The Trials of John Italos (1076-1077, 1082).

A disciple of Psellos’ and his successor as hypatos tõn philosophõn, i.e., as head of the university, John Italos (“the Italian,” probably an Italo-Greek) was formally brought to trial on charges of heresy and condemned for his exaggerated use of ancient philosophy in general and, in particular, for holding Platonic views on the origin and nature of the world. The importance of his two successive trials is emphasized by the fact that for the first time since 843 new extensive doctrinal paragraphs were added to the Synodikon to be read yearly on the Sunday of Orthodoxy. By condemning Italos, the Byzantine Church thus created a pattern, which could be and indeed was used in later times.

The published writings of John Italos do not contain all the teachings of which he was accused, but it could not be excluded a priori that he actually held them in his oral teaching. In any case, the decisions of the synod concerning in him have an importance beyond his personality as a position taken officially by the Church.

In the eleven anathemas referring to the case of Italos in the Synodikon, the first ten were purely doctrinal and were issued in 1076-1077; the final one is a formal personal condemnation published in 1082.²⁴ The doctrinal position taken by the synod concerns two major issues:

1) Ancient Greek philosophers were the first heresiarches; in other words, all the major Christian heresies resulted from their influence; and, therefore, the seven councils by condemning the heretics also implicitly condemned the philosophers (Anath. 5). Actually after Tertullian, patristic literature frequently ascribed to philosophy the responsibility for all heresies. The position of the synod therefore was not entirely new, but its restatement in the eleventh century was of very great importance for Medieval Byzantium. A distinction was admitted however between those who accepted the “foolish opinions” of the philosophers and those who pursued “Hellenic studies” for instruction only (Anath. 7). The second attitude was not considered automatically wrong. The synodal decision corresponds somehow to the positive attitude, accepts in conservative circles and is presented even in Psellos toward the study of Aristotle’s Organon as opposed to the study of Plato. Though Aristotle was generally considered to be a teacher of logic and physics, subjects useful “for instruction,” Plato implied a metaphysical stand incompatible with Christianity.

2) The anathemas condemn a series of Platonizing positions attributed to Italos and almost identical with the Origenistic theses rejected by Justinian and the Council of 553: pre-existence and the transmigration of souls, denial of bodily resurrection, eternity of matter, self-subsistent world of ideas, and so forth.

Even after the condemnation of Italos, learned Byzantines continued, of course, to read, to copy, and to study ancient Greek authors, but any attempt to follow the ancients’ “foolish opinions” was now automatically a crime against the true faith. No doubt, the decisions of 1076-1077, while clearly encouraging the traditional monastic abhorrence of “Hellenism,” constituted a serious new handicap for the development of humanism.

Greek in its language and culture, Byzantium thus took a much more negative stand toward Greek philosophy than the West ever did. On the eve of the period when the West would commit its mind to the philosophy of the ancients and enter the great epoch of Scholasticism, the Byzantine Church solemnly refused any new synthesis between the Greek mind and Christianity, remaining committed only to the synthesis reached in the patristic period. It assigned to the West the task of becoming more Greek than it was. Obviously, this was an option of the greatest importance for the future of theology and for relations between East and West.

Notes

1. Theodore the Studite, Ep. II, 165 (to Gregory); PG 99:1524B.

2. Theodore the Studite, Ep. I, 36 (to Euprepianus); PG 99:1032CD.

3. Theodore the Studite, Ep. II, 12; PG 99:1152\C.

4. See, for example, S. Salaville, “La primaute de Saint Pierre et du pape d’apres Saint Thdodore Studite (759-826),” tchos d’Orient 17 (1914), 23-42; and A. Marin, Saint Theodore (Paris: Lecoffre, 1906), p. 1, who calls Theodore “the last Catholic of Byzantium.” Similarly, in his letter to Leo Sacellarius (PG 99:1417c) he wrote: “And who are their [the Apostles’] successors? — he who occupies the throne of Rome and is the first; the one who sits upon the throne of Constantinople and is the second; after them, those of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. That is the Pcntarchic authority in the Church. It is to them that all decision belongs in divine dogmas” (quoted in F. Dvornik, Byzantium and the Roman Primacy [New York: Forclham University Press, 1966], p. 101).

5. Theodore the Studite, Ep. II, 63 (to Naucratius); PG 99:1281B.

6. Theodore the Studite, Ep. II, 15; PG 99:116AB.

7. Photius, Library, codex 8, 18, etc.

8. Ibid., codex 109.

9. See the long article on Diodore of Tarsus, Library, codex 223, and his appreciation of Theodoret of Cyrus, ibid., codex 46.

10. See codices on Eulogius of Alexandria, 182, 208, 225-227, which, in fact, arc detailed monographs on this author. On Ephrem of Antioch, see Library, codex 228.

11. “The divine is in the universe both by essence and by energy.” AmphiL, 75; PG 101:465BC.

12. See Akindynos, Against Palamas, in Codex Monaccnsis graecus 223, foil. 283^▼, 293^▼, 298^▼, 305, 311^▼, etc.

13. Library, codex 1.

14. Ibid.

15. Ep. 2 to Pope Nicholas; PG 102:604D-605D.

16. Mystagogy of the Holy Spirit, 15; PG 102:293A.

17. Ibid., 9, 23; PG 102:289B, 313BC.

18. Ibid., 94.

19. Michael Psellos, Address to His Negligent Disciples, ed. J. F. Boissonade (Nuremberg, 1838; repr. Amsterdam: Hakkert, 1964), p. 151.

20. Ed. C. Sathas, Bibliotheca graeca medii aevi (Venice, 1872), V, 442.

21. Address to His Negligent Disciples, p. 146.

22. See B. Tatakis, La philosophic byzantine (Paris: Alcan, 1949), p. 199.

23. Michael Psellos, On the Character of Some Writings, ed. J. F. Boissonade, p. 52.

24. See J. Gouillard, Synodikpn, pp. 56-60, 188-202.

Monastic Theology.

The role of the monks in the triumph of Orthodoxy over iconoclasm illustrates their traditional involvement in theological debates in Byzantium; Byzantine monasticism thus appears not only as a school of spiritual perfection but also as a body, which feels responsibility for the content of the faith and for the fate of the Church as a whole. At the same time, the particularity of the monastic polity and ideology, its foundation upon the notion that “the Kingdom of God is not of this world,” and its opposition to all compromises with “this world’s” requirements gave rise in Byzantium to a theology, which can properly be called “monastic.” In contrast with the formal conservatism of official ecclesiastical circles and in opposition to the traditions of secular Hellenism, this theology happened also to be the most dynamic and creative current in Byzantine thought as a whole.

It is well known that very early in its development monasticism became a diversified movement. Between the extreme eremitism of Antony of Egypt and the absolute and organized cenobitism of Pachomius, there was a whole scale of intermediary forms of monastic life practised everywhere in Eastern Christendom and gradually spreading to the West. Between the hermits — also frequently called “hesychasts” — and the coenobites, there was often competition and at times conflict; but the entire Eastern monastic movement remained united in its basic “other-worldliness” and in the conviction that prayer, whatever its form, was the fundamental and permanent content of monastic life. Some monastic centres — such as the monastery of Studios — may have been relatively “activist,” developing social work, learning, manuscript copying and other practical concerns; but even then, the liturgical cycle of the monastic office remained the absolute centre of the community’s life and generally comprised at least half of the monk’s daily schedule.

As a whole, the monastic community taught the Byzantines how to pray. The coenobites developed a liturgical system (which was gradually adopted by the whole Church until today the Eastern Church knows no ordo but the monastic one), while the hesychasts created a tradition of personal prayer and continuous contemplation. In both cases, prayer was understood as a way to reach the goal of Christian life as such: participation in God, theõsis through communion with the deified humanity of Christ in the Holy Spirit. The coenobites generally emphasized the sacramental or liturgical nature of this communion, while the hesychasts taught that experience was to be reached through personal effort. In post-iconoclastic Byzantium, the two traditions generally interpenetrated to a greater extent, and we find, for example, that the prophet of personal mysticism, Symeon the New Theologian, spent most of his life in cenobitic communities located in the city of Constantinople. Since theologically and spiritually there was no opposition between the hermits and the coenobites, it is therefore possible to speak of a single monastic theology.

Date: 2016-01-14; view: 554