The Byzantine Background

2021 ◽  
pp. 81-98
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Legal System ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Unleavened Bread

Chapter 4 examines the surviving nomocanonical manuscripts from the period of Byzantine rule in early medieval southern Italy (tenth–eleventh centuries). Very few manuscripts survive from before the twelfth century, so their content must be reconstructed from later codices. Nonetheless, this chapter argues that enough evidence has been preserved to prove that Byzantine canon law was firmly established in southern Italy from the time of the empire’s ecclesiastical and administrative reorganisations of the ninth and tenth centuries. The chapter shows that, as the Byzantines reconquered territories from the Lombards and established new ecclesiastical centres in Reggio, S. Severina, and Otranto, they introduced the Nomocanon in Fourteen Titles, the Nomocanon in Fifty Titles, and the Synopsis of Canons to serve as legal reference works. It then focuses on the Carbone nomocanon (Vat. gr. 1980–1981), the only complete nomocanon to survive from the era of Byzantine rule, arguing that it was probably produced in the eleventh century for use by a Greek bishop in Lucania. The manuscript’s contents and marginalia indicate that its owner was fully aligned with the legal system of Constantinople and show no influences from neighbouring Latin jurisdictions. Finally, the chapter looks at evidence from the period of Norman conquest in the late eleventh century, revealing how the resulting tensions between Latin and Greek Christians in the region left traces of contemporary Byzantine polemic against the azyma (unleavened bread in the Eucharist) in Calabrian nomocanons of the twelfth century.

Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Historical Study ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Medieval Italy ◽  
Religious Law ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Church

This book is a historical study of these manuscripts, exploring how and why the Greek Christians of medieval southern Italy persisted in using them so long after the end of Byzantine rule. Southern Italy was conquered by the Norman Hauteville dynasty in the late eleventh century after over 500 years of continuous Byzantine rule. At a stroke, the region’s Greek Christian inhabitants were cut off from their Orthodox compatriots in Byzantium and became subject to the spiritual and legal jurisdiction of the Roman Catholic popes. Nonetheless, they continued to follow the religious laws of the Byzantine church; out of thirty-six surviving manuscripts of Byzantine canon law produced between the tenth and fourteenth centuries, the majority date to the centuries after the Norman conquest. Part I provides an overview of the source material and the history of Italo-Greek Christianity. Part II examines the development of Italo-Greek canon law manuscripts from the last century of Byzantine rule to the late twelfth century, arguing that the Normans’ opposition to papal authority created a laissez faire atmosphere in which Greek Christians could continue to follow Byzantine religious law unchallenged. Finally, Part III analyses the papacy’s successful efforts to assert its jurisdiction over southern Italy in the later Middle Ages. While this brought about the end of Byzantine canon law as an effective legal system in the region, the Italo-Greeks still drew on their legal heritage to explain and justify their distinctive religious rites to their Latin neighbours.

scholarly journals A sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep

Zograf ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 51-75
Author(s):  
Valentina Babic
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
12Th Century ◽  
Architectural Sculpture ◽  
History Of ◽  
Byzantine Period

The paper discusses the structure and carved decoration of the restored marble sanctuary screen from the island of Kolocep near Dubrovnik. Based on the early medieval history of present-day southern Dalmatia and the fragmentary inscription commemorating a queen as the donor of the screen, it may be concluded that she was one of the Serbian Doclean (Duklja) queens from the second half of the eleventh century. The inscription is the only evidence that the kings of Dioclea ruled over the Elaphite islands. The carved decoration is typical of the Middle Byzantine period (9th-12th century), with some regional traits. The only exceptions are the figures of putti. They can be associated with Romanesque architectural sculpture in southern Italy created in the late eleventh century, after the Norman conquest of this region. The author puts forward the hypothesis that the donor was Queen Jaquinta, wife of King Bodin (1081-1101), who was a Norman woman from Bari.

Conclusion

2021 ◽  
pp. 209-214
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Religious Identity ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Legal Culture ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Fourth Crusade ◽  
The Right

The conclusion summarises the principle arguments of the book. Despite the Norman conquest of southern Italy in the late eleventh century, the Italo-Greeks continued throughout the twelfth century to view themselves as an outpost of Byzantine Christianity in Western Europe. Law played an important role in the construction of their religious identity: they were orthodox not simply because they held the right beliefs, but because they followed Byzantine canon law. They were able to do so because of the pluralistic legal culture of southern Italy and because of the Norman monarchs’ resistance to papal authority, a combination that allowed Norman kings such as Roger II to act out a similar role to that of the Byzantine emperor as patrons of Greek churches and monasteries. The situation began to change in the thirteenth century, however. The end of the Hauteville dynasty, the Fourth Crusade, and the Fourth Lateran Council created conditions that led to the progressive erosion of Byzantine canon law as a juridical system in southern Italy as the papacy was increasingly successful in asserting its legal authority. Nonetheless, even as nomocanonical manuscripts lost their utility as legal sources, they provided important sources of legitimacy with the aura of antiquity to the Italo-Greeks’ distinctive religious rites and customs. In Robert Cover’s terminology, the nomocanons shifted from being sources of imperial law to sources of paideic law. The conclusion ends with observations on the important role of law in the formation of medieval religion and culture.

A Florilegium on the Ecclesiastical Grades in CLM 19414: Testimony to Ninth-Century Clerical Institution

1970 ◽  
Vol 63 (2) ◽  
pp. 235-259 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roger E. Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Fourteenth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Ninth Century ◽  
Sacramental Theology ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Religious Instruction ◽  
Fields Of Study ◽  
Art Historians ◽  
Medieval Canon Law

The treasure manuscriptClm 19414of the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Munich has for many years provided scholars in three fields of study with a rich lode of material. Art historians have found one of the best examples of fourteenth-century GermanBibliae pauperumin this manuscript. Historians of canon law have discovered several books of the early eleventh-centuryCollectio XII Partium. For historians of the barbarian lawsClm 19414contains an excellent witness to theLex Baiuwariorum. The purpose of this article is to bring to light another portion ofClm 19414, a florilegium on the ecclesiastical grades which should be of interest to historians of early medieval canon law, religious instruction, and sacramental theology.

Investiture

2021 ◽  
pp. 21-58
Author(s):  
Benedict Wiedemann
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Do So

In the eleventh century, the language and forms of papal–royal relationships were not abstractly theorized, nor were the consequences and implications of the language considered. As arguments about royal investiture of bishops became more important in the later eleventh century, papal investiture of secular rulers—hitherto unproblematic—fell out of fashion. If kings should not invest bishops, then why should popes invest princes? Kings who had been invested in the eleventh century, such as the Norman rulers of Sicily and southern Italy, would instead, in the twelfth century, be crowned by an archbishop. Rulers who received their realms ‘from the pope’s hand’, such as the kings of Aragon, would not do so after 1122.

Monastic Nomocanons II

2021 ◽  
pp. 121-138
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Religious Practice ◽  
System P ◽  
Textual Content

Chapter 6 builds on the discussion of Chapter 5, taking a closer look at the content and material character of the monastic nomocanons produced under Norman rule. It observes that the manuscripts can be divided into three broad categories in which text and aesthetics are closely aligned: ‘traditional’ monastic nomocanons of the Southwest (i.e. Calabria, Lucania, Sicily); ‘deluxe’ nomocanons of Rossano and Messina; and two nomocanons produced by St Nicholas of Casole in the Salento. The traditional nomocanons are characterised by archaic textual content (primarily the Nomocanon in Fifty Titles) and simple, old-fashioned Italo-Greek ornamental styles. By contrast, the ‘deluxe’ nomocanons of Rossano and Messina were based on an eleventh-century Byzantine model imported in the early twelfth century by St Bartholomew of Simeri, even mimicking the Perlschrift calligraphy and Blüttenblat style of art. Like the traditional nomocanons, the deluxe manuscripts were evidently intended for use as practical reference guides. The Casulan manuscripts, for their part, demonstrate a unique connection to twelfth-century Byzantium, containing Aristenos’ commentary on the Synopsis of Canons (c. 1130) and a unique witness to Arsenios of Philotheou’s (different) Synopsis of Canons. The Casulan nomocanons represent a more didactic turn, in which canon law is used more as a source for teaching correct religious practice than as the basis of a formal juridical system.

Introduction

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-14
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Middle Ages ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Primary Sources ◽  
Legal Anthropology ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
The Subject ◽  
Byzantine Church

The introductory chapter poses the central question of the book: why did the Greeks of medieval southern Italy continue to produce and read collections of Byzantine canon law even after they had ceased to be a part of the Byzantine church and had instead become subjects of the Roman papacy? The Norman conquest of the region took place in the 1040s–1070s, yet the Italo-Greeks were still copying Byzantine canon law manuscripts as late as the fourteenth century. What does this say about the nature of law and religion in southern Italy in the Middle Ages? The chapter then contextualises the book by discussing its place against the background of Byzantine legal scholarship, highlighting the potential of legal anthropology and the concept of legal pluralism to contribute to the field. It then moves on to discuss the significance of law for the study of religion and culture and sets out the rationale behind the way in which the book approaches the subject. Following this, the chapter introduces the thirty-six manuscripts that serve as the book’s primary sources, explaining how the approach of material philology informed its methodology. Finally, it provides an overview of the content and arguments of the rest of the book’s chapters.

Monastic Nomocanons I

2021 ◽  
pp. 99-120
Author(s):  
James Morton
Keyword(s):  
Canon Law ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Norman Conquest

Chapter 5 explores how, following the restoration of relative peace and stability after the Norman conquest, several newly founded and important Italo-Greek monasteries developed their own independent legal jurisdictions on their own property. The chapter argues that the Normans’ opposition to papal and episcopal interference created a laissez-faire atmosphere in which Italo-Greek monks could continue to follow Byzantine canon law. Many such monasteries enjoyed the patronage of the Norman nobility throughout the late eleventh and twelfth centuries. These monasteries were responsible for producing the majority of surviving nomocanons from medieval southern Italy. It divides them into two broad categories: the royal archimandritates (monastic federations) of Rossano and Messina; and lesser archimandritates and autodespotic (independent) monasteries such as SS Elias and Anastasios of Carbone and St Nicholas of Casole. It observes that the production of a monastic nomocanon was closely linked to a monastery’s acquisition of legal privileges from the kings of Sicily, indicating that they were produced to meet a practical legal need and not simply out of academic curiosity. Lastly, the chapter asks how Italo-Greek monks under Norman rule perceived their relationship to papal jurisdiction, using the examples of Bartholomew of Grottaferrata’s comments on papal legislation and Neilos Doxapatres’ work on the Order of the Patriarchal Thrones to show that they still felt themselves to be a part of the legal sphere of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.

Royal Responsibility in Anglo-Norman Historical Writing

2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emily A. Winkler
Keyword(s):  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Individual Responsibility ◽  
Political Agenda ◽  
Historical Writing ◽  
Norman Conquest ◽  
Anglo Norman ◽  
Two Generations ◽  
History Of ◽  
New Perspective

It has long been established that the crisis of 1066 generated a florescence of historical writing in the first half of the twelfth century. This book presents a new perspective on previously unqueried matters: it investigates how historians’ individual motivations and assumptions produced changes in the kind of history written across the Conquest. It argues that responses to the Danish Conquest of 1016 and Norman Conquest of 1066 changed dramatically within two generations of the latter conquest. Repeated conquest could signal repeated failures and sin across the orders of society, yet early twelfth-century historians in England not only extract English kings and people from a history of failure, but also establish English kingship as a worthy office on a European scale. The book illuminates the consistent historical agendas of four historians: William of Malmesbury, Henry of Huntingdon, John of Worcester, and Geffrei Gaimar. In their narratives of England’s eleventh-century history, these twelfth-century historians expanded their approach to historical explanation to include individual responsibility and accountability within a framework of providential history, making substantial departures from their sources. These historians share a view of royal responsibility independent both of their sources (primarily the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle) and any political agenda that placed English and Norman allegiances in opposition. Although the accounts diverge widely in the interpretation of character, all four are concerned more with the effectiveness of England’s kings than with the legitimacy of their origins. Their new, shared view of royal responsibility represents a distinct phenomenon in England’s twelfth-century historiography.

scholarly journals “Twelfth-Century Italian Confraternities as Institutions of Pastoral Care,” Journal of Medieval History 42 (2016)

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Neslihan Senocak
Keyword(s):  
Pastoral Care ◽  
Thirteenth Century ◽  
Twelfth Century ◽  
Spiritual Care ◽  
Canon Law ◽  
Final Analysis ◽  
Medieval History ◽  
Early Medieval ◽  
Late Medieval ◽  
Medieval Italy

When studied through canon law and scholastic pastoraliaproduced in the universities in the thirteenth century and beyond, medieval pastoral care comes across as spiritual care, more specifically the administration of sacraments and preaching, provided by the clergy for the faithful. This article complicates that view by arguing that in the twelfth century, the laity alongside the clergy was active in the provision and organisation of pastoral care. The sources examined are the surviving statutes of five religious confraternities – along with the obituaries and sermons in two cases – in Italy that flourished in the twelfth century and before. Each of these confraternities was centred around a church, established after an apostolic ideal, included laymen and women and local pastoral clergy of all levels, met regularly to celebrate the Eucharist, prayed for the dead members and made public confessions. Members prayed for and attended to the corporal needs of each other in case of sickness. In the final analysis, these twelfth-century confraternities appear astransitional institutions between the early medieval monasticconfraternities focusing on prayer and the late medieval andrenaissance confraternities focusing on charity. Their study opens a window onto the lay expectations of and contribution to pastoral care in medieval Italy.

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