The maternal
yoke, which he had so patiently borne, finally became grievous, and
Constantine listened eagerly to the favorites of his own age who urged
him to assert his rights. He was finally persuaded to do so, and
succeeded in seizing the helm of state. His mother vigorously resisted,
but was overcome and compelled to go into seclusion for a time; but
Constantine at length pardoned her and restored her former dignity.
Irene, however, had by no means relinquished her ambition for sole
power, and availed herself of every opportunity to discredit the prince
and enhance her own popularity.
Constantine became enamored of one of his mother's maids of honor,
Theodota. With the insidious purpose of making him odious to the clergy,
who discountenanced divorce and second marriage, Irene encouraged him to
put away his wife, Maria, and marry Theodota. The patriarch Tarasius, a
creature of the empress-mother, acquiesced in the emperor's wishes, and,
though he would not perform the ceremony himself, he ordered one of his
subordinates to celebrate the unpopular bans. The affair created great
scandal among the monks and was injurious to the prestige of the
emperor.
A powerful conspiracy was secretly organized for the restoration of the
empress. At length the emperor, suspecting his danger, escaped from
Constantinople with the purpose of arousing the provinces and the armies
so that he might return to the city with sufficient force to overwhelm
the conspirators and establish beyond question his power. By this flight
the empress was left in danger, because of the possible exposure of the
plot and the indignation of the populace. She acted with her customary
shrewdness and duplicity. Among those about the emperor were some who
were involved in the conspiracy; so, while appearing to be making ready
to implore the mercy and beg the return of her son, she sent to these
men a secret communication in which she veiled the threat that if they
did not act, she would reveal their treason. Fearing for their lives,
they acted at once with the boldness of desperate criminals. Seizing the
emperor on the Asiatic shore, they conveyed him across the Hellespont to
the porphyry apartment of the palace, the chamber in which he was born.
The son was now completely in the power of the mother, in whom ambition
had stifled every maternal emotion. In the bloody council called by the
traitors she urged that Constantine should be rendered incapable of
holding the throne. Her emissaries blinded the young prince and immured
him in a monastery. As a blind monk Constantine survived five of his
successors; but his memory was revived among men only by the marriage of
his daughter Euphrosyne with the Emperor Michael the Second.
For five years Irene enjoyed all the delights and experienced all the
bitterness of absolute power. Her crime called down upon her the
execration of all the best among mankind, but dread of her cruelty
prevented any open outbreak against her. She carried on the movement for
the restoration of images, and by her outward piety she caused men to
overlook the heinous nature of her crimes. Her reign was noted for its
external splendor and the strong influence she exerted on all affairs of
state. She offered marriage to the Emperor Charlemagne of the West, but
he repelled with repugnance all overtures from the unnatural mother and
reminded her that her intrigues had prevented the union of his daughter
with the Emperor Constantine. In fact, her accession brought about the
final severing of all bonds of union between the eastern and western
divisions of the Roman world. Pope Leo regarded a female sovereign as an
anomaly and an abomination in the eyes of all true Romans, and he
brought to an end all claims the Byzantine dynasty might have on Italy
at least, by creating Charlemagne Emperor of the West.
These years of power were troublous ones to the wicked queen, because of
rebellions abroad and palace intrigues at home. She had surrounded
herself with servile patricians and eunuchs, whom she enriched and
elevated to the highest offices of state; but her own example had
fostered in them ingratitude and duplicity, and, while they showed her
every outward mark of deference, they secretly conspired for her
downfall and their own elevation. The grand treasurer, Nicephorus, won
over the leading eunuchs and courtiers about the person of the empress,
and the decision was reached that he should be invested with the purple.
Never was Irene more queenly than in the manner with which she received
the intelligence of her fall. When the conspirators informed her that
she must retire from the palace, she addressed them with becoming
dignity, recounting the revolutions of her life, and accepting with
composure her fate. She gently reproached Nicephorus for his perfidy and
reminded him that he owed his elevation to her, and she requested the
proper recognition of her imperial standing and asked for a safe and
honorable retreat. But the greed of Nicephorus would not grant this last
request; he deprived her of all her dignities and wealth, and exiled her
to the Isle of Lesbos, where she endured every hardship and gained a
scanty subsistence by the labors of her distaff. Irene survived the
change of her fortune for only one year, and in 803 died of
grief--destitute, forsaken, and lonely.
Because of her wickedness Irene's name is perpetuated in history among
the Messalinas and the Lucrezia Borgias. Because of her religious
orthodoxy she was canonized as a saint,--a striking instance of how
outward conformity to religion covers a multitude of sins.
XIII
BYZANTINE EMPRESSES THEODORA II., THEOPHANO, ZOE, THEODORA III.
The Iconoclastic controversy was far from being extinguished with the
fall (in the person of Irene) of the house of Leo the Isaurian. It was
destined to continue for over half a century longer and to be finally
settled by another empress whose career bore marked similarity to that
of the image-loving Irene; and it then remained settled because the
second image-loving queen was succeeded by a royal house sprung from one
of the European themes which was in sympathy, accordingly, with the
Church of the West, rather than with the religious sentiment of the
people of the Orient.
But a greater change had come over the Eastern Empire with the exile and
death of Irene. Her elevation had, as we have seen, severed the
connection between East and West and led to the appointment of a Western
emperor in the person of Charlemagne. Hence, from this time onward the
interests and sympathies of the two sections of the later Roman Empire
diverge more and more, and the government at Constantinople becomes ever
more Oriental in its proclivities. It is, therefore, more appropriate to
use the adjective Byzantine for the remaining centuries of the history
of Constantinople to its conquest by the Turks in 1453.
The careers of Irene and her successor, Theodora, the two
image-worshipping empresses, in the contrast of the vicissitudes of
their lives with the rapidity of their rise and the splendor of their
power, offer materials for romance more truly than for sober history.
Each was born in private station; and in each case it must have required
rare beauty and fascination and high intellectual gifts to fill so
successfully the exalted position of Empress of the Romans, and to
overturn the iconoclastic reforms of their predecessors on the throne.
Each of them, too, when regent, was grossly neglectful of the son over
whose youth she presided, and whom she should have fitted for the high
station to which he was destined. Yet herein lies the marked difference
between the two queens: Irene finally expelled her son from his royal
station, and sent him to pass his life as a blinded monk in a secluded
cell; Theodora, finding she could no longer control the wild nature of
her son, whose training she had neglected, retired from the court and
sought relief in a life of penitence. For their pious acts, both
empresses were canonized as orthodox saints, but Irene must ever be
regarded as a demon at heart, while Theodora must pass as a misguided
and self-deceived woman, who, in the performance of her religious
duties, overlooked the most important task just at hand.
But we are
anticipating our consideration of Theodora, the second Irene.
The iconoclastic controversy was renewed by Nicephorus, who usurped the
throne of Irene, as he was of Oriental extraction and therefore in
sympathy with the so-called heretics. Neither Nicephorus nor his
successor during a period of political anarchy came to a peaceful end,
but Michael II., in 829 died a natural death in the royal palace, still
wearing the crown he had won, and leaving the throne to his son
Theophilus, destined to rank as the Haroun Al Raschid of Byzantine
romance and story. Michael had married Euphrosyne, the daughter of
Irene's son, Constantine VI., and the last scion of Leo the Isaurian.
Euphrosyne had already taken the veil, but, to bring about a union which
might probably continue the line of Leo, the patriarch absolved her from
her vows, and she passed from the convent to the palace as Empress of
the East. Yet, so far as we know, there was no issue of the marriage,
and Michael's son--Theophilus--by a former wife succeeded his father on
the throne. Euphrosyne remained for a time in the palace as
empress-dowager, and seems to have been on the best of terms with her
stepson, whom she at length assisted in the important but difficult task
of selecting a consort.
Theophilus, since the time of Constantine VI., was the first prince to
be brought up in the purple, and his education was the best the age
afforded. The ninth century was an age of romance, both in action and in
literature, and Theophilus was inspired with many of the ideas of
Oriental monarchs. His reign, therefore, furnishes a series of anecdotes
and tales like to those of the Arabian Nights, and was surrounded with
an Oriental glamour and mystery. And, like his predecessors, he was a
pronounced iconoclast.
Theophilus was unmarried when he ascended the throne, and the matter of
choosing a wife presented many difficulties to the absolute ruler who
could have his choice from among the daughters of the aristocratic
families of Constantinople, or even from the provinces of his dominions.
He finally took counsel with the attractive empress-dowager Euphrosyne,
and between them they devised a plan which would permit of a wide range
of choice and yet possess all the romance of mythical times.
The empress-dowager one day assembled at her levee all the most
beautiful and accomplished daughters of the nobles of the capital. While
the maidens were engaged in the interchange of friendly greetings,
Theophilus suddenly entered the room, carrying, like Paris of old, a
golden apple in his hand. He cast his eyes over the room, and there was
a flutter in many a feminine heart over the object of his coming and the
possible recipient of the golden apple. Struck by the beauty and grace
of the fair Eikasia, one of the noted belles of the day, he paused
before her to address a word to her. Already in the heart of the proud
beauty there were anticipations of an imperial career.
But Theophilus
found no better topic to commence a conversation than the ungallant
remark: "Woman is the source of evil in the world;" to which the young
lady quickly replied: "Woman is also the cause of much good." Either the
ready retort or the tone of her voice jarred on the captious mind of the
monarch, and he passed on. His eye then fell on the modest features and
graceful figure of the young Theodora, a rival beauty, and to her,
without risking a word, he handed the apple. The shock was too severe
for the slighted Eikasia, who had for a moment felt the thrill of
gratified ambition, and was conscious of the possession of the
endowments that would adorn the throne. She straightway retired to a
monastery which she founded, and devoted her time to religious practices
and intellectual pursuits. Many hymns were composed by her, which
continued long in use in the Greek Church.
Perhaps it would have been better for Theophilus had he chosen Eikasia.
Theodora, with all her modest demeanor, was self-assertive and proud,
and as a devoted iconodule she caused her husband many an unhappy hour
during his lifetime; and as soon as he was dead she set to work to undo
his policy. The Empress Euphrosyne too soon realized the masterful
spirit of the new empress as did Theodora's own mother, Theoktista, and
the two dowagers retired into the monastery of Gastria, which afforded
them an agreeable retreat from the intrigues of the court.
Theodora is the heroine of another tale which illustrated an unbecoming
trait in her character and the love of justice of Theophilus. It was the
practice of money-loving officials to engage secretly in trade and to
avoid the payment of custom duties by engaging the empress, or members
of the imperial family, in commercial adventures. By these practices,
gross injustice was done the merchants, and the revenues of the state
suffered. Theophilus learned that the young empress had lent her name to
one of these trading speculations, and he determined to handle the
matter in such a way that, in future, a repetition would be impossible.
He ascertained the time when a ship laden with a valuable cargo in the
empress's name was about to arrive in Constantinople. He assembled his
whole court on the quay to witness its arrival, and when the captain of
the ship demanded free entry in the empress's name, Theophilus compelled
him to unload and expose his precious cargo of Syrian merchandise, and
then publicly burn it; then, turning to his wife, he remarked that never
in the history of man had a Roman emperor or empress turned trader, and
added the sharp reproach that her avarice had degraded the character of
an empress into that of a merchant.
Theophilus died in 842, leaving the throne to his three-year-old son,
Michael. His mother, Theodora, as she had been crowned empress, was
regent in her own right, and she quickly proved herself one of the most
self-assertive of Byzantine princesses. As Theophilus and his
predecessors overturned the work of Irene, so Theodora immediately began
to undo the iconoclastic policy of her deceased husband; and as her
successors continued her policy, the regency of Theodora marks the end
of iconoclasm and the permanent establishment of image worship in the
churches of the East, as of the West.
Within the first month of the commencement of the new reign, images had
appeared once more in the churches of Constantinople, and the banished
image worshippers were recalled from their places of exile. John the
Grammarian, the patriarch who had served Theophilus, was deposed because
he refused to convoke a synod for the repeal of iconoclastic decrees,
and Methodius was appointed in his stead. A council of the church was
held the same year at Constantinople, composed largely of the lately
exiled bishops, abbots, and monks who had distinguished themselves as
confessors in the cause of image worship. All the prominent bishops who
had held iconoclastic opinions were expelled from their sees, and their
places were filled by the orthodox. The practices and doctrines of the
Iconoclasts were formally anathematized and banished forever from the
orthodox church.
While the synod was being held, in the heart of Theodora a conflict was
going on between her love of image worship and her affection for her
deceased husband. She did not waver in her zeal for the orthodox church,
but she did dread to think of her husband as consigned, as a heretic, to
the pangs of hell. Consequently, she presented herself one day to the
assembled clergy, and requested the passage of a decree to the effect
that her deceased husband's sins had all been pardoned by the Church,
and that divine grace had effaced the record of his persecutions of the
saints. Deep dissatisfaction showed itself on the faces of all the
clergy when she made this singular request, and when they hesitated to
speak she uttered, with innocent frankness, a mild threat that if they
did not act favorably on her petition, she would not exert her influence
as regent to give them the victory over the Iconoclasts, but would leave
the affairs of the Church in their present status. The patriarch
Methodius finally found his voice to tell her that the Church could use
its office to release the souls of orthodox princes from the pains of
hell, but unfortunately the prayers of the Church were of no avail in
obtaining forgiveness from God for those who died without the pale of
orthodoxy; that the Church was intrusted with the keys of heaven only to
open and shut the gates of salvation to the living, while the dead were
beyond its help.
Theodora, however, was determined all the more to secure salvation for
her deceased husband. She declared that in his last moments the dying
Theophilus had tenderly grasped and kissed an image she had laid on his
breast. Although the probabilities were that the soul of Theophilus had
already sped ere such an event took place, the wily Methodius saw in the
statement an escape from the dilemma that faced the synod; and upon his
recommendation the assembled clergy consented to absolve the dead
emperor from excommunication and to receive him into the bosom of the
orthodox church, declaring that, as his last moments were spent in the
manner Theodora certified in a written attestation, Theophilus had found
pardon with God.
Like her more celebrated predecessor Irene, Theodora exhibited a
masterful ability in governing, and, in spite of her persecuting policy
toward the Iconoclasts, she preserved the tranquillity of the Empire and
enhanced its prestige. Like Irene, too, she became so engrossed in
things religious and political that she shamefully neglected the
education of her son. It is a sad commentary on the history of the
Church that in the long series of emperors from Theodosius to Basil only
two were utterly unfit for the high station to which they fell heir, and
these were the sons of the two empresses whose names figure so largely
in the triumph of the image worshippers,--Irene's son, Constantine VI.,
and Theodora's son, Michael III.
Theodora, absorbed in imperial ambition, abandoned the training of her
child to her brother Bardas, of whose profligate life she could not have
been ignorant. Bardas reared the young Michael in the most reckless and
unconscientious manner, permitting him to neglect his serious studies,
and teaching him his own vices of drunkenness and debauchery. Michael
proved to be an apt pupil in profligacy, and before he reached his
majority had become a confirmed dipsomaniac. Meanwhile, his mother, with
the aid of her minister, Theoktistus, arrogated to herself the sole
direction of public business, and viewed with indifference her brother's
corruption of the principles of her son. Perhaps she saw in his ruin the
continuance and perpetuation of her own power; perhaps she feared that
his influence would be cast with the Iconoclasts, as had been his
father's before him, and that only by his wild career could he be
prevented from overturning the cherished plans of her heart.
In spite of his irregular life, however, Michael manifested a strong
will of his own, and, as the time of the attainment of his majority
approached, he came to an open quarrel with his mother.
He had fallen
violently in love with Eudocia, the daughter of Inger, of the powerful
family of Martinakes, and Theodora and her ministers saw in an alliance
with this house the probability of a potent opposition to their own
political influence. Theodora realized that she must in some manner
prevent this marriage, and she exerted her maternal influence so
strongly that she compelled the lad of sixteen to marry another lady
named Eudocia, the daughter of Dekapolitas--thus repeating the
unfortunate policy of Irene on a similar occasion. The young roué,
however, balked in his purpose to make Eudocia Ingerina his wife,
straightway made her his mistress, and thus brought public disgrace on
the court life of the day. His marriage also incensed him against the
regency; and at the first opportunity, he asserted his majority,
sanctioned the murder of the prime minister Theoktistus, and grew weary
of the presence of his mother.
He succeeded in dismissing his mother and sisters from the palace, and
even attempted to persuade the patriarch to give them the veil. With the
hope of regaining her power over her son, Theodora formed a plot to
assassinate her brother Bardas; but the plot was discovered, and Michael
compelled her to retire to the monastery of Gastria, the usual residence
of the ladies of the imperial family who were secluded from the world.
Yet, the empress-mother never descended to the baseness of Irene, so as
to seek the injury of her ungrateful son.
Meanwhile, Michael selected as his boon companion the courtier Basil,
who had begun his career as a groom in the stables of some nobleman of
the court. The two gave their time to debauchery and lust; and as a
token of his favor, Michael compelled Basil to marry his discarded
mistress, Eudocia Ingerina.
In the solitude of the cloister, Theodora deplored the ingratitude, the
vices, and the inevitable ruin of her worthless son, and, repenting of
her earlier folly in neglecting his bringing up, endeavored to make
amends for the mistake of her past life. Finally, after the death of her
brother, Theodora regained some of her maternal influence and was
permitted to reside at the palace of Saint Mamas, where occurred the
last sad tragedy of her career.
Basil, who in spite of all carousals could always keep his head,
observed how his friend Michael had thrown away the high privileges of
his station and had become an object of contempt in the eyes of all good
men. His overweening ambition to mount the throne overcame every noble
sentiment, and he plotted to assassinate the emperor and to usurp
supreme power. The tragedy occurred in the palace of the empress-mother.
Basil and his wife, Eudocia Ingerina, were invited by her to a feast at
her house, where Michael was present. An orgy ensued; Michael was
carried to his room in a state of intoxication, and Basil and his
conspirators succeeded in despatching him in his drunken sleep. Basil
mounted the throne, and was destined to found the longest dynasty in the
annals of the Empire. Theodora, bowed down with sorrows, and distressed
beyond measure at the cruel destiny of her first-born, died in the first
year of the reign of Basil I.
Theodora, because of her zeal for image worship, was eulogized as a
saint by the ecclesiastical writers of both the Western and the Eastern
Church, and is honored with a place in the Greek Calendar. Had her
devotion to her children equalled her self-sacrificing loyalty to church
affairs, she might have changed the course of Byzantine history. But,
failing in her maternal duties, her name shared the ignominy as well as
the glory of Irene, and, while not possessing the wickedness of the
latter, she must rank as a qu