Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople
- Patriarch Anastasius of Constantinople
Anastasius was the patriarch of Constantinople from 730 to 754. The patriarchate of Constantinople is a high position in the eastern branch of Christianity. He succeeded Germanus I (715-730). Anastasius was heavily involved in the controversy over icons (images). His opinion of icons changed twice. First he opposed them, then he favored them, and finally he opposed them again.
Background
In 726 Emperor Leo III published an edict forbidding the use of images in the Church. His soldiers consequently removed images from churches throughout the Byzantine Empire.
Germanus, the patriarch of Constantinople, protested the edict. He wrote a letter appealing to Pope Gregory II in Rome in 729. Emperor Leo deposed Germanus as patriarch soon afterwards. Pope Gergory opposed Leo and urged him to retract the edict, which Leo refused to do.
Anastasius's Patriarchate
Leo appointed Anastasius patriarch of Constantinople in 730. He willingly sided with the emperor on the question of icons.
Pope Gregory died in 731. His successor, Gregory III, continued the campaign to retain icons, and wrote his own letter to Leo, exhorting him to change his policy. The controversy raged for years.
In 741 Leo died. His son Constantine V became emperor. Soon afterwards, a man named Artabasdus assumed the rule of Constantinople and the Byzantine Empire. Artabasdus was Leo's son-in-law and his chamberlain, yet he favored the use of icons. With the support of many clergymen and lay people, Artabasdus declared himself the "Protector of the Holy Icons". He convinced the patriarch Anastasius to crown him emperor. Anastasius now switched sides and became an ardent defender of icons, which Artabasdus reinstalled in the churches. Anastasius excommunicated Constantine V and declared him a heretic and a denier of Jesus.
Constantine in the meantime returned to his ancestral home in the Isaurian Mountains. He gathered the Asian segment of his army, who were all iconoclasts, and marched to Constantinople in 743. He defeated Artabastus and began to take bitter vengeance on his enemies. He had Artabastus executed. He removed the icons from the churches once again.
His treatment of Anastasius was horrendous. First he had him whipped and blinded. Then he paraded him through the streets in shame. He forced Anastasius to revert to his former opinion against idols, and then restored him to his position as patriarch.
Anastasius lived until 754.
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