Theodotos I Kassiteras

   Patriarch (q.v.) from 815-ca. 821 who engineered Leo V's (q.v.) restoration of Iconoclasm (q.v.). Theodotos had impeccable Iconoclast credentials, for he was a relative of Constantine V (q.v.). He presided over a local synod at Hagia Sophia (q.v.) in 815 that forbade the veneration of icons (q.v.) and repudiated the Seventh Ecumenical Council (q.v.) of 787. He supported the persecution of Theodore of Stoudios, Theophanes the Confessor (qq.v.), and others.