Monks and Laymen in Byzantium, 843-1118

by Rosemary Morris

Overview

In Byzantium monks did not form a separate caste, apart from society. They formed part of a nexus of social, economic and spiritual relationships that bound together the "powerful" in the middle Byzantine state. Using hagiography, chronicles and, in particular, the newly-available archives of the Athonite monasteries, this book reassesses the role of monks in Byzantine society and examines the reasons for the flowering of the monastic life in the period from the end of iconoclasm to the beginning of the twelfth century.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780521265584
Publisher:	Cambridge University Press
Publication date:	10/19/1995
Pages:	356
Product dimensions:	6.18(w) x 9.29(h) x 0.91(d)

Table of Contents

List of maps and tables; Acknowledgments; Note on transliteration and citation; List of abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Founders and Benefactors: 1. The resurgence of the monastic life; 2. Groups, communities and solitaries; 3. Monastic founders; 4. Monasticism and society; 5. Piety, patronage and politics; Part II. Protection and Survival: 6. Monasteries and the law; 7. Fortune and misfortune; 8. Territorial expansion and spiritual compromise; 9. The challenge to central authority; 10. The Komnene reaction; Appendix: imperial privileges to monasteries, c. 900-1118; Bibliography; Index.

Editorial Reviews

"Morris has produced a study that is impressive in its scholarship, and argumentation, and in the flow of its presentation." Steven Fanning, The Historian

"Morris has produced a study that is impressive in its scholarship and argumentation and in the flow of its presentation." Steven Fanning, The Historian

"This book is a pioneering work on the life of the monk in the middle Byzantine period." Charles A. Frazee, American Historical Review

"...an impressive range of source materials....should be of vital interest to anyone studying the history of monasticism." Religious Studies Review

From the Publisher