The Life of the Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (BHG 1698). Introduction, text, translation and commentary. by Stephanos Efthymiadis (review)

BOOK REVIEWS601 The Life ofthe Patriarch Tarasios by Ignatios the Deacon (BHG 1698). Introduction , text, translation and commentary. By Stephanos Efthymiadis. [Birmingham Byzantine and Ottoman Monographs,Volume 4.] (Brookfield, Vermont: Variorum, Ashgate Publishing Co. 1998. Pp. xvii, 309; 3 plates. $76.95.) The opening words of this vita of the Patriarch of Constantinople who, even if a little prematurely, dug the grave for Byzantine iconoclasm reveal the genre to which this piece of hagiography belongs: About to swim across the infinite magnitude of the ocean of virtues of a glorious father who has led an unapproachable life, I fear lest by the adverse winds of my uncultivated tongue I raise a huge wave of obscurity and cause myself a tempest and a storm of psychic drowning. (§ 1) At once one senses the verbal wealth, the assumed humility, and the delight in literary conjuring, which are hallmarks of the subgenre made by such vitae (studied in detail by Dr. Efthymiadis in an earlier Oxford thesis). Tarasios, a pious lay court official, appointed Patriarch in 784 by the Empress Irene in order to restore the cult of icons,organized the Council (Nicaea II of 787) which condemned iconoclasm, and then set about an ambitious programme of writing and church decoration in favor of icons. Earlier he taught his biographer, then in the "acme of youth" the intricacies of Greek verse, "trimetre and tetrametre ,trochees and anapaests,and dactylic verse" (§69), and Ignatios tells us that he was present at the Patriarch's deathbed (§60) in 806. Less than ten years later, iconoclasm was restored by Leo V, and would be finally interred only in 843. The present vita, which is just over thirty pages long, probably dates from shortly after that date,when Ignatios was some seventy years old. A professional cleric, part-time monk, and perhaps bishop of Nicaea, he is thought to have died about half-a-dozen years later, after a life marked by doctrinal oscillations (he moved from rejecting icons to accepting them, then repeated the process as Emperors came and went) but with an unwavering devotion to literature, producing little masterpieces (three other vitae are attributed to him, and numerous other works in verse and prose) and probably a deep, but unheroic, piety. This new edition has an excellent Greek text, established after a painstaking collation of the manuscripts, and an outstanding English translation. The 'highstyle ' Greek favored by Ignatios has a baroque quality, demanding of its readers and often opaque. The Greek-less reader may find the numerous Greek quotations in the introduction a little baffling (and it is here that one notices how the editor has had to struggle with English), but in general complex historical questions are treated with exemplary clarity. The historian will complain that hagiographie veneration has covered over too much historical truth (the sad fate of Constantine VI and the ambitious ruthlessness of his mother are never mentioned ), but for a reader who wants glimpses of real life in Byzantium, this art- 602BOOK REVIEWS fully told tale offers many tidbits. In addition, its inclusion in liturgical readings ensured its survival, when so much else from that disturbed period has been lost, and one must willy-nilly turn to it for some information,however biased, on the crucial struggle against iconoclasm. Joseph A. Munitiz, SJ. Manresa House Birmingham, England The Medieval Abbey of Farfa: Target of Papal and Imperial Ambitions. By Mary Stroll. [Brill's Studies in Intellectual History, Volume 74.] (Leiden: BrUl. 1997. Pp. xüi, 298.) Mary Stroll has produced a welcome addition to the growing number of local studies on church reform in Italy. Her book presents a detailed analysis of the investiture controversy and the expansion of papal power from the point of view of a large central Italian monastery, the abbey of Farfa, examining the fight between regnum and sacerdotium through the eyes of a third party that was directly involved in the events. Stroll succeeds well in showing the complexities of the political dimension of church reform, and her book demonstrates just how important third parties such as Farfa were in the battle between pope and emperor. Throughout the book the author follows closely primary source...