Quotes:Photius

Zirkoff, Boris

Photius (ca. 820-891). Patriarch of Constantinople, 858-67, and 878-86. His public career seems to have begun during the dissensions between the patriarch Ignatius and Bardas, the uncle of the youthful Emperor Michael III. Ignatius was imprisoned, 858, and deposed, while Photius, although a layman, received all the necessary sacerdotal orders within six days, and was installed as patriarch. The cause of Ignatius was then espoused by Pope Nicholas in a manner highly offensive to the independent feeling of the Eastern Church. Photius looked upon himself as the champion of Eastern Christianity against Latin pretensions. In 863 Nicholas anathematized him; Photius replied by a counter-excommunication. When both Bardas and Michael were assassinated, 867, the fall of Photius immediately ensued; he was 448 banished in 867, and Ignatius was reinstated. On the death of the latter, 878, Photius became patriarch once more. In 879 the legates of Pope John VIII attended a synod at Constantinople and were prepared to acknowledge Photius as legitimate patriarch; but John disowned his legates and again excommunicated Photius. The latter ignored his action, but a palace revolution caused his banishment, 886, to Bordi in Armenia, where he died. Photius was a man of very strong character and sense of dignity; in erudition, literary power, and versatility of intellect, he surpassed most of his contemporaries. The most important of his works is his renowned Bibliotheca or Myriobiblion (ed. I. Bekker, 1824-25), a collection of extracts from, and abridgments of, 280 volumes of classical authors, the originals of which are now to a great extent lost. To Photius we are indebted for almost all we possess of Ctesias, Memnon, Conon, the lost books of Diodorus Siculus, and lost writings of Arrian.

Source: Boris de Zirkoff, «H. P. Blavatsky Collected Writings», vol. 9, pp. 447-448