Establishing the East

Byzantium: The Surprising Life of a Medieval Empire, by Judith Herrin

Capturing a few interesting tidbits from Herrin’s work:

Transforming the Roman World

August 9, 378.  The Goths inflicted a massive defeat on the Romans at Adrianople.  Emperor Valens marched out without waiting for western reinforcements; he was killed in the battle.  Theodosius, after several campaigns against the Goths, made peace with them in 380; he was declared emperor by his troops and thereafter entered Constantinople in triumph.  Now emperor, he had never previously seen the city.

Theodosius I, a strict Christian would call a council in 381 to condemn the Arian heresy.  While Constantinople gained in stature, Rome would fall – sacked in 410 and 455 before Odovacer, a Hun, deposed the last Roman emperor in 476.

Monasteries were established, Latin and Greek grammar were taught, along with rhetoric, philosophy and law.  Constantinople was the center of higher learning in the Christian world.  It was believed that only the Chinese surpassed the Greeks in applied arts.  Trade – from Syria, from the Slavs, from Rus, and others – would bring wealth, as evidenced by silk and caviar.

New walls were erected, walls that would serve Constantinople well until 1204.  Arabs, Bulgars, Russians all would fail at attempts to take the city.  In 1204, the Latins did not – aided by guile, treachery and internal weakness.  After 57 years, the Greeks would once again control the city.

Muslims long had designs on the city.  In the thirteenth century, al-Harawi would offer: “May God in his grace and generosity deign to make it the capital of Islam.”  The Ottoman Turks succeeded at this, with the city finally falling to the Muslims in 1453.

Why Greek Orthodoxy?

Why did the adherents of Apollo, Isis, Zoroaster, Mithras, and other established gods accept Christianity?

Death and martyrdom.  The Sermon on the Mount offered the basic instructions of how a Christian should live – and suffer.  The Roman officials found it extraordinary that so many would choose to die for this faith.  The martyrs were convinced that death was not the end.  Long before Constantine, a network of churches was established throughout the empire.  Whole communities would choose to die rather than burn incense in honor of the Roman rulers.

Not something one would consider an effective marketing campaign today.  Then came Constantine.  Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.  Church councils.  The Arian heresy – one that did not go away easily.  Nestorius, who may or may not have believed the heresy that has taken his name.  In 451, Chalcedon, after which the Coptic, the Armenians, and others would split.

Church and State

Theoretically, [the emperor] was limited to choosing one of three candidates [for patriarch] whose names were put forward by the clergy of the cathedral church of Constantinople.

But it didn’t always go this way.  Sometimes a son or favorite monk would get the nod.  Then there were the conflicts.  St. John Chrysostom, elected in 398, was one of the first of such casualties.  He was exiled to Armenia in 404 for denouncing Empress Eudoxia for erecting a statue of herself with pagan pomp and ceremony.  He would die three years later.

Several months ago, I received this from Walt G, who has, on and off, corresponded with me regarding Eastern Orthodox Christianity: Church, Government, and Sergianism.  From this, some color can be added to the story of St. John Chrysostom.  Upon being elevated to the position of Patriarch of Constantinople, he would offer:

“May Your Piety [the Emperor] know that I shall not fail to reprove and correct you when necessary, even as the prophet Nathan did not hesitate to upbraid King David for his transgression.”

In reply to the threats of the empress:

“The Empress desires that I should be like a corpse, which sees no evil and neither hears the voices of the wronged, their weeping and sighs, nor says anything to accuse those who sin.”

In another incident, in 907 Leo VI married his fourth wife.  The patriarch denied him entry into the church for ten months.  In a precedent not applied to Henry VII several centuries later, when Leo appealed to the Roman pope, the pope had no objection to this fourth wife.

Was it a Schism?

Simultaneous bulls of excommunication were exchanged in 1054.  The filioque was one of a handful of significant disagreements, albeit the ultimate causes were as much political as theological. 

When Alexios I Komnenos (1081 – 1118) asked for evidence of any break in relations between the churches, no document could be found in the patriarch’s library.

Even after 1054, many westerners would worship in Greek churches and vice versa.  Appeals were made from the east to the west that launched the Crusades – appeals based on common Christianity.  Yet, over time, the events of 1054 would take on an ever-increasing role.  Certainly, the sack in 1204 sealed the deal.