Page:Destruction of the Greek Empire.djvu/152

118 DESTEUCTION OF THE GREEK EMPIRE supposed to be vested in the emperors. At various times the autocrat undoubtedly assumed much of the power which in the Holy Eoman Empire in the West was left to the popes. At other times, however, and in some matters at all times, the patriarch of Constantinople exercised a jurisdiction independent of the emperor. The religious sanctions possessed by the Church were not to be set aside even by or for him. We have seen, for example, that when the Emperor Michael the Eighth had usurped the crown and blinded the infant John so as to prevent him coming to the throne, though the ecclesiastics seemed to have considered it ex- pedient that he should retain the office he had usurped, the patriarch Arsenius and the prelates associated with him could not be either coaxed or frightened into granting him abso- lution, and that it was not until Arsenius and his successor, Germanus, had ceased to occupy the patriarchal throne that the emperor could succeed in having the anathema removed. 1 Many other examples could be given which show that it is an error to suppose that the patriarchs were merely or even usually the creatures of the emperors. When questions of dogma arose the head of the Orthodox Church supported by his clergy was jealous of the secular power. The history of Constantinople during the time between the Latin and the Moslem conquests of the city abounds in illustrations showing that the Church would not consent to dictation from the emperors, and that the clergy would not blindly follow the patriarch. But, when dictation was supposed to come from Kome, the great mass of clergy and people were, as fchey had been from the time of Photius, on the side of their Church and, if need be, against the emperor. It must be remembered also that the Eastern Church had steadily refused to admit the supremacy of the Western. It had never regarded the phrase ' under one fold and one shepherd' as indicating that the whole Church of Christ should be under the government of one bishop. It bad never admitted that the 1 One Shepherd ' should be other than Christ, and had therefore constantly denied the 1 See ante ; and also Pachymer, iii. 10 to iv. 25.