Placidia Palace

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Map of the Byzantine Constantinople

The Placidia Palace was the official residence of the Papal Apocrisiars with the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople and the residence of the Pope when he was in Constantinople. The Apokrisiar was also responsible for communication between the Pope and the Byzantine Emperor.

The Apocrisian's stay in the Placidia Palace began with the end of the Akakian schism in 519. The ambassador was generally a deacon from Rome and held an official position at the Byzantine imperial court. The building can therefore be considered the first nunciature .

location

The palace of Galla Placidia was one of several noble residences ( oikoi ) built in the late 4th or early 5th century AD in the northwest of the city. Among them was the Augusta Palace of Aelia Eudocia , the Nobilissima Arcadia (sister of Theodosius II ), while in Region XI. the residence of Augusta Aelia Pulcheria and the palace of Aelia Flaccilla ( palataium Flaccillianum ) stood. These houses formed a counterpart to the aristocratic center of the eastern districts around the Great Palace . However, most of these residences in the northwest appear to have only been used as seasonal retreats.

For Region X also included a total of 636 Insulae . In addition, the Constantine Baths and the Nymphaeum were located in this district . The church of St. Euphemia and the Philadelphion were in the immediate vicinity . The exact location can no longer be reconstructed today.

history

The palace was built by the daughter of Emperor Theodosius I , Galla Placidia , in the region of X. Constantinople between the Plataea Gate and the Pantocrator Monastery .

Vigilius

Vigilius came to Constantinople as Nuncio under Pope Agapitus I and became the new Pope in 537. In 547 he came to Constantinople on a papal visit and took possession of the palace. In 550 Vigilius decided that the palace was not safe enough for his needs and moved to the Basilica of St. Peter of Hormisdas . Here Vigilius drafted a document on the excommunication of Patriarch Menas and his followers, because he supported Justianian's position in the three-chapter dispute . After its publication as Comitas Dupondiaristes , the praetor was dispatched to the basilica to arrest Vigilius and the African bishops who had also signed the document. According to one report, Vigilius was clinging to the altar and when the guards tried to drag it away, the altar collapsed and almost crushed the Pope. The praetor withdrew, leaving several bishops injured. The next day, a group of Byzantine dignitaries convinced Vigilius that if he returned to the Placidia Palace, no more harm would be done to him, which he did. There Vigilius was more or less under house arrest. On the night of December 23rd to 24th, 551, Vigilius fled across the Bosporus to the Church of St. Euphemia in Chalcedon . In February the other bishops, but not Vigilius, were arrested. On June 26th, Pope and Emperor were reconciled and Vigilius returned to Placidia.

Although the Pope was in close proximity during the Second Council of Constantinople in 553, Vigilius refused to attend himself or to send a representative. Vigilius claimed to be sick and even refused to meet with the three Oriental Patriarchs who came to the Placidia Palace from the council. The next day, Vigilius sent the council a request for a 20-day postponement - although the matter had been discussed for seven years during which Vigilius himself was resident in Constantinople. The second delegation of the emperor with bishops and lay officials to Vigilius was also unsuccessful. Vigilius published a constitution from Constantinople , which the council condemned.

Gregory I.

Pope Gregory I also lived in the Placidia Palace during his time as apocrisy. During Gregory's tenure, the palace was the site of a trial carried out by Tiberius II against a group of alleged Satan worshipers, including the Patriarch of Antioch and Eulogius, who later became the Patriarch of Alexandria. When they were acquitted, possibly as a result of bribery, a riot broke out in the city, involving 100,000 people. The Placidia Palace and the palace of Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople (Patriarch Eutychius of Constantinople) were attacked by the crowd, the emperor himself had to intervene and restore order.

Martin I.

One of the complaints of the Lateran Synod convened by Pope Martin I in 649 against the Patriarch of Constantinople was: "He has done what no heretic has dared to do, namely to destroy the altar of our Holy See in the Placidia Palace." The anathema alludes to the reign of terror to which the Roman Church was subject from 638 to 656: the Roman clergy had been banished, the treasury plundered, and the Apocrisiar kidnapped and banished. The altar was destroyed in 648 or 649. Pope Martin I was not allowed to celebrate mass in the palace in the middle of the 7th century. This sanction was imposed by Patriarch Paul II because of differences of opinion regarding monotheletism .

Agatho

The palace was used by the great delegation of Pope Agatho to the Third Council of Constantinople (680/81). The Emperor provided the delegation with a variety of luxury items, including a number of saddled horses, to be carried to the Church of Saint Mary of Blachernae. They took part in a procession to this church on the first Sunday after their arrival.

Constantine I.

Pope Constantine I lived in the palace in 711. It was to be the last papal visit for 1250 years.

The end of its use by the Popes

Until the time of the Byzantine iconoclasm in 726, the Popes in Constantinople continued to maintain a residence for the Apocrisy. Then the Popes sent Gregory II , Gregory III. , Zacharias and Stephan II. Only non-permanent apocrisis to Constantinople. The office no longer had a religious function in the 8th century, although it was regularly filled well into the 10th century. Around the year 900 the office was called Synkellos and thus resembled that of a vicar general . Perhaps a permanent ambassador was reinstated after the reconciliation of 886. In contrast to an Apokrisiar, the Synkellos was only a papal representative at the imperial court and not with the patriarch. These ambassadors also existed after the Oriental Schism in the 11th century.

The fate of the building is unclear. The explorer Pierre Gilles mentioned it several times in the 16th century when he reported on his trip to Constantinople.

literature

  • A. Emereau: Apocrisiarius et apocrisiariat. In: Échos d'Orient , No. 17 (1914/15), pp. 289–297

Individual evidence

  1. ^ A b Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 9.
  2. ^ A b Thomas Stanislaus Dolan: The papacy and the first councils of the church . B. Herder, 1910, p. 144
  3. ↑ a b c Judith Herrin: The formation of Christendom . Princeton University Press, Princeton 1989, p. 152
  4. ↑ a b c d e f g h Silas McBee: Normal Relations . In: The Constructive quarterly; a journal of the faith, work and thought of Christendom . Pp. 651-653
  5. ^ A b c Paul Magdalino : Aristocratic Oikoi in the Tenth and Eleventh Regions of Constantinople . In: Nevra Necipoğlu (ed.): Byzantine Constantinople: Monuments, Topography and Everyday Life . Brill, Leiden / Boston / Cologne 2001, pp. 53-72
  6. ^ A b c d Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 30
  7. ↑ a b c d e f g h Robert Browning: Justinian and Theodora. Gorgias Press, 2003, p. 148
  8. ^ A b Robert Browning: Justinian and Theodora . Gorgias Press, 2003, p. 149
  9. ↑ cf. also Jeffrey Richards: The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages . Routledge, New York City 1979, pp. 149-152
  10. ↑ a b c d Thomas Stanislaus Dolan: The papacy and the first councils of the church . B. Herder, 1910, p. 120 f.
  11. ^ Thomas Stanislaus Dolan: The papacy and the first councils of the church . B. Herder, 1910, p. 121
  12. ^ Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 10
  13. ^ A b c Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 13.
  14. ^ A b William Trent Foley: Images of sanctity in Eddius Stephanus' Life of Bishop Wilfrid . Edwin Mellen Press, 1992, p. 98
  15. ^ Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 130.
  16. ^ A b Andrew J. Ekonomou: Byzantine Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from Gregory the Great to Zacharias, AD 590-752 . Lexington Books, Lexington 2007, ISBN 0-7391-1977-X , p. 217
  17. ↑ Pierre Gilles: De topographia Constantinopoleos et de illius antiquitatibus libri IV . Giulielmus Rovillius, Lyon 1561 ( digitized version )