He earned the surname of "Pious" by banishing his sisters and others of immoral life from court; by attempting to reform and purify monastic life; and by showing great liberality to the church.
After twice defeating the forces of the Achaean League in Arcadia, near Mount Lycaeum and at Leuctra,he strengthened his position by assassinating four of the ephors, abolishing the ephorate, which had usurped the supreme power, and banishing some eighty of the leading oligarchs.
On the 22nd of February 1604 a proclamation was issued banishing priests; on the 28th of November 1604, recusancy fines were demanded from 13 wealthy persons, and on the 10th of February 1605 the penal laws were ordered to be executed.
The king tried to save him from the block by banishing him before he could be tried.
Fairbairn takes the rather unusual view that Greek Christian theology was the climax of the process of Greek philosophy, and so far alien to piety, although he is far from banishing speculation out of theology.
