Luke Chrysoberges

Luke Chrysoberges (; died November 1169) was Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople between 1157 and 1169.

Ordained ministry

Other heresies continued to flourish in Byzantine possessions in Europe, including Bogomils, Paulicians, and Monophysites which Luke and his successors had difficulty in suppressing.

Luke was also involved in a process of the Church trying to extract itself from too close an association with the secular life of the state. In 1115, the patriarch John IX of Constantinople had sought to prevent clerics acting as advocates in lay courts. In December 1157, Luke extended this prohibition to all "worldly" occupations. In a still-extant cannon, he wrote: "We have observed that some of those enrolled in the clergy have uncanonically involved themselves in worldly affairs. Some have taken on posts as curators or overseers of aristocratic houses and estates; others have undertaken the collection of public taxes... others have accepted dignities and magistracies assigned to the civil establishment... we enjoin such people to desist from now on from all the aforesaid occupations, and to devote themselves to ecclesiastical exigencies..." Such a separation of church and state was key to preserve the church from undue secular influence over matters it considered strictly clerical. This was especially key at the time as the rule of the Emperor Manuel I Komnenos was noted for its autocratic style and caesaropapism, and though idiosyncratic, generally made the patriarchate subservient directly to the needs of the state.

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