Photios

   Controversial patriarch of Constantinople (qq.v.) from 858-867, and again from 877-886. The controversy began when he was made patriarch in 858 while still a layman. The deposed Ignatios (q.v.) garnered much sympathy, including the support of Pope Nicholas I (q.v.), especially after Photios condemned the filioque (q.v.) in the Latin creed. Basil I's (q.v.) need of papal support in Italy (q.v.) lay behind the formal deposition of Photios at a council held in Constantinople in 869-870, which restored Ignatios as patriarch. Only after Ignatios's death was Photios returned to the patriarchal throne, through the action of yet another council in Constantinople, held in 879-880, which revoked the decision of the previous council. Photios was a noted teacher like Leo the Mathematician (q.v.), also a writer of homilies and letters. In one of his homilies he describes a Rus (q.v.) attack on Constantinople in 860. He compiled a Lexicon of words and expressions, and he wrote a commentary on Aristotle's (q.v.) Physics. His Bibliotheca is a priceless legacy. It summaries 386 books by pagan and Christian authors that he read. Many of these works, such as those of Philostorgios (q.v.), are known chiefly, or only, through the Bibliotheca.