16,951
edits
Changes
m
link
However, the charistike was not popular among the ecclesiastics. It was challenged by Patr. [[Sisinnius II of Constantinople|Sisinnius II]] of Constantinople as early as the late tenth century. At that time he terminated patriarchal participation in the program and directed the return of all patriarchal monasteries. Patr. [[Sergius II of Constantinople||Sergius II]], after he came to the [[see]] of Constantinople in 999, continued to resist the use of charistike dorea. Emperor Basil, however, refused to repeal his ''Peri ton dynaton'' law, causing Patr. Sergius II, in 1016, to resume use of the charistike.
During his patriarchate, from 1025 to 1043, Patriarch [[Alexius I Studites of Constantinople|Alexius I of Constantinople]] attempted to temper the worst abused of the charistike by appointing, through Synodal legislation, the [[patriarch]]'s [[chancellor]], the ''chartophylax'', as the official serving as the final point of approval for all grants under the system. Patr. Alexius also restricted the granting of charistike to non-diocesesan monasteries. That Patr. Alexius sought reform of the system over its abolishment likely showed the inability of the Church to claim back many of the donated properties from the land-owning elite who held them.<ref>Thomas and Constantinides, eds., p. 204.</ref>
By the thirteenth century the institution of charistikion had nearly disappeared.