Antonio IV

Antonios IV. ( Middle Greek Αντώνιος Δ΄ ; † May 1397) was patriarch of Constantinople from 1389 to 1390 and again from 1391 to 1397 .

Live and act

Not much is known about his pre-patriarchal career. Originally he was a priest monk , possibly in the monastery of Dionysiou on Athos .

Shortly after he took office on January 12, 1389, a synodal trial took place in February of this year , in which the conflict over the office of Metropolitan of Moscow was decided in favor of Kiprian and Pimen was finally deposed. When John VII overthrew the previous emperor John V in 1390 , Antonios was also removed from his office in July; Makarios became the new patriarch on July 30th . The usurper was disempowered after just six months; however, John VII also died shortly afterwards. In 1391 his son Manuel II was able to ascend the imperial throne, put Antonios IV back in office in March (or only after some time in the summer?) And was crowned by him on February 11, 1392.

Probably in September or October 1393, Patriarch Antonios wrote a letter to Grand Duke Vasily I of Moscow, who regarded his empire as part of the Orthodox Church, but had forbidden to commemorate the Byzantine emperor in the usual ceremonial liturgy . He said that Russia “has the [Orthodox] Church, but not the [Orthodox] ruler”. Antonios, on the other hand, represented the doctrine that saw the emperor as master of the universal church. He justified this in his letter on the one hand with the early Christian subordination to the emperor ( 1 Petr 2,17  [1] ), on the other hand with the fact that the emperor had been awarded the highest position in the church at the First Council of Nicaea and he has been inseparable since then connected to Christianity. It is not possible to be a Christian without recognizing the Byzantine ruler as an authority. He described himself as "God-appointed father and spiritual masters (despotes) of all Christians of the Oikumene ". Overall, he tried to emphasize the universality of the Byzantine Empire and the hegemony of the Eastern Roman ruler, regardless of the real (military) political power constellation. His frequently quoted letter is a prime example of this (in the 14th century only theoretical) religious and political claim and of the connection between political and ecclesiastical power in Byzantium.

The Athos monasteries made Antonios independent from the Diocese of Hierissus and introduced a new typicon in them . At the express request of the emperor, he let the emperor crack down on opponents of hesychasm . This led, among other things, to Demetrios Kydones and Manuel Kalekas leaving the empire. At the same time, Antonios also had to fight against the tendency to curtail the powers of the Patriarch of Constantinople. A total of three seals have been received from him .

In a letter dated January 1397, he asked Metropolitan Kiprian of Moscow to persuade the Lithuanian Grand Duke Władysław II Jagiełło to participate in the Nicopolis Crusade . The background to this is that the Ottomans threatened Constantinople, which, according to Antonios, prevents the church unity sought by Jagiełło, as this can only be restored in the center of the Orthodox Church. Another letter was sent to Władysław II Jagiełło himself at the same time. Envoys were also sent to other countries to solicit support for the crusade: Bishop Michael of Bethlehem traveled to Galicia and Moldova , Nicholas Notaras to Charles VI. of France and other envoys were given to Pope Boniface IX. cleverly. But Antonios IV died in May 1397; he was succeeded as Patriarch Callistus II. Xanthopoulos , but which in turn died in the same year and Matthaios I. was succeeded.

literature

• John W. Barker: Manuel II Palaeologus (1391-1425). A study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick (New Jersey) 1969, esp. Pp. XXIII – XXVI and p. 74 as well as the (partial) translations of letters on pp. 105–110 (letter from 1393) and pp. 150–153 ( Letters from 1397).
• Hans-Georg Beck : History of the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire (= The Church in its History, Vol. 1, Delivery D1). Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1980, pp. D239, D254, D259.
• JM Hussey: The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Oxford University Press, Oxford 1990, pp. 293 f., P. 324.
• Alice-Mary Talbot: Antony IV. In: Alexander P. Kazhdan (Ed.): The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1991, Vol. 1, p. 125.
• Αντώνιος IV. In: Erich Trapp ua (Hrsg.): Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit . Vienna 1976–1996 (CD-ROM version Vienna 2001), No. 1113.
• Johannes Preiser-Kapeller: The Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Churches from the 13th to the 15th Century. An overview of church politics on the basis of the Patriarchate Register. In: Historicum. Journal of history. Linz 2008, pp. 71-77.

Individual evidence

1. ^ John W. Barker: Manuel II. Palaeologus (1391-1425). A study in Late Byzantine Statesmanship. Rutgers University Press, New Brunswick (New Jersey) 1969, p. 74
2. ↑ Jean Darrouzès : Les regestes the actes du patriarcat de Constantinople. Vol. 1: Les actes des patriarches ; Teilbd. 6: Les regestes de 1377 à 1410. Paris 1979, No. 2931.
3. ↑ Hans-Georg Beck : History of the Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1980, p. D239.
4. ↑ Timothy Venning: A chronology of the Byzantine Empire. Palgrave Macmillan, Basingstoke 2006, p. 695.

predecessor	Office	successor
Neilos Kerameos	Patriarch of Constantinople 1389–1390	Makarios
Makarios	Patriarch of Constantinople 1391-1397	Callistus Xanthopoulos