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to any kind of secular learning. Those were the ultra-conservatives, who held that church orders and writings should be followed in all circumstances with the utmost vigor. The rest of the iconodules, on the other hand, favored "economia," that is, a policy of compromise in matters not concerning the fundamentals of the faith and also with the iconoclastic clergy. The moderates wished to forget the events of the iconoclastic period, which had kept Byzantium in internal turmoil for almost a century and a half. Among this group were Bardas, Photios (before he became patriarch), Constantine-Cyril, and other men of letters. The Patriarch Ignatios belonged to the ultra-conservative die-hard party and was the choice of the pious iconodule Empress Theodora. Niketas, Ignatios' biographer, insinuates that the empress played a leading part in Ignatios' elevation to the patriarchal throne.43 Anastasios the Librarian, who was sent by the Pope to examine Ignatios' position, acknowledges in his preface to the Acts of the Eighth Synod the fact that Ignatios treated profane learning with the upmost contempt.44 In this respect, he shared the feelings of the die-hard monks and zealots, in sharp contrast to the long line of men of learning who sat on the patriarchal throne of Byzantium, men such as the Patriarchs Nikephoros, Tarasios, John the Grammarian, and Methodios.
However, there was no apparent opposition by the episco-pate towards the new patriarch, as evidenced by the homage paid to Ignatios from the friends of the deceased Patriarch Methodios.45 The leader of the group was the bishop of Syracuse, Gregorios Asbestas, who himself had been considered for patriarch. Gregorios, it seems, had been accused of some indiscretion regarding the ordination of a priest and his case had not been cleared at that time by the church.46 Ready to accept the new patriarch, Gregorios led his followers to the church to pay homage to Ignatios at his enthronement. But the uncompromising Ignatios ordered Gregorios out of the Church of Hagia Sophia.47 The quarrel between the new patriarch and Gregorios intensified as it became a
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