Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261 by Michael Angold (review)

BOOK REVIEWS771 to the disadvantage of Jews. He intelligently disagrees with some of the other authors of the volume, especially Moore, arguing against (p. 224 n. 1 1) "the interchangeabiUty ofpersecuted outgroups."For the late thirteenth-century western Mediterranean, David Abulafia analyzes the interconnected causes of oppression of Muslims and Jews. OUvia Remie Constable shows that one area in which the three faiths could co-operate was in slaving on the Spanish frontier.This tracked shifts in power: in the eighth century most slave buyers were Muslim orJewish, in the thirteenth, Christian. The final part of the book contains three articles rethinking boundaries.The exposition of Christian doctrine in the first, by Langmuir studying the origins of persecution ofJews in Christian theological development, is far from accurate. Both book and otherwise very suggestive article have considerable analysis in which anxieties and doubts express themselves in aggressiveness: one might be forgiven for thinking this as much a psychological reading of a contemporary history department as of medieval Christendom.The second and third essays, Richard Kieckhefer on saints, witches, and necromancers, and Edward Peters on exegesis, examine the question of what inteUectuaI exploration of Christianity was possible, and how boundaries were set. Kieckhefer evokes the clerical underworld of holy necromancy, and Peters gives a weU-informed account of the struggle over the definition of the boundaries of tradition in high medieval theology . Glenn W Olsen The University of Utah Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261. By Michael Angold. (NewYork: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. xvi, 604. $89.95.) This massive work of over 600 pages is an ambitious overview of the inner history and development ofthe Greek-speaking Orthodox Church during a crucial century and a haU in the Middle Ages: the period begins with the accession of the great emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081) and closes with the recapture of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261.The title "Church and Society" indicates the parameters ofthe study: the Church is constantly viewed in relation to the civU society in which it flourished.Thus relations with the Emperor, with the government and leading families, and with the bulk ofthe population are recurring themes. Indeed the vital question that surfaces throughout the book is that of the Emperor's role in the Church, and students of the Anglican estabUshment will find much to ponder in this sustained attempt by the Byzantine Emperors to "harness the authority of the Church" by adopting the role of epistemonarkhes ("overseeing [supreme?] ruler"). Of particular interest are the studies ofthe writings of several key bishops, the survey ofmonasticism during this period, an original attempt to assess the influence ofcanon law on marriage 772BOOK REVIEWS and the role of women, and investigations of the mamfestations of popular piety with their pagan overtones and of heretical movements, in particular of BogomUism. The methodology is synthetic, solidly based on the primary sources, often effectively summarized, and supported by a thorough and conscientious weighing -up of secondary sources. The book is an exceUent introduction to a very wide variety of topics and writers, presented with objectivity, sensitive appraisal , and admirable clarity. Despite the wide sweep and complex narrative the overaU theme remains dominant and rises in intensity and interest as the work proceeds.The author is helped partly by the great work of his predecessors (especiaUy the French Assumptionists like Paul Gautier and Jean Darrouz ès), partly by his British contemporaries (outstanding works developing in greater depth some of the topics treated here have appeared recently from the pens of Paul Magdalino and Rosemary Morris). The writer is primarily a historian, and theologians should not expect a speculative analytic approach. He also suffers from a blind spot as far as Uturgy is concerned. Occasionally one may question certain assumptions, e.g., the downplaying of the role of clerics in education, or the importance given to some sources, like Neophytos of Cyprus. Certain themes cry out to be investigated further, such as the work of Balsamon, who surely deserves a book to himseU. Again, some patterns are read into a series of events which are not seU-evident, as when the Church is cast in a somewhat sinister power role...