The Conflict over the Patriarchate of Constantinople under Eutychios and John Scholastikos (552-582) and its Impact on Imperial Religious Policy

Abstract

This thesis sheds new light on two relatively unknown and understudied patriarchs of Constantinople in the second half of the sixth century. It analyses the challenges faced by the patriarchs Eutychios (552-565; 577-582) and John Scholastikos (565-577) and examines how these challenges influenced the religious policy of the emperors Justin II (565-578) and Tiberios (578-582). A coherent scholarly analysis of the religious history of the Eastern Roman Empire in that period has hitherto been missing, but my thesis closes this gap by proposing a novel explanation of how most ecclesiastical disputes developed during the patriarchates of Eutychios and John. It argues that incidents such as John’s persecution of Christian sects who were perceived as heretics after 571 and the attacks on Eutychios for allegedly providing shelter to people accused of paganism in 580 can only be understood in the larger context of the rivalry between the two patriarchs and their attempts to mobilise rival bodies of potential support. Eutychios became the victim of intrigue in 565 because he did not support the imperial ambitions of Justin II, who succeeded the elderly emperor Justinian in that year. He was sent into exile and replaced with John Scholastikos, yet he never acknowledged John as patriarch. The church of Constantinople was thus effectively divided, and when Eutychios returned as patriarch after John’s death in 577, he declared all of John’s actions invalid and behaved as if he himself had never been legally deposed. Consequently, reconciliation between the two factions became impossible; Eutychios’ legitimacy as patriarch remained hotly contested until his own death in 582. The fierce competition over the patriarchate between these two bishops weakened the standing of each in the Constantinopolitan church. Their desire to bolster their legitimacy and present themselves as defenders of orthodoxy proved a major stimulus for their initiatives. Previous scholarly contributions have not discussed the crucial importance of the rivalry between Eutychios and John. So far, the persecutions and denunciations that took place in their patriarchates have only been analysed independently. I, however, show that these incidents are better understood as inter-connected because they all arose from a struggle for power at the top of the imperial church.