Scribal Habits in the Slavonic Manuscripts with Athanasius’ Second Oration against the Arians

This article introduces the readers to the scribal habits/practices in ten Slavonic manuscripts that contain Athanasius’ Second Oration against the Arians. These scribal habits are classified and analyzed according to eleven categories: (1) omissions, (2) additions, (3) substitutions, (4) transpositions, (5) non-sense readings, (6) marginal corrections, (7) marginal notes, (8) deletions, (9) erasures, (10) interlinear corrections, and (11) corrections within the text. The analysis of each manuscript is accompanied with the statistical tables that summarize the collected data according to these eleven categories, and there is a longer summary table in the Appendix. Of the ten manuscripts, two are analyzed in more detail as a way of illustrating how the Orations were copied and read in medieval times, and how theological concerns and local contexts affected the scribe’s interaction with the text.

John the Water-Bearer (Ивань Водоносьць). Once Again on Dualism in the Bosnian Church

The article examines the debate as to the direct influence of Bulgarian and Byzantine Bogomilism upon the doctrine of the Bosnian Church. The author traces some scholarly views pro et contra the presence, in the Bosnian-Slavic sources, of traces of neo-Manichean views on the Church, the Patristic tradition, and the sacraments. In analyzing two marginal glosses in the so-called Srećković Gospel in the context of some anti-Bogomil Slavic and Byzantine texts, the article attempts to establish the importance of Bulgarian and Byzantine Bogomilism for the formation of certain dogmatic and ecclesiological views in the doctrine of the Bosnian Church: the negative attitude towards the orthodox Churches, especially the Roman Catholic Church; the rejection of the sacrament of baptism and of St. John the Baptist; the rejection of the sacrament of confession, and hence, of the Eucharist. These doctrinal particularities of the Bosnian Church warrant the assertion that its teachings and liturgical practice differed significantly from the dogmatics and practice of the orthodox Churches. Without being a copy of the Bogomil communities, the Bosnian Church was certainly heretical, and neo-Manichean influences from the Eastern Balkans were an integral element of the Bosnian Christians’ faith.

The Linguistic Creation of a City in the 16th-century Polish Accounts from Travels to the Holy Land

The article tries to describe the linguistic creation of a city in Polish 16th-century diaries from journeys to the Holy Land. During long trips, the authors visited many exotic, for the Polish traveller, cities and towns to whom they devoted a lot of space in their diaries. The analysis is based on findings of theory of linguistic image of a world and on the concept of linguistic creation and semiotic role. The author outlines the set of linguistic means used by the diarists to indicate various roles. He concludes that the image of a city presented in the analysed texts oscillates between traditional frame that has its source in the classical antiquity and modern perspective significant for the man of the Renaissance.

John the Scythian – a Slayer of Usurpers and the Isaurians

The paper is devoted to John the Scythian – one of the chiefs of the Byzantine army in the eighties and nineties of the 5th century. Based on the sources, the military career of John the Scythian lasted 16 years. He spent less time defending the borders of the empire and more fighting (often, victoriously) against usurpers and peoples who either had lived in its territory for centuries (the Isaurians) or sought a place to settle there (the Ostrogoths), and whose status kept changing from ally to enemy. John, as evidenced by his nickname, came from a barbarian people, but this did not prevent him from serving the emperor loyally and building his position in the circles of the empire’s elite.

Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger – the First One Not to Become a Blind Man? Political and Military History of the Bryennios Family in the 11th and Early 12th Century

Nikephoros Bryennios the Younger has a place in the history of Byzantium as the author of one of the works devoted to the Komnenos family coming to power. This outstanding observer and talented leader, who was fascinated by the person of his father-in-law Alexius I Komnenos, came from a family whose ambitions were no less than the those in the one into which Nikephoros himself married. His father and grandfather, also his namesake, were those who dreamed of an imperial crown for themselves and tried to reach for it armed. Apart from defeat, they both faced punishment which was blinding. One of those who captured and ordered the father of Nikephoros the Younger to be blinded was his future father-in-law. Like the later marriage with Anna Komnene, this had an impact on the respect he had for the new dynasty. However, the question is whether this respect should be explained by the man’s reluctance to participate in a plot against his brother-in-law that his ambitious wife and her mother planned.

Utopian Elements in Porphyry’s De abstinentia

In the long passage of De abstinentia, IV, 2–18, Porphyry mentions a series of “groups” (ἔθνη) as examples of abstinence from animal food: the ancient Greeks of the “golden age”, the Lacedaemonians of Lycurgus’ era, the Egyptian priests, the Essenes among the Jews, the Magi among the Persians and the gymnosophists among the Indians. Such an association does not seem at all accidental, since Porphyry refers to a tradition in which these communities have similar habits of life, including the prohibition of eating meat and drinking wine, sexual abstinence, absence of diseases and wars, separation from the civil sphere, devotion to the sacred. All these elements constitute the specific connotation of a human existence that evokes the “time of the origins”, substantially a paradisiac dimension, far from history. It is a deliberate symbolic shift. This brief research will investigate the reasons and the deep meaning of the connection based on utopian life traits.

Historical Master Narratives and the Master Narrative of the Bulgarian Middle Ages

The article is a brief and schematic presentation of the notion of a “master narrative” and of the master narrative of the Bulgarian Middle Ages, which is the subject a detailed book of mine in Bulgarian. This master narrative was constructed starting with what is known as “Romantic” historiography (from Monk Paisij’s “Istorija Slavjanobolgarskaja” [Slavonic-Bulgarian History] in 1762 to Vasil Aprilov’s writings in the first half of the nineteenth century) but it was elaborated especially with the development of “scientific” (or critical) historiography first by Marin Drinov (1838–1906) and mainly by the most significant Bulgarian historians from the “bourgeois” era: Vasil Zlatarski (1866–1935), Petăr Mutafčiev (1883–1943), and Petăr Nikov (1884–1938). Then it was interrupted by the (crude) Marxist counter-narrative of the late 1940s through the 1960s. Starting in the late 1960s there was a gradual return to the nationalism of the master national narrative, which reached a peak with the celebration of the 1,300th anniversary of the founding of the Bulgarian state in 1981. The same line continued after 1989 (stripped of the Marxist vulgata), yet some new tendencies appeared.

Responsibilities of the Church Steward in the Light of The Canons of Pseudo-Athanasius

The office of a steward was known in Egypt back in the time of the Pharaohs. It appears that in the East, this function first emerged in the structures of the Egyptian Church. The Canons of Pseudo-Athanasius, which probably come from the first half of the 5th century, show the author’s views on how the church stewards fulfilled their duties. Pseudo-Athanasius not only outlined the criteria to be met by these administrators, but also indicated the date by which, in his opinion, they should be solemnly appointed. In addition, this source informs us how these church administrators were supposed to fulfill their obligation to collect and secure church property for the Church’s charitable activities. The author emphasized that the steward played a key role in how efficiently actions in support of the poor were implemented, however, he also observed that these tasks were fully dependent on the will of the local bishop. Pseudo-Athanasius also devoted considerable attention to the important problem of the dishonesty of some administrators. Therefore, he postulated that the vaults and granaries should be secured with seals by a commission and that they be opened in the same way. The author had an interesting idea to create a reserve in the treasury, which, in the event of a cataclysm or other calamity, would provide food for the community. Undoubtedly, the Canons of Pseudo-Athanasius are an extremely valuable source that deepens our knowledge about the work of church stewards at that time. There are numerous indications that the author included his own observations in them. However, it should be remembered that the description of the steward’s duties presented here is a model proposition, therefore, in order to obtain a more complete picture, it should be confronted with other sources from the era.

Pope Honorius (625–638) – a Pacifist or a Doctrinal Arbiter?

The purpose of this article is to analyze the standpoint of Pope Honorius (625–638) at the early stage of the controversy over operation in Christ. Patriarch Sophronius (633/634–638) expressed his protest against the statement on one operation in Christ after it had been officially expressed in the Alexandrian Pact of unity in 633. The Pact was supported by both Sergius of Constantinople (610–638) and Emperor Heraclius (610–641). Patriarch Sergius developed his tactics in order to defend the stance of both the Church of Constantinople and the Emperor. As a result, a significant tension between both Patriarchs arose. After the confrontation between Sophronius of Jerusalem and Sergius of Constantinople, Pope Honorius (625–638) was concerned with the matter of operation in Christ. He maintained the standpoint of Sergius and became one of the implicit initiators of the Ekthesis issued by Emperor Heraclius.