Paul Tagaris was a Byzantine Greek monk and impostor. A scion of the Tagaris family, he claimed a somewhat dubious connection with the Palaiologos dynasty that ruled the Byzantine Empire at the time. He fled his marriage as a teenager and became a monk, but soon his fraudulent practices embroiled him in scandal. He repented and confessed his sins before a synod in 1394.
About Paul Palaiologos Tagaris in brief
Paul Tagaris was a Byzantine Greek monk and impostor. A scion of the Tagaris family, he claimed a somewhat dubious connection with the Palaiologos dynasty that ruled the Byzantine Empire at the time. He fled his marriage as a teenager and became a monk, but soon his fraudulent practices embroiled him in scandal. In the end, his deceptions unmasked, he returned to Constantinople, where he repented and confessed his sins before a synod in 1394. The main source on Paul’s life is the document of his confession before the patriarchalSynod in Constantinople, which is undated, but included among documents of the years 1394–1395. It was published in modern times by Franz Ritter von Miklosich and Joseph Muller, Acta et Diplomata Græca medii ævi sacra et profana, Vol. II, Acta Patriarchatus Constantinopolitanæ, Vienna 1860. The confession is complemented by an account of his visit to Paris in 1390, written by a monk of the Abbey of Saint-Denis and included in the anonymous Chronique du religieux de Saint- Denys, contenant le règne de Charles VI de 1380 à 1422. Paul Tagaris claimed to be related to the ruling imperial dynasty of thePalaiologoi and adopted the surname for himself. 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, or with the latter’s son, George Tagaris.
Paul was able to secure his ordination as a deacon by the Patriarch of Jerusalem Lazaros, who took him under his protection. He was forced to abandon Jerusalem for Antioch, but managed to befriend an influential figure, the newly elected Patriarch Michael, who not only ordained him a priest, but eventually made him patriarchal exarch and administrator of the Patriarchate’s affairs. In 1370, he went to Iconium and then to Persia and Georgia, where according to his own recollection, he found the forestalled Bishop of Sidreon who found him in favour of the highest bidder. At this point he felt remorse and considered returning to Constantinople where he would give the fortune he had amassed to the poor, but he was found by the Bishop of Tyre and Sidre on the outskirts of the city. He then claimed the title Patriarch of Constantinople for himself and began to ordain bishops, even in subject territories subject to the Patriarch. He 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 managed to be named Latin patriarch of Constantinople.
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