Вестник Свято-Филаретовского института (Feb 2020)
Church-State Relations in the Byzantine Empire According to the Scriptores post Theophanem (IX–X centuries)
Abstract
This article considers Byzantine church-state relations during the second period of iconoclasm and the beginning of the Macedonian Dynasty, based on materials from the Scriptores post Theophanem. During this period, government authorities twice changed the official position on the veneration of icons, first in support of the iconoclasts, and later in support of the iconodules. The ideal model of church-state relations, which the Scriptores post Theophanem presupposes, largely corresponds to the symphonic relationship between church and state described in the Isagoge. In reality, those in power, striving to preserve unity within the empire, dictated their own will concerning questions of faith, insensitively meddling in internal church affairs. Sources do not show a significant difference between the ways in which the state handled the church during the periods of iconoclasm and iconodulism. Moreover, according to the Scriptores post Theophanem, persecution of those outside the faith was more cruel and widespread during the iconodule period. Early in the rule of the Macedonian Dynasty, the difficulties in the church-state interrelationship pointed out in this work led not to a restoration of symphony between church and state, but to a strengthening of the emperor’s power and a weakening of the patriarch’s power.
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