Oxford history of the christian church

3. 1081: a new era or continuity?

By April 1081 the Comnenian family in the person of Alexius I had secured the throne. For nearly a hundred years (1081-1180) three able rulers — Alexius I, his son John II, and his grandson Manuel I -gave an apparent measure of stability to Byzantium. They came from the military aristocracy whose previous attempts to take control, first by Isaac I Comnenus, then by Romanus IV Diogenes, had been short-lived. Now with the Comnenian dynasty the ascendancy of the civil aristocracy was overthrown. It was not until 1185 that the Comnenian dominance was ended, first by the brief minority of Manuel I's young son Alexius II (1180-3), and then by the unacceptable autocracy of Andronicus I the erratic and unstable cousin of Manuel, whose growing tyranny brought him a cruel death in 1185. The throne fell to the less competent Angeli family (1185-1204) and the way was open for an avaricious Venice bent on enlarging her economic empire and a Roman Church anxious to assert the overall supremacy of the papacy.

It is true that under the Comneni there were certain changes which contrast with the regime during the years 1025-81. Alexius I pursued a close-knit family or 'clan' policy where key (and other) positions were assigned to his relatives. Alterations in hierarchical arrangements and in administration strengthened the ruling house at the expense of the previously powerful civil bureaucracy. There are certainly also other contrasts. Dynastic continuity and the undoubted ability of the Comneni did bring about a consistent (if not always successful) stand against internal weakness and external pressures. Nevertheless all this only afforded a breathing space. Whether ruled by eleventh-century mediocrities or competent Comnenian diplomats, in both political and ecclesiastical fields often inseparable — the years 1025-1204 were characterized by certain trends spanning the two centuries and pointing to the future. The ambitions of the Normans occupying South Italy and Sicily and coveting Byzantium itself; the growing independence of the Balkan principalities who were also to stake a claim to Constantinople; the vigorous reform movements of the western Church and the claims of the papacy; the growing polemic on differing points of doctrine and discipline within the two Churches; the Latin concern over lack of access to the Holy Places; the building up of western crusading fervour and colonial ambitions; and above all the growth of flourishing communities in Italy, such as Venice and Genoa, with the drive to push their way still further into eastern markets thus eroding the Byzantine economy — all these factors were coming to the boil throughout the eleventh century, only to be intensified during the twelfth century as the West grew in strength and battened on an Empire fighting with inadequate weapons to keep back, or at least to come to terms with, the Turks, as well as having to deal with the aggressive Pecheneg and Cuman tribes on the north-cast frontiers.

Continuity is also found in certain more specifically internal developments, despite some change of emphasis. These were mainly intellectual and religious activities. For instance philosophical studies were vigorously pursued in both eleventh and twelfth centuries often leading, albeit inadvertently, to charges of heresy. Then on a rather different level there were various forms of dualist heresy, especially the widespread Bogomilism which also tended to be dangerous to the government since it readily led to attacks on the establishment. This popular movement was particularly active in both centuries, and indeed persisted in some form or other throughout the middle ages. Here as in many other ways the eleventh and twelfth centuries foreshadow the Palaeologan period.