Orthodox clerics urged Theodore to hold an election to decide a new Ecumenical Patriarch. Theodore convoked a Church council in Nicaea in Holy Week 1208. The assembled prelates elected a high-ranking cleric, Michael Autoreianos, patriarch on 20 March 1208. Autoreianos was related to Theodore's chief advisor, Kamateros. As his first act, the new patriarch crowned and anointed Theodore "emperor and autocrat of the Romans" on Easter Sunday. Theodore's coronation by the new Ecumenical Patriarch sanctioned his claim to be the legitimate successor of the Byzantine monarchs. His legitimacy, however, could be challenged, because only a lawful emperor could appoint a legitimate patriarch and only a legitimate patriarch could crown a lawful emperor. Theodore's opponents argued that the council electing Michael Autoreianos was just an assembly of randomly chosen bishops, not a properly convoked synod. In response, his supporters emphasized that the exceptional situation after the fall of Constantinople required a flexible interpretation of laws.