Five patriarchs in the "Chronicle" of Theophanes the Confessor
Abstract
The Chronicle of Theophanes Confessor is known for its chronology. Theophanes dates all events in accordance with the years of ministry of the Pope and the four patriarchs. All these fi ve bishops are called «ecumenical» in preamble of the chronicle. These data make us to look for additional information about the five patriarchs in the writing. The title «ecumenical» is never used by Theophanes in relation to the Patriarch of Constantinople. The only exception is the elevation of Constantine to this see in 754. New patriarch is named «ecumenical» by iconoclast emperor. Theophanes speaks of all fi ve thrones as catholic. He means not so much the patriarchs themselves as the churches they lead. Theophanes objects to the application of the title «patriarch» to bishop of Thessalonica. Three observations can be made regarding the order of the patriarchal sees. First, the titles of the annual articles have names of Jerusalem patriarchs in third place, not the Alexandrian. Secondly, when describing the Ecumenical Councils, the chronicler, on the one hand, insists on the presidency of «catholic thrones» even in contradiction with the original sources of his chronicle, and on the other hand, he gives the names of the primates in an arbitrary order, in accordance with the requirement of the message plot. Third, St. Theophanes nevertheless does not ignore the problem of primacy: he says under 6042 from the creation of the world, that the name of the patriarch Mina was “shifted” and replaced in the first place with the name of Pope Vigilius. The Chronicler does not comment on this fact, but he probably retains Malala’s account showing that the order of the sees was often determined by a specifi c historical situation. The same can be said for the third place of Jerusalem in annual rubrics. Generally the system of the pentarchy of St. Theophanes is characterized by the complete equality of the patriarchal sees and the churches they head.
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