Moderate Extremist Factionalism designates the dynamic tension between intransigent religious-political formations and the pragmatist coalitions that arise to contain, negotiate, or absorb them — a tension that the depth-psychology corpus encounters primarily through Dvornik's exhaustive reconstruction of the Byzantine ecclesiastical world. Within that corpus, the term names a structural condition rather than a passing episode: two parties, constitutionally opposed in temperament and ecclesiological conviction, compete for institutional dominance while each generates internal gradations — die-hard extremists, moderate extremists, and genuine moderates — whose shifting alignments determine the outcome of every major crisis. Dvornik's treatment is indispensable here because he refuses to flatten the opposition into simple good-versus-evil; he demonstrates that what appears as principled radicalism (the Studite insistence on canonical purity) functions simultaneously as a political instrument wielded by factions with interests well beyond theology. The moderates, meanwhile, are not merely conciliatory: they exercise their own intrigues. Carol Anthony's I Ching commentary contributes a complementary psychological register, mapping factionalism as an interior phenomenon — a collusion between ego and ulterior motive that severs the individual from integrative guidance. Together, these treatments reveal factionalism not as aberrant but as systemic, operating with equal force in institutional and psychic domains.
Political and religious parties in Byzantium — Extremists and Moderates in Irene's and Nicephorus' reigns — Moderate policy of Methodius and the Studite Schism … Extremist and Moderate intrigues.
Dvornik's chapter outline establishes Extremist-Moderate factionalism as the master structural category through which the entire Photian schism must be read, tracing it across successive reigns and schisms.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
this writer did not belong to the die-hards of the Extremist party … he did not invariably approve the radicalism of St Theodore of the monastery of Studion, one can easily imagine what others must have thought of Nicephorus.
Dvornik identifies a moderate position within the Extremist camp itself, demonstrating that factionalism generates internal gradations that complicate any binary schema.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
the whole of Byzantium was towards the end of the eighth century split into two great parties, whose constant rivalry enlivened their politics as well as their religion; each aspired to monopolize the management of the Church and the Empire.
Dvornik argues that the Extremist-Moderate binary is not episodic but constitutive of Byzantine political and ecclesiastical life, providing the structural key to the schism.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
The fanatics of the Extremist party merely took advantage of his simplicity, his lack of discretion and his inexperience in politico-religious matters, and that was all there was to it.
Dvornik shows how extreme factionalists exploit moderate or naive figures, using their authority as cover for their own radical agenda.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
The Extremists, disappointed in Basil, who at first had encouraged their hopes, began to treat with the party which opposed his father's policy.
Dvornik traces how extremist factions realign opportunistically when political patrons fail to deliver, illustrating the instrumental rather than purely ideological character of Byzantine factionalism.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
advocated stronger measures against the former iconoclasts … St Theodore of the monastery of Studios, he and his followers alleging that the punishment meted out by Tarasius to the simoniacal bishops was inadequate.
Dvornik documents the recurring pattern by which moderate ecclesiastical settlements are immediately contested by extremist factions demanding harsher punitive measures.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
These ultra die-hards were apparently not many, and besides, the Byzantines' attention was soon to be diverted to another … Nor do we know when, or how, the last traces of the schism faded out.
Dvornik notes that the most intransigent extremists constitute a residual minority whose persistence exceeds their numerical strength, sustaining schism beyond any rational institutional purpose.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Secret reservations of attitude are regarded as factionalism … Factionalism exists when we agree, in our hearts, to go along with something that is incorrect, and when we sacrifice the higher good to obtain a lesser benefit.
Anthony transposes factionalism from the political to the psychological register, defining it as any interior compromise that privileges partial ego interests over integrative moral commitment.
, A Guide to the I Ching, 1988supporting
the condemned schismatics used the influence of Photius — then a high functionary at court and also a schismatic — on Bardas, the Emperor's uncle, who resented the Patriarch's accusation of incest.
Dvornik illustrates how factional grievances migrate across institutional boundaries, drawing secular power into ecclesiastical disputes and amplifying the reach of extremist coalitions.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
The Pope's, and chiefly the legates' wooden methods in Constantinople exasperated not only the Emperor but even the Patriarch and the more reasonable of his friends.
Dvornik observes that external rigidity from Rome inadvertently radicalized even moderate Ignatian sympathizers, demonstrating how institutional inflexibility feeds extremist factionalism.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948aside
the Peripatetic belief in moderate emotion as a belief in moderate perturbation … moderate evils … or moderate vice … anything subjected to moderation is not anger at all.
Sorabji's account of the Stoic-Peripatetic dispute over moderated passion provides a philosophical analogue, suggesting that 'moderate' positions are themselves contested as potentially disguised extremism.
, Emotion and Peace of Mind: From Stoic Agitation to Christian Temptation, 2000aside