Ecclesiastical Connections of Medieval Мatarcha: New Finds of Byzantine Lead Seals

Introduction. Matarcha was the cathedral city of the Diocese of Zichia of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. It was a major religious and missionary center in the Northwestern Pre-Caucasus. The priests of this autocephalous archdiocese took an active part in the church life of the Byzantine Empire. In this context, among the most important sources on the history of the Byzantine Matarcha, a special place is occupied by the monuments of Byzantine sphragistics. Methods. The paper examines three Byzantine church seals of the 11th–12th centuries, discovered during the research of the Taman settlement (medieval Matarcha was the center of the diocese of Zichia of the Patriarchate of Constantinople). The owners of the seals were: deacon Michael, monk Ignatius and nun Euphemia. Analysis. The article provides information about the previously known 19 seals belonging to the church hierarchs of Zichia and other representatives of the clergy. Similar finds of seals in the Crimean urban centers (Cherson and Sughdea) are indicated. Results. The few details that relate to the ecclesiastical history of the diocese of Zichia emphasize the exceptional value of each new find of seals, and the evidence of direct contacts and established correspondence between the Orthodox clergy once again shows that, in addition to the cleric – deacon, the monastic brotherhood also played a significant role in the development of relations between the church and society. To a certain extent, this could also be facilitated by the trips of the city’s residents to pilgrimage sites, as evidenced by the brought relics, the finds of which are known.

The Sekbanbaşı Mescidi or a Lesser-Known Middle Byzantine Church Typology at Constantinople

Cross-in-square churches are an exceptional feature for the middle Byzantine architecture of Constantinople. The simpler variant of this architectural type is widely known from ‘provincial’ contexts but appears seldomly throughout the city. It should not be absent from modern scholarship, since some few examples of this type of church had survived well into the early 20th century. Because of this paucity of scholarship, the history, functions, and phases of these small edifices are mostly unknown. The now lost Sekbanbaşı Mescidi is a case in point.

Bodily Adornment and Modification in Byzantium

Focusing on Early and Middle Byzantine (fourth-to-twelfth-century) objects, images, and texts, this essay explores the tension between, on the one hand, efforts of the Byzantine church and state to discourage and control bodily adornment and modification and, on the other hand, the extensive evidence of widespread and immoderate engagement with these practices. The enhancement and manipulation of Byzantine bodies is considered as both a real and a metaphoric phenomenon. Evidence culled from secular and sacred, written and material sources demonstrates the importance of bodily adornment and modification to our understanding of Byzantine material and visual culture.

Devotional Practices and the Development of the Church Building

Orthodox Christian worship and devotions determined the planning, organization, and form of religious architecture in Byzantium. However, a church does not merely house religious events; it also has an impact on the way they are accommodated within a defined space. This chapter presents Byzantine church building as it was understood by its users and developed in relation to various segments of liturgical ritual and forms of devotion. An effort is made to address all periods, include developments in regions outside the capital, and examine some manifestations beyond the church building. At the end, there is an overview of issues and problems in the study of the subject, and of potential research directions in the field.

Patriarch Tarasios: An exponent of Byzantine church diplomacy in relation to Rome and the bishop of Constantinople

On September 24, 787, the works of the VII Ecumenical Synod were opened in the ‘Saint Sophia’ Church in Nicaea, after the first attempt, on August 7, 786, had failed. Although the nominal presidency was held by the legates of Pope Adrian I, the effective presidency was exercised by Patriarch Tarasios of Constantinople. A skilful church diplomat, with experience, gained as an imperial secretary and a remarkable theologian whose authority was imposed even during his election as a patriarch amongst the laity, Tarasios meticulously and clairvoyantly prepared for the deployment of the Nicene synod. This is noticeable from the agreement made with the papal legates regarding the reading of the letters of Pope Adrian I whose content directly concerned the persona of the patriarch, agreeing to omit those compromising paragraphs, from the procedure of re-welcoming in the communion of the church of some former iconoclastic bishops, by correctly managing the resistance of the monks to whom he gave satisfaction regarding the patristic and traditional argumentation of the cult of the holy icons and by rejecting point-by-point the dogmatic decision of the iconoclastic synod of Hieria (754), a rejection of which the patriarch Tarasie is in all probability the author. Satisfied with the success of the synod, whose craftsman he indeed was, Patriarch Tarasios was able to communicate to both Pope Adrian I and the emperors and clergy of Constantinople that the unity of the Church residing in Christ had been restored and that the place in the church and due honour of the holy icons had been restored through the synodal decision of 302 participants. The success of the Seventh Ecumenical Council is unequivocally because of the tactful and competent preparation and management of Patriarch Tarasios.Contribution: The perspective we promote on the events highlighted in the study, could contribute to unblocking the theological dialogue between Orthodox and Catholics on the issue of papal primacy, the study thus promotes HTS as an important forum for mediating interfaith dialogue.

Emperors, Patriarchs, Metropolitans, Deacons and Monks: Individuals and Groups in the Byzantine Church (6th–11th Centuries)

This article traces the history of the Byzantine Church from the sixth to the early twelfth century. It seeks to show how the development of the institution was shaped through the interactions of groups and individuals. Particular attention is paid to the permanent synod, the deacons of St Sophia and the monks of the capital.

Eastern Church Fathers on Being Human—Dichotomy in Essence and Wholeness in Deification

The article traces the formation of Eastern Christian anthropology as a new religious and philosophical tradition within the Early Byzantine culture. The notion “Patristics” is reasoned as a corpus of ideas of the Church Fathers, both Eastern and Western. The term “Eastern Patristics” means the works by Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, who in the theological disputes with the Western Church Fathers elaborated the Christian creed. Based on an analysis of the texts of Greek-Byzantine Church Fathers, the most important provisions of Eastern Patristics are deduced and discussed, which determined the specificity of Christian anthropology. In this context, different approaches of the Eastern Fathers to the explanation of the Old Testament thesis on the creation of man in God’s image and likeness and the justification of the duality of human essence are shown. Particular attention is paid to considering the idea of deification as overcoming the human dualism and the entire created universe, the doctrine of the Divine Logoi as God’s energies, and the potential elimination of the antinomianism of the earthly and Divine worlds. The article reflects the anthropological ideas of the pre-Nicene Church Father Irenaeus, the non-canonical early Christian work The Shepherd of Hermas, and the teachings on the man of the classical Eastern Patristics period by Athanasius of Alexandria, Gregory of Nyssa, and Maximus the Confessor.

Four Frankish gravestones from medieval Ephesus

This paper presents and discusses four Latin tombstones relating to Italian residents of medieval Ephesus that have been recovered from properties on the terrace of Ayasuluk (Selçuk), near the Byzantine Church of St John the Evangelist. Two of them, dating from the late 14th century, were originally published in 1937, while the other two, from the mid- 15th century, came to light more recently in January 2017.

Byzantine Religious Law in Medieval Italy

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.

Introduction

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.