Theodore II Eirenikos ( gr, Θεόδωρος Β' Εἰρηνικός), (? – 31 January 1216), also known as Theodore Kopas or Koupas (Κωπάς/Κουπάς),Vougiouklaki (2003)
Chapter 1
was a high-ranking

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

official and chief minister during most of the reign of the

Byzantine emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Byzantine Empire, Eastern Roman Empire, to Fall of Constantinople, its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. On ...

Alexios III Angelos (r. 1195–1203). After the fall of

Constantinople la, Constantinopolis ota, قسطنطينيه , alternate_name = Byzantion (earlier Greek name), Nova Roma ("New Rome"), Miklagard/Miklagarth (Old Norse), Tsargrad ( Slavic), Qustantiniya ( Arabic), Basileuousa ("Queen of Cities"), Megalopolis ( ...

to the Fourth Crusade, he fled to the Empire of Nicaea, where he became a monk and served as Patriarch of Constantinople in exile in 1214–1216.

Political career

An intelligent, well-spoken and educated man, he rose to power following the disgrace and exile of Alexios' hitherto favourite official,

Constantine Mesopotamites Constantine Mesopotamites ( el, Κωνσταντῖνος Μεσοποταμίτης) was a senior Byzantine official, and ''de facto'' chief minister under the emperors Isaac II Angelos and Alexios III Angelos from 1193 until his fall in summer 11 ...

, in autumn 1197. Eirenikos succeeded Mesopotamites in his confidential and influential palace post of '' epi tou kanikleiou'' (secretary of the imperial inkpot), and as chief minister. He also held the senior court rank of '' pansebastos sebastos''. According to the account of the contemporary historian Niketas Choniates, Eirenikos feared that he would share Mesopotamites' fate, and therefore exercised his power with great restraint. He was anxious not to displease the hereditary aristocracy that dominated the imperial court and that had undermined Mesopotamites' position. To that effect he also neglected to undertake any of the reforms that the Empire desperately needed.

Exile and church career

In April 1204, Constantinople

fell A fell (from Old Norse ''fell'', ''fjall'', "mountain"Falk and Torp (2006:161).) is a high and barren landscape feature, such as a mountain or moor-covered hill. The term is most often employed in Fennoscandia, Iceland, the Isle of Man, pa ...

to the soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, and like many Byzantine leaders, Theodore fled the city and sought refuge in

Asia Minor Anatolia, tr, Anadolu Yarımadası), and the Anatolian plateau, also known as Asia Minor, is a large peninsula in Western Asia and the westernmost protrusion of the Asian continent. It constitutes the major part of modern-day Turkey. The re ...

. There Theodore was

tonsure Tonsure () is the practice of cutting or shaving some or all of the hair on the scalp as a sign of religious devotion or humility. The term originates from the Latin word ' (meaning "clipping" or "shearing") and referred to a specific practice i ...

d as a monk. In 1209, the newly proclaimed

Nicaean emperor The Empire of Nicaea or the Nicene Empire is the conventional historiographic name for the largest of the three Byzantine Greek''A Short history of Greece from early times to 1964'' by W. A. Heurtley, H. C. Darby, C. W. Crawley, C. M. Woodhouse ...

Theodore I Laskaris Theodore I Laskaris or Lascaris ( gr, Θεόδωρος Κομνηνὸς Λάσκαρις, Theodōros Komnēnos Laskaris; 1175November 1221) was the first emperor of Nicaea—a successor state of the Byzantine Empire—from 1205 to his d ...

, named him to the post of ''

chartophylax A ''chartophylax'' ( el, χαρτοφύλαξ, from χάρτα, "document" and φύλαξ, "guard, keeper"), sometimes also referred to as a ''chartoularios'', was an ecclesiastical officer in charge of official documents and records in the Greek O ...

'' of the

Patriarchate of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

, re-established in Nicaean exile. Laskaris also awarded him with the title ''

hypatos ton philosophon The ''hypatos tōn philosophon'' ( gr, ὕπατος τῶν φιλοσόφων, , chief of the philosophers) was a Byzantine title given to senior scholars in the 11th–14th centuries. The title first appears in 1047, and was probably introduced ...

'', a prestigious title given to the head of the

faculty of philosophy A faculty is a division within a university or college comprising one subject area or a group of related subject areas, possibly also delimited by level (e.g. undergraduate). In American usage such divisions are generally referred to as colleges ...

in Constantinople.Kazhdan (1991), p. 964 On 28 September 1214, Eirenikos was elected as Patriarch of Constantinople by the patriarchal synod. His tenure was marked by his open confrontation with the

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

, especially over the legitimacy of the

Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople The Latin Patriarchate of Constantinople was an office established as a result of the Fourth Crusade and its conquest of Constantinople in 1204. It was a Roman Catholic replacement for the Eastern Orthodox Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinopl ...

and of Catholic control over the Greek Orthodox populations ruled by Latin princes.Vougiouklaki (2003)
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Theodore Eirenikos died on 31 January 1216.

References

Sources

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Theodore 02 Of Constantinople 12th-century births 1216 deaths 12th-century Byzantine people 13th-century patriarchs of Constantinople Byzantine officials People of the Empire of Nicaea