Alexander Schmemann

4. Byzantium (22 pages)

From Schmemann's A History of the Orthodox Church

Page 10

But in the eighth century a spirit of heroism began to sweep abroad. The empire was perishing, and the Isaurian emperors saved it at the price of a terrible straining of all the forces of the state; in this stress a new patriotic consciousness was born. This total mobilization — similar to that of Russia under Peter the Great — was bound to give rise to questions about monasticism and the monks. It seems obvious that Copronymus’ hatred for the monks was not based simply on their defense of icons. The division between two fundamental attitudes toward society, which had poisoned relations between Church and empire from time immemorial, was becoming clearer and clearer. For some, the state was called upon to be the mainstay and earthly receptacle of the Church, and therefore must submit to ecclesiastical values, even when such values were in conflict with state interests. For others, Christianity itself was in the final analysis a state cult, the religious support of the empire. The logic of the first attitude saw in monasticism a symbol of the supernatural role of the Church and the inner freedom of Christian personality from the all-absorbing utilitarianism of the state. The second attitude must sooner or later find monasticism useless, and therefore also harmful to the state.

Behind the revolt against monasticism could be seen the desire of the Isaurians to subject the Church entirely to the state and render it “useful” in every respect. In this regard the Isaurian emperors were well suited to perfect that theocratic logic which had essentially prevailed in Church-empire relations since the conversion of Constantine. Leo gave expression to that absolutist state-consciousness in the preface to a new code of laws which he published: “The Lord, having entrusted the realm to the emperors, hath likewise commanded them to tend Christ’s faithful flock, after the example of Peter, the chief of the Apostles.” Here is the final deduction from the Justinian “harmony.”

 

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