| Paper 1027-a | The 'Journey' of a Religious Legend: From the Early Christian Tradition to the Medieval Inheritance of the Archbishopric of Ohrid
(Language: English)
Eleonora Naxidou, School of History & Ethnology, Democritus University of Thrace, Komotini
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Ecclesiastical History, Mentalities, Religious Life |
|---|
| Paper 1027-b | '… from the disobedient to the obedient, from schismatics to Catholics': The Opinions of Innocent III on Conquest, Christendom, and the Church in the Light of the Conquest of Constantinople
(Language: English)
Matthew Edward Harris, University of Bristol
Index terms: Byzantine Studies, Crusades, Ecclesiastical History, Political Thought |
|---|
| Abstract | Paper -a:
This paper negotiates how an early Christian legend of the Balkans fell into oblivion and reemerged many centuries later, this time as part of the religious inheritance of the newly baptised Bulgarians. Thus, it is about the transfer of a Christian tradition to a new cultural environment: the new inhabitants of the same area adopted the Christian saints worshiped by their predecessors. This 'journey' will be followed though the narrative of the Martyrdom of the Fifteen Illustrious Holy Martyrs of Tiberiopolis written in end of the 11th or the beginning of the 12th century by Theophilaktos, the Archbishop of Ohrid.
Paper -b:
The conquest of Constantinople by the Latins in 1204, more than any other event, created lasting division between Latin and Greek Christians. Ironically, Pope Innocent III expressed to Baldwin, Latin Emperor of Constantinople, that, through conquest, not only had the conquered land been 'transferred' to the Catholics, but also that the 'Greek Church' had returned to the obedience of the Roman Church. Innocent's opinions on this latter matter changed quickly. Nevertheless, this paper is an analysis of the a priori assumptions behind Innocent's initial optimism, ascertaining the extent to which Innocent's words indicated in his mind a close link between the quasi-geographical concept of 'Christendom' and the theological concept of the Church.
Paper -c:
In 1438, on the way back from the Council of Ferrara to Constantinople, the nomophylax John Eugenicus experienced a dramatic sea journey, during which he nearly lost his life, swept away by a tremendous storm off the Ancona coast. Soon after having been miraculously rescued, John wrote a detailed and emotional description of the traumatic event, a logos eucharisterios published by S.P.Lampros (Palaiologeia kai Peloponnesiaka, Athens 1912, vol.1, pp. 271-314). As well known, Eugenicus' glowing ekphrasis of the shipwreck is a rare example of Byzantine travel literature. Yet, despite its realistic and autobiographic character, the logos shares some crucial stylistic and rhetoric features with the many fictitious or semi-fictitious descriptions of storms and wreckages that can be found in the epistolography or in the Byzantine novel, starting from the Late Antiquity through the Paleologan Era. Focusing on the text of Eugenicus, I will try to outline the distinguishing characteristics of such a 'castaway rhetoric' in Byzantine literature.
|
|---|
