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It was
traditional for western historians to argue that the Byzantine church was
controlled by the Emperor, a phenomenon known as " caesarapapism". At
times this may have been true, as it was in the West. But as Byzantine history
proceeded the Church maintained its power while the emperor lost political
power. In the late 12th century the state was till strong, but the writings of
Theodore Balsamon show that even by then there was a tendancy to exalt the
powers of the patriarch of Constantinople. The extracts here were prepared for
a paper I gave on this subject at the Byzantine Studies Conference in Amherst
MA, in fall 1989.
Theodore Balsamon was the most significant of Byzantine canon law
writers. His commentaries on the Nomocanons in XIV Titles, a longstanding
compilation of civil and ecclesiastical decrees, provides a wealth on
information on Byzantine society and church in the 12th century. The best
edition of Balsamon is in G.A. Rhalles & M. Potles, Sintagma ton theion
kai ieron kanonon ktl, 6 vols., (Athens: G. Charophylakos, 1852-59, repr.
1966). His commentaries are collated there with those of the two other class
Orthodox canon law commentators Zonaras and Aristenus. References to this
edition are given in document paper as RP(vol. no.), pages. A slightly variant
edition of the commentaries on the canons by William Beveridge in 1672 is
reprinted in J.P. Migne, Patrologiae cursus completus, Series
Greaco-latina, (Paris: 1857-66), Vols. 137-138. Migne prints Balsamon's
commentary on the Nomocanons Vol. 104, along with other works of Photius.
References to Migne are given in this paper as PG(vol. no.), cols.
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