Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/287

of Constantinople with an abominable crime. He was the tutor and guardian of John, the heir to the throne, a child only eight years old. It was expected that he would only act as regent, or at most as co-emperor. Instead of doing so, he seized the position of sole emperor, and blinded the boy to render him incapable of ever taking over the government.^[1] Indignant at the crime, the patriarch Arsenius summoned a synod of bishops, in which he formally excommunicated the emperor. Attention has been called to the fact that he did not go further and depose the criminal. But here we may note an important difference between the Eastern and the Western Churches. Popes deposed princes, because popes claimed for the Church supreme authority over the secular government. That claim was never put forth by the Greek Church. In the East the theory was that each had power over its own province, though in practice the secular interfered with the spiritual. This spiritual power was now a serious reality. Therefore Michael was thoroughly alarmed. He begged for penance to be substituted for excommunication. Arsenius replied that even if he were threatened with death he would never remove the excommunication. The emperor paid the patriarch a visit and asked if he desired his abdication, but when, as he was unbuckling his sword, the patriarch held out his hand as though to receive it, Michael drew back and did not complete the action. He even spoke among his friends about appealing to the pope. Some years passed. Again the emperor applied to the patriarch for absolution; and again the stern servant of the God of righteousness refused. Then Michael could endure the strain no longer. He brought a number of charges against Arsenius—that he had shortened the matin prayer for the emperor, ordered the omission of the Trisagion, treated the sultan of the Seljukian Turks in a friendly way, etc., and on these grounds induced an assembly of bishops to depose him.^[2] We have an account of the synod's proceedings recorded by the clerk of the court. Arsenius was exiled, and his succes-

1. Pachymer, iii. 10; Gregory, iv. 4.
2. Pachymer, iv. 6.