In 858, Bardas deposed patriarch Ignatios and appointed Photios, well-educated but a layman, in his stead. Later chronicles report that Ignatios had excluded Bardas from communion because he maintained an incestuous relationship with one of his daughters-in-law, but the real reason for Ignatios's deposition was probably the patriarch's staunch refusal to tonsure Empress Theodora against her will, as demanded by Bardas. The irregular elevation of Photios, however, alienated Pope Nicholas I, who refused to recognize it. Coupled with competition between Rome and Constantinople over their missionary activities in and jurisdiction over Moravia and Bulgaria, relations with the papacy remained tense.