No More Learning

Break-up of the Serbian Empire
Vukašin's usurpation
Battle on the Maritza, 1371
Hegemony of Bosnia
The Turkish advance
552
554
555
556
557


## p. xxx (#36) #############################################

XXX
Contents
.
Battle of Kossovo, 1389
Zenith of Tvrtko I
End of the Bulgarian Empire
Battle of Nicopolis, 1396
Battle of Angora, 1402 .
Reign of Stephen Lazarević
Venice in Albania .
The Bosnian King-maker
Civil war in Bosnia
Mirčea " the Great” of Wallachia
Condition of Moldavia and Serbia .
Branković at Semendria
The loss of the last Serbian ports
John Hunyadi
Battle of Varna,
1444
Third Battle of Kossovo, 1448
The “Duchy of St Sava”
Policy of Mahomet li
Siege of Belgrade, 1456
Death of George Branković, 1456 .
End of medieval Serbia.
Coronation of Stephen Tomašević.
Turkish conquest of Bosnia, 1463 .
Hungarian banats of Jajce and Srebrenik
Turkish conquest of the Herzegovina
Venice in Albania .
Career of Skanderbeg
Turkish conquest of Albania .
History of Montenegro .
End of the “Black Princes”
The Danubian Principalities .
Jealousies of the Powers
Tables of Rulers
PAGE
558
559
560
561
562
563
564
565
566
567
568
569
570
571
572
573
574
575
576
577
578
579
580
581
582
583
584
585
586
587
588
589
590
.
CHAPTER XIX.
ATTEMPTS AT REUNION OF THE GREEK AND LATIN
CHURCHES.
By Professor Louis BRÉHIER.
Hindrances to the Union
The different points of view
Last attempts at alliance against the Normans
Union and the danger from the Turks .
Union and the First Crusade .
The Papacy and the Germanic Empire
Manuel Comnenus and the Union.
Failure of Manuel's policy
Rupture between Byzantium and the West
The Fourth Crusade
The compulsory Union
Innocent III and the Greek Church
594
596
597
598
599
600
601
602
603
604
605
606
.


## p. xxxi (#37) ############################################

Contents
xxxi
.
Fall of the Latin Empire
John Vatatzes and attempts at union
Policy of Michael Palaeologus
Schemes of Charles of Anjou .
Gregory X and Michael Palaeologus
Union at the Council of Lyons
Breach of the Union
Policy of Andronicus II
Clement VI and the Union
John VI Cantacuzene
John V Palaeologus
Manuel Palaeologus in the West
The Battle of Angora, 1402
The Greeks and the Council of Basle
The Council at Ferrara, 1438
The Council at Florence, 1439
The Union of Florence .
Byzantine opposition to the Union
Fall of Constantinople.
Conclusion
PAGE
607
608
609
610
611
612
613
614
615
616
617
618
619
620
621
622
623
624
625
626
.
CHAPTER XX.
THE MONGOLS.
By HERBERT M. J. LOEWE, M. A.
Character of Mongol history.
Extent of the Mongol invasions
Unification of Asia
Mongol and Tartar
Other tribes in the Mongol Confederation
Jenghiz Khan
Conquest of Turkestan and Khwārazm
Empire of Jenghiz Khan
Conquest of Northern China .
Advance westward
Invasion of Europe
The recall of Bātu saves Europe
The Papacy and the Mongols
Ogdai and Kuyuk
Downfall of the Assassins
The fall of the Caliphate of Baghdad
Defeat of the Mongols by the Mamlūks, 1260
Hūlāgū and the Īl-khāns
Mangu
The reign of Kublai
Change in the Mongols.
Fall of the Mongols in China
The western Mongols: Tīmūr
Conquest of India: defeat of the Ottomans
The Golden Horde
627
628
629
630
631
632
633
634
635
636
637
638
639
640
641
612
643
644
645
646
618
619
650
651
652
.


## p. xxxii (#38) ###########################################

xxxii
Contents
CHAPTER XXI.
THE OTTOMAN TURKS TO THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE.
By the late Sir Edwin PEARS, LL. B. London, President of the
European Bar at Constantinople.
PAGE
Infiltration of Turkish nomads into Asia Minor
653
Ertughril
655
Accession of Osman
656
The Catalan Grand Company
657
First entry of Turks into Europe, 1308 .
658
Progress of Osman
659
Capture of Brūsa
660
Capture of Nicaea .
661
Capture of Nicomedia
662
Orkhān styled Sultan
663
The Janissaries
ib.
Organisation of the army
664
Orkhān in alliance with Cantacuzene
665
Venetian versus Genoese influence.
666
The Ottomans in Europe
667
Murad I
668
European policy of the Ottomans
669
Defeat of the Serbs on the Maritza, 1371
670
Subservience of the Empire to Murad
671
Battle of Kossovo, 1389
672
Causes of Murād's success
673
Bāyazid the Thunderbolt
674
Western crusade against the Turks
675
Victory of Bāyazid at Nicopolis, 1396
676
Boucicaut at Constantinople .
677
The appearance of Tīmūr
679
His capture of Aleppo and Baghdad
680
Battle of Angora, 1402 .
682
Tīmūr's conquests in Asia Minor
683
Deaths of Timūr and Bāyazīd
684
Civil war among the Ottomans
685
Mahomet I
687
Character of his reign
688
Murad II
ib.
Increasing numbers of the Ottomans
689
European conquests of Murād
690
Crusade of Vladislav and Hunyadi
Murad's victories at Varna and Kossovo
692
Accession of Mahomet II
693
Preparations for the siege of Constantinople
694
Western assistance for the Emperor
695
The besieging force
696
The defences of Constantinople
697
The dispositions of the besieged
698
Defeat of Mahomet's fleet
699
The Turkish fleet in the Golden Horn
700
O
691


## p. xxxiii (#39) ##########################################

Contents
xxxiii
Preparations for a general assault .
Commencement of the assault, 29 May 1453 .
The Janissaries force the stockade.
Capture of Constantinople
Character of Mahomet II
PAGE
701.
702
703
704
705
CHAPTER XXII.
BYZANTINE LEGISLATION FROM THE DEATH
OF JUSTINIAN (565) TO 1453.
By Paul COLLINET, Professor of Roman Law at the
University of Paris.
Periods of legislation
Commentaries on Justinian's work
Novels of Justin II, Tiberius, and Heraclius .
The Ecloga
.
The Military, Maritime, and Rural Codes
Canon law of the sixth century
Legislation of Basil I
Legislation of Leo VI: the Basilics
T'he Novels of Leo VI
Novels from 911 to 1045
Legal education under Leo VI
Legal treatises based on the Ecloga and Basilics
706
707
708
709
710
711
712
713
714
715
716
717
718
ib.
719
720
721
722
723
724
725
The Ilcipa
Canonical collections
The law school of Constantinople (1045)
Novels from 1045 to 1453
Monographs of the eleventh century
Later legal works :
Later canonical collections
The Syntagma of Matthew Blastares
The diffusion of Byzantine legislation
CHAPTER XXIII.
THE GOVERNMENT AND ADMINISTRATION OF THE
BYZANTINE EMPIRE.
By Professor CHARLES DIEHL.
The Basileus.
Limitations of imperial authority
The twofold hierarchy of rank and office
The ministers
Institution of the themes
The themes in the tenth century
Officials of the themes.
Importance of the bureaucracy
Hellenisation of the Empire .
Assistance of the Church
726
729
730
731
732
733
734
735
736
737
738
The army
The feet
741


## p. xxxiv (#40) ###########################################

xxxiv
Contents
CHAPTER XXIV.
BYZANTINE CIVILISATION.
By Professor CHARLES DIEHL.
.
.
Splendour of Constantinople.
Twofold aspect of Byzantine civilisation
Constantinople's extent and walls .
Its plan in the tenth century
The population of Coustantinople.
Religion
St Sophia
The power of Monasticism
The Sacred Palace
Imperial ceremonial
Court life: intrigues
Part played by women
Luxury of society.
The Hippodrome and the factions
The populace
Bazaars and gilds
Commerce
Culture
The University of Constantinople .
History.
Theology
Poetry :
Art
The provinces
The towns
The countryside
Power of the great nobles
The Byzantine character
Oriental, Greek, and Christian influences
Virtues and defects of the Byzantines
The inheritance of Europe from Byzantium
Byzantium and the Renaissance
PAGE
745
746
747
748
750
751
752
753
754
755
756
757
758
759
760
761
762
763
764
765
766
767
ib.
770
ib.
771
772
773
774
775
776
777


## p. xxxv (#41) ############################################

XXXV
LIST OF MAPS
VOLUME IV.
(See separate portfolio. )
38. The Break-up of the Caliphate.
39. Asia Minor, shewing the Themes of the Tenth Century, and
Armenia.
40. Northern neighbours of the Empire in the Tenth Century.
41. Bulgaria and the Balkans in the Tenth Century.
42. The Empire of the Comneni about 1130.
43. The Latin States in the East in 1214.
44. The Empires of the Palaeologi and Stephen Dušan.
45. The Turkish Sultanate in 1481.
46. The Mongol Empire about 1250.
47(a). The City of Constantinople.
47(b). The environs of Constantinople.


## p. xxxvi (#42) ###########################################



## p. 1 (#43) ###############################################

CHAPTER I.
LEO III AND THE ISAURIAN DYNASTY
(717-802).
The history of the Byzantine Empire under the rule of the Isaurian
dynasty is one of the periods in the prolonged evolution of the monarchy
least
easy of comprehension. The work of the sovereigns usually called
the Iconoclast Emperors has been, in fact, recorded for us practically
only by opponents or victims, and their impassioned reports have obviously
no claim to be considered strictly impartial. On the other hand, the
writings defending and justifying the policy of the Emperors have nearly
all disappeared in the fierce reaction which followed the defeat of the
Iconoclasts
, and we are thus but imperfectly acquainted with the real
objects which the Isaurian Emperors set before themselves. Further, the
true aspect of their rule has been completely obscured and distorted by
the hatred and prejudice excited against them. The nature of their
religious policy has been, and still is, frequently misconceived. In truth,
the controversy as to images was only a part of the great work of political,
social, and economic reconstruction undertaken by Leo III and Constan-
tine V on the emergence of the Empire from the serious dangers which
it had passed through in the seventh century. It would thus be a mis-
understanding of the meaning and scope of this religious strife to consider
apart from the vast aggregate of which it merely forms a portion, just
as it would be a wrong estimate of the Isaurian Emperors to find in them
mere sectaries and heretics. The striking testimony rendered them by
very detractors at the Council of 787 should not be forgotten by
any who undertake to relate their history. While severely condemning
the religious policy of a Leo III or a Constantine V, the bishops as-
sembled at Nicaea recall “ their great deeds, the victories gained over
enemies, the subjugation of barbarous nations," and further, “ the solici-
tude they showed for their subjects, the wise measures they took, the
constitutions they promulgated, their civil institutions, and the improve-
ments effected by them in the cities. ” “Such," the Fathers in Council add,
“is the true title of the dead Emperors to fame, that which secures to
them the gratitude of all their subjects. ”
1 Mansi, Concilia, xiii, 355,
it
their
C. MED. H. VOL. IV, CH, I,
1


## p. 2 (#44) ###############################################

2
Repulse of the Arabs from Constantinople
I.
When on 25 March 717 Leo III was crowned by the Patriarch
Germanus, the exterior circumstances of the monarchy were notably
difficult. For ten years, thanks to the anarchy laying waste the Empire,
the Arabs had been persistently advancing in Asia Minor; in 716 they
laid siege to Amorium, in 717 they took Pergamus; and Maslamah, the
most distinguished of their generals, who had pushed his way nearly into
the Opsician theme, was, with his lieutenant Sulaimān, making ready
for a great attack upon Constantinople itself. But the new Emperor was
equal to defending the Empire. Of Asiatic origin, an Isaurian, according
to Theophanes, but more probably descended from a family of Ger-
manicea in Commagene, he had, since the time of Justinian II, displayed
remarkable qualities in the shaping of his career. On a mission to the
Caucasus he had shewn himself a wary diplomatist, and had given proofs
also of energy, courage, presence of mind, and the power of disentangling
himself from the most embarrassing situations. As strategus of the Ana-
tolics since 713, he had held the Arabs in check with some success in
Asia Minor, proving himself at once a good general and a skilful diplo-
matist; he was well acquainted with the Musulman world and perhaps
even spoke Arabic. In short, eager as he was to vindicate the high
ambitions he cherished, he appreciated order and was desirous of re-
storing strength and security to the Empire; a good organiser, a man of
resolute will and autocratic temper, he had all the best qualities of a states-
man. In the course of his reign of twenty-three years (717–740) he was to
shew himself the renowned artificer of the re-organisation of the Empire.
Barely a few months from his accession the Arabs appeared before
Constantinople, attacking it by land and sea (15 August 717). During the
whole year which the siege lasted (August 717 to August 718) Leo III
dealt firmly with every difficulty. He was as successful in stimulating
the defection of a portion of the crews composed of Egyptian Christians
serving in the Arab fleet as he was in prevailing on the Bulgars to inter-
vene on behalf of the Byzantines. He shewed himself as well able to destroy
the Musulman ships with Greek fire as to defeat the Caliph's armies on
land and secure the re-victualling of the besieged city. When at last
Maslamah decided upon retreat, he had lost, it is said, nearly 150,000 men,
while from a storm which burst upon his fleet only ten vessels escaped.
For Leo III this was a glorious opening to his reign, for Islām it was a
disaster without precedent. The great onrush of Arab conquest was for
many years broken off short in the East as it was to be in the West by
the victory of Charles Martel at Poitiers (732). The founder of the
Isaurian dynasty stood out as the saviour of the Empire, and pious By-
zantines declared in the words of Theophanes “ that God and the most
blessed Virgin Theotokos ever protect the city of the Christian Empire,
and that God does not forsake such as call upon Him faithfully. "


## p. 3 (#45) ###############################################

Domestic administration: the themes
3
In spite of this great success, which contributed powerfully to establish
the new dynasty, the Arabs remained formidable. After some years
respite, they again took the offensive in Asia Minor (726), and the
struggle with them lasted until the end of the reign. However, the
victory of Leo III and his son Constantine at Acroïnon was a stern lesson
to the Musulmans. The successes of the reign of Constantine V, facili-
tated by the internal quarrels which at that time disturbed the Empire
of the Caliphs, were to crown these happy achievements, and to avert for
many years the Arab danger which in the seventh century had so seriously
threatened Constantinople?
The domestic administration of Leo III was no less fortunate in its
consequences to the Empire.
After twenty years of anarchy and revolution the monarchy was left
in a very distracted state. In 718, while the Arabs were besieging Con-
stantinople, the strategus of Sicily, Sergius, proclaimed an Emperor in
the West. In 720 the ex-Emperor Anastasius II, who was interned at
Thessalonica, attempted, with the support of the Bulgars and the com-
plicity of several high officials, to regain the throne. Both these move-
ments were firmly suppressed. Meanwhile, Leo III was planning how he
might give permanence to his dynasty. At the time of his accession,
having no sons of his own, he had married his daughter Anne to Arta-
vasdus, strategus of the Armeniac theme, and formerly his chief supporter
in his revolt against Theodosius III, conferring on him the high rank of
curopalates. When in December 718 a son, Constantine, was born to him,
an even better prospect of length of days was opened to his house. By
25 March 720 Leo had secured the throne to the child, having him
solemnly crowned by the Patriarch. Thus master of the situation, he
was able to give himself up wholly to the great task, so urgently neces-
sary, of reconstituting the State.
Above all things it was imperative to provide for the defence of the
frontiers. Leo III set about this by completing and extending the system
of themes. He cut off the Western part of the immense government of
the Anatolics to form the Thracesian theme. He likewise divided the
Maritime theme, in order to constitute the two governments of the
Cibyrrhaeots and the Dodecanese. The military reasons, which dictated
the creation of provinces less extensive and more easily defended, were
reinforced by political considerations. Leo III knew by his own ex-
perience how dangerous it was to leave too large stretches of territory in
the hands of all-powerful strategi, and what temptations were thus
offered them to revolt and lay claim to the Empire. For the same reasons
Constantine V pursued his father's policy, reducing the area of the
Opsician theme, and forming out of it the Bucellarian theme, and,
perhaps, the Optimatian. Thus under the Isaurian Emperors was com-
1 For the details of the Arab War, see infra, Chapter v(A), pp. 119–21.
CB. I.
1-2


## p. 4 (#46) ###############################################

4
The finances
1
pleted the administrative organisation sketched out in the seventh cen-
tury. Leo III and his son made a point of nominating to be governors
of these provinces men of worth, good generals and capable administrators,
and, above all, devoted to the person and the policy of their master.
The Military Code (vóuos otpatiwalkós), which probably dates from the
reign of Leo III, was designed to provide these rulers with well-disciplined
troops, and to secure the formation of an army with no care or interest
apart from its work, and strictly forbidden to concern itself with agri-
culture or commerce. Out of this force Constantine V, by throwing into
one body contingents drawn from every theme in the Empire, was to set
himself to create a truly national army, ever more and more removed
from the influence of local leaders and provincial patriotism.
If the administration and the army were to be re-organised, it was of
the first necessity to restore order to the finances. At all costs, money must
be found. To secure this, Leo III hit upon a highly ingenious expedient,
known as doubling the indiction. The fiscal year from 1 September 726
to 1 September 727 was the tenth in the period of fifteen years called the
indiction. The Emperor ordered that the following year, reckoning from
1 September 727 to 1 September 728, instead of being the eleventh year
of the indiction, should be the twelfth, and consequently in one year
he levied the taxes which should have been paid in two years'. The Ex-
chequer officials received orders to get in all contributions with rigorous
exactness; and the Popes complained bitterly of the tyranny of the
fiscal authority (725). In spite of this, new taxes were devised. In 732
Leo III increased the capitation tax, at least in the provinces of Sicily,
Calabria, and Crete, and seized the revenues of the pontifical patrimonies
in the south of Italy for the benefit of the treasury. Finally in 739,
after the destructive earthquake in Constantinople, in order to rebuild
the walls of the capital, he raised existing imposts by one twelfth (i. e.
two keratia upon the nomisma, or golden solidus, which was worth twenty-
four keratia, whence the name Dikeraton given to the new tax). Thus it
was that the chroniclers of the eighth century accused Leo III of an
unrestrained passion for money and a degrading appetite for gain. As a
fact, his careful, often harsh, administration of the finances supplied the
treasury with fresh resources.
Leo was at no less pains to restore economic prosperity to the
Empire. The Rural Code (vóuos yewpyłkós), which appears to date
from this period, was an endeavour to restrain the disquieting extension
of large estates, to put a stop to the disappearance of small free holdings,
and to make the lot of the peasant more satisfactory. The immigration
of numerous Slav tribes into the Balkan peninsula since the end of the
sixth century had brought about important changes in the methods of
land cultivation. The colonate, if it had not completely disappeared, at
1 For the confusion caused by this in the chronology of part of the eighth century,
see the note by Professor Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire, 11, 425.


## p. 5 (#47) ###############################################

The Codes and the Ecloga
5
any rate had ceased to be the almost universal condition. Instead were to
be found peasants (the popritai) much less closely bound to the soil they
cultivated than the former adscriptitii, and paying a fixed rent (uoptń)
to the owner, or else communities of free peasants holding the land in
collective ownership, and at liberty to divide it up among the members
of the community in order to farm it profitably. The Rural Code gave
legal sanction to existing conditions which had been slowly evolved : it
witnesses to a genuine effort to revive agriculture and to restore se-
curity and prosperity to the husbandman; apparently this effort was by
no means wasted, and the moral and material condition of the agri-
cultural population was greatly improved. The Maritime Code (vóuos
vautikós), on the other hand, encouraged the development of the
mercantile marine by imposing part of the liability for unavoidable
losses on the passengers, thus diminishing the risk of freight-owner and
captain.
Finally, an important legislative reform brought the old laws of
Justinian up to date in relation to civil causes ; namely, the publica-
tion of the code promulgated in 739 and known as the Ecloga. In the
preface to the Ecloga Leo III has plainly pointed out the object aimed
at in his reform; he intended at once to give more precision and clearness
to the law, and to secure that justice should be better administered, but,
above all, he had at heart the introduction of a new spirit into the
law, more humane—the very title expressly mentions this development
(els tò pilavpw Tótepov)--and more in harmony with Christian con-
ceptions. These tendencies are very clearly marked in the provisions,
much more liberal than those in Justinian's code, of the laws dealing
with the family and with questions of marriage and inheritance. In
this code we are sensible that there is at once a desire to raise the in-
tellectual and moral standard of the people, and also a spirit of equal
justice, shewn by the fact that henceforth the law, alike for all, takes no
account of social categories? And there is no better proof than the
Ecloga of the vastness of the projects of reform contemplated by the
Iconoclast Emperors and of the high conception they had formed of their
duty as rulers.
Leo III's work of administrative re-organisation was crowned by a
bold
attempt at religious and social reform. Thence was to arise the
serious confict known as the Iconoclustic struggle, which for more than
a century and a half was profoundly to disturb the interior peace of
the Empire, and abroad was to involve the breach with Rome and the
loss of Italy.
The long struggle of the seventh century had brought about far-
reaching changes in the ideas and morals of Byzantine society. The
influence of religion, all-powerful in this community, had produced results
Cf. on the laws established by the Ecloga, infra, Chapter xxii, pp. 708–10.
CH, I,


## p. 6 (#48) ###############################################

6
Religion: the cult of images
יל
formidable from the moral point of view. Superstition had made alarming
progress. Everybody believed in the supernatural and the marvellous.
Cities looked for their safety much less to men's exertions than to the
miraculous intervention of the patron saint who watched over them, to
St Demetrius at Thessalonica, St Andrew at Patras, or the Mother of
God at Constantinople. Individuals put faith in the prophecies of
wizards, and Leo III himself, like Leontius or Philippicus, had been met
in the way by one who had said to him: “Thou shalt be King. ” Miracle
seemed so natural a thing that even the Councils used the possibility
of it as an argument. But, above all, the cultus offered to images, and
the belief in their miraculous virtues, had come to occupy a surprisingly
and scandalously large place in the minds of the Byzantines. Among the
populace, largely Greek by race, and in many cases only superficially
Christianised, it seemed as though a positive return to pagan customs
were in process.
From early times, Christianity in decorating its churches had made
great use of pictures, looking upon them as a means of teaching, and as
matter of edification for the faithful. And early too, with the encourage-
ment of the Church, the faithful had bestowed on pictures, especially on
those believed to have been “not made by human hands” (axelpotointoi),
veneration and worship. In the eighth century this devotion was more
general than ever. Everywhere, not merely in the churches and monas-
teries, but in houses and in shops, on furniture, on clothes, and on trinkets
were placed the images of Christ, the Blessed Virgin, and the Saints. On
these cherished icons the marks of respect and adoration were lavished:
the people prostrated themselves before them, they lighted lamps and
candles in front of them, they adorned them with ribbons and garlands,
burned incense, and kissed them devoutly. Oaths were taken upon images,
and hymns were sung in their honour; miracles, prodigies, and marvellous
cures were implored and expected of them; and so absolute was the trust
in their protection that they were sometimes chosen as sponsors for
children. It is true that, in justification of these aberrations, theologians
were accustomed to explain that the saint was mystically present in his
material image, and that the respect shewn to the image penetrated to
the original which it represented. The populace no longer drew this dis-
tinction. To them the images seemed real persons, and Byzantine history
is full of pious legends, in which images speak, act, and move about like
divine and supernatural beings. Everybody was convinced that by a
mystic virtue the all-powerful images brought healing to the soul as well as
to the body, that they stilled tempests, put evil spirits to fight, and warded
off diseases, and that to pay them the honour due to them was a sure means
of obtaining all blessings in this life and eternal glory in the next.
Many devout minds, however, were hurt and scandalised by the
excesses practised in the cult of images. As early as the fifth and sixth
centuries, Fathers of the Church and Bishops had seen with indignation


## p. 7 (#49) ###############################################

Religious origins of iconoclasm
7
the Divine Persons thus represented, and had not hesitated to urge the
destruction of these Christian idols. This iconoclastic tendency had
grown still more powerful towards the end of the seventh century,
especially in the Asiatic provinces of the Empire. The Paulicians, whose
heresy had spread rapidly in Asia Minor during the second half of the
seventh century, proscribed images, and were opposed to the adoration
of the Cross, to the cult of the Virgin and the Saints, and to everything
which was not “ worship in spirit and in truth. ” The Messalians of Ar-
menia also rejected image-worship, and the clergy of that province had
succeeded in gradually purifying popular religion there. It must by no
means be forgotten that the Jews, who were very numerous in Christen-
dom, and at this time shewed great zeal in proselytising, were naturally
hostile to images, and that the Musulmans condemned them no less
rigorously, seeing in the devotion paid to them an actual revival of
polytheism. Leo III himself, Asiatic in origin and subjected from child-
hood to the influence of an iconoclastic atmosphere, would as a matter of
course sympathise with this opposition to images. Like many Asiatics,
and like a section even of the superior clergy of the orthodox party, he
seems to have been alarmed by the increase of idolatry among the people,
and to have resolved on a serious effort to restore to Christianity its
primitive loftiness and purity.
Mistakes have often been made about the character of the religious
policy of the Isaurian Emperors, and its end and scope have been
somewhat imperfectly understood. If faith is to be reposed in contem-
poraries, very hostile, be it said, to Leo III, the Emperor was actuated
by strangely petty motives. If Theophanes is to be trusted, he was
desirous of pleasing the Musulmans with whom he was in close intel-
lectual agreement (oaparnvóopwv), and the Jews, to whom he had, as
was related, promised satisfaction on this head if ever the predictions
which bade him expect the throne should be realised. These are mere
it would be difficult to believe that a prince who had just won
so resounding a victory over Islām should have been so anxious to spare
the feelings of his adversaries, and that a ruler who in 722 promulgated
an edict of persecution against the Jews should have been so much affected
by their views.
The historians of our day have credited the iconoclasts with other
intentions, and have attributed a much wider scope to their policy. They
have seen in them the champions of the lay power, the opponents of the
interference of the Church with the affairs of the State. They have repre-
sented them as rationalists who, many centuries before Luther, attempted
the reformation of the Church, as freethinkers, aspiring to found a
new society on “the immortal principles” destined to triumph in the
French Revolution. These are strange errors.
Leo III and his son were
men of their time, sincerely pious, convinced believers, even theologians,
very anxious, in accordance with the ideas of the age, to cast out every-
legends ;
CH. I.


## p. 8 (#50) ###############################################

8
Political advantages of iconoclasm
thing which might bring down the Divine anger upon the Empire, very
eager, in sympathy with the feelings of a section of their people and
their clergy, to purify religion from what seemed to them idolatry.
But they were also statesmen, deeply concerned for the greatness and
the safety of the Empire. Now the continuous growth of monasticism
in Byzantine society had already produced grave results for the State.
The immunity from taxation enjoyed by Church lands, which every day
became more extensive, cut down the receipts of the Treasury; the ever-
increasing numbers who entered the cloister withdrew soldiers from the
army, officials from the public services, and husbandmen from agriculture,
while it deprived the nation of its vital forces. The monks were a
formidable element of unrest owing to the influence they exercised over
souls, which often found its opportunities in image-worship, many con-
vents depending for subsistence on the miraculous icons they possessed.
Unquestionably, one of the objects which the Iconoclast Emperors set
before themselves was to struggle against this disquieting state of things,
to diminish the influence which the monks exercised in virtue of their
control of the nation's education and their moral guidance of souls. In
proscribing images they aimed also at the monks, and in this
way
the
religious reform is intimately connected with the great task of social
rebuilding which the Isaurian Emperors undertook.
It is true that by entering on the struggle which they thus inaugu-
rated the iconoclast sovereigns ushered in a long period of unrest for
the monarchy; that out of this conflict very serious political conse-
quences arose. It would, nevertheless, be unjust to see in the resolution
to which they came no more than a caprice of reckless and fanatical
despots. Behind Leo III and his son, and ready to uphold them, stood
a whole powerful party of iconoclasts. Its real strength was in the
Asiatic population and the army, which was largely made up of Asiatic
elements, notably of Armenians. Even among the higher clergy, secretly
jealous of the power of the monks, many bishops, Constantine of Nacolea,
Thomas of Claudiopolis, Theodosius of Ephesus, and, later on, Constan-
tine of Nicomedia and Sisinnius of Perge, resolutely espoused the imperial
policy, and among the Court circle and the officials high in the ad-
ministration many, less perhaps from conviction than from fear or from
self-interest, did likewise, although among these classes several are
to be found laying down their lives for their attachment to images.
And even among the people of Constantinople a violent hostility to
monks shewed itself at times. But in the opposite camp the Isaurian
Emperors found that they had to reckon with formidable forces, nearly
the whole of the European part of the Empire: the monks, who depended
upon images and were interested in maintaining the reverence paid them;
the Popes, the traditional and passionate champions of orthodoxy;
the women, bolder and more fervent than any in the battle for the
holy icons, whose vigorous efforts and powerful influence cannot be too


## p. 9 (#51) ###############################################

Edict against images (726)
9
strongly emphasised; and, finally, the masses, the crowd, instinctively
faithful to time-honoured religious forms, and instinctively opposed to
the upper classes and ready to resist all change. These elements of
resistance formed the majority in the Empire, and upon their tenacious
opposition, heightened by unwearying polemics, the attempted reforms
were finally to be wrecked.
Leo III was too capable a statesman and too well aware of the
serious consequences, which, in the Byzantine Empire, any innovation
in religion would involve, not to have hesitated long before entering
upon the conflict. His course was decided by an incident which shews
how thoroughly he was a man of his time. In 726 a dangerous volcanic
eruption took place between Thera and Therasia, in which phenomenon
the Emperor discerned a token of the wrath of God falling heavily upon
the monarchy. He concluded that the only means of propitiation would
be to cleanse religion finally from practices which dishonoured it. He
resolved upon the promulgation of the edict against images (726).
It has sometimes been thought, on the strength of a misunderstood
passage in the life of St Stephen the Younger, that the Emperor
ordered, not that the pictures should be destroyed, but that they should
be hung higher up, in order to withdraw them from the adoration of
the faithful. But facts make it certain that the measures taken were
very much more rigorous. Thus keen excitement was aroused in the
capital and throughout the Empire. At Constantinople, when the people
saw an officer, in the execution of the imperial order, proceed to destroy
the image of Christ placed above the entrance to the Sacred Palace, they
broke out into a riot, in which several were killed and injured, and severe
sentences necessarily followed. When the news spread into the pro-
vinces worse things happened. Greece and the Cyclades rose and pro-
claimed a rival Emperor, who, with the support of Agallianus, turmarch
of the Helladics, marched upon Constantinople, but the rebel fleet was
easily destroyed by the imperial squadrons. In the West results were
more important. Pope Gregory II was already, owing to his opposition
to the fiscal policy of Leo III, on very bad terms with the Government.
When the edict against images arrived in Italy, there was a universal
rising in the peninsula in favour of the Pope, who had boldly countered
the imperial order by excommunicating the exarch and denouncing the
heresy (727). Venice, Ravenna, the Pentapolis, Rome, and the Cam-
pagna rose in revolt, massacred or drove out the imperial officers, and
proclaimed new dukes; indeed, matters went so far that the help of
the Lombards was invoked, and a plan was mooted of choosing a new
Emperor to be installed at Constantinople in the place of Leo III.
The Emperor took energetic measures against the insurgents. The new
exarch Eutychius, who received orders to put down the resistance at
all costs, marched upon Rome (729) but did not succeed in taking it.
CB, I.


## p. 10 (#52) ##############################################

10
Opposition in East and West
And it may be that imperial rule in Italy would now have come to an
end had not Gregory II, like the prudent politician that he was, discerned
the danger likely to arise from the intervention of the Lombards in
Italian affairs and used his influence to bring back the revolted provinces
to their allegiance. Thus peace was restored and Italy conciliated, her
action being limited to a respectful request that the honour due to images
should again be paid to them!
Meanwhile opposition was growing in the East. The clergy, with
Germanus, Patriarch of Constantinople, at their head, had naturally con-
demned the imperial policy openly. Leo III determined on breaking down
resistance by force. The Church schools were closed, and a later legend
even relates that the Emperor burned the most famous of them, along
with its library and its professors. In January 730 he caused the depo-
sition of the Patriarch Germanus, who refused to condemn images, and in
his place he had the Syncellus Anastasius elected, a man wholly devoted
to the iconoclast doctrine. This caused fresh disturbances in the West.
Gregory II refused to recognise the heretical Patriarch. Gregory III,
who succeeded in 731, relying on the Lombards, assumed an even bolder
and more independent attitude. The Roman Synod of 731 solemnly
excluded from the Church those who opposed images. This was to go
too far. The Emperor, who now saw in Gregory merely a rebel, sent
an expedition to Italy with the task of reducing him to obedience; the
Byzantine fleet, however, was destroyed by a tempest in the Adriatic
(732). Leo III was obliged to content himself with seizing the Petrine
patrimonies within the limits of the Empire, with detaching from the
Roman obedience and placing under the authority of the Patriarch of
Constantinople the dioceses of Calabria, Sicily, Crete, and Illyricum, and
with imposing fresh taxes on the Italian population. The breach be-
tween the Empire and Italy seemed to be complete; in 738 Gregory III
was to make a definite appeal to Charles Martel.
Even outside the Empire orthodox resistance to the iconoclast policy
was becoming apparent. St John Damascene, a monk of the Laura of
St Sabas in Palestine, wrote between 726 and 737 three treatises against
“those who depreciate the holy images,” in which he stated dogmatically
the principles underlying the cult of icons, and did not hesitate to
declare that “to legislate in ecclesiastical matters did not pertain to the
Emperor” (ου βασιλέων εστι νομοθετείν τη εκκλησία). Legend relates
that Leo III, to avenge himself on John, had him accused of treason to
the Caliph, his master, who caused his right hand to be cut off, and it adds
that the next night, by the intercession of the Blessed Virgin, the hand
was miraculously restored to the mutilated arm, that it might continue
its glorious labours in defence of orthodoxy.
In reality, despite certain harsh acts, dictated for the most part by
political necessity, it seems plain that the edict of 726 was enforced with
1 Cf. Vol. 11, Chapter viui A.
כל


## p. 11 (#53) ##############################################

Constantine V Copronymus
11
great moderation. Most of the churches and the Patriarch's palace were
still, at the end of the reign, in undisturbed possession of the frescoes and
mosaics which adorned them. Against persons there was no systematic
persecution. Even the chronicler Theophanes, who cannot sufficiently
reprobate “the impious Leo,” acknowledges that the deposed Patriarch,
Germanus, withdrew to his hereditary property of Platonion and there
peacefully ended his days. If his writings were burnt by the Emperor's
orders, he himself was never, as legend claims, subjected to measures of
violence. The rising in Greece was suppressed with great mildness, only
the two leaders being condemned to death. Finally, the Ecloga, pro-
mulgated in 740, inflicted no punishment on iconodules. Nevertheless,
when Leo died in 740, a serious struggle had been entered on, which was
to become fatally embittered as much by the very heat of the combat
and the desperate resistance of the monks as by the formidable problems
which it was soon to raise. In the quarrel over images the real collision
was between the authority of the Emperor in religious matters and the
desire of the Church to free herself from the tutelage of the State. This
became unmistakable when Constantine V succeeded his father.
II.
וי
Constantine V (740-775) has been fiercely attacked by the icono-
dule party. They surnamed him “the Stable-boy” (kapálivos)
and "Copronymus” (named from dung), on account of an unlucky
accident which, they said, had occurred at his christening. They
accused him of nameless debaucheries, of vices against nature, and attri-
buted to him every kind of infamy. “On the death of Leo,” says the
deacon Stephen, “Satan raised up in his stead a still more abandoned
being, even as to Ahab succeeded Ahaziah, and to Archelaus Herod,
more wicked than he. In the eyes of Nicephorus he outdid in cruelty
those tyrants who have most tormented the human race. For Theo-
phanes he is “ a monster athirst for blood,” “a ferocious beast,” an
“ unclean and bloodstained magician taking pleasure in evoking demons,"
in a word “a man given up from childhood to all that is soul-destroying,”
an amalgam of all the vices, “a precursor of Antichrist. ”
It would be childish to take these senseless calumnies literally. In
fact, if we consider the events of his reign, Constantine V appears as an
able and energetic ruler, a great warrior and a great administrator, who
left behind him a glorious and lasting reputation. He was the idol of
the
army, which long remembered him and many years after his death
was still the determined champion of his life-work. He was, in the eyes
of the people, “ the victorious and prophetic Emperor,” to whose tomb
in 813 they crowded, in order to implore the dead Caesar to save the
city which was threatened by the Bulgars. And all believed themselves
to have seen the prince come forth from his tomb, mounted on his war-
ול
СВ. І.


## p. 12 (#54) ##############################################

12
Crushing of the revolt of Artavasdus
horse and ready once more to lead out his legions against the enemy.
These are not facts to be lightly passed over. Most certainly Con-
stantine V was, even more than his father, autocratic, violent, passionate,
harsh, and often terrifying. But his reign, however disturbed by the
quarrel concerning images, appears, none the less, a great reign, in which
religious policy, as under Leo III, merely formed part of a much more
important achievement.
It must be added that the early occurrences of the reign were by no
means such as to incline the new prince to deal gently with his oppo-
nents. In 741 the insurrection of his brother-in-law Artavasdus united
the whole orthodox party against Constantine V. The Emperor had
just left Constantinople to open a campaign against the Arabs; while
the
usurper was making an unlooked-for attack on him in Asia, treason
in his rear was handing over the capital to his rival, the Patriarch Anas-
tasius himself declaring against him as suspected of heretical opinions.
A year and a half was needed to crush the rebel. Supported by Asia,
which, with the exception of the Opsician theme where Artavasdus had
been strategus, ranged itself unanimously on the side of Constantine,
the rightful Emperor defeated his competitor at Sardis (May 742) and
at Modrina (August 742) and drove him back upon Constantinople, to
which city he laid siege. On 2 November 742 it was taken by storm.
Artavasdus and his sons were blinded; the Patriarch Anastasius was
ignominiously paraded round the Hippodrome, mounted on an ass and
exposed to the mockery of the crowd; Constantine, however, maintained
him in the patriarchal dignity. But we may well conceive that the
Emperor felt considerable rancour against his opponents, and con-
tinually distrusted them after events which so plainly shewed the
hatred borne him by the supporters of images.
Yet Constantine shewed no haste to enter upon his religious reforms.
More pressing matters demanded his attention. As with Leo III, the
security of the Empire formed his chief preoccupation. Profiting by
the dissensions which shook the Arab Empire, he assumed the offensive
in Syria (745), reconquered Cyprus (746), and made himself master of
Theodosiopolis and Melitene (751). Such was his military reputation
that in 757 the Arabs retreated at the bare rumour of his approach.
To the end of the reign the infidels were bridled without the necessity
for any further personal intervention of Constantine.
The Bulgars presented a more formidable danger to the Empire. In
755 Constantine began a war against them which ended only with his
life. In nine successive campaigns he inflicted such disastrous defeats
on these barbarians, at Marcellae (759) and at Anchialus (762), that
by 764 they were terror-stricken, made no attempt at resistance, and
accepted peace for a term of seven years (765). When in 772 the
struggle was renewed, its results proved not less favourable; the Emperor,


## p. 13 (#55) ##############################################

Successes at home and abroad
13
having won the victory of Lithosoria, re-entered Constantinople in
triumph. To the last day of his life, Constantine wrestled with the
Bulgars, and if he did not succeed in destroying their kingdom, at least
he restored the prestige of Byzantine arms in the Balkan Peninsula? .
Elsewhere he repressed the risings of the Slavs of Thrace and Macedonia
(758), and, after the example of Justinian II, he deported part of their
tribes into Asia, to the Opsician theme (762).
At home also, Constantine gloriously carried on the work of his
father. We have already seen how he continued and completed the
administrative and military organisation set on foot by Leo III ; he
bestowed equal care on restoring the finances of the Empire, and his
adversaries accuse him of having been a terrible and merciless exactor,
a hateful oppressor of the peasants, rigorously compelling the payment
of constantly increasing taxes. In any case, at this cost was secured
the excellent condition in which he certainly left the imperial finances
(Theophanes speaks of the vast accumulations which his son, on his
death, found in the treasury). Also, despite the havoc caused by the
great pestilence of 747, the Empire was prosperous. The brilliancy of
the Court, the splendour of buildings-for Constantine V, while battling
against images, encouraged the production of secular works of art in-
tended to replace them-are a proof of this prosperity.
And the
Emperor, who from as early as 750 had shared the throne with his son
Leo, and who in 768, in order to increase the stability of his house, had
associated his four other sons in the imperial power with the titles of
Caesar and Nobilissimus, might flatter himself that he had secured the
Isaurian dynasty unshakably in the imperial purple, and restored to the
Empire security, cohesion, and strength.
Constantine V had no hesitation, in order to complete his work, in
re-opening the religious struggle.
The Emperor had received the education of a Byzantine prince; he was
therefore a theologian. He had composed sermons which he ordered to
be read in churches; an important theological work, which the Patriarch
Nicephorus made it his business to refute, had been published under his
name, and he had his own doctrine and his personal opinion on the
grave problems which had been raised since 726. Not only was he, like
Leo IIÌ, the enemy of images, but he condemned the cultus of the Blessed
Virgin and the Saints, he considered prayers addressed to them useless,
and punished those who begged for their intercession. All the writers tell
us of the want of respect which the Emperor shewed to the Theotokos;
all the authorities represent him as charging the upholders of images
with idolatry, and the Fathers of the Council of 753 congratulate him
For details of the Arab and Bulgar wars, see infra, Chapters v(A), pp. 121-3,
and vili, pp. 231–2.
СВ. І.


## p. 14 (#56) ##############################################

14
Reopening of the iconoclastic struggle
on having saved the world by ridding it of idols. Further, he was
deeply sensible of the perils of monasticism. He reproached the monks
with inculcating a spirit of detachment and of contempt of the world,
with encouraging men to forsake their families and withdraw from the
court and from official life to fling themselves into the cloisters. Thus,
as with Leo III, political considerations added weight to religious ones
in Constantine Vis mind. But, more passionate and fanatical than his
father, he was to carry on the struggle by different methods, with greater
eagerness in propaganda, and with a more unyielding and systematic
bitterness in the work of repression.
Yet up to 753 the Emperor confined himself to enforcing Leo III's
edicts in no very harsh spirit. At the most, it may be thought that he
was preparing the ground for his future action when in 745 or 751 he
removed to Thrace a number of Syrians and Armenians hostile to images,
and when in 747, after the pestilence, he practically re-peopled Constan-
tinople with men not less devoted to his opinions. But he waited until
his power had been consolidated by eleven years of glory and prosperity
before resolving on any decisive step. Towards the end of 752 Constan-
tine had made sure of the devotion of the army, and of the sympathy,
or at least the acquiescence, of a large proportion of the secular clergy.
The people of the capital had become very hostile to the monks. Finally,
the patriarchal chair was vacant since the death of Anastasius (752).
The Emperor convoked a Council to decide the question of image-
worship; on 10 February 753 three hundred and thirty-eight bishops
met in the palace of Hieria on the Bosphorus.
The Council intended to deal seriously with the task entrusted to it.
Its labours were long and onerous, lasting without interruption from
10 February to the end of August 753. It does not at all appear
that the prelates in their deliberations were subjected to any pressure
from the imperial authority. They in no wise accepted all the opinions
professed by Constantine V; they resolutely maintained the orthodox
doctrine concerning the intercession of the Blessed Virgin and the Saints,
and anathematised all who should deny to Mary the title of Theotokos.
But they solemnly condemned the worship of images “as a thing hateful
and abominable," and declared that whoever persisted in adoring them,
whether layman or monk,“ should be punished by the imperial laws as a
rebel against the commandments of God, and an enemy of the dogma
of the Fathers. ” And after having excommunicated the most illustrious
champions of the icons, and acclaimed in the persons of the Emperors
“the saviours of the world and the luminaries of orthodoxy,” and hailed
in Constantine V “a thirteenth apostle," they separated.
The decrees of the Council involved one serious
Here-
tofore the iconodules had only been proceeded against as contravening
the imperial ordinances. They were, for the future, to be treated as
consequence.
וי


## p. 15 (#57) ##############################################

Persecution of image-worshippers
15
heretics and rebels against the authority of the Church. By entrusting
to the imperial power the task of carrying the canons into effect, the
bishops were putting a terrible weapon into Constantine's hands, and
one specially fitted to strike at the priests and monks. Any spiritual
person refusing to support the dogma promulgated by the Council might,
in fact, be condemned with pitiless rigour.
Yet the Emperor, it would seem, was in no haste to make use of the
means put at his disposal. During the years that followed the Council,
two executions at most are mentioned (in 761). The sovereign appears to
have been bent rather on negotiating with his opponents in order to
obtain their submission by gentle methods. Also, at this moment the
Bulgarian war was absorbing his whole attention. It was not until peace
had been signed in 765, and he realised the futility of his controversy
with the most famous of the monks, that Constantine decided on crush-
ing resistance by force. The era of martyrs then set in.
“In that year” (September 764-September 765), writes Theophanes,
“the Emperor raged madly against all that feared God. ” The oath to
renounce images was imposed upon all subjects, and at the ambo of
St Sophia the Patriarch Constantine was forced to be the first to swear
to abandon the worship of the forbidden" idols. ” Thereupon persecution
was let loose throughout the Empire.