Arsenius Autoreianus

ARSENIUS AUTOREIANUS. - Born in Constantinople in the early 13th century, he changed his name from George to A. when he entered the monastery of Oxia, near Nicaea, where he was hegumen. He yielded to all the wishes of the emperor Theodore II Lascaris, who had elected him patriarch of Constantinople (1254). When in 1258 Michael Palaeologus seized power, A. threatened him, abandoned the patriarchal see and agreed to return only on condition, upon the death of his successor, Nicephorus of Ephesus. He crowned Michael at Hagia Sophia, but when the Palaeologus in 1261 had John Lascaris, son of the deceased emperor and ward of the patriarch, blinded, A. excommunicated him. The emperor had him deposed, and he went to die on the island of Proconnesus, in 1237, leaving a grave schism behind him.

Works: 1) Testament: a historical document of the time, PG 140, 947-58. 2) Bulls. 3) Part of the ritual of the Union: ibid., 808. 4) An unpublished treatise contained in ms. 7 Lincoln at Oxford. A Synopsis Canonum written in 1255 by another A., a monk of Mount Athos, is wrongly attributed to him.