Polish Rulers: Piast Dynasty
Ignatios (second tenure, 867–877), and deposed and sent
Photios to a monastery. In 873, however, Basil I allowed
Photios to be in charge of the education of his children.
An agreement was reached between Ignatios and Photios.
On Ignatios’s death in 877 Photios became patriarch again.
With the approval of Pope John VIII (r. 872–882), a new
council at Constantinople in 879–880 canceled the deci-
sions taken against Photios a decade before. On the death
of Basil I in 886, Leo VI the Wise (r. 886–912) deposed
Photios and replaced him with his own brother, Stephen I
(r. 886–893). Banished once again to a monastery, this
time to Armeniaki, he died there about 893.
FURTHER CONFLICT AND SOME SUCCESSPhotios’s patriarchate was the occasion for successful
Christianizing missions to the BULGARSand for conflict
with the PAPACY. The unbending personality of Pope
Nicholas I (r. 858–867) and the Bulgarian conversions to
Orthodoxy aggravated the developing schism between
ROME and Constantinople. The pope held a synod in
March 862 and annulled the decisions taken against Igna-
tios and another Roman council in April 863 condemned
Photios. King BORISI, KHANof BULGARIA, was baptized in
about 860 and sought the creation of a patriarchate for
Bulgaria. When Photios declined to give his permission,
Boris applied to Rome. The Byzantine clergy was expelled
and replaced by Latin clerics. Photios in 867 denounced
Rome for its conduct in Bulgaria, some of its practices
such as Saturday FASTS, priestly CELIBACY, and certain dog-
matic innovations such as the addition of the FILIOQUE
CLAUSEto the Creed. He next called a council at Con-
stantinople that anathematized Pope Nicholas. In autumn
867, the uncompromising Nicholas I was replaced by
Adrian II (r. 867–972). A council in Rome in June 869
condemned the Photian council of 867 and anathematized
Photios. It further called for a great council, which met in
Constantinople in 869–870 and ratified the Roman posi-
tions and condemned Photios. The Bulgarian czar, Boris I,
became dissatisfied with the pope and turned to Con-
stantinople for support. Yet another council at Con-
stantinople in 879–880 rehabilitated Photios and annulled
the decisions of 869–870.
WORKS AND LEGACYPhotios left letters, HOMILIES, and dogmatic works against
the Filioqueclause. He was a major figure in a ninth-
century Byzantine renaissance with his encyclopedic
work called Bibliotheca(Library). It showed the culture
of a learned man and constituted a monument of early
Byzantine HUMANISM. His Tr eatise on the Holy Spirit
formed the basis for later Byzantine objections to Western
ideas on dogma. The Photian schism about the nature of
Christ and Papal authority was an important step in
dividing the Eastern and Western Churches.
Further reading:Photios I, The Homilies of Photius,
Patriarch of Constantinople,trans. Cyril Mango (Cambridge,
Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1958); Francis Dvornik,
The Photian Schism, History and Legend(1948; reprint,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1970); Richard
S. Haugh, Photius and the Carolingians: The Trinitarian
Controversy(Belmont, Mass.: Nordland, 1975); Joan M.
Hussey, The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire
(Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1986); Liliana Sime-
onova, Diplomacy of the Letter and the Cross: Photios, Bul-
garia and the Papacy, 860s–880s (Amsterdam: A. M.
Hakkert, 1998); Warren T. Treadgold, The Nature of the
Bibliotheca of Photius (Washington, D.C.: Dumbarton
Oaks Center for Byzantine Studies, 1980); N. G. Wilson,
Scholars of Byzantium(Baltimore: Johns Hopkins Univer-
sity Press, 1983).Piast dynasty The Piasts were the reigning dynasty of
the state of POLANDfrom its beginnings to 1370. Piast, a
farmer, was the legendary founder of the Kingdom of
Poland, according to the early 12th-century chronicle by
the “Gallus Anonymous.” He united Slavic tribes between
the Oder and Vistula Rivers. This legend probably related
some of the events that transpired in the ninth century.
The first member of the family to be documented was
Mieszko I (r. 963–992). He was the creator of a Polish
state whose center was at Gniezno. Mieszko I and his
son, BOLESLAVI THEGREATor Brave became rulers in
popular memory and legend over a “Golden Age.”
Mieszko II Lambert (r. 1025–34) had a good education
and married a granddaughter of the emperor Otto II
(r. 973–983), but under his reign the state lost several
territories to BOHEMIAand the HOLYROMANEMPIRE. His
son, Casimir I the Restorer (r. 1034–58), led at the cost of
a long effort a reconstruction of the Polish state, whose
center moved to CRACOW. Casimir’s son, Boleslav II, the
Bold (r. 1058–79), was crowned king in 1076. He lost
wars to the Bohemians and became very dependent on
the clergy for support.
The murder of Bishop Stanislas of Cracow in 1079,
perhaps by the king’s order, led to a revolt and flight of
the king to HUNGARY, where he died in 1082. He was suc-
ceeded by his brother, Ladislas I Herman (r. 1079– 1102),
who was a weak and incompetent ruler. Boleslav III Wry-
mouth (r. 1102–38) led several successful wars early in
his reign and became the real founder of the kingdom. He
ruthlessly put down a Pomeranian revolt, but the wars of
his later years against the Bohemians and Hungarians
were fruitless. When he died, he divided the kingdom
into duchies for each of already quarreling sons. After
this the family disintegrated into a series of lines linked
to particular provinces. The princes of Cracow were sup-
posed to exercise supreme government over the others,
but there were repeated challenges to the unity of the
state and internecine conflicts during the 13th century.
Prince Ladislas (r. 1314–33) the Short had himself
crowned king of Poland at Cracow in 1320 with the