Oxford history of the christian church

CHAPTERS 1-5 (c. 600-c. 1025).

There is no satisfactory detailed work covering the whole of this period. J. B. Bury, History of the Later Roman Empire . . . (395-800), 2 vols. (London, 1889; new edn. going only to 565, London, 1923), and his History of the Eastern Roman Empire . . . (802-867) (London, 1912), still remain valuable. R. Jenkins, Byzantium: The Imperial Centuries A.D. 610-1071 (London, 1966) briefly presents a point of view but needs revision especially on the Church. Studies on individual emperors include A. Rambaud, L'Empire grec au dixième siècle: Constantin Porphyrogénète (Paris, 1970); A. J. Toynbee, Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and his World (London, 1973), uneven and not at his best on religion; S. Runciman, The Emperor Romanus Lecapenus and his Reign: A Study of Tenth-century Byzantium (Cambridge, 1920). G. Schlumberger's old and monumental but readable four volumes on the years 963-1057, Nicéphore Phocas (Paris, 1890) and L'Épopée byzantine (Paris, 1896- 1905) contain a vast wealth of information (it is not always immediately apparent where it comes from). It needs revision; H. Grégoire was somewhat critical of Schlumberger (see his chapter on the Macedonians in the Cambridge Medieval History, vol. IV, pt. 1).

One profitable approach to the tenth century would be through the sources where reliable and accessible editions exist, as the Vita Euthymii Patriarchae Cp., ed. and trans. P. Karlin-Hayter (Brussels, 1970), teeming with information on Leo VI's reign. There are also the informative letters of his contemporary Patriarch Nicholas I, ed. and trans. R. J. H. Jenkins and L. G. Westerink (Washington, DC, 1973). G. Moravcsik's edition of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, De Administrando Imperio, trans. R. J. H. Jenkins, 2nd edn. (Washington, DC 1967) with a separate full commentary by Jenkins et al. (London, 1962) shows the Byzantine attitude towards its neighbours. The De Cerimoniis, ed. in part and trans. by A. Vogt (Paris, 1935, 1939-40), provides detail on the year-long ceremonies at court.

Particular episodes falling within this period which are obvious subjects for treatment are the iconoclast controversy and the Photian troubles.

A good deal has appeared on the controversial subject of iconoclasm. Some bibliography is given (pp. x-xi) in Iconoclasm, ed. A. Bryer and J. Herrin (Birmingham, 1977), but this collection of papers read at a symposium in 1975 is uneven in quality and in spite of the title does not cover all the ground. The general survey by E. J. Martin, A History of the Iconoclastic Controversy (London, 1931) should be used with caution if at all. An introduction and some discussion of the first phase of the controversy may be found in A. Grabar, L'Iconoclasme byzantin: Dossier archéologique (Paris, 1957) and S. Gero, Byzantine Iconoclasm during the Reign of Leo III (Louvain, 1973) and his Constantine V (Louvain, 1977) both with special attention to the oriental sources. The second phase in the ninth century can be approached through P. Alexander, The Patriarch Nicephorus of Constantinople: Ecclesiastical Policy and Image Worship in the Byzantine Empire (Oxford, 1958). The aftermath of the iconoclast controversy is examined in the definitive work by J. Gouillard, 'Le Synodikon d'Orthodoxie: Édition et commentaire', Travaux et Mémoires, 2 (1967), 1-316. This deals not only with the more immediate state of affairs after 843 but provides a running commentary on later heresies all of which were in due course added to the condemnations in the Synodicon.

An essential introduction to the career of the scholar and Patriarch Photius and relations between Rome and Constantinople in the later ninth century is F. Dvornik, The Photian Schism: History and Legend (Cambridge, 1948) in which he shows that western condemnation of Photius as an arch-heretic was a late and unfounded charge. But see also the examination of the controversy by D. Stiernon, Constantinople IV (Histoire des conciles œcuméniques, 5, Paris, 1967), who gives commentary, texts (French trans.) and a critical bibliography. Some of Photius's homilies have been translated with comments by C. Mango (Cambridge, Mass., 1958).

Intellectual life is covered in one of the most memorable publications of recent years, P. Lemerle, Le Premier Humanisme byzantin. Notes et remarques sur enseignement et culture á Byzance des origines au Xe siècle (Paris, 1971).