John IX Agapetos or Hieromnemon ( el, ), (? – April 1134) was
Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople between 1111 and 1134. John's nickname is because before his election to the Patriarchal throne he held the office of ''
hieromnemon'' within the Patriarchate. He was the nephew of a prominent
Metropolitan of Chalcedon
The Metropolis of Chalcedon ( el, Μητρόπολη Χαλκηδόνος) is an ecclesiastical territory (diocese) of the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. Christianity spread in Chalcedon during the 2nd century AD. The city was initiall ...
.
He was a cleric from within the scholarly, philosophical branch of the Church hierarchy, and had risen through the ranks of the patriarchal clergy. He sought to reverse the secularising trend within the clergy by banning them from acting as advocates in civil courts. A lifelong scholar, he sought to reclaim the great, but dispersed, collection of books within the capital, as there was no central library. He made it a practice to acquire the book collections of deceased powerful men, and then had the patriarchal staff recopy them. His measures greatly expanded the range of titles held in the
Great Church to which teachers were attached.
Within religious matters, he pushed the trend of making the patriarchal clergy, rather than the monastic community, the authoritative voice of
Orthodoxy
Orthodoxy (from Greek: ) is adherence to correct or accepted creeds, especially in religion.
Orthodoxy within Christianity refers to acceptance of the doctrines defined by various creeds and ecumenical councils in Antiquity, but different Churc ...
. He also convened a synod in Constantinople in 1117 which condemned the doctrine of
Eustratius of Nicaea as
Nestorian, despite the defence offered by the Patriarch. During his patriarchate some efforts were made by Emperor
Alexios I Komnenos to bridge the
schism
A schism ( , , or, less commonly, ) is a division between people, usually belonging to an organization, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, suc ...
between the Orthodox and the Catholic Church but these failed, as
Pope Pascal II in late 1112 pressed the demand that the Patriarch of Constantinople recognise the
Pope's primacy over "all the churches of God throughout the world". This was something the patriarch could not do in face of opposition from the majority of secular clergy, the monastic world, and the laity.
[Hussey, pp. 170-171.]
Sources
Ecumenical Patriarchate*Hussey, J.M.. ''The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire''. Oxford: University Press, 1986.
*
Magdalino, Paul. ''The Empire of Manuel Komnenos''. Cambridge: University Press, 1993.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:John 09 Agaoetos
12th-century patriarchs of Constantinople
1134 deaths