the early weeks of 1312, the people of New Rome rejoiced. The bread riots of Constantinople had inflicted significant material damage upon the City and its inhabitants, most of all upon those Latins unfortunate enough to have been caught outside the foreign trade district at Galata, but the ripples it sent through the Roman spiritual world were far more dangerous, destructive and everlasting. For the bread riots had not only been a violent response the dry season and the Great European Famine, but also to nearly three decades of unpopular Melissenid rule which had taken its toll on the average citizen. The Empire of the Romans had not been as powerful, prosperous and wealthy since the times of Basil the Bulgar-Slayer and the Macedonians of old, but expansion had claimed a hefty prize from all tax-paying imperial subjects. Romanos VI's new large fleet, roads, fortresses, beacons and above all his numerous wars had threatened to deplete the public treasury and new taxes and tributes had been necessary, when the spoils of war were not sufficient to fund his many ambitions. Discontent grew steadily among the masses; all which was needed was for a suitable channel to act on said discontent to be found.

Bread and coin might have been the principal causes of the 1312 Constantinople riots, but its consequences spread beyond simple regime change. They tore through the fragile tissue of religion and Roman spirituality to its core, having Eusebios of Ephesus as the leader of their countrywide uproar. Once Emperor John IV Laskaris, the blind monk Eusebios had bidden his time to exact revenge upon the Melissenids, waiting until old age for the correct conditions to arise and to hone his mind and intellect to perform the herculean task ahead of him. General discontent against Romanos VI was a fertile field upon which to sow his ideas, especially after the scandal of Atouman's conversion to Christianity as Alexander Anatolios. None could protest at the man's conversion and new allegiance, but Romanos VI was scrutinized for the terms involved; his sister's hand in marriage to the barbarian Turk and a peaceful integration of the rich Nicaean domains, where the Asian aristocrats and magnates would have preferred to claim ample spoils of war. The Ottoman scandal proved to be the starting point for Eusebios' kaiserkritik. Romanos' relations with the Latin West, exemplified by his relationship with the dowager empress Irene of Bohemia, often and insubstantially rumored to have been sexual and amorous to the detriment of the *Augusta* Eudoxia Laskarina, were also a point of interest attacked by Eusebios. The lack of response to the slaughter of the Varangians in Premyslid lands and the supposed abduction of Irene of Bohemia by the late Ottokar, coupled with Romanos VI's perceived support for the Bohemian Crusade in Cyprus, were deemed critical and unacceptable weaknesses of the Emperor. Thus, religious tension was bound to arise in the Roman society, and arise it did.

The Eusebian movement began with the deliverance of the Postulations of Thessalonica and the publication of the mirror of princes *On the Nature of the Imperial Office* in 1302. In short, Eusebios' discourse was an implicit and yet clear attack on Romanos VI and his rule, focusing primarily on his undermining of the Church and his tolerance for Muslims and Latins alike. He proposed the inauguration of a new religious and legal doctrine, centered around the notion that a peace opposing a just war (a war to promote the Church and the Empire) was in reality an unjust peace, and that said unjust peace had the potential to condemn the Roman souls to an eternity of injustice and purgatory, as they failed to accomplish their God-given Christian missionary mission. Eusebios also listed all nineteen imperial virtues and claimed Romanos had none of them, again sentencing his subjects to an eternity in purgatory for failing to emulate God in his exercise of the imperial office and thereby committing blasphemy. Among his willful attacks against Romanos VI, Eusebios also proposed new Church doctrine with the support of the prestigious monks of Mount Athos. Hesychasm was presented as an understanding that only the soul was eternal and incorruptible in an ephemeral world of corruption, inconstancy and destruction, and therefore every man and woman should aspire to living a life of quiet introspection, contemplation and meditation to reach communion with God and his eternal and timeless spiritual plane. After all, everything else was susceptible to change and therefore worthless and meaningless.

The council called by Theodore III Laskaris upon his ascension to the imperial office as sole emperor was an attempt to formulate an official and central answer to the questions and religious strife raised by the Eusebians. Rather than allowing a potential heresy to develop far from the imperial eye and purview, Theodore III and his mother Eudoxia preferred to address the issue upfront and thereby take charge of the increasingly volatile process, which could rapidly spiral out of control. The Eusebians had already dethroned one emperor, and the Laskarids suspected only John-Eusebios Laskaris himself was preventing the zealots from turning against the imperial dynasty and the establishment in general. He was an aging and ill man, however, and his death would cast a shadow of uncertainty and unpredictability over the future behavior of his followers. Moreover, John-Eusebios might have been an enemy of the state, but he was still a Laskaris; uncle to the emperor, sister to the almighty Augusta, with his mutilation making him an impossible candidate to the purple. With the Melissenids gone, perhaps it was all an affair best kept in the family. The Augusta's elder sister, the nun Eirene Laskarina, abbess of the Pantognostis convent at Constantinople, was an important piece in facilitating communication and slowly rebuilding trust between her two estranged siblings, Eudoxia and John-Eusebios. All agreed that Roman spirituality was endangered and that the Eusebians were an important factor of change and transformation that could not be ignored. Thus, when Emperor Theodore III summoned all the empire's Metropolitans, archbishops and suffragan bishops to a holy synod, he also invited Eusebios of Ephesus and the monks of Mount Athos. They were to meet at the Palace of Nymphaeum, the favored winter residence of the Laskarids near to Ephesus, under the Emperor's watch and hospitality.

The Council of Nymphaeum was the most important religious event in fourteenth-century Rhomania. For the past century, religion had not played a prominent role in Laskarid rule and politics, and the Ecumenical Patriarchs had always been docile to the imperial regime. Although some of its conclusions would be refuted in the latter half of the century, Nymphaeum restored importance and preeminence to the Church, and set the tone of religious doctrine and practice for the fourteenth century and beyond. The Council of Nymphaeum began with the reunification of the Armenian rite and clergy under the Orthodox umbrella, counting with an autocephalous Archbishopric of Tarsus headed by the *Katholikos*, and its final consensus was that the Orthodox Church should be protected and upheld at all costs. The Christian faith should be expanded by whatever means necessary for the sake of the heathens' and heretics' immortal souls. It was once again reaffirmed that the Romans, as God's elected people, had the divine mission and mandate to shower the light of Jesus Christ all across the world. The Emperor in Constantinople and the Ecumenical Patriarch below him were the guardians of mankind's salvation, which could only be achieved through the pursuit and completion of the Empire's missionary mission. As God's chosen people, the Romans were already guaranteed in Paradise, for as long as they followed His teachings and spread His words. The matter became one of extending salvation to the remainder of the world, as an unforeseen ramification of the debate generated by the Eusebian proposal of unjust peace and the alleged existence of a moral and religious obligation to wage just war.

Nonetheless, the Eusebian doctrine on unjust peace was rejected by the Council of Nymphaeum. Unlike the Latins, the Romans dutifully followed the teachings of St. Basil of Caesarea and the New Testament, which condemned the taking of a human life under any circumstances. The proposed Eusebian doctrine was deemed too closely associated with the Latin concept of a holy war, which they unashamedly called crusades in their self-glorification. The Western notions of holy war and fighting priests were, after all, incompatible with the Eastern Roman mindset. Indeed, the idea of a crusade disturbed the Romans to such an extent that the historian princess Anna Komnena judged it necessary to include a parody of a Western warrior priest in the *Alexiad*. Priests were not made for battle, and neither was religion. The Christian imperial mission of the Polity of the Romans would have to be carried out in ways other than warfare and loss of life. Ironically, Romanos VI's peaceful conversion of Atouman was posthumously legitimized by the Nymphene creed, as the Eusebians' lust for warfare was rejected by the synod.

Having had their proposal of holy war turned down, the greatest victory of the Eusebians came with the adoption of their hesychast theology as church doctrine and canon law. Essentially, hesychasm was the natural conclusion of Theodore II Laskaris' and his circle of lettered and erudite men's works on philosophy. It was also intrinsic to the very fabric of Christianity, Greek and Latin rites alike, only potentiated by Greek notions of *théôsis*, i.e. the possibility of man surpassing his temporal and ephemeral prison to momentarily join God's eternity and His divine plane. Henceforth, *théôsis* would be achieved through intense meditation and denial of the external world, honing the soul through spiritual introspection and the accumulation of knowledge and all things intellectual. At the same time, however, the hesychast theology discouraged the investigation of the world, deemed to be corrupt and meaningless as it was only temporary, which would ultimately generate tension and debate with the Rhomanian humanists of the later fourteenth century. For now, though, hesychasm ruled supreme as church doctrine. All the other points and questions raised by the Eusebians in the Postulations of Thessalonica were likewise reaffirmed as canon, including the nineteen imperial virtues and the expected behavior of the person occupying the imperial office.

Nevertheless, in the closing months of 1313 the Council of Nymphaeum had yet to reach an unanimous conclusion regarding the religious situation of newly reconquered Asia Minor and the Emperor's new Mohametan subjects. Compared with the rest of Christendom, the Romans had always been more tolerant of the heathen than most of their neighbors. Indeed, for many centuries Constantinople was the only Christian city in the world to host a legal and operational Muslim mosque. The atmosphere at Nymphaeum was different, however. Emperor Romanos VI had promoted religious tolerance in Anatolia, at the same time as efforts at conversion were made throughout the new territories. His excessive tolerance for the heathens within the Polity of the Romans suffered heavy criticism from the Eusebians, who deemed their increased presence to be a perpetual blight upon the Empire and an insult to its Christian missionary mission. Much to their disappointment, the Eusebians had already lost the battle regarding the introduction of holy war and unjust peace as canon law, but they would not be easily swayed from their extreme position on the new Mohametan subjects.

Beyond a doubt, one of the most consequential and darkest religious practices inaugurated by the Council of Nymphaeum was the institution of forced conversion. The Romans, as many other peoples of the world, were no strangers to forced conversions, but the sheer scale and institutionalization witnessed at Nymphaeum was simply unprecedented. Accordingly, the Eusebians argued that the presence of such a large body of Mohametans in Asia Minor could not be tolerated, as they put the Roman Christian mission in jeopardy from within. If the Emperor of the Romans could not provide salvation to his own subjects, then how could he be expected to expand Christianity beyond his borders? The very presence of the heathen was blasphemy in itself, and denied all Roman souls their birthright to salvation and Paradise. Furthermore, they were operating under a strict schedule; the imperial missionary work had to be as successful as possible by September 1st, 7000 AM, when the Apocalypse would happen and the Last Judgment would take place. The Latins knew that year as 1492 AD, and for the Romans it meant that they had fewer than two hundred years to provide salvation to as many people as possible. How could they be successful in this, if they faced such massive internal division?

Therefore, the Nymphene creed determined that all Muslims in Anatolia would be forcefully converted at the end of the present indiction (fifteen year periods), i.e. September 1st, 1317, the New Year's Day for the year of 6826 AM. Come the new indiction, it would be illegal to practice the Muslim religion in Asia Minor, and all former Muslims would now be God-loving Christians and loyal subjects of the Emperor. The ban on Islam did not extend to temporary residents, such as tradesmen and travelers, and neither would it be enforced in the European half of the Roman Empire, where Muslim presence was minimal and required no intervention. The four year time frame which the Nymphene creed established until its enforcement assured that all Muslims in Asia Minor would have enough time to leave if they wished it so, while simultaneously granting the Emperor of the Romans with more time to reorganize the ownership of soon to be vacated lands in Anatolia.

In order to monitor the New Christians' adherence to their faith, the Office of the *Mystikos* was created. The *Mystikos* ("Secret One") traditionally served as the Emperor's private secretary, and under the Laskarids developed into the principal facilitator of communication between the Emperor and the Ecumenical Patriarch. His role and functions were enlarged at the Council of Nymphaeum, as he was granted his own *sekreton* and had his legal powers considerably expanded as the head of a superior tribunal, entitled to investigate and rule on the illegal presence of crypto-Muslims in Asia Minor. The venerable historian George Pachymeres, who had served as *Mystikos* to Theodore II and Romanos VI and dedicated part of his work to the study of the Empire's many inhabitants, including Muslims, stepped down from his office in protest, but there was naught he could do to stem the tide. Emperor Theodore III appointed the monk Gregory of Magnesia, a long-time pupil and ally of John-Eusebios, as his new *Mystikos*. His office soon became known as the *Exétasis*, which was Greek for "inquiry", and he would become one of the most powerful men in the new Roman confessional police state, if under the supervision of the Emperor, rather than the Church.

The forced christianization of Asian Muslims, along with the establishment of the *Exétasis* under the *Mystikos* and the Emperor in order to censor cypto-Muslims, was undoubtedly the most important and significant consequence of the Council of Nymphaeum. Although their proposal of holy wars had been rejected, the Eusebians claimed many victories in the winter palace throughout eighteen months of intense discussion. Hesychasm became an integral part of church doctrine and Eusebian morality was reaffirmed at all times. Beyond that, the Council of Nymphaeum was a personal victory for Eusebios of Ephesus, who was named Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople by Theodore III at the Council's conclusion, fulfilling his greatest ambition after his overthrow. Upon leaving the monastic clergy, he retook his birth name. Although Patriarch John XII would pass away within a year, he had enough time to savor his final victory over a life that had propelled him towards tragedy at every turn. His successor on the patriarchal throne would follow his example, and the many Eusebians would fight tooth and nail to protect his legacy and the Nymphene creed, under the leadership of Gregory of Magnesia. As for Theodore III, the implications of the Nymphene creed could allow for an approximation between Constantinople and the West, in the interest of promoting cooperation and ultimately conversion, following Atouman's precedent, as the Latins turned from an object of hate into an object of pity. The Council of Nymphaeum was the most important religious event of the Laskarid dynasty, and its aftershocks would be felt for all of the Roman fourteenth century and beyond.

## References

https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/before-the-fall.36591/page-121#post-10163051