Churches with a central altar.—In the Byzantine Empire, the plan with a central altar seems to be to a certain extent common to the first centuries of Christian art.

Eusebius left us a description Church of Constantine in Antioch; it was an octagonal building. Father St. Gregory of Nazianzus built a church in his hometown also on an octagonal plan.

Note: The writings of Bishop Eusebius of Caesarea (died 338) are the source of our information about the buildings of Emperor Constantine.

Descriptions and sketches of pilgrims allow us to attribute to this general type and Gethsemane Hill Church, as well as a temple built on the site of one destroyed in the 10th century. Konstantinovskaya basilica of st. Coffin. There is a memory of an ancient wooden roof, rising in the shape of a truncated cone above a round drum and leaving the central part of the rotunda open.

Note: For the reconstruction of the rotunda of the Basilica of St. Ainalov made a lot of coffins; see his earlier work “Mosaics of the 4th and 5th centuries”, St. Petersburg. 1885. See also: Protasov, Materials for the iconography of the Resurrection, Sergievo 1913; Wulff, mention. op.

In the example shown in rice. 33, the rotunda was replaced by a square hall surrounded by a two-story gallery; This is the plan of one of the churches in Adrianople, which, by all indications, dates back to the first centuries of Christian architecture and was redone around the 12th century. to the domed church.

Basilicas with wooden ceilings.- Let's move on to eastern churches belonging to the basilica type. Most of the churches erected by Constantine in his new capital have a plan with elongated naves; the premature destruction of these churches indicates the fragility of their structure; on the site now occupied by St. Sophia, for a long time there was an ordinary basilica. The Constantinian Church was also built according to the type of basilica. Church of St. Coffin, church in Bethlehem, basilica in Pergamon; then, at a later time, Church of St. John in Constantinople, Justinian Church of the Virgin Mary- Now El Aqsa Mosque in Jerusalem, Church of St. Demetrius in Thessaloniki And Eski-Juma right there. Rice. 28 shows next to the two western basilicas plan of the basilica in Bethlehem(C), probably from the era of Constantine; Its distinctive feature is three apses.

In Karea (Athos), the plan of the basilica was implemented not with the help of a series of arcades separating the naves, but with the help of a single arcade ( rice. 34).

Note: The Cathedral of the Protat Monastery in Kareia, on Mount Athos, is remarkable for its paintings. See Kondakov, Monuments of Christian Art on Mount Athos.

The first churches with vaults; monuments intermediate between the architecture of the Roman Empire and Byzantine architecture

Let's move on to the combinations in which the vault appears. Only the East, thanks to the remnants of prosperity that it owed to its remoteness from the invasions of the barbarians, could begin to erect durable structures. We will try to trace the development of its vaulted architecture from its very origins to the heyday marked by the reign of Justinian and the creation of such a masterpiece as St. Sofia.

For vaulted churches, fluctuations regarding their general character were further complicated by the need to choose a vault system. Attempts were made to adapt the Roman vault to the Byzantine plan. In Asia Minor, Hierapolis is an example of a Christian basilica of the first times, the vaults here are cylindrical from hewn stones; in Sardis ( rice. 35, A) - a basilica with cross vaults, which can be considered one of the last cases of using concrete masonry in horizontal layers.

Trinity Church in Ephesus(B), built with all the pomp of ancient monuments, apparently had a box vault cut through in the center by a dome.

Note: Choisy gives a plan for the church of St. Mary in Ephesus during the era of Justinian (VI century).

In the church of St. George in Sardis (C) a spherical dome was decisively used; the nave is covered with three semi-circular domes on sails, massive, like Roman vaults, laid out of brick and faced with rubble stone. The hemispherical dome also covers the altar.

We find the same general data in Basilica of Ala-Sher in ancient Philadelphia ( rice. 36). The architecture of the Roman Empire seems to come to life in these truly Roman structures.

It is interesting to note that monuments of this architecture, which occupies an intermediate place between Roman and Byzantine art, are located in Asia Minor - a country that has preserved the Greek spirit and has been subjected, thanks to its geographical location both Roman influences from the West and Asian influences from Iran. Pergamon,

Sardis, Ephesus - these are the points where the influences of Rome and Iran collide. It is not surprising that we find here traces of both intersecting currents. We have reached an era when Byzantine architecture is finally freed from the influence of the art of the Roman Empire.

The era of Justinian and the completed type of Byzantine vaulted churches

The vaulted buildings of the Byzantine school of architecture, strictly speaking, can be divided into three groups, depending on whether the dome covers a round, octagonal or square plan.

Domed church with a round base.- This group, like the group of domed basilicas, chronologically occupies a place on the border between Byzantine and Roman art. All the buildings belonging to this group are clearly related to the Roman Pantheon: they all have, like it, a round drum, lightened by large niches. Can they be associated with oriental art? Or, on the contrary, should the Roman Pantheon be denied Asian influences? The last hypothesis, which locates the ancestors of the Pantheon in the areas where its direct descendants are located, seems the most likely.

Note: The buildings at Spalato mentioned below, in particular the tomb of Diocletian, belong to eastern influences. See Strzygovski, Spalato, Studien aus Kunst und Geschichte, Freiburg i. Br. 1906. The Church of St. George in Thessalonica is basically an ancient building of eastern origin, adapted in the 4th century. to the Christian cult. The closest eastern parallel is the Dranda Church in the Caucasus, 11th century, also still ancient in its core, as was established by Bashkirov’s research.

The dome of Diocletian's tomb at Spalato rises above a round drum, just as in Church of St. George in Thessaloniki (rice. 37, A). In Pergamon, both rotundas adjacent to the basilica are covered with domes; Both rotundas, once adjacent to the Church of St., belong to the same type. Peter, as well as the tomb of St. Helena and St. Constance.

Note: Remaining within the typological classification, Choisy does not note the differences and evolution of style in centric buildings that use a crown of columns inside, like the Mausoleum of Constance, etc., and represent a spatial block, like the Pantheon, etc.

Dome with an octagonal base.- After the rotunda, which does without sails, the easiest to complete is the polygonal hall, since it requires only minor sails. The dome on an octagonal base apparently arises from the design of Justinian churches on Mount Gerizim (rice. 37, V); the same domes have come down to us in two buildings erected, as is reliably known, by Justinian: in Church of St. Sergius in Constantinople And Church of St. Vitaliy in Ravenna.

IN Church of St. Sergius (rice. 38, A) the octagonal drum of the dome is supported on four sides by supporting niches, and on the other four by girth arches. The ribbed structure of the dome made it possible, as can be seen in the figure, to install it without sails on the top row of the drum masonry. The domed room is surrounded by a two-story gallery inscribed in a square plan.

Note: Without analyzing the style, Choisy calls exedra niches.

IN Church of St. Vitaliy (rice. 38, V) the dome is made of tubes inserted with their ends one into the other. The dome is smooth and is connected to the octagonal drum supporting it by transitions in the form of sails. There are 8 niches attached to the drum that serve as supports for it. The side naves are two-story, as in the church of St. Sergius, but inscribed in the octagon. Church of St. Vitalia is one of those rare Byzantine buildings whose vaults are protected by a roof; this deviation from the rule is explained by the ease of construction.

Dome with a square base.- We have come to a solution that begins to prevail in the 6th century. and continues to this day - it is a dome with a square base. The dome, which is the center of the building, brings unity to the composition, which the Byzantines were careful not to disturb by lengthening the main nave: they only barely enlarged it. They adopt a plan in the form of a Greek cross, determined by a system of supports. They apply this plan with equal success both to colossal structures and to miniature churches, such as the cathedral in Athens, the dome of which barely reaches 3 m in diameter.

On rice. 39 we give a brilliant example of such a technique in a large Church of St. Sofia to Thessaloniki, which probably dates back to the 6th century. Its dome rests on four large sails, shaped like spherical triangles; the entire composition is subordinated to the dome.

Note: The brick marks indicate the era of Justinian; but whether Sophia of Thessalonica was built before or after Sophia of Constantinople remains controversial. For the genesis of Sophia of Thessalonica's style, see Wulff, Koimesiskirche in Nikaa, Strassbourg 1903.

Four arrays at the corners of the base form supports and receive the thrust transmitted by the sails diagonally. Cylindrical vaults connect these masses in pairs and cover the four ends of the cross plan.

The entire equilibrium system is concentrated inside the building; all constructive techniques are aimed at supporting the dome and are coordinated with it: the ensemble, where all parts are subordinated to this main motive, gives the impression of amazing clarity.

St. Sophia in Constantinople, a predominantly Byzantine monument, meets these requirements of the ensemble, or, more precisely, its variety, shown in Fig. 11, N. Rice. 40 explains the location of the temple, which generally boils down to the following.

The dome is on colossal sails (more than 30 m in diameter); its two sides are supported by apse-shaped vaults; the other two are supported by powerful arches and supported by buttresses.

Two large supporting apses are located: one at the entrance, the other at the sanctuary; two supporting arches correspond to the side facades. Two-story side naves unfold to the right and left. Both the vaults of the side naves and the vaults of the central part and supporting masses have support points inside the building itself.

St. Sophia was erected under Justinian, around 530 (532-537), by the architects Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles. Its composition, remarkable for its boldness, was not without a certain risk; the accidents that followed after the completion of the work very soon revealed the weak points of the structure.

The buttresses were too weak, the dome supports on the sides were insufficient. It was necessary to strengthen the arrays of buttresses, and for this it was necessary to partially fill the decorative niches that facilitated them and narrow or even destroy the stairs that were arranged there; it was necessary to duplicate and strengthen the bases of the arcades of the side naves crossing the buttresses, and load the sinuses of the dome.

Subsequently, earthquakes forced the dome itself to be reconstructed several times. At first it was laid out with a too low rise, but the new, higher dome also retains traces of other partial alterations. The building came to us already fortified, altered and corrected. In general, it stood for 12 centuries; although it has undergone restoration, such durability testifies to the vitality of the thoroughly thought-out composition of this structure.

Note: The dome collapsed in 558 and was re-erected by Isidore the Younger in 562. It was then that the loading of the dome’s sinuses appeared, that is, the buttresses between its windows, which generally give the impression of a drum, although in reality there is no such thing. For a thorough analysis of the temple from a construction point of view, see Salzenberg, Altchristiiche Baudenkmaler von Konstantinopel, Berlin 1854.

As an architectural design, St. Sofia is a masterpiece: the understanding of architectural effects, the use of contrasts, decorative power are brought here to the limits of the possible. In the foreground, a double darkened portico emphasizes with its contrast the radiant brilliance of the vast nave. From the entrance itself, thanks to the location of the concha (half-dome), located in front of the large dome, the gaze embraces it entirely, and the surface of the arches of the central nave unfolds continuously and unhindered.

All along the nave we see a variety of details everywhere; the main lines give the impression of simplicity; moderately numerous details emphasize greatness. Remove the side colonnades - and nothing will indicate the extraordinary length of the span of the dome's girth arches. They are needed to understand the scale and to protect St. Sophia from the peculiar praise received by the Cathedral of St. Peter: that nothing in it indicates its grandeur.

The decorations of the cathedral give an idea of ​​the boundlessness of Byzantine luxury. The walls are decorated with panels made from sets of rare marbles, the vaults are completely covered with mosaics; There is not a single section of the wall that is not lined with marble. All vaults glow with shimmering and transparent reflections of gold and enamel. The large dome, illuminated along its entire circumference by a crown of windows, seems isolated and as if hanging in space.

Note: This observation was first expressed by the historian Procopius, a Byzantine writer of the era of Justinian, a contemporary of the construction of the temple of St. Sofia.

The pylons that support the four sails of the dome are hidden behind the side galleries; only their corners are visible, but this is enough to feel the presence of a supporting mass and soothe the eye; the building is striking, but it is completely understandable at first glance. Never before has stability and courage, brilliance of color and purity of line, the genius of Rome and the genius of the East been united in a more striking and harmonious ensemble.

Note: Best works about Sophia, presenting historical-artistic analysis - Andreades, Die Sophienkathedrale von Konstantinopel (“Kunstwissenschaftliche Forschungen”, I, Berlin 1931) and Sedlmayr, Das erste mittelalterliche Architektursistem (ibid., II, 1933).

Cross Church with five domes.- At the same time when in St. Sophia, the ideal of a structure with a single dome was realized; Justinian's architects erected a five-domed church of St. Apostles in Constantinople.

Church of St. Apostles has not survived and is known to us only from the descriptions of Procopius. But there are two copies of it, built around the 12th century: St. Mark in Venice, which has come down to us in all the splendor of its Asian luxury, and St. The front at Périgueux, more majestic in its severe nudity than St. Mark under a sparkling shell of mosaics and marbles.

Note: Cathedral of St. Marka in Venice was built in 1063-1095; subjected to external processing in the XIII-XIV centuries; underwent changes during the Renaissance. Church of St. The fronta at Périgueux was built around 1120.

On rice. 41 general shown view of St. Brand; for comparison we give the form St. Front (rice. 42). In both buildings, the domes rest on lightweight abutments, and part of their expansion is absorbed by girth arches.

Rice. 41

Rice. 42

St. Mark, built in a city that was in continuous relations with the East, was a direct copy of the Byzantine model; St. The Front is connected with the East only through St. Brand.

Note: In fact, the Church of St. The front is built regardless of St. Mark, directly going back to Byzantine prototypes and being one of the monuments of the Byzantinizing school of French architecture in Périgord. See Diehl, Manuel d'art byzantin; there is also literature on this issue.

Perhaps in Venice, complete imitation of the model was prevented by the need to preserve the walls of the ancient basilica, which are shown in hatching on the plan; but, undoubtedly, the basic plan of the prototype was followed.

It should be noted that there are arcades that have no practical significance; they run along the nave and seem to repeat the pattern in which the side naves were of two storeys, as in St. Sofia; in St. On the front, a hint of the two-story nature of the side naves remains only in the arcades running along the very walls.

Note: One should keep in mind the Church of St. Irene in Constantinople 532, the era of Justinian, having colonnades only in the first tier; Above the choirs, there are box vaults that support the thrust of the dome.

The five-domed plan was suitable only for very large buildings, and the churches built in the last period of Byzantine art were extremely small in size. The need for a simpler type was felt, and this type, apparently, was finally developed in the monasteries of Athos.

Note: Choisy gives here a different definition of the plan than he himself gave above; The five-domed churches themselves were often small in size.

Athonite churches have special sources of their style coming from the east. In general, this is the same plan as St. Sofia in Thessaloniki, but without side naves, is a cruciform plan with very short ends and a central dome. In front of the entrance there is a narthex, or vestibule. All ends of the cross are covered with cylindrical vaults, the main thrust is perceived at the four corners by sails, and supports should be located in these places.

It would seem that a mass would be needed to support the dome at each corner of the plan, but the Byzantines realized that in reality a hollow pillar would suffice if properly weighted; thus, the corner arrays were lightened.

The example shown in rice. 43, taken from Vatopedi(Athos); example shown in rice. 44, - from one of the Athenian churches. The same technique was used in the Katolikon and in Kapnikarea in Athens, on Athos in the Lavra Church, in Constantinople in the churches of the Virgin Mary, Pantocrator, and Kore. As one can judge from the descriptions of Photius, the large palace church, built in the 9th century, was built according to the same plan. Emperor Vasily. He was, one might say, a normal guy.

Rice. 43

Rice. 44

In the 9th century. a custom arose to erect elevated domes on cylindrical drums (Fig. 43 and 44). The reason for this was obviously the desire to cut large windows at the base of the dome for lighting; however, this increased outline gradually extends to the blind drums (Church of St. Mary, etc.).

Note: The case is about drums laid later (in the Turkish era).

Since the 10th century. not only is the dome’s increasingly elevated outline introduced, but their very number increases: four small spherical domes, located around the central one, grow into noticeable domes and reveal the internal layout of the building to the outside.

One of the most ancient examples of domes of this kind is Church of St. Vardia in Thessaloniki; Church of St. The Apostles in the same city provides one of the most expressive examples of the use of this form.

Note: Church of St. Vardia in Thessaloniki was built in 1028; was actually dedicated to Our Lady; now called Kazanjilyar-Jami.

All domes of this era rested on sails shaped like a spherical triangle. By the 11th century. trompe is inserted. This innovation entails a change in plan, shown in rice. 45. Foundations appear under every fifth trumpet. The dome thus actually rests on an octagonal base.

Note: Essentially, this is not a trompe, but an exedra, but with only three verticals and directly adjacent to the wall. Of course, it is not the plan that depends on such trompe l'oeil, but the latter on the introduction of a vast hall spanning the width of three ships. We are dealing with a reminiscence of one of the moments of Hellenism, combined with the influence of the East. See notes 12 and 13; Nekrasov, Crooked coverings... In terms of characterizing mature Byzantine architecture, Choisy's work is outdated. In the time of Choisy, they did not even suspect the wealth of typology that was established by science after him and, in part, even in our days. See especially the works of Wulff, Koimesiskirche, etc., and Brunov: Die funfschiffige Kreuzkuppelkirche (“Byzant. Zeitschrift”, XXVII, 1927) and L "eglise a Croix inscrite a cinq nefs dans l"architecture byzantine ("Echos d"Orient" , 1927).

This variant, less daring, of course, than the normal type, is realized in Daphne ( rice. 45), V Church of St. Nicodemus in Athens, St. Luke on Parnassus And St. Nicholas in Mystras.

Rice. 45

Churches with slab roofs; churches with wooden ceilings on arches.- Against the general background of Byzantine architecture, two Syrian construction schools stand out, with which we were introduced by the works of Rey and Vogüe. One of them existed in the Orontes valley, the other in Gowran, an area lying south of Damascus.

Note: It is especially necessary to add here the names of Kondakov, Butler and Strzhigovsky.

Forests are a rarity throughout the country; south of Damascus there are none at all, and besides, there is not enough stone suitable for making lime - there is nothing except basalts.

It was necessary to use forest material sparingly, and in some places to avoid not only wooden structures, but even mortared masonry, and to build almost all buildings from basalt slabs laid dry.

We have already examined in the first volume the methods resulting from these exceptional conditions. On rice. 46 We give two examples of structures: one of them is typical of the plains south of Damascus, the other of the Orontes Valley: Basilica A (at Tafka), which is shown in section in the figure, is covered with slabs; the other, B (at Ruaich), has a wooden roof, which rests on trusses alternating with stone arches.

Domed churches.- The architecture of Syria, never abandoning the basilica with slab roofs on the arcades, by the 5th century. allows domes, but rarely builds them on a square plan.

We have already spoken of the vaults on the sails in the Haram; they are the exception. In the domed buildings of Transjordanian Syria, sails are almost everywhere replaced by the combination of overlaps shown in Fig. 14; By using a polygonal plan, they strive to reduce the extension of these overlaps to the limits of what is possible.

Church of St. George in Ezra- type of Syrian domed church; the dome rests on an octagonal base and is supported by corner stones; its profile is even more elevated than that of the Iranian dome - it is a very sharp pointed profile, barely rounded towards the top.

It even happens that the Syrians leave the intersection of two naves uncovered in order to avoid the need to link them to the dome. The authentic texts allowed Vogüe to establish that in the large church of St. Simeon the Stylite in Kalat-Seman, the intersection of the naves was completely devoid of overlap.

If there had not been an acute shortage of timber material, the difficulty could have been avoided by resorting to a wooden dome. In the church at Bosra, the drum is not able to withstand the weight of the dome due to the fact that windows are cut into it; the presence of windows proves that, according to the architect’s plan, the drum should not have been left without a ceiling, as was the case in Kalat-Seman - the existence of a wooden dome is clear from the ruins. Some buildings allowed mixed solution: wooden truncated cone, open at the top; We have already pointed out this technique when talking about the rotunda of the Church of St. Coffin.

The buildings of Muslim Palestine, however, will help us restore the structures of wooden domes in Christian Palestine. In our place we will describe the egg-shaped domes with double wooden ceilings of the El-Aqsa-i-Saqra Mosque in Jerusalem; Of course, these domes, like the domes of the Church of St. The coffins belong to the same group as the cathedral at Bosra, and perhaps even the octagonal church at Gerizim. Apparently, in Syria the stone dome was often replaced by a light wooden covering.

Chapter “Churches of the Byzantine Empire” section “Christian architecture of the 4th-10th centuries.” from the book “History of Architecture” by Auguste Choisy (Auguste Choisy, Histoire De L "Architecture, Paris, 1899). Published by the All-Union Academy of Architecture, Moscow, 1935.

Early Christian and Byzantine temples of Thessaloniki

1. BASILICA OF THE HOLY GREAT MARTYR DEMITRIUS

On the street of the same name as the temple, north of the Roman agora, on top of the Roman baths, where the Roman army officer Demetrius was imprisoned and executed in 303, after 313 a small sanctuary was built as a place of worship for the martyr.
At the beginning of the 5th century, the prefect of Illyria Leontius was miraculously healed at the relics of the holy great martyr Demetrius. By his order, in gratitude for the healing, a large basilica was built, which burned down in a fire in 620.
With the support of the prefect Leontius and the bishop of Thessaloniki, the church was rebuilt in the form of a five-nave basilica and covered with a sloping wooden roof.

This temple burned down in a fire in 1917. The restoration lasted from 1918 to 1948. Some of the columns and structural elements of the burnt building were restored thanks to the efforts of the architect Aristotelis Zachos. After the devastating fire, 11 mosaic scenes from the 5th, 7th and 9th centuries survived.
The shrine with the relics of St. Demetrius is located in the northwestern part of the church, in the place where it is believed to have been located in the early Christian era.
The basilica is dedicated to the defender and patron of the city of Thessaloniki, the Holy Great Martyr Demetrius.

2. BASILICA OF PANAGIA ACHIROPIITOS

In the city center, on St. Sophia Street, there is a large temple of the Virgin Mary. It was built in the 5th century on the foundations of Roman baths, like a three-nave basilica with a narthex.

A small building on the south side served the needs of the temple. The right side chapel (on the south side of the altar) was built in Byzantine times and dedicated to Saint Irene. The interior of the temple is divided by two rows of columns into three naves. The perfect condition of the capitals and columns amazes. The arched vaults between the columns and in the narthex are decorated with mosaics from the 5th century.

3. TEMPLE OF HAGIA SOPHIA

The church is dedicated to Christ and the wisdom of God. Construction took place at the end of the 7th - beginning of the 8th century on the site of a destroyed early Christian basilica of the 5th century. It is a striking example of the transitional architecture from a basilica to a cross-domed church with a dome based on arches and a peristyle.

The mosaic decoration of the church belongs to three different periods and indicates high level mastery of architects.
The first stage of decoration of the temple (780 - 788) is closely connected with the period of iconoclasm. The Ascension scene in the dome is the work of Renaissance masters of the Macedonian dynasty of the late 9th century, while in the conch the Virgin Mary sitting on a throne with the child Christ is depicted - a work of architects of the 11th - 12th centuries, made on top of a cross (iconoclastic period).

4. TEMPLE OF PANAGIA CHALKEON

South of the Roman agora, next to the copper workshops, is the temple of the Virgin Mary (Our Lady of Copperworkers). The church was erected in 1028 by Christopher of Langobardia, his wife Maria, and children: Nikephoros, Anna, Kathakali. The founder's grave is located in the left aisle (north wall).

The cross-domed temple with a narthex is strongly reminiscent of the influence of the Constantinople school of masters in the elegance and grace of the tiles in the arches, niches and apse.
The frescoes of the temple, despite poor preservation, are of great value to researchers, since they date back to the time the church was built.

5. TEMPLE OF THE PROPHET ELIJAH

At the intersection of Olympiada and Prophet Elijah streets, on a rather steep hill, the majestic temple of Prophet Elijah was erected.

The architecture of the temple is interesting, identical to the Athonite monasteries: cross-domed, with additional space on four sides, a spacious narthex and peristyle. The Church of the Prophet Elijah is identified with the cathedral of the Akapniu monastery.
The frescoes partially survived only in the vestibule. Among all, the scene of the murder of infants stands out due to the realistic images of the late Paleologian Renaissance.

6. TEMPLE OF THE HOLY APOSTLES

On the western side of the lower city, near the fortress wall, at the beginning of Olympus Street, there is the Church of the Holy Apostles - the cathedral of a once-existing monastery in honor of the Virgin Mary.

The founders of the monastery were the Ecumenical Patriarch Niphon (1310-1314) and his associate Abbot Pavel. Cross-domed church with five domes, two narthexes and two side chapels. Of particular interest is the structure of the church facade, decorated with ceramic tiles in various motifs. Inside the church, mosaic decoration (without gold plates), characteristic of the Palaiologan Renaissance period, has been preserved.

7. TEMPLE OF ST. CATHERINE

Not far from the northwestern tip of the fortress, a little above Olympiada Street, at the intersection of Tsamadou and Idipoda streets, is the Church of St. Catherine - the cathedral of a Byzantine monastery.
Built at the beginning of the 14th century, the temple has a cross-domed plan, with two side chapels and five domes.

Elegant proportions, facade decoration, emphasized lines of arches, columns and vaults lined with ceramic tiles are an exceptional example of the architecture of the Palaiologan era.
The interior painting of the temple, although only partially preserved, the vibrancy of the colors and the dynamism of the images allows us to make a bold conclusion that this is a true masterpiece of the Paleologian revival.

8. VLATADON MONASTERY

In the Upper Town, on Acropolis Street, the Patriarchal Stavropegic Monastery of Vlatadon is located, one of the few that has been operating since its founding.
Built in the period 1351-1371 by the student of Gregory Palamas, Dorotheus Vlatadon, who later became Metropolitan of Thessaloniki and his brother Mark.
From the original monastery complex, only the cross-domed cathedral with a peristyle and side chapels has survived.

The church was painted in the period 1360-1380 and was originally dedicated to Christ the Pantocrator. One of the frescoes depicts Archbishop Gregory Palamas. Currently, the church is dedicated to the Transfiguration of the Savior.

9. TEMPLE OF NICHOLAS ORPHANOS

In the Upper Town, near the eastern fortress wall, away from the bustle and noise of the city, between the streets of Herodotus and Apostle Paul, there is the Church of St. Nicholas Orfano (Orphans) - the cathedral of a Byzantine monastery. The spacious courtyard of the monastery is decorated with a row of pyramidal cypress trees.

Architecturally, it is a basilica with an apse and two side aisles. The frescoes inside the church are wonderfully preserved and their careful examination allows connoisseurs of medieval art to enjoy contemplating the most complete and preserved painting of the Palaiologan Renaissance period.

In 330, the Roman Emperor Constantine I the Great moved the capital of the empire to Constantinople.

In 395, the Roman Empire split into Eastern and Western.

In 476, the Western Roman Empire fell to the onslaught of barbarians.
The Eastern, Byzantine Empire was destined to exist until the mid-15th century. The Byzantines themselves called themselves Romans, their state - the Roman power, and Constantinople - "New Rome".

From the time of its founding until the second half of the 12th century, it was the powerful, richest and most cultural state in Europe. The Byzantine Empire, spread over three continents - Europe, Asia and Africa - included the Balkan Peninsula, Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, part of Mesopotamia and Armenia, the islands of the Eastern Mediterranean, possessions in the Crimea and the Caucasus. Its total area was about 1 million square meters. km, population - 30-35 million inhabitants. Its emperors tried to act as the supreme overlords of the Christian world. There were legends about the wealth and pomp of the Byzantine imperial court. (If you are interested, see the description of the reception from the Byzantine Emperor in the section Golden Age of Byzantium)
From the moment of its birth, Byzantium was a “country of cities” (with an almost entirely literate population) and a great maritime and trading power. Its merchants penetrated into the most remote corners of the then known world: India, China, Ceylon, Ethiopia, Britain, Scandinavia. The Byzantine gold solidus played the role of an international currency.

The national composition of the empire was very diverse, but starting from the 7th century, the majority of the population was Greek. Since then, the Byzantine emperor began to be called in Greek - “basileus”. In the 9th and 10th centuries, after the conquest of Bulgaria and the subjugation of the Serbs and Croats, Byzantium became essentially a Greco-Slavic state. On the basis of religious community, a vast “zone of orthodoxy (Orthodoxy)” developed around Byzantium, including Rus', Georgia, Bulgaria, and most of Serbia.
Until the 7th century, the official language of the empire was Latin, but there was literature in Greek, Syriac, Armenian, and Georgian. In 866, the “Thessalonica brothers” Cyril (c.826-869) and Methodius (c.815-885) invented Slavic writing, which quickly spread in Bulgaria and Rus'.
Despite the fact that the entire life of the state and society was imbued with religion, secular power in Byzantium was always stronger than church power. The Byzantine Empire was always distinguished by stable statehood and strictly centralized governance.

In terms of its political structure, Byzantium was an autocratic monarchy, the doctrine of which was finally formed here. All power was in the hands of the emperor (basileus). He was the supreme judge, led foreign policy, made laws, commanded the army, etc. His power was considered divine and was practically unlimited, however (paradox!) it was not legally hereditary. The result of this was constant unrest and wars for power, ending with the creation of another dynasty (a simple warrior, even a barbarian, or a peasant, thanks to his dexterity and personal abilities, could often occupy a high position in the state or even become an emperor. The history of Byzantium is full of such examples).
In Byzantium there was special system the relationship between secular and ecclesiastical authorities, called Caesaropapism (Emperors, in essence, ruled the Church, becoming “popes.” The Church became only an appendage and instrument of secular power). The power of the emperors especially strengthened during the notorious period of “iconoclasm,” when the clergy was completely subordinated to imperial power, deprived of many privileges, and the wealth of the church and monasteries was partially confiscated. As for cultural life, the result of “iconoclasm” was the complete canonization of spiritual art.

In artistic creativity, Byzantium gave the medieval world lofty images of literature and art, which were distinguished by noble elegance of forms, imaginative vision of thought, sophistication of aesthetic thinking, and depth of philosophical thought. The direct heir of the Greco-Roman world and the Hellenistic East, in terms of the power of expressiveness and deep spirituality, Byzantium stood ahead of all the countries of medieval Europe for many centuries. Already from the 6th century, Constantinople turned into a famous artistic center of the medieval world, into a “palladium of sciences and arts.” It is followed by Ravenna, Rome, Nicaea, Thessalonica, which also became the focus of the Byzantine artistic style.

The process of artistic development of Byzantium was not straightforward. It had eras of rise and decline, periods of triumph of progressive ideas and dark years of domination of reactionary ones. There were several periods, more or less prosperous, marked by a special flowering of art:

1. The time of Emperor Justinian I (527-565) - the "golden age of Byzantium"

and the so-called Byzantine "renaissances":

1. The reign of the Macedonian dynasty (mid-9th - end of the 11th century) - "Macedonian Renaissance".
2. The reign of the Komnenos dynasty (late 11th - late 12th centuries) - "Comnenos Renaissance".
3. Late Byzantium (from 1260) - "Palaeologian Renaissance".

Byzantium survived the invasion of the Crusaders (1204, IV Crusade), but with the formation and strengthening of its borders Ottoman Empire her end became inevitable. The West promised help only on condition of conversion to Catholicism (Ferraro-Florentine Union, which was indignantly rejected by the people).
In April 1453, Constantinople was surrounded by a huge Turkish army and two months later it was taken by storm. The last emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, died on the fortress wall with weapons in his hands. Since then, Constantinople has been called Istanbul.

The fall of Byzantium was a huge blow to the Orthodox (and Christian in general) world. Away from politics and economics, Christian theologians saw main reason her death in the decline of morals and in the hypocrisy in matters of religion that flourished in Byzantium in the last centuries of its existence.

From ancient architecture to the Byzantine temple

In Byzantium, unlike Western Europe, the technical architectural techniques of antiquity were not forgotten and were widely used. Thus, before the construction of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople began, one of the main architects, Isidore of Miletus, summarized the works of Archimedes and composed a commentary on the work of Heron of Alexandria on the design of vaults. The techniques of ancient architecture were supplemented and creatively reworked, which eventually led to the development of their own Byzantine architectural canons. Two types of buildings were inherited from antiquity - centric (dating back to ancient mausoleums) and basilica (dating back to ancient public buildings).

The centric buildings were small in size and served as baptisteries (baptisteries) or martyriums. In plan they were a square, a Greek cross, a circle (rotunda) or an octagon. An example is a church cruciform in plan - the mausoleum of Galla Placidia, the octagonal church of San Vitale (all in Ravenna).

Basilicas, as usual, were larger and were divided into naves inside. There could be three, five, or less often seven or nine naves. The central nave was wider than the side ones (usually twice as wide) and was covered with a gable roof. Windows in the upper high part of the middle nave provided uniform illumination of the interior space. An example is the three-nave Basilica of San Apolinare de Nuovo (Ravenna).

The achievements of Roman architects were widely used - arched and vaulted ceilings and a dome. However, temple and public buildings ancient world did not satisfy the requirements for a Christian church, either functionally or symbolically. The ancient temple was never a place for prayers or mass worship. Processions walked around the temple without entering it. The ancient temple is an example of typical outdoor architecture. The exterior certainly dominates the interior, the façade dominates the interior. All the wealth of imagination - metopes and friezes, column capitals and pediment groups - the ancient architect concentrates on the outside and fits them into the surrounding landscape. The interior of the temple - the cella - is primitively simple in form and decoration and is spacious just enough to accommodate the cult statue.

A Christian temple is an example of internal (internal-external) architecture. It should be spacious and, if possible, richly decorated inside. Each part of the Christian temple has its own symbolic meaning:

The vault is the vault of heaven, the dome is the “sky of heaven,” the pulpit is the mountain from which Christ preached, the throne is the place of the Holy Sepulcher, the four corners of which are the four cardinal directions.

In addition, the church is an image of the crucifixion of Christ, therefore it seems desirable that the symbol of Christianity - the cross - be imprinted in the very structure of the temple.

The temple should be directed east, towards Jerusalem, where the second Coming of Christ is expected.

A long architectural search to find the best match between the symbolic and functional requirements for the temple resulted in an ideal solution. A new type of church building - a cross-domed church - became a model for the entire Orthodox world (starting from the 9th century).

Cross-domed temple

The most successful type of temple for Byzantine worship turned out to be a shortened basilica, topped with a dome, and, according to the Apostolic Decrees, with the altar facing east. This composition was called cross-dome.

In a classic cross-domed church, a square building in plan was divided by rows of pillars or columns into naves - inter-row spaces running from the entrance to the altar. There were, as a rule, 3, 5 or 7 naves, and the width of the central nave was twice the width of the side ones. Exactly in the center of the building in the central nave, four main pillars supporting the dome were symmetrically located. These pillars marked out another nave in the space of the temple - a transverse or transept. The square under-dome space between the main pillars, which is the intersection of the central nave and transept, is called the cross. Arches carrying semi-cylindrical (barrel) vaults spanned from the pillars to the walls. A drum with skylights supporting the main dome of the temple rested on four main pillars. The central dome could be adjacent to 4 to 12 smaller domes (the main dome symbolizes Christ, 5 domes - Christ with the evangelists, 13 domes - Christ with the apostles).

The entrance to the temple, framed by a portal, was located on the western side. If they wanted to give the building a more elongated rectangular shape, a narthex was added to the western side. The narthex was necessarily separated from the central part of the temple - the naos - by a wall with arched openings leading to each of the naves.

On the eastern side there was an altar, where the most important part of Christian worship took place. In the area of ​​the altar, the wall jutted out with semicircular projections - apses (apses), covered with semi-domes - conchs.

If the dome symbolized the heavenly Church, then the altar symbolized the earthly Church. The altar housed a throne - an elevation on which the sacrament of the Eucharist took place - the transubstantiation of the Holy Gifts (the transformation of bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ). Later, to the north of the altar they began to build an altar (also with a throne, but of a smaller size), and to the south - a deaconnik - a room for storing liturgical vessels and clothes.

Around the 4th century, the altar began to be separated by an altar barrier (the construction of the first altar barrier is attributed to St. Basil the Great). The barrier separated the clergy from the laity and gave the Eucharistic action a special solemnity and mystery.

The interior decoration and painting of the temple were supposed to reflect the entire essence of Christian teaching in visual images. The characters of the Sacred History were placed in strict order in the painting of the temple. The entire space of the temple was mentally divided into two parts - “heavenly” and “earthly”. In the “heavenly” part, under the dome, is the kingdom of Christ and the heavenly army. The apostles should have been depicted on the drum of the temple, and the four evangelists (“pillars of the gospel teaching”) on the main pillars. In the apse, in the center of the “earthly” part of the temple, the Mother of God (usually Oranta), the intercessor of all people before God, was depicted.

The northern, western and southern parts of the temple, as a rule, were painted in several tiers, and the upper tiers were filled with scenes from the earthly life of Christ, miracles and passions. In the lower tier, at the height of human growth, they wrote the Fathers of the Church, martyrs and righteous people, who, as if together with the parishioners, offered a prayer to God.

1. Alexander Men - History of religion (electronic version)

Art historians divide this period into three parts: the "Dark Age", the "Macedonian Renaissance" and the Comnenian "Renaissance".
Let's look at them in order, but first let's briefly summarize the development of architecture in the Eastern Roman Empire in the 5th-6th centuries. This will help us remember the “golden age” and quickly get into the topic. So, at that time the foundations of an artistic style were laid, which entered the history of world artistic culture as Byzantine style .

By combining basilica and cross-dome architectural structures, a new type of religious structure was created - the domed basilica, the most common architectural form of the Renaissance in Italy.
Decorative means of design were found that were capable of expressing the most abstract ideas. The leading place belongs to mosaics - the Byzantines created golden smalt.
Was created type of cross-domed church, meeting the requirements of Christian worship, the idea of ​​multiple chapters was developed.
These achievements made it possible in subsequent centuries to develop a unique system of decorative decoration for the Orthodox cross-domed church.

At the end of the 7th century, a great turmoil began, which brought the state to almost complete disorder, so the period from the second half of the 7th century. and until the beginning of the 9th century. called the "dark time".
In Byzantium, the culture is increasingly influenced by the Greeks (generations appear who were brought up in a different cultural environment, having lost many concepts of Roman or Roman - ancient culture), there is a gradual simplification of architectural forms, main task now: unload the internal space. For example, the Church of St. Sophia in Thessalonica - the main nave and 2 side neves, a simple middle cross with a dome cannot withstand any comparison with Sophia of Constantinople. In the dome there is the Savior in power, the Mother of God in the faceted apse, the altar is shifted to the apse, there is no iconostasis, only a low altar barrier.

on the left is the Church of St. Sofia, Thessaloniki/Thessaloniki, Greece
on the right is the Church of St. Sofia, view from the east

In 867, Basil I the Macedonian ascended the throne, marking the beginning of the Macedonian dynasty, which ruled in the 9th-10th centuries. This period marks the activity of two great Slavic educators, Cyril and Methodius.

Starting from "Macedonian Renaissance" The cross-domed shape of the temple received classical completeness, becoming the main type of Byzantine architectural structure. Let us remember that its basis is a square, divided by four supports into three naves in the longitudinal and transverse directions. The supporting pillars carry a ceiling system in the form of semicircular vaults and a central dome, supported by arches and four pillars. This design system made it possible to create a large number of options. Depending on the tasks set, it was possible to change the scale of the structure, leaving the central core unchanged:
1. by adding a couple more pillars, the temple was increased in length;
2. By adding two rows of columns and bringing the number of naves to five, the temple was expanded in width.

on the left is a plan of a single-nave Byzantine temple
on the right is a plan of a three-nave Orthodox Byzantine cross-domed church

With continued simplification general culture, the cross-domed system of temples, becoming distinctive feature"Macedonian Renaissance", became complete and widespread precisely during the period of Middle Byzantine architecture.

general design of the cross-domed church

The most important part of the cross-domed church, like other Christian churches, was altar, indicated by a semicircular protrusion - apse, extending beyond the square of the plan.

How is the altar constructed?

In the central part of the apse there was throne; in the northern part - altar, where they prepared bread and wine for communion; in the southern part - deacon, a place for storing church vessels, vestments, books and other valuables.

Thus, the main efforts of the architects were aimed at organizing the space under the dome and the altar as the focus of the cult action and at realizing the symbolic idea stairs- the mystical biblical ladder along which communication between heaven and earth takes place.

symbolism of the space of the cross-domed church

Not only individual significant details, but also the overall structure of the temple had a symbolic meaning. The four walls of the temple, united by one chapter, symbolized the four cardinal directions under the rule of a single universal christian church(so I dreamed). The altar in all churches was placed in the east, because according to the Old Testament, Eden was located there, and according to the New Testament, the ascension of Jesus Christ took place in the east. During the same period, rules began to emerge for the arrangement of subjects on the walls of churches: the apse was dedicated to the Mother of God, the dome to Christ.

During the period of the “Macedonian Renaissance,” an iconographic canon was developed, according to which, for example, John Chrysostom was depicted as an old man with an ascetic face, a short rounded beard and a bald head; Basil the Great - an old man with a wedge-shaped long beard, the Mother of God - in a maforia veil with three stars (on the shoulders and head). For more detailed stories about this, see my publications on the topics of Byzantium. Mosaics..., Byzantine icon and Byzantine canon in LJ Travel and culture - my life, website

XI-XII centuries - the reign of the Komnenos dynasty, the brilliant flowering of Byzantine art, called Komnenian "Renaissance" or second golden age .
From the 11th century the internal space of temples is becoming more complex, which indicates some development of architecture.

left - Daphnia Monastery, general view, Athens, Greece
on the right - Daphnia monastery, interior space

Mass construction of monasteries began, which were a complex of buildings surrounded by walls and towers with only one entrance. The outlines of the walls formed a polygon in plan, connected with the terrain.
In the center of the monastery courtyard there were, as a rule, a single-domed cross-domed church and buildings of utilitarian significance: a refectory, a hospital, a library and, as a rule, a scriptorium (a workshop where books were copied). One of the most significant, with an extensive library and scriptorium, was the Monastery of John the Theologian on the island of Patmos, founded in 1085.

on the left is the Monastery of St. John the Theologian. Patmos, Greece
on the right is the interior space of the Monastery of St. John the Theologian, Fr. Patmos, Greece

Another interesting example of Byzantine churches from this period is the katholikon (main church) of the monastery of Hosios Loukas, named after St. Luke of Styria, built around 1020.

on the left is the monastery of Hosios Loukas, appearance, Delphi, Greece
on the right is a plan of the churches of the monastery of Hosios Loukas, at the top is the Church of the Virgin/Theotokas (c. 1040), below is the katholikon (c. 1020)

The interior of the catholicon with contrasts of light and shadow, open and closed planes, smooth marble covering and faceted mosaics is an example of the continuation of Justinian architecture of the 6th century. with its mystical mystery.

interior of the katholikon of Hosios Loukas

A characteristic feature of Byzantine churches from the 11th century. the order of the cells of their plan becomes staggered. It resembles the pattern of five in dominoes. Square or rectangular, they are divided into nine bays, the middle of which is a large domed square. This square is surrounded by four bays with barrel vaults, as well as four smaller squares at the corners, which are also covered with domes.
The plan of St. Basil's Cathedral in Moscow (1555-1560) is closest to the plans of such churches. A number of art publications emphasize that this unique plan was invented by Russian architects (or architects), and they/he may simply have known the Byzantine heritage very well and developed it in relation to new conditions (this does not at all detract from their contribution to the history of world architecture and architecture).

plan of St. Basil's Cathedral, Moscow, Russia

On Mount Athos, the spiritual center of monasticism (the Chalkidiki peninsula in the Aegean Sea), a unique type of temple has developed - triconcha, with altar projections on the east, north and south sides.

Cathedral of the Great Lavra, view from the west of the altar apse, Athos, Greece

The masonry system, combining stone blocks and flat bricks, gave special expressiveness to the monastery buildings - plinth, which made it possible to decorate the walls with a decorative pattern. More details about the features of Byzantine construction equipment and technology in the next publication.

Cathedral of the monastery of Esphigmen, Greece

After the division of the Christian Church into Catholic and Orthodox in 1054 and the deepening differences in church ceremonies, the need to create a system of internal decoration of an Orthodox Byzantine church that carries deep meaning acquired great importance.
Decorative decoration of temple interiors with mosaics has practically ceased - it is too expensive, fresco paintings are replacing them. However, works made using the Byzantine mosaic technique acquire even greater value, so the Greeks restored them.

on the left - golden mosaics of Hosios Loukas in Phokis, Delphi, Greece
right - Introduction to the Temple, mosaic of the Church of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, Daphne Monastery, Greece

Since Byzantine churches became much smaller in size, it was impossible to depict the Universe through the means of architecture, as in St. Sophia of Constantinople, was no longer possible, so the importance of paintings, denoting the symbolic meaning of various parts of the interior space of the church, increased immeasurably. As a result, a three-part multifaceted symbolism of the organization of the internal space of the temple gradually emerged.

Space symbolism - the temple as a reduced model of the Universe: the vaults and domes represent the sky, the space near the floor - the earth, the altar symbolized heaven, the western part of the temple - hell. In accordance with these divisions, the themes of the paintings are placed.
At the highest point of the temple on the dome vault is an image of the Pantocrator/Pantocrator or the Savior in Power - the Creator and Head of the Universe, usually surrounded by archangels.

Savior in power, dome of the Church of St. Sofia, Thessaloniki, Greece

In the apse, on the vault of the high altar arch, the Virgin Mary, the Mother of God - an earthly woman in the image of Oranta/Praying, was depicted.

Our Lady of Oranta, apse of the Church of St. Sofia, Thessaloniki, Greece

On the drum of the dome, in the spaces between the windows, there were figures of the twelve apostles, disciples of Christ, sometimes with symbols of the Holy Spirit descending on them. The number 12 is associated with the number of sons of Jacob (the forefather of Christ) and, accordingly, with the 12 tribes of Israel. Twelve is the product of three and four, where three is a symbol of the divine essence and the “heavenly world,” and four is the number of elements, cardinal directions and the “downstream world.”

12 apostles in the dome of the Church of St. Sofia, Thessaloniki, Greece

The four “sails” depicted the four evangelists, or their symbols: Matthew - an angel, Mark - a lion, Luke - a calf, John - an eagle. This is symbolic of the theological organization of the church: the dome of the temple rests on pillars, just as the universal church rests on the four gospels.

Evangelists on sails and 12 apostles on the drum of the dome, St. Stamp, Venice, Italy

On the pillars are the great martyrs, “pillars of the Christian faith.”
Thus, Jesus Christ yesterday, today and always, through the Mother of God, the apostles, evangelists and great martyrs, is in unity with the earthly church, that is, with those praying in the temple.

symbolism of the architecture of the Orthodox church

Topographic symbolism connected each place in the temple with places in Palestine where the corresponding event in the life of Christ took place. Entrance to the temple with a baptismal font - baptism in the Jordan River; apse - Bethlehem Cave, birthplace of Christ. The throne in the altar is Golgotha ​​(at the same time the place of the crucifixion, the Holy Sepulcher, the Resurrection and the place of God's presence in heaven); pulpit - Mount Tabor (at the same time the place of the Transfiguration, Jesus' reading of the Sermon on the Mount, as well as the stone from which the angel proclaimed the Resurrection of Jesus Christ).

Temporary symbolism - system for placing paintings in the upper part of the walls. In the cross-domed church, movement in a circle dominates, every day church calendar marks not a simple recollection of long-past events, but as if they were happening again. Circular arrangement of scene paintings holiday cycle at the level of the second tier, including the “sleeves” of the architectural cross of the temple, means that the past and present coexist simultaneously and eternally. This tradition of painting the temple developed in the 11th century.

Then he appeared iconostasis- an altar barrier separating the “ship of salvation,” the location of believers, from the altar. The iconostasis was a marble or wooden structure with a crowning horizontal beam - architrave. At the top, in the center, is a cross, the ancient sign of Christ. Below, most often, two large or several small icons were placed, among which two cycles stood out, the most important for the subsequent development of the iconostasis - Deesis And holidays.

iconostasis, Hosios Loukas temple, Greece

In the XI-XII centuries. Byzantine architects and icon painters were widely known and worked in many countries. This is the period of greatest influence of Byzantine culture in the south and southeast of Europe, and in Rus'. At this time, architectural ensembles and paintings were created in the Palatine Chapel in Palermo, St. Sophia of Kyiv, St. Sophia of Novgorod and other churches.

To be continued…

The transfer of the capital of the Roman Empire to Constantinople in 324 and the imperial patronage given to the Church by Emperor Constantine and his successors created entirely new conditions in Christendom. In the West, barbarian invasions soon significantly weakened the influence of the empire, but in the East it remained in full force. Constantinople, the “New Rome,” also called Byzantium, the name of the ancient city on the Bosporus chosen by Constantine as the location of the new capital, remained the capital of the empire until 1453. For more than a millennium, it was the recognized center of Orthodox Christianity for much of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. East. Term Byzantium used today to refer to both the city of Constantinople and the Eastern Roman Empire itself, in order to distinguish both from “Old Rome” and the pagan empire. The role of Constantinople

The Church's Christianization of the East is in almost every way similar to the successes of the Roman Church in the Latin West. It should be noted, however, that the name “Byzantine”, “Byzantine” was rarely used in the Middle Ages. The "Byzantines" spoke Greek and called themselves Romans. And in the Latin West the empire was called Romania, and the Muslims called it Room.

1. Church and state

The preservation of the empire in the East ensured the emperor an active role in the affairs of the Church. This, however, does not mean that the relationship between the Church and the state in Byzantium can be expressed by some simple formula or concept, like “Caesar-papism.” On the one hand, there is no doubt that the Christian empire inherited from pagan times the administrative and financial order of conducting religious affairs and that this order was almost automatically and without objection transferred by Constantine himself to the Christian one. But on the other hand, the Christian faith was incompatible with the Hellenistic and Roman concept of the emperor as a divine being: the only king, the only κύριος [lord] was Christ. Therefore, following the example of Eusebius of Caesarea in his word on the burial of Constantine (337), the Byzantines saw in the emperor an authorized representative or messenger of Christ, “equal to the apostles” (ίσατιόστολος), responsible especially for the spread of Christianity among pagan peoples and for “external affairs » Christian – management and finance (hence the title of emperor used by Eusebius: έττίσκοττος ιών έκτος [Bishop of External Affairs]).

This role of the emperor in the affairs of the Church was never developed into a fixed, legally formalized system. It was clearly determined by one decisive factor - the Orthodoxy of the emperor. The heretic emperor should not have been obeyed. Numerous heroes of the faith - Athanasius of Alexandria (f373), John Chrysostom (t407), Maximus the Confessor (662), John of Damascus (Ϊ750), Theodore the Studite (759-826) - were revered as saints after their death, which occurred as a result of opposition to the imperial will; at the same time, the memory of many emperors, in particular Constantius I (337–361), Leo III (717–741), Constantine V (741–775) and Michael VIII (1250–1282), was officially cursed due to that they supported non-Orthodox teachings.

The closest text on the relationship of Church and state in Byzantium to a theoretical definition, the Sixth Novella of Justinian (527–565), calls the priesthood and the imperial dignity "the two greatest gifts of God" to humanity and emphasizes their common divine origin. The ideal portrayed by the Sixth Novella is “harmony” between the two powers. The same idea of ​​​​the common responsibility before God of the emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople is expressed in the Epanagoge, an introduction to the code of laws of the 9th century. Yet these texts read more like pious exhortation than legal definition. The Byzantines were well aware of how difficult it was to express in the language of the Christian faith the dynamic and polarized relationships between the “earthly” and the “heavenly,” the “old” and the “new,” the “secular” and the “sacred.”

In court ceremonies and official texts the language of the Old Testament monarchy was often applied to the emperor; but as David and Solomon were types of the messianic kingdom, so the Christian emperor was inevitably regarded as a type of Christ. He convened councils and, if desired, could always exercise decisive influence on church appointments, including the appointment of the Patriarch of Constantinople and those bishops who played an important diplomatic role in the Byzantine foreign affairs(Archbishop of Ohrid, Russian Metropolitan, etc.). It must be said that between 379 and 1451. Of the 122 Patriarchs of Constantinople, 36 were forcibly deposed under pressure from the emperors.

However, the relative dependence of the patriarchal rank on the emperor must be considered in the context of the constant instability of the imperial power itself. Two-thirds of all Byzantine emperors were killed or deposed, many of them victims, at least in part, of their own religious policies.

2. Eastern patriarchies

The text of the canon further grants the bishop of Constantinople jurisdiction over the civil dioceses of Pontus, Asia and Thrace, creating a "patriarchy" comparable to those patriarchates that were already de facto under the supremacy of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch, and giving the metropolitan bishop also the right to send missionary bishops to "barbarian lands" outside these dioceses.

Historically, the affirmation of the primacy of Constantinople by the councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon was primarily directed against the excessive influence of Alexandria, which was inclined to impose its private (and sometimes not without extremes) interpretation of the faith outlined in Nicaea and Ephesus, which the emperors considered unacceptable. Indeed, the councils of Constantinople and Chalcedon gave a definition of faith more acceptable to Antioch and Rome. However, the wording of the 28th Chalcedonian rule implied even more serious consequences. It argued that the privileges of "Old Rome", like the new privileges of Constantinople, were granted by the "fathers", and therefore are of human origin, and do not go back to the λόγοι [words] of Christ addressed to the Apostle Peter. In the 5th century, the idea that the Roman bishop had primacy by virtue of succession from Peter became firmly established in Rome and served as the main argument of Pope Leo the Great (440–461) in his protest against the adoption of the 28th canon at Chalcedon. In addition, the prevailing interpretation in Rome of the advantages of the eastern sees was that these advantages also originated from Peter, who personally preached in Antioch (see) and, according to tradition, sent his disciple Mark to Alexandria. In this scheme there was no place left for the primacy of Constantinople. But in the eyes of the East, this scheme looked completely artificial. They did not consider that the founding of the church by the apostles gave it any jurisdictional rights, since in that case many eastern cities - and especially Jerusalem - could lay claim to them, but they interpreted all advantages, including the privileges of Alexandria, Antioch and even Rome, in pragmatically - as natural consequences of the dominant position of these cities. Therefore, the new role of Constantinople seemed quite natural to them.

The difference between Eastern and Western approaches to the problem of primacy is best seen in the history of the Jerusalem Church. Mentioned under its Roman name Aelia by the Council of Nicaea (canon 7), it remained within the orbit of Antioch's influence until it gained the status of a separate patriarchate after 451, through the cunning intrigues of the Jerusalem bishop Juvenal (431–458), enjoying fame as a center of pilgrimage. comprising three regions of Palestine. However, her apostolic and even divine origin was never used to justify a higher place in the order of patriarchates than the fifth.

Therefore, when Emperor Justinian made a grand attempt to recreate the worldwide character of the empire by reconquering the West, the Byzantine vision of the Universal Church was pentarchy patriarchs - Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, united by faith, equal in rights, but strictly bound by the order of priority enshrined in imperial legislation. The Monophysite schism, the Christian conquest, and the rise of the papacy in the West soon abolished the pentarchy as a concrete historical reality, but it would survive as the ideal of the Byzantine vision of the Christian universe.

3. “Great Church” of Constantinople

With the decline of ancient Rome and internal strife in the remaining eastern patriarchates, Constantinople became in the VI-XI centuries. the richest and most influential center of the Christian world. As a symbol and expression of this universal authority, Justinian built a church, which today is considered a true masterpiece of Byzantine architecture - the Temple of Holy Wisdom, Hagia Sophia. Completed amazingly quickly - in four and a half years (532-537) - it became the heart of Christian Byzantium. The term “Great Church,” which originally referred to the temple, also came to mean the patriarchate, of which St. Sophia was to remain the cathedral for nine centuries. In its most general and visual form, it is a huge rectangular hall covered with a huge dome. Light streaming from everywhere, marble walls and golden mosaics were often perceived as an image of the cosmos onto which the sky itself had descended. The stunning impression this structure made on Greeks as well as foreigners is recorded in many texts of the time.

Under John the Faster (582–595), the capital's archbishop acquired the title of “ecumenical patriarch.” Pope Gregory the Great took this name as a challenge to papal primacy, but in fact it did not imply a claim to universal jurisdiction, but an unchangeable and essentially political position in the οικουμένη, i.e.

V orbis christianorum[Christendom], ideally headed by an emperor. Together with the latter, the patriarch was responsible for the welfare of society, at times replacing the emperor as regent. This was the case, for example, in the case of Patriarch Sergius (610–638) under Emperor Heraclius (610–641) and Patriarch Nicholas the Mystic (901–907,911–925) during the childhood of Emperor Constantine VII. The respective rights and duties of this diarchy of emperor and patriarch are described in the introduction to the 9th-century law code known as the Epanagogue.

The election of the patriarch was determined by church canons and imperial laws. Justinian (novel 174, published in 565) demanded that the election be attended by an electoral college of clergy and “eminent citizens” - something like the college of cardinals in Rome; however, the laity, with the exception of the emperor, were soon excluded from this process. According to Constantine Porphyrogenitus, the metropolitans of the synod elected three candidates so that the emperor could choose one of them, while at the same time reserving the right to choose otherwise. This openly recognized role of the emperor in the election of the patriarch - formally contrary to the canonical injunctions against the election of clergy by civil authorities - becomes clearer in the light of the political functions of the "ecumenical" patriarch in the state itself.

After his enthronement in St. Sophia, the patriarch ruled the church together with a “permanent synod” consisting of metropolitans and a large staff of officials. Its jurisdiction included the civil dioceses of Asia, Pontus and Thrace, which in the 7th century consisted of 424 episcopal sees in Asia and Europe. In the 8th century The diocese of Illyricum and southern Italy were annexed to the patriarchate, at the expense of the Roman Church. In addition, we must add here the numerous missionary dioceses of the Caucasus, Crimea and Slavic lands subordinate to the patriarchy. A spectacular new expansion of patriarchy occurred with the conversion of the Rus (988).

Selectable in early period mostly from the white clergy of Constantinople, and after the 13th century. mainly from monasticism, and sometimes elevated directly from the position of the laity, the patriarchs for a rare exception were educated people and sometimes genuine saints. The list of Patriarchs of Constantinople includes such names as (379–381), John Chrysostom (398–404), Tarasius (784–806), Nikephoros (806–815), Photius (858–867, 877–886), Arsenius Authorian ( 1255–1259, 12611265), Philotheus Kokkin (1354–1355, 1364–1376). On the other hand, the frequent political storms of the court and endless Christological disputes necessarily drew the patriarchs into their orbit. Some of them, like Nestorius (428–431), went down in history with the reputation of heresiarchs. Others, especially during the reigns of Heraclius and Constantius II, following the then imperial political course, supported monothelitism. This happened to Sergius (610–638), Pyrrhus (638–641), Paul (641–653), and Peter (654–666). They were condemned as heretics by the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680).

The Roman popes never formally recognized the title of “ecumenical patriarch” for the bishops of Constantinople and sometimes sought from Constantinople verbal recognition of their own “Petrine” interpretation of Roman primacy. Nevertheless, they had no choice but to recognize the real influence of the imperial church, especially during their visit to Constantinople. One of them, Pope Martin I (649–655), was even convicted and deposed in Constantinople by an ecclesiastical court presided over by the Monothelite Patriarch Peter.

So, the throne of Constantinople, with its “equal advantages” with “Old Rome,” played an important role in history, but, undoubtedly, never claimed the charisma of doctrinal infallibility.

4. Arab conquest and iconoclasm

When the Islamic storm hit the ancient Christian Byzantine regions of Palestine, Syria, Egypt and North Africa in the 7th century, reaching the very gates of Constantinople, most Christians in these lands had already broken ties with the imperial Orthodox Church. Egypt from the middle of the 5th century. was almost entirely Monophysite; the same must be said about the Armenian regions in the east of Asia Minor and at least half of the population of Syria. The efforts of Justinian and later the dogmatic compromises of Heraclius and his Monothelite successors did not lead to the religious unification of the empire. Moreover, the schism that began with a dispute between Greek-speaking theologians about correct definition the personality of Jesus Christ, developed into cultural, ethnic and political antagonism. In the Middle East, Chalcedon was by then represented almost exclusively by Greeks loyal to the empire, while indigenous communities - Copts, Syrians and Armenians - refused to accept the faith of the Council of Chalcedon and were outraged by the crude attempts of the imperial power to expel their leaders and forcefully impose religious harmony.

The Monophysite schism, followed by the Arab invasion, whose success was partly due to discord among Christians, left the Patriarch of Constantinople alone to be the main representative of Eastern Christianity within the borders of the empire. Of course, in Alexandria, Antioch and especially in Jerusalem there remained a small number of Orthodox (or “Melchites”, i.e. “royalists”), headed by their patriarchates, but they had little influence in the Universal Church. During the long centuries of Russian occupation, their main problem was survival, and it was solved mainly by searching for and receiving cultural, moral and material assistance from Constantinople.

Reduced to the size of eastern Asia Minor, the southern Balkans and southern Italy, the Byzantine Empire found the strength to successfully resist Islam. But during this struggle, in the period between 726 and 843, Byzantine Christians experienced a severe crisis, which largely shaped the appearance of medieval Byzantine Christianity - the crisis of iconoclasm, which ended in the triumph of Orthodox icon veneration.

The dogmatic, philosophical and theological basis of Byzantine iconoclasm cannot be reduced to a simple scheme. The aversion to the use of images and veneration of them in worship goes back to the prohibition of any image of God in Old Testament. Iconoclasm was also in agreement with a kind of Platonic spiritualism popular among Greek Christians, which explains the existence of a current hostile to images in early Christianity. However, there is no doubt that the iconoclastic movement of the 8th century began on the initiative of the emperors and had a political meaning within the framework of the empire’s struggle against Islam. Indeed, the belief in the absolute transcendence and invisibility of God and the strident polemic against Christian “idolatry” formed an essential part of Muslim anti-Byzantine propaganda. Emperors Leo III (717–741) and Constantine V (741–775), patrons of iconoclasm, decided to “cleanse” Christianity from “idolatry” in order to more successfully fight Islamic ideology.

As soon as, by order of Leo III (starting in 726), icons of Christ, the Virgin Mary and saints began to be removed from public places and churches, Patriarch Germanus (715–730) and Pope Gregory II (715–731) defended the veneration of icons, and Theologian John of Damascus, who lived in a region conquered by Muslims, wrote treatises directed against iconoclasm. The argument of the defenders of icon veneration was that although God is invisible by nature, He can and should be depicted in His human nature - as Jesus Christ. From the point of view of the Orthodox, iconoclasm was tantamount to denying the Incarnation. The Iconoclastic Council, convened by Emperor Constantine V in 754, responded to this by saying that the image of Christ in His human nature means either the denial of His Divinity, which is inseparable from His humanity, or the Nestorian dissection of His one Person into two beings. The debate continued—mainly on these Christological grounds—for more than a century. Iconoclastic persecutions were severe, and the Orthodox count many martyrs of that time. In addition to John of Damascus, the veneration of icons was defended by two major Byzantine theologians - Theodore the Studite (759–826) and Patriarch Nicephorus (806–815). Popular support for the veneration of icons was directed by influential and numerous monastic communities, which courageously faced the wrath of the emperor. Finally, in 787, Empress Irene convened the Seventh Ecumenical Council (also known as the Second Nicene Council), which condemned iconoclasm and confirmed veneration(προσκύνησις) icons, clearly distinguishing it from worship(λατρ €ΐα), which befits God alone. After the secondary rise of iconoclasm, the final “Triumph of Orthodoxy” followed in 843.

The consequences of this crisis were both theological and cultural. In the Orthodox East, images were forever recognized as the main means of communication with God, so that art, theology and spirituality were inextricably linked with each other. At the same time, the struggle for icons strengthened the authority of monasticism, which received greater recognition than in previous centuries as an effective counterweight in Byzantine society to the arbitrariness of imperial power. But at the same time, the iconoclastic crisis contributed to the alienation between the eastern and western halves of Christendom. Preoccupied with the fight against Islam, the iconoclast emperors neglected their power and influence in Italy. Moreover, in retaliation for the popes' opposition to their religious policies, they transferred Illyricum, Sicily and southern Italy from papal jurisdiction to Constantinople. Humiliated and abandoned by his traditional patrons, in fear of a Lombard invasion, Pope Stephen II met the Frankish king Pepin the Short at Pontion (754), accepted his patronage, and obtained his assistance in creating a papal state in Italy composed of former Byzantine territories.

5. Missionary work: conversion of the Slavs

The loss of Middle Eastern lands to the Arabs and the gradual alienation between West and East could have turned the Patriarchate of Constantinople into the center of an ethnically and culturally limited Greek church. However, immediately after the end of iconoclasm, the Byzantine Church undertook an impressive missionary campaign in Eastern Europe.

In 860–861 two brothers from Thessalonica, Constantine and Methodius, successfully preached to the Crimean Khazars. In 863, in response to the request of the Moravian prince Rostislav to send missionaries from Byzantium, they were sent to the Slavs in central Europe. The Moravian mission of the two brothers began with a complete and literal translation of Scripture and worship into the Slavic language. During the mission, the brothers created a new alphabet and terminology suitable for Christian use. Moreover, referring to the miracle of Pentecost (), when the apostles received the gift of speaking in many languages, they justified the need to translate basic Christian texts into the native language of each people. This strategy of the brothers encountered fierce resistance from the Frankish missionaries who preached there, with whom the brothers entered into a dispute in Moravia and then in Venice, accusing them of the “trilingual heresy” (i.e., the belief that Christian worship can only be performed in Hebrew , Greek and Latin). In the preface to the Gospel of John, translated into Slavic verse, Constantine (better known by his monastic name Cyril), defending the right of the Slavs to hear the Word in their own language, paraphrases St. Paul (): “I would rather say five words that are understandable to all the brothers, than ten thousand that are incomprehensible.” In the end, Byzantine missionaries, under pressure from the German clergy, were forced to leave Moravia. However, upon arriving in Rome, they secured the official support of Popes Hadrian II (867–872) and (872882). After the death of Constantine-Cyril in Rome, Pope Adrian ordained Methodius as Bishop of Sirmium and entrusted him with a mission among the Slavs. However, papal authority was insufficient to ensure the success of the mission. The German bishops, having condemned Methodius, imprisoned him, and Moravia entered the sphere of influence of Latin Christianity. As a result, the entire medieval Western church adopted the principle that worship should be performed only in Latin, which was in sharp contrast to Byzantine missionary work, which was based on translations and the use of national languages. The Moravian disciples of Constantine-Cyril and Methodius found refuge in Bulgaria, especially in the Macedonian center of Ohrid (St. Clement, St. Naum), where the Slavic developed successfully along the Byzantine model.

The Bulgarian appeal practically coincided in time with the Moravian mission. As in Moravia and many other parts of Europe, conversion, prepared by missionaries and diplomats from Byzantium, was carried out through the rulers of the country. So in 865, Khan Boris of Bulgaria became a Christian, and his godfather was Emperor Michael III. After attempting to join the jurisdiction of Rome (866–869), Boris finally brought his country into the Byzantine religious orbit. His son and heir Simeon (893–927) and then the Western Bulgarian Tsar Samuil (976–1014) turned their capitals - Preslav and Ohrid, respectively - into large religious centers where the Slavs successfully adopted the liturgy, theology and religious culture of Byzantium. Since the Byzantine canons, in principle, allowed for a plurality of church centers, the Bulgarian kings established independent patriarchates in their capitals. But since they began to lay claim to the imperial title, Byzantium, having restored its former military power, especially under Emperor Vasily II (976–1025), temporarily abolished the independence of Bulgaria. At the same time, however, she did not completely abolish the principles and practice of worship in the Slavic language.

During the same period, the Byzantine mission was carried out among the Russian people. In a letter to the Eastern patriarchs in 867, Patriarch Photius announced that the Russians had converted to Christianity and received a bishop from Constantinople. This first appeal was limited to a small group of Crimean cities neighboring Byzantium. A more significant event was the conversion of the powerful Kyiv princess Olga (957), who took the name Helena in honor of the reigning Byzantine empress, and finally the “baptism of Rus'” in 988–989. under Prince Vladimir, who took the name Vasily and even married the sister of Emperor Vasily II, Anna. Under Vladimir, Byzantine Orthodoxy became the state religion of the Russian principalities with their main centers in Kyiv and Novgorod.

Finally, Byzantine monuments during the same period report missionary activity in the Caucasus, especially among the Alans, undertaken on the initiative of Patriarch Nicholas the Mystic (901–907,911–925).

Thus, around the beginning of the second millennium, the Byzantine Church carried out its ministry in an area stretching from the northern regions to the Arab-occupied Middle East and from the Adriatic to the Caucasus. Its center, Constantinople, seemed unmatched not only in power and wealth, but also in intellectual, artistic and literary achievements.

6. The split between East and West

Some theological division between the Greek East and the Latin West dates back to at least the 4th century. For example, trinitarian theology was expressed differently by the Cappadocian Fathers and Bl. Augustine: if the Greeks insisted rather on a clear distinction between Persons, then the Latins gave higher value philosophical definitions of God as one simple entity. In relation to Monophysitism, the Latins and Greeks often also took divergent positions: “Old Rome” preferred to strictly adhere to the original Chalcedonian formula of the “two natures,” while Constantinople was inclined to recall the words of St. Cyril of Alexandria about “one incarnate nature.” The number of disciplinary and liturgical differences also increased.

However, more than any other differences, ecclesiological issues began to create tension in relations between East and West, especially the growing divergence in the understanding of Roman primacy. As we have already seen, the leading position of Rome, to which Byzantium never objected, was explained (like the advantages of a number of eastern thrones) by pragmatic considerations, while the apostolic origin of the see did not play a decisive role. This pragmatic explanation was imprinted in the conciliar decrees, which the East considered to be a common tradition, although the Romans at one time protested against the publication of texts that denied that Rome received its primacy from Christ through the Apostle Peter. Fortunately, for a number of centuries, both sides refrained from bringing these differences to the point of a complete breakdown in relations. However, in the 9th, 10th and 11th centuries, conflicts began to accumulate in which cultural and political elements became intertwined with dogmatic and disciplinary issues.

In the iconoclastic and subsequent periods, the main source of conflict was the problem Filioque. The West included in Nicaea-Constantinograd, which served as an expression of the foundations of the doctrine of the entire Church, the Latin word Filioque. This insertion, which first appeared in Spain in the 7th century, meant that the Holy Spirit comes from the Father and Son. The expanded text of the Symbol quickly became popular, in part because it fit better with Augustine's explanation of the Trinity than the original text, and in the eighth century. came into use in Frankish Europe. Charlemagne and his theologians, who were looking for a reason to accuse their rival, the Eastern Empire, of heresy, refused to recognize the decisions of the Seventh Ecumenical Council (787) because of the original form of the Symbol and the traditional Greek formulations of Trinitarian dogma contained therein. The so-called Libri Carolini, sent by Charles to the pope in support of his position, became the first written monument of a controversy that was destined to continue for centuries. At first, the popes stood on the side of the Greeks and opposed the insertion into the Symbol. It was only in 866 that Pope Nicholas I supported the German missionaries operating in Bulgaria, implicitly encouraging the spread of the Symbol with its insertion among the Bulgarian converts. Patriarch Photius, who included Bulgaria within his jurisdiction, became the first Greek theologian to give a decisive rebuff Filioque. The conflict between Pope Nicholas and Photius, which concerned the question of power no less than the problem Filioque, was eventually settled. In 879–880 At the council, in the presence of the legates of the pope, the insertion was condemned and reconciliation between Rome and Constantinople was announced. However, Frankish influence on the weakened papacy of the tenth century led to an almost mechanical adoption Filioque in Rome (probably in 1014), which made a schism almost inevitable.

Certain issues of disciplinary and liturgical practice also contributed to the division. These included the use of unleavened bread in the Latin Eucharist, the forced celibacy of the priesthood in the West (while in the East the ordination of married persons was permitted), and differences in the rules of fasting. These kinds of questions came to the fore especially during the famous incident that pitted the legates of Pope Leo IX against the Patriarch Michael Cerularius (1054). This clash is often mistakenly considered to be the beginning of the schism; in fact, it was rather an unsuccessful attempt to correct the already existing division.

As the controversy continued, greatly intensified by popular hatred after the sack of Constantinople by the crusaders during the Fourth Crusade in 1204, new points were added to it, such as the Latin doctrine of purgatory and the dispute over the exact moment of the presentation of the Holy Gifts at the Eucharist ( “establishment words” in the Latin tradition, to which the Greeks contrasted the invocation of the Holy Spirit, or epiclesis, which is present in all Eastern liturgies after the establishment words). All these questions, like the problem Filioque, could be decided if both churches could reach agreement on the criterion of authority. But the papacy, especially after the Gregorian reforms of the 11th century, did not allow any doubt about the uniqueness of its authority. On the Byzantine side, the official position of the church was always that differences between churches should be settled only at councils and that the primacy of the honor of Rome did not relieve the pope of responsibility to the council's decision.

In the late Byzantine period, the popes and emperors of the Palaiologan dynasty (1261–1453) made repeated attempts to restore the lost unity. In 1274, representatives of Emperor Michael VIII were present at the Council of Lyon, where the emperor's personal confession of faith, recognizing the Roman faith, was read. Based primarily on political considerations, Michael imposed a supporter of the union, John Veccus, on the Patriarchate of the Church of Constantinople. But such a union, introduced essentially by force, ceased with Michael (1282). In 1285, a council in Constantinople officially rejected it and approved a detailed - and in a certain sense unbiased - refutation Filioque, compiled by Patriarch Gregory of Cyprus (1283–1289). Negotiations about unification continued throughout the 14th century, which witnessed the emperor’s personal conversion to Catholicism (1369); however, the church did not follow its emperor in this, and he himself subsequently tacitly renounced his conversion. It was the conciliar movement in the West that caused radical changes in the position of the papacy in relation to the idea of ​​a genuine unifying council. After long preliminary negotiations with Popes Martin V and Eugene IV, Emperor John VIII, Patriarch Joseph and numerous representatives of the Greek clergy arrived in Ferrara, and then in Florence, where the council finally took place (1438–1439), when the threat of Turkish conquest was already looming over Byzantium . After months of debate, the exhausted Greek delegation signed a decree of union, recognizing the basic doctrinal principles of the Roman Church. Only one Greek bishop; Mark of Ephesus, refused to sign the union, but upon the return of the delegation to Byzantium, his position was supported by the absolute majority of the people and clergy. The fall of Constantinople in 1453 put an end to the union itself and further negotiations.

This split, the result of gradual alienation, cannot be formally linked to any specific date or specific event. But its root cause undoubtedly lies in the different understanding of doctrinal authority, which for the West was concentrated in the person of the pope, while the East never considered that any individual or institution could formally guarantee the truth, and did not place any authority center above the conciliar process , in which bishops participate, but which also requires the consent of the people.

7. Theology and canon law

Throughout its history, Byzantium maintained an unbroken tradition of learning dating back to antiquity and the Greek Fathers of the Church. Although the imperial university in Constantinople and, in particular, the separate patriarchal school trained future state and church officials, these institutions were neither the only nor even the main centers of theological development. Byzantium never knew the flowering of universities and formal scholasticism, which played such a huge role in the West since the 12th century. Most Byzantine theologians worked in the church department or in the monastic community. It should also be noted that theology has never been a monopoly of the clergy. Theological works were published not only by bishops or monks, but also by educated laymen.

The absence of an organized school system may explain the fact that Byzantine theologians rarely attempted to give a systematic exposition of their theology. Rev. John of Damascus c. 753) wrote “An Accurate Statement Orthodox faith”, but this work is nothing more than a short textbook, exactly following the formulations adopted in the past, and not an original “system”. Typically, Byzantine theologians limited themselves to developing individual issues or refuting contemporary heresies. This lack of systematicity, however, does not mean that they did not believe in the validity of theology. On the contrary, Byzantine spirituality, worship and thought always affirmed the possibility of communication with God, available to every Christian in the life of the Church. But this accessibility does not apply to God herself. essence, the transcendence of which rendered intellectual or philosophical concepts - the basis of all ordered theological "systems" - useless or at least unconvincing. This simultaneous consciousness of divine transcendence and accessibility is well expressed by St. Gregory of Nyssa, one of the most prominent Greek Church Fathers. “If we are talking about God,” he wrote, “then when the question is about essence, time to be silent(cm. ); and when about any good action, the knowledge of which descends to us, then it is time to proclaim powers, announce miracles, tell deeds, and use the word to this extent.”

The definition of the canon of Scripture - the main source of all Christian theology - did not take final form in the East until the Council of Trullo (692), which approved the so-called "expanded" canon, including those Old Testament books preserved in Aramaic and Greek (also called "non-canonical" ). But some earlier fathers stood for the “short” (Jewish) canon, and even John of Damascus in the 8th century. considered the Book of the Wisdom of Solomon and the Book of the Wisdom of Jesus, son of Sirach, “excellent,” but did not include them in the canon proper. The Book of Revelation was generally excluded from the canon in the 4th and 5th centuries. and never entered into liturgical use in Byzantium.

The magisterium of the Church, which was clearly not limited to Scripture alone, found its most authoritative expression in the so-called “ecumenical” councils. Seven councils were officially recognized as such. These are Nicene I (325), Constantinople I (381), Ephesus I (431), Chalcedon (451), Constantinople II (553), Constantinople III (680) and Nicene II (787). Formally, the authority of the council in the empire was given by its convening and recognition by the emperor, but the Church also needed a stable agreement regarding the decisions of the council, or its “reception.” Thus, some councils - Ephesus II (449), Jeria (753), Florence (1438-1439) - received imperial sanction, but were ultimately rejected. Others, although not formally “ecumenical,” are recognized as highly authoritative, for example, the Photian “great council of St. Sophia” (879–880) and the Councils of Constantinople of 1341, 1347 and 1351, which established the distinction between essence and energy in God in connection with the so-called “hesychast disputes.”

The Trinitarian theology of the Cappadocian fathers (fourth century) and the Chalcedonian and post-Chalcedonian Christology as defined by the recognized ecumenical councils constitute the foundation of all theological thought, as we have already seen when considering iconoclasm. The understanding of the so-called “mystical theology” of the Byzantines should be based on the same foundation.

The term “mystical theology” comes from the name of one of the treatises of Pseudo-Dionysius (V-VI centuries) and means that communication with God cannot be compared with any form of created knowledge and that in the best possible way it is expressed in negative or "apophatic" terms: it is not nothing from what the created human mind is capable of comprehending. But at the same time, the Greek patristic tradition asserts that the goal human life – deification(θέωσις), made possible in the God-man, Jesus Christ. Most accurately expressed by probably the most gifted of all Byzantine theologians, Ven. Maximus the Confessor (c. 580–662), who was also the main fighter against monothelitism, the doctrine of deification inspired many spiritual writers and mystics. The Byzantines generally recognized that since the doctrine of deification "in Christ" cannot be reduced to rational categories, it is best expressed by those who know it from personal experience. Byzantine Christianity as a whole relied more heavily on saints and prophets as theological authorities than did the Latin West. Probably the greatest and most amazing of the Byzantine prophets and mystics is Symeon the New Theologian (“(“1022). In some circles, especially monastic ones, charismatic mysticism could even lead to the rejection of the sacraments and church organization. These sectarian forms of charismaticism, repeatedly condemned, known as Messalianism and Bogomilism.

One of the difficult intellectual and spiritual issues for Byzantine theology was determining the relationship between the Christian faith and the heritage of ancient Greek philosophy. Being a Greek-speaking civilization, Byzantium preserved the writings of ancient authors, and in every generation there were scientists and thinkers who were fond of ancient philosophy. Some of them, following the example of Origen (c. 254), tried to combine Greek philosophy with Christian revelation. Although Origen and Origenism were condemned (by the Fifth Ecumenical Council in 553), concepts derived from Greek philosophy continued to be a necessary means of expressing basic Christian dogmas. But at the same time, many Byzantine theologians, especially among the monks, insisted on the fundamental incompatibility of “Athens” and “Jerusalem,” the Academy and the Gospel. They were especially hostile to Platonic idealism and spiritualism, which they considered incompatible with the Christian doctrine of the Incarnation. At times they sought from the church authorities an official condemnation of Platonism (cf. especially the case of John Italus, 1075–1077). Until the fall of Byzantium, learned humanists (for example, Michael Psellus, Theodore Metochites, Nikephoros Gregoras, Bessarion, Gemistius Pletho, etc.) staunchly defended the heritage of antiquity, but they constantly had to overcome resistance. This tension was never resolved, so that in this sense the Byzantine Christian tradition clearly contrasts with the contemporary Latin West, where, since the birth of scholasticism, a new synthesis of Greek philosophy and Christian theology was taking shape.

Just as Byzantine theology avoided rationally formulated systematization, so the Byzantine Church never bound itself to a comprehensive code of church canons. The councils issued rules relating to the structure and government of the Church and to church discipline, but they all responded to the needs of specific situations. The canonical requirements were considered absolute, since they reflected the unchangeable norms of Christian doctrine and Christian morality, but in many cases the Byzantine Church recognized the possibility of preserving the same norms not by the letter of the law, but by mercy and condescension. This application of the law is called οικονομία. In the New Testament this term is used to refer to God's plan about the salvation of people (οικονομία), recognizing the legitimacy of the child born to Emperor Leo VI (886–912) from his non-canonical fourth marriage, but refused to recognize the legitimacy of the marriage itself.

The sources of Byzantine canon law in the most normative and complete compendium - the so-called "Nomocanon in Forty Titles", published by Patriarch Photius in 883 and including imperial laws (νόμοι) and ecclesiastical rules (κανόνες) - include the so-called "Apostolic Canons" ( a collection of rules reflecting church practice in Syria in the 4th century), rules of ecumenical councils, collections of rules of “local” councils (mainly 4th century) and another collection - “rules of St. Fathers", i.e. an anthology of the opinions of prominent bishops of the ancient Church. In many cases these materials should. were used as authoritative precedents rather than as formal laws. Collected into one "Nomocanon" together with imperial laws, they regulated disciplinary issues, established principles for the election of bishops and defined the boundaries of ecclesiastical regions and patriarchates. Later, Byzantine canonists used these texts along with commentaries on them in the 12th century. (period of development of canon law) Balsamon, Zonaras and Aristina.

8. Worship and hymography

The central place of the liturgy in the life of Byzantine Christians was noted by both the Byzantines themselves and foreigners. The ambassadors of the Russian prince Vladimir, who arrived in Constantinople in 987, recalled the service in the majestic Church of St. Sophia - “ Great Church”, built by Justinian, as an experience of “heavenly” reality. The initial form of worship took shape under the direct influence of the Church of Antioch, with which the new capital was closely connected at the end of the 4th and beginning of the 5th centuries. As Constantinople became the center of the entire Christian world, its liturgical practices became increasingly eclectic. During the late Middle Ages "Typikon" ( Ordo) of the Great Church combined with monastic traditions, especially the Studite Monastery, giving rise to a synthetic liturgical charter, which, in turn, included (in the 13th and 14th centuries) the liturgical traditions of the Lavra of St. Savva in Palestine.

By the 9th century. In common use there were two Eucharistic canons, the authorship of which was attributed to St. Basil the Great and St. John Chrysostom. Translated into many languages, they became the common property of the entire Orthodox world. In some places, the ancient liturgy attributed to St. Jacob. Starting from the 6th century, the Eucharistic liturgy, which was now celebrated in the huge Cathedral of St. Sophia in the presence of a large crowd, was decorated with a number of symbolic actions, while losing many features of its original communal character. Symbolic interpretations, inspired especially by Pseudo-Dionysius's book On the Church Hierarchy, presented the liturgy as an earthly representation of heavenly reality, standing between individual Christians and God. Ideas of this kind were primarily the result of the introduction of Neoplatonic ideas into Christian thinking. Nevertheless, the original, predominantly pre-Constantinian meaning of the liturgy was generally well preserved in the central parts of the liturgical succession itself, in contrast to its interpretations. Later commentators, such as Nicholas Cabasilas in the 14th century, rediscovered the Christocentric, communal, and sacramental dimensions of the Eucharist.

Besides the central sacrament of the Eucharist, Byzantine tradition insisted on the importance baptism(always performed by triple immersion), Confirmation(equivalent to Western confirmation, but performed by a priest who anoints with holy chrism) and other sacraments, which sometimes included tonsure and burial.

After the merger of the “cathedral” and “monastic” liturgical traditions, the liturgical year always combines several cycles, each of which has its own hymnographic material. The daily cycle is reflected in the Book of Hours (Ώρολόγιον) and contains the texts of the unchangeable parts of Vespers, Compline (άπόδ €ΐπνοι μ€σονυκτικόν), Matins (ορθρος) and four “hours”. The Easter cycle adds a variable part to the annual and daily circles. It includes the period of Great Lent, the chants of which make up a book called “Lenten Triodion” (Τριώδιον), and the period of the celebration of Easter itself, the chants of which make up the “Colored Triodion” (Π €ντηκοστάριον). The eight-week cycle, beginning after Pentecost, is repeated throughout the year; his chants make up the “Octoichus” (Όκτώηχος, “Octophonic”). Finally, the twelve parts of the “Minea” (Μηναίον, “Book of the Months”) contain all the hymnographic materials related to the memory of the saints for each day. Detailed and very complex instructions regarding various combinations depending on changes in the date of Easter are given in the Typikon, which was finally formed by the 14th century.

Of all the Christian medieval traditions, the Byzantine has the richest hymnographic heritage. Poetic and theological in nature, Byzantine chants constitute a huge literary corpus, often in history serving as a fruitful substitute for both the school and the church pulpit. Unfortunately, the Byzantine neuntes, i.e., musical notes have not yet been deciphered, with the exception of liturgical manuscripts of the late period (XIII-XIV centuries). It has been shown, however, that Byzantine music dates back to the Jewish synagogue traditions of the early Christian period and that its medieval form was similar, although probably richer, to Western Gregorian chant.

When composing their chants, Byzantine hymnographers had to combine theological knowledge, poetic and musical art. Among them are the great Roman the Sweet Singer (VI century) and many authors of the iconoclastic and subsequent periods (Andrew of Crete, John of Damascus, Cosmas of Mayum, Theodore the Studite). Roman wrote kontakia(κοι τάκια), or poetic sermons, consisting of metrical stanzas sung by a chanter, after whom the congregation repeated the refrain. Probably the most famous Byzantine kontakion is the so-called Akathist to the Mother of God, whose popularity has not diminished for many centuries. In the 7th and 8th centuries, however, kontakia in most cases gave way to more structured and refined forms of liturgical poetry - canons, which combined biblical songs, such as, and the Song of the Virgin Mary (), with newly composed chants.

Schmnographic creativity, which generally followed the patterns of the 8th and 9th centuries, continued throughout the Middle Ages.

9. Legacy of Christian Byzantium

During the Palaiologan dynasty (1258–1453), Byzantium barely survived the confident advance of the Turks in Asia Minor and then in the Balkans. Nevertheless, during this period, the Patriarchate of Constantinople, adapting to new political conditions, not only successfully maintained its jurisdiction over vast territories, but also increased its influence and authority. During the Latin invasion of Constantinople (1204–1261), the patriarchate, while in exile in Nicaea, continued to enjoy recognition as the mother church of the Orthodox Slavs. The patriarch in exile was softer and more generous towards the Slavs than his predecessors, who occupied the capital throne of the empire at the zenith of its power. In 1219 he installed St. Savva was the first archbishop of the independent Serbian Church, recognized in 1235 by the Bulgarian Patriarchate in Tarnovo. In 1261, the patriarchate returned to Constantinople, which had been recaptured from the Latins. Throughout this period, Rus', which was destined to become the most powerful heir to Byzantine civilization, remained under the strict ecclesiastical control of the patriarch. When most of the Russian principalities were conquered by the Mongols (1237–1240), the "Metropolitan of Kiev and All Rus'", appointed from Byzantium and often Greek by birth, remained the single most influential force in Rus'. In a political sense, its prestige was maintained by good diplomatic relations between the Byzantine court and Sarai, the residence of the Mongol khans on the lower Volga. Leaving his traditional see in Kyiv, which was destroyed by the Mongols, the Metropolitan moved his see to the north of Rus', first to Vladimir (1300) and then to Moscow (1328), which eventually became the political and ecclesiastical capital of Rus'. This rise of Moscow, supported by Byzantium, caused centrifugal movements in the western dioceses of the Russian Metropolis. In short periods in the 14th century, under pressure from the Lithuanian Grand Duke and the Polish King, the Patriarch was forced to support the creation of separate metropolises in Novogrudok (Lithuania) and Galich (Polish-occupied Galicia). But in 1390, the successful church diplomacy of Byzantium was able to unite the metropolis again.

This extraordinary diplomatic activity of the patriarchate throughout Eastern Europe was no longer based on the imperial power - now insignificant - but on the authority of Constantinople as the spiritual and intellectual center of the "commonwealth" of peoples. Monasteries played a special role in maintaining cultural ties. The “hesychast” revival, approved in Constantinople by a series of councils (1341, 1347, 1351), echoed in all Orthodox countries. Mount Athos, the center of hesychast spirituality, was an international center where Greek, Slavic, Moldavian and Georgian monks received spiritual training, copied manuscripts, translated Greek texts into their languages, and often served as diplomatic emissaries of the patriarchy. They often occupied episcopal sees in different parts of Eastern Europe.

However, Serbia (1389) and Bulgaria (1393) soon fell to the Ottoman Turks, and the harmonious relations between the mother church of Constantinople and the daughter church of Rus' were disrupted by events associated with the Council of Ferraro-Florence (1438–1439). The Greek Isidore, installed in Byzantium as the see of the Russian Metropolis, signed a decree on union in Florence, but upon returning to Moscow (1441) he was rejected by his flock. In 1448, the Russian bishops, without appealing to Constantinople, elected his successor, Metropolitan Jonah, and interpreted the fall of Byzantium under the onslaught of the Turks (1453) as divine retribution for the betrayal of Orthodoxy in Florence.

Despite these tragic events, the intellectual and spiritual dynamism exhibited by Byzantium in its final years made possible the survival of what the French historian Charles Diehl called "Byzance apms Byzance" [Byzantium after Byzantium]. The Patriarchate of Constantinople continued to exist within the Ottoman Empire. The Patriarch could no longer serve in the majestic Hagia Sophia, which had been converted into a mosque, but by order of the Sultan he became politically responsible for the entire Christian population of the empire, which gave him new power not only over the Greeks, but also over the Balkan Slavs and Romanians. Preserving all the splendor of Byzantine worship, maintaining the traditions of monastic spirituality, especially on Mount Athos, the patriarchate sometimes became a victim of Muslim persecution and corruption of the Ottoman court, but retained its Byzantine heritage for the New Age.

Meanwhile, the Russian Grand Duke Ivan III married the niece of the last Byzantine emperor (1472), and the Russians began to look upon their powerful capital, Moscow, as the “new Constantinople,” or “third Rome.” And yet, it was from Constantinople, subject to the Turks, that the Moscow princes sought and achieved recognition of their royal title and the establishment of the Moscow Patriarchate in 1589. Even for them, the Byzantine heritage retained its strength.