second schism of photius
The Photian Schism occupies a singular position in the Seba corpus as a case study in the entanglement of ecclesiastical politics, historiographical legend-making, and the contested authority of institutional memory. Francis Dvornik's landmark 1948 monograph — the sole but exhaustive voice in these holdings — dismantles what he terms the 'legend' accreted around the ninth-century conflict between Patriarch Photius of Constantinople and Rome, arguing that the schism as conventionally understood is largely a retrospective construction shaped by canonists, dynastic propagandists, and confessional polemicists from the eleventh century onward. Dvornik distinguishes meticulously between two phases: the original dispute (858–880) rooted in Byzantine factional politics between Extremists and Moderates, and the subsequent 'second Photian schism' generated by Ignatian die-hards and amplified by Western canonists such as Gratian. Central tensions in the corpus concern the legitimacy of the Photian Council of 879–880 versus the Ignatian Council of 869–870, the manipulation of conciliar Acts for partisan purposes, the role of papal primacy claims in distorting the historical record, and the transformation of Photius himself from a negotiating patriarch into an anti-Latin symbol. The work insists that history and legend must be rigorously separated if the true ecclesiological stakes of East-West relations are to be understood.
In our examination of the relations between Stephen V, the Emperor Leo VI and Photius, the problem of the so-called second Photian schism made it necessary to reverse the chronological sequence of events
Dvornik explicitly names and problematises the 'so-called second Photian schism,' framing it as a historiographical complication that requires methodological departure from straightforward chronology.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
Political intrigues stirred up dissension between the party of the Empress and that of her brother Bardas in league with the young Emperor Michael III and brought the Patriarch with his followers into sharp conflict with the government (858).
Dvornik establishes that the origins of the Photian Schism lie in Byzantine factional and court politics rather than in genuine doctrinal divergence, foundational to his revisionist argument.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
he was the first to use the historic method by trying to establish that no attempt to create a schism ever had a truly dogmatic cause behind it.
Dvornik traces the historical-critical method applied to the Photian case to Patriarch John Beccos, who argued that the schism lacked genuine dogmatic foundations — a position Dvornik himself amplifies.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
officially, it never admitted more than seven ecumenical councils, the reason being that in the Byzantine conception of canon law the Council of Photius did not issue any doctrinal decisions and was only summoned for the restoration of peace in the Church.
Dvornik clarifies that the Byzantine Church never formally canonised the Photian Council as the eighth ecumenical council, since it was convened for reconciliation rather than doctrinal definition.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
Dissensions were to revive again, as occasions arose, because Byzantium was never without its partisans of rigidity and its partisans of adaptation, its extreme conservatives and its Moderates: only the issues varied.
Dvornik interprets the recurring schismatic pattern in Byzantine ecclesiastical history as structurally conditioned by a permanent tension between rigorist and moderate factions, of which the Photian dispute was one iteration.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
the die-hards made up the story that the Pope had condemned both his legates and Photius from the ambo of St Peter's.
Dvornik identifies a specific piece of Ignatian legend-fabrication — the false claim of papal condemnation — as central to how the 'second' schism narrative was constructed.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
it was necessary, for the glorification of Basil I, founder of the new dynasty, to disparage his predecessor Michael III as much as plausible propaganda could bear. Hence arose the legend
Dvornik argues that Macedonian dynastic propaganda systematically distorted the historical record of the Photian affair, generating the legend that displaced historical fact.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948thesis
the name of Photius had by this time become a symbol of division between the unionists and the orthodox, the clash between the two affording the opportunity to hasten the growth of the Photian Legend, even in the Eastern world.
Dvornik demonstrates that Photius's name was progressively transformed into a polemical symbol by both unionist and anti-Latin parties, accelerating legendary accretion in the Eastern tradition itself.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
The assertion that John VIII had repudiated his legates' stewardship and again condemned Photius, and that this condemnation was reiterated by his successors Marinus, Stephen V and Formosus, is based on data found in some documents included in the anti-Photian Collection
Dvornik traces the evidentiary basis of the legend of John VIII's supposed condemnation of Photius to the tendentious anti-Photian documentary collection, exposing its partisan character.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Photius, in his speech at the second session of his synod, clearly showed he was quite aware of the importance of the issue to John VIII; nor did he overlook the fact that reconciliation with Rome would be a hopeless proposition without some concession from his side on the Bulgarian issue.
Dvornik reveals Photius as a pragmatic ecclesiastical statesman who deliberately offered concessions on Bulgaria to secure Roman reconciliation at the Council of 879–880.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
clauses 4 and 5 of the Commonitorium, pronouncing the suppression of the anti-Photian synods and the excommunication of recalcitrant Ignatians, received general approval.
Dvornik reconstructs conciliar proceedings showing that the rehabilitation of Photius was formally enacted with papal legates' participation, undermining the legend of Rome's continuing opposition.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Zonaras lived long after the events, and being himself a schismatic he favoured Photius, the promoter of a schism, praising him and concealing his crimes, patent though they were to the whole world
Dvornik quotes Baronius's polemical characterisation of Photius, illustrating how Western confessional historiography entrenched the legend of Photius as arch-schismatic.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Humbert apparently does not even know the name of Photius, and his silence in this respect speaks volumes.
Dvornik adduces Cardinal Humbert's ignorance of Photius as evidence that the 1054 schism with Cerularius was not conceived at the time as a continuation of the Photian affair.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
more than 160 years elapsed between Photius and Cerularius, when the Church lived in perfect peace.
Dvornik marshals the century-and-a-half of unbroken communion between Rome and Constantinople after Photius as decisive evidence against any narrative of continuous schism.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
his work, known by its pompous title Concordantia Discordantium Canonum, after its publication about the year 1150 succeeded
Dvornik implicates Gratian's canonical compilation as a vehicle by which distorted accounts of the Photian affair were systematised and transmitted into Western legal tradition.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
it is therefore futile to seek in those documents evidence for the theory that the legates brought from Constantinople only an extract from the Acts, as though the Byzantines feared to send to Rome a full account of what had happened
Dvornik refutes the theory that the Byzantine delegation concealed the full conciliar record from Rome, defending the integrity of the transmission of the Photian Council Acts.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
the designation of Eighth Council given to the Ignatian Council of 869–70. This closed the incident and the other editors of the Conciliar Acts had but to follow in the wake of the Western tradition set once for all by the canonists of the eleventh and twelfth centuries
Dvornik traces how Western canonists definitively assigned 'Eighth Council' status to the anti-Photian Ignatian synod, a designation that then hardened into unquestioned tradition across all subsequent conciliar collections.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
officially the Byzantine Church counted only seven oecumenical councils and that neither the Ignatian Council of 869-70 nor the Photian Council of 879-80 were numbered among them.
Dvornik confirms through manuscript evidence that the Byzantine Church recognised only seven ecumenical councils, leaving both the Ignatian and Photian synods outside the canon of universally binding councils.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Photius' words so appealed to the canonists of the post-Gregorian period that they were quoted word for word by Ivo of Chartres, and many canonists who copied them from him, who fully understood their significance and quoted them precisely for the purpose of exalting papal power
Dvornik demonstrates the irony that Photius's own formulations were appropriated by Western canonists to buttress papal supremacy claims, revealing the complexity of his legacy.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Ignatius, at least at that time, was not sufficiently aware of the importance of that See and its claims on the universal Church, as was evidenced by his first official contact with the Pope.
Dvornik portrays Patriarch Ignatius's initial mishandling of Roman protocol as evidence of Byzantine unawareness of Roman primacy claims, contextualising the origins of the conflict.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
Nicholas I, at the time of Photius, excommunicated even the Greeks, not one iota being missed out of the excommunication. But like the Jews, the Greeks, as he stated in his own words, are like captives among the nations
Dvornik cites a later Latin polemicist's extreme instrumentalisation of the Photian affair to justify papal jurisdiction over the Greeks, illustrating how legend served ongoing power claims.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948supporting
the monastic world all but unanimously refused allegiance to the new Patriarch; unfortunately, Ignatian sources, chiefly Theognostos, only refer vaguely to a 'multitude' of monks who remained loyal to Ignatius.
Dvornik notes the predominant monastic resistance to Photius while qualifying the evidentiary value of Ignatian sources, illustrating the difficulty of establishing accurate factional proportions.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948aside
All profess that there are seven holy and oecumenical Councils, and these are the seven pillars of the faith of the Divine Word on which He erected His holy mansion, the Catholic and Oecumenical Church.
Dvornik cites the Russian Metropolitan John II's enumeration of seven councils as evidence that the Byzantine tradition in the eleventh century did not count the Photian Council among the ecumenical synods.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948aside
Barlaam merely notes in his treatise against the Latins that the origin of the schism is connected with the name of Photius
Dvornik observes that even Byzantine anti-Latin writers such as Barlaam treated Photius's connection to the schism as a passing association rather than a sustained theological argument.
, The Photian Schism: History and Legend, 1948aside