Arsenius Autorianus

Arsenius Autorianus (born c. 1200, Constantinople—died 1273, Proconnesus, Tur.) was the patriarch of Constantinople, whose deposition caused a serious schism in the Byzantine Church. He took the name Arsenius on being appointed patriarch of Nicaea in 1255 by the Byzantine emperor Theodore II Lascaris. In 1259 he crowned John IV, Theodore’s son and legitimate heir, and Michael VIII Palaeologus as co-emperors. Arsenius retired to a monastery when Michael extruded John from authority, but he was...