Paul Palaiologos Tagaris

Paul Palaiologos Tagaris (Greek: Παῦλος Παλαιολόγος Τάγαρις, ca. 1320/40 – after 1394) was a Byzantine Greek monk and impostor. A scion of the Tagaris family, Paul also claimed a connection with the imperial Palaiologos dynasty. He fled his marriage as a teenager and became a monk, but soon his fraudulent practices embroiled him in scandal. Fleeing Constantinople, he travelled widely, from Palestine to Persia and Georgia and eventually, via Ukraine and Hungary to Italy, Latin Greece, Cyprus and France. During his long and tumultuous career he was appointed an Orthodox bishop, sold ordinations to ecclesiastical offices, pretended to be the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem, switched from Greek Orthodoxy to Roman Catholicism and back again, supported both the See of Rome and the Avignon anti-popes in the Western Schism, and finally managed to be named Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. In the end, his deceptions unmasked, he returned to Constantinople, where he repented and confessed his sins before a synod in 1394.

Early life and family

The main source on Paul's life is the document of his confession before the patriarchal synod in Constantinople in 1394, complemented by an account of his visit to Paris, written by a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Denis.^[1][2]

Paul Tagaris was apparently a scion the Tagaris family, a lineage which first appears in the 14th century.^[3] His father is unnamed, but is described by Paul as a valiant and famous soldier, so that he is possibly identifiable either with the megas stratopedarches Manuel Tagaris,^[4] or with the latter's son, George Tagaris.^[5] Tagaris himself also claimed to be related to the ruling imperial dynasty of the Palaiologoi and adopted the surname for himself. Manuel Tagaris was indeed married to Theodora Asenina Palaiologina, a niece of Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos, but even if Paul was Manuel's son, Theodora was, according to the Byzantinist Donald Nicol, "almost certainly not the mother of Paul".^[2][6]

Tagaris was probably born in the 1320s,^[1] or at the latest around the year 1340.^[5] His parents arranged his marriage at the age of 14, but soon he abandoned his wife and went to become a monk in Palestine. After a while he returned to Constantinople, where, in the words of Alice-Mary Talbot, "his greed led him into scandal and corruption": he claimed that an icon in his possession had miraculous properties, and made money out of gullible believers. This affair scandalized his family, but Patriarch Kallistos I declined to take action against him. It was not until the patriarch went to a visit to Serbia in 1363 that his locum tenens, the hieromonk Dorotheos, confiscated the icon and forced Paul to return to Palestine.^[7]

Career in the East

In Palestine, Paul managed to be ordained a deacon by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Lazaros, who took him under his protection. Shortly after, however, Lazaros left for Constantinople, and his locum tenens Damianos brought charges against Paul, forcing the latter to abandon Jerusalem for Antioch.^[8] In Antioch, Paul once again managed to befriend the newly elected (1368) Patriarch Michael, who not only ordained him a priest, but eventually made him patriarchal exarch and administrator of the Patriarchate's affairs. It was not long before Paul began abusing his authority: he sacked serving bishops and put their sees up for sale, threatening to report those who complained to the Turkish authorities. Soon he claimed the title of Patriarch of Jerusalem for himself and began to ordain bishops, even in territories subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.^[8] In 1370, he went to Iconium and thence to Persia and Georgia, where, according to his own recollection—no such dispute is recorded in Georgian sources at this time—he adjudicated a dispute among three rival claimants of the throne, finding in favour of the highest bidder.^[5][9]

At this point, again according to his own account, he felt remorse and considered returning to Constantinople, where he would give the fortune he had amassed to the poor, but he was forestalled by the Bishop of Tyre and Sidon, who found him and delivered an offer by the Patriarch of Antioch to name him bishop of Taurezion (an unidentified location, variously suggested as being either in the Taurus Mountains or in the Tauric peninsula, i.e. the Crimea^[2]). Paul accepted, and was apparently consecrated by the Bishop of Tyre and Sidon (ca. 1375). At the same time, however, the Patriarch of Constantinople Philotheos I Kokkinos heard about his dealings in the east, and at Trebizond Paul was met by a messenger from the Patriarch who demanded his immediate return to Constantinople to stand trial.^[10]

Latin Patriarch of Constantinople

Pope Urban VI

Reluctant to face the Patriarch's wrath, Paul once more decided to flee and try his luck in Rome. As Nicol points out, such a move would be highly unusual for an Orthodox priest, but may be explained by the links of his family with pro-Catholic circles in the Byzantine capital: George Tagaris, his putative brother or father, was among those who supported the Union of the Churches and had received letters of encouragement from Pope Innocent VI.^[11] To avoid passing near Constantinople, Paul was forced to make a broad detour. He took ship, probably from Trebizond, to the Crimea, where he presented the local governor of the Golden Horde with jewels from the treasure he had amassed. In exchange he secured an escort through the Horde lands for the Kingdom of Hungary, from where he went on to Rome. There he secured an audience with Pope Urban VI, claiming to be the Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. Paul presented himself to the Pope as a penitent, offering a—probably partial—confession of his errors, and to embrace the Catholic faith. Impressed by Paul's humble demeanour, the Pope named him (late 1379 or early 1380) to the titular post of Latin Patriarch of Constantinople, which had been vacant since September 1378, when its incumbent, Giacomo da Itri, had declared his allegiance to the Avignon anti-pope Clement VII. In addition, Urban named Paul apostolic legate for all countries "east of Durazzo".^[12][13]

Paul's new office—in effect "a second Pope", as he called it—quickly caused him to become conceited. He abandoned his simple monastic habit and adopted magnificent vestments to suit his new rank, wore ostentatious jewellery, and, according to the chronicler of Saint-Denis, went about on horseback surrounded by a magnificently outfitted entourage.^[14] An example of Paul's splendid vestments and accoutrements at this time is probably the richly embroidered altar cloth, featuring a Byzantine double-headed eagle with a monogram on its breast and the legend "Paul, Patriarch of Constantinople and New Rome" in Greek, now in the collection of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City.^[15]

Constantinople having been recovered by the Byzantines in 1261, since 1314 the seat of the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople had been at Negroponte, which still remained in Latin hands.^[16] Soon after his investment, Paul made for Ancona, from where he would take ship for Greece. He remained in the city for several weeks, fêted by the locals, and on 4 March 1380 presented to them the head of James the Just, followed on 17 April by further relics, among them the foot of Saint Anne and a nail from the True Cross, although, as Nicol comments, "one may be tempted to question the authenticity, and still more the provenance, of his donation". The documents of grant, preserved in the cathedral of Ancona, are signed by Paul and a certain "Alexios Palaiologos the Despot", allegedly a son of the Byzantine emperor but in reality, according to Nicol, probably "another figment of Paul's fertile imagination".^[17][18]

From 1380 until 1384, Paul remained at his see in Negroponte. A relative of his, George Tagaris—probably a different person than Manuel Tagaris' son^[5]—was called in to help with the administration of the patriarchal domains. His tenure was troubled: the local Orthodox clergy appealed to the Venetian authorities for protection against his exactions, the Latin Archbishop of Athens, Antonio Ballester, complained of the Patriarch's interference in his diocese, and his lease of some of the Church lands in 1383 to a Venetian from Crete, Giacomo Grimani, proved a source of protracted legal trouble since Grimani, in the words of R.-J. Loenertz, "revealed himself as much a scoundrel as the Patriarch".^[19][20] In 1384, Paul was once again denounced as an impostor to the Pope, possibly by Ballester, who was named vicar-general of the Patriarchate in the same year, and who had held the same office during the 1378–79 vacancy.^[19][21] Paul had apparently left his diocese before his denunciation, and resumed his wanderings. In 1385, he was in Cyprus, where he crowned James of Lusignan as King of Cyprus in exchange for 30,000 gold coins, and continued granting ecclesiastical appointments on the island as if he were still patriarch.^[5][22]

In 1388 he decided to return to Rome, possibly hoping that the accusations against him had been forgotten in the meanwhile. In the event, he was arrested, tried and imprisoned, but was released after Urban VI's death in October 1389 and the general amnesty granted by the new pope, Boniface IX.^[23] Leaving Rome, Paul went to the court of Amadeus VII of Savoy. There he presented himself as a distant relative to the Count—a claim likely relying on his tenuous links to the Palaiologoi, who in turn were remotely linked to the House of Savoy via Empress Anna of Savoy, Amadeus VII's great-aunt—and as a victim of papal persecution on account of his support for the Avignon papacy. While Amadeus probably did not put much store in Paul's dubious claims of kinship, he was moved by the plight of a fellow Avignon supporter, and accepted him as the legitimate Latin Patriarch of Constantinople. He provided Paul with money and an escort of twelve horses and twelve servants, and sent him on to the papal court of Avignon.^[23]

Avignon anti-pope Clement VII

Paul received a magnificent welcome at Avignon, where he was fêted by Clement VII and his cardinals. Clement, moved by his guest's tales of suffering at the hands of the Roman popes, loaded him with gifts and honours and sent him north to Paris. There, King Charles VI of France likewise prepared a triumphal welcome for his illustrious guest. Paul was an exotic and popular sight in the French capital, and was lavishly hosted and entertained. He obviously enjoyed his long sojourn there, "safe in a place where his past was unknown and his deception was unlikely to be discovered", according to Nicol. For additional safety, he communicated only via an interpreter in his employ.^[24] On his visit to the Abbey of Saint-Denis, he claimed that there were several relics of the abbey's patron saint—commonly confused with the Athenian saint Dionysius the Areopagite—to be found back in Greece, and promised to help the monks bring them to France. His proposal was enthusiastically taken up, and two monks received permission and funds from the king to accompany Paul back to Greece. When the party arrived in the port in Italy from which they would sail for Greece, however, Paul bribed the captain of the ship to pretend that bad weather would delay their departure. In the same night, he and his servants set sail at night with their entire baggage, leaving the two monks behind. It was only in Rome, where they went in search of answers for Paul's behaviour, that they learned the true identity of their travelling companion, and from where the chronicler of the abbey later received his information.^[25]

Return to Constantinople

According to Donald Nicol, the achievement of the "accomplished sinner" Paul was without parallel: "No-one ever made such a profitable business out of changing sides, first in the schism between the Greek and Latin Churches, and then in the schism between the pope in Rome and the pope in Avignon. It is no mean feat to arrive in Rome as orthodox patriarch of Jerusalem and then to be received in Avignon as catholic patriarch of Constantinople."^[26]

Now, however, having irreparably destroyed his reputation and ties with both papal courts, Paul was left with no option other than to return to Constantinople, perhaps motivated, in view of his advancing old age, by confessing his sins and receiving absolution. In 1394, he was back in the Byzantine capital, where he appeared before Patriarch Antony IV, to whom he confessed his sins, abjured his conversion to Catholicism, and pleaded for mercy. As Nicol writes, "Only on one point did he protest that he had been wrongfully accused; for, despite rumours and tales contrived against him, he had never indulged in fornication, miracle-mongering, or the practice of magic".^[27] The Patriarch passed Paul's case on to the full patriarchal synod, before which Paul was obliged to repeat his confession twice, and then once more before an assembly of the people. The records of these sessions, kept by the patriarchal scribe Perdikes, are the main source on Paul's life. The final portion of the manuscript, containing the final verdict, is missing, but both the synod and the people had recommended a pardon, so that it is likely that he was forgiven. Nothing further is known of him after that.^[2][5][28]

References

Sources

• Ball, Jennifer L. (2006). "A Double-Headed Eagle Embroidery: From Battlefield to Altar". Metropolitan Museum Journal 41: 59–64. 
• Loenertz, R.-J. (1966). "Cardinale Morosini et Paul Paléologue Tagaris, patriarches, et Antoine Ballester, vicaire du Pape, dans le patriarcat de Constantinople (1332-34 et 1380-87)". Revue des études byzantines (in French) 24: 224–256. doi:10.3406/rebyz.1966.1373. 
• Nicol, Donald M. (1970). "The Confessions of a bogus Patriarch: Paul Tagaris Palaiologos, Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem and Catholic Patriarch of Constantinople in the fourteenth century". The Journal of Ecclesiastical History 21 (4): 289–299. doi:10.1017/S0022046900049113. 
• Talbot, Alice-Mary (1991). "Tagaris, Paul Palaiologos". In Kazhdan, Alexander P. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2006. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
• Trapp, Erich (1991). "Tagaris". In Kazhdan, Alexander P. The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium. New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press. p. 2006. ISBN 978-0-19-504652-6. 
• Trapp, Erich; Beyer, Hans-Veit; Kaplaneres, Sokrates; Leontiadis, Ioannis (1991). Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit (in German) 11. Vienna: Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.