Criticism and Critique: Sidelights on the Konradiner. Donald C. Jackman

Abstract

Reviews 179 enemies and were paradigmatic for his fellow clergymen. He is equally lauded for the establishment of a monastery, churches, and houses for the poor and for the distribution of food and clothing (especially during the winter) to the needy. Special distributions to the needy were made on Easter day.Ignatios singled out the role of Tarasios in the convocation of the ecumenical synod for extended treatment. He provides important information on the preparation, the sessions, the issues, and the decisions of the Second Nicene Synod, which justified theologically and made possible the restoration of icons in Christian worship.As patriarch, Tarasios treated mildly the clergy who had favored iconoclasm, forgave repentant simoniacs, defended people who had been unjustly persecuted, upheld the inviolability of the church's sanctuary, and supported canon law. It was his strict adherence to canon law that gave him the courage to reprimand the emperor for the moechian affair and call him "a new Herod," an accusation that caused him to be persecuted.Upon his death Tarasios was eulogized as the "sleepless torch and lightbearer, guide of the state to better things, and divine teacher." For the church he was acclaimed as "the one who was made all things to all men, that he might by all means save some."Efthymiadis's translation reads comfortably, and his commentary is precise and most illuminating and enriching. To his bibliography on the moechian-the adultery controversy-I would add Theodore Korres' study on the subject. Also the correct spelling of the name of the author of Byzantine Philanthropy and Social Welfare is Constantelos, not Konstantelos or Konstantellos (pp. 220, 259). But these are insignificant blemishes that in no way diminish the value of what can be considered a definitive edition and study of Ignatios's Life of the Patriarch Tarasios. It is a useful contribution for Byzantinists but also for Western medievalists, who can discern here much about the problems, the mind, and the ethos of churchmen of the Byzantine era and identify some of the issues confronting the Latin and Greek churches in the eighth century, for example, the emphasis on the authority of an ecumenical council over a monarchical decree.