Photius was restored to the patriarchal see three days after the death of Ignatius, with whom
he had been reconciled. He convened a council in November, 879, which lasted till March, 880,
and is acknowledged by the Orientals as the Eighth Oecumenical Council,^309 but denounced by the
Latins as the Pseudo-Synodus Photiana. It was three times as large as the Council of Ignatius, and
held with great pomp in St. Sophia under the presidency of Photius. It annulled the Council of 869
as a fraud; it readopted the Nicene Creed with an anathema against the Filioque, and all other
changes by addition or omission, and it closed with a eulogy on the unrivalled virtues and learning
of Photius. To the Greek acts was afterwards added a (pretended) letter of Pope John VIII. to
Photius, declaring the Filioque to be an addition which is rejected by the church of Rome, and a
blasphemy which must be abolished calmly and by, degrees.^310 The papal legates assented to all,
and so deceived their master by false accounts of the surrender of Bulgaria that he thanked the
emperor for the service he had done to the Church by this synod.
But when the pope’s eyes were opened, he sent the bishop Marinus to Constantinople to
declare invalid what the legates had done contrary to his instructions. For this Marinus was shut
up in prison for thirty days. After his return Pope John VIII. solemnly pronounced the anathema
on Photius, who had dared to deceive and degrade the holy see, and had added new frauds to the
old. Marinus renewed the anathema after he was elected pope (882). Photius denied the validity of
his election, and developed an extraordinary, literary activity.
But after the death of the Emperor Basilius (886), he was again deposed by Leo VI., miscalled
the Wise or the Philosopher, to make room for his youngest brother Stephen, at that time only
sixteen years of age. Photius spent the last five years of his life in a cloister, and died 891. For
learning, energy, position, and influence, he is one of the most remarkable men in the history of
Eastern Christianity. He formulated the doctrinal basis of the schism, checked the papal despotism,
and secured the independence of the Greek church. He announced in an Encyclical of 866: "God
be praised for all time to come! The Russians have received a bishop, and show a lively zeal for
Christian worship." Roman writers have declared this to be a lie, but history has proved it to be an
anticipation of an important fact, the conversion of a new nation which was to become the chief
support of the Eastern church, and the most formidable rival of the papacy.
Greek and Roman historians are apt to trace the guilt of the schism exclusively to one party,
and to charge the other with unholy ambition and intrigue; but we must acknowledge on the one
hand the righteous zeal of Nicolas for the cause of the injured Ignatius, and on the other the many
virtues of Photius tried in misfortune, as well as his brilliant learning in theology, philology,
philosophy, and history; while we deplore and denounce the schism as a sin and disgrace of both
churches.
Notes.
The accounts of the Roman Catholic historians, even the best, are colored by sectarianism,
and must be accepted with caution. Cardinal Hergenröther (Kirchengesch. I. 684) calls the Council
of 879 a "Photianische Pseudo-Synode," and its acts "ein aecht byzantinisches Machwerk ganz
vom Geiste des verschmitzten Photius durchdrungen." Bishop Hefele, in the revised edition of his
(^309) Strictly speaking, however, the Orthodox Eastern Church counts only seven Œcumenical Councils.
(^310) The Roman Catholic historians regard this letter as a Greek fraud. "Ich kann nicht glauben," says Hefele (IV. 482),
"dass je ein Papst seine Stellung so sehr vergessen habe, wie es Johann VIII. gethan haben müsste, wenn dieser Brief ächt wäre.
Es ist in demselben auch keine Spur des Papalbewusstseins, vielmehr ist die Superiorität des Photius fast ausdrücklich anerkannt."