Arsenius Autoreianos

Arsenius of Constantinople (Latinised as Arsenius Autoreianus; Greek: Ἀρσένιος Αὐτωρειανός; c. 1200 – 30 September 1273), Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, lived about the middle of the 13th century.

Born in Constantinople c. 1200 and related to previous Patriarch Michael IV of Constantinople, Arsenius received his education in Nicaea at a monastery of which he later became the abbot, though not in orders. Subsequently, he gave himself up to a life of solitary asceticism in a Bithynian monastery and is said to have remained some time in a monastery on Mount Athos.

Life

From this seclusion, he was called by the Byzantine Emperor Theodore II Laskaris to the position of patriarch at Nicaea in 1255. Upon the emperor's death Arsenius may have shared guardianship of his son John IV Laskaris with George Mouzalon - while the later historians Nicephorus Gregoras and Makarios Melissenos say the Patriarch was so named, the contemporary historians Pachymeres and Acropolites name only Mouzalon. Nevertheless, a few days after Theodore's death George Mouzalon was murdered by Michael VIII Palaiologos, and who, at an assembly of the aristocracy presided over by Patriarch Arsenius, was appointed regent for the boy. Arsenius also performed the double coronation of Michael VIII Palaiologos and John IV Laskaris in August 1258.

Through the time between the death of Mouzalon and the double coronation, Arsenius had worked to protect the rights of the young emperor John IV Lascaris, at one point insisting that John IV and Michael VIII exchange mutual oaths of loyalty. He also insisted that at the double coronation John IV Lascaris should be crowned first, which Michael VIII Palaiologos saw as a serious barrier to his final usurpation. Pressure was put upon the patriarch to allow Palaiologos to be crowned alone, and even the young emperor was threatened.