Another Chapter of Christian History...
Many of you will remember hearing about the "Byzantine Empire" in school, but most have forgotten about it now; much like many have forgotten the lost history of Christianity that resided there, and that served as a Christian seed in many parts of the Middle East. Everything happens for a reason, and we must always trust in God; but we must remember our past and support our Brethren wherever they may be. As you can see below - almost all of the once Christian Empire of Byzantine is now ruled by islamic rule. *But the seeds are still there. Many of the Coptic Christians of Egypt, the Nestorians, the Oriental Orthodox, Assyrian Church of the East, Armenian Church, etc., are still clinging on to their Christian survival from this Empire.
May we learn from their history, their inner conflicts as Christian fought Christian instead of focusing on Christ like many denominations sadly do today; not over Christ, but over doctrines/hiearchy. Is this truly what Christ would want? we all know the answer whether we admit it or not. Christians chose to attack and plunder a weakned Christian Byzantium, to force it to come under it's own view of Roman Christianity; this inner turmoil left it weakened, and allowed Islamic millitants to conquer the last remnants of the Byzantium Empire. The area of the empire is now today over 99% Islamic. Does any of this all sound a little too close to home? - may we not repeat their same mistakes and collapse...
Religion
The survival of the Empire in the East assured an active role of the Emperor in the affairs of the Church. The Byzantine state inherited from pagan times the administrative, and financial routine of administering religious affairs, and this routine was applied to the
Christian Church. Following the pattern set by
Eusebius of Caesarea, the Byzantines thought of the Emperor as a representative or messenger of
Christ, responsible particularly for the propagation of Christianity among pagans, and for the "externals" of the religion, such as administration and finances. The imperial role, however, in the affairs of the Church never developed into a fixed, legally defined system.
[112]It is a popular misconception that Christianity was ever fully united or that even Christians in the Byzantine Empire were united throughout the Empire's history. The imperial Roman Church, what came to be known as the Eastern Orthodox Church, never represented all Christians in the Empire. Nestorianism, a view promoted the Nestorius, a 5th-century Patriarch of Constantinople, split from the imperial Church leading to what is today the Assyrian Church of the East. In a greater schism during the 6th century the Oriental Orthodox churches split from the imperial Church over the declarations of the Council of Chalcedon. Aside from these communions, Arianism and other Christian sects existed in the early Empire, although by the time of Rome's fall in the 5th century Arianism was mostly confined to the Germanic peoples of Western Europe. By the Empire's late stages, though, Eastern Orthodoxy represented most Christians in what remained of the Empire. Jews were a significant minority in the Empire throughout its history. Despite periods of persecution, they were generally tolerated, if not always embraced, during most periods.
With the decline of Rome, and internal dissension in the other Eastern patriarchates, the church of Constantinople became, between the 6th and 11th centuries, the richest and most influential center of Christendom.[113] Even when the Empire was reduced to only a shadow of itself, the Church, as an institution, had never exercised so much influence both inside and outside of the imperial frontiers. As George Ostrogorsky points out:
The Patriarchate of Constantinople remained the center of the Orthodox world, with subordinate metropolitan sees and archbishoprics in the territory of Asia Minor and the Balkans, now lost to Byzantium, as well as in Caucasus, Russia and Lithuania. The Church remained the most stable element in the Byzantine Empire.[114]
Is the story of the Byzantine Empire the story of Europe? Maybe the USA? Only God knows. But we should most definitely remember our Brothers/Sisters in Christ that are scattered through the Middle East and Asia; many are remnants of this ancient empire, and though our doctrines may vary - we must remember that we all have our focus on Christ and the Holy Bible, this is "Brother/Sister" enough for me...
The last moments of the empire are recorded as thus: "Constantinople by this stage was underpopulated and dilapidated. The population of the city had collapsed so severely that it was now little more than a cluster of villages separated by fields. On 2 April 1453, Sultan Mehmed's army of some 80,000 men and large numbers of irregulars laid siege to the city.[99] Despite a desperate last-ditch defense of the city by the massively outnumbered Christian forces (c. 27,000 men, 8,000 of whom were foreign[98]), Constantinople finally fell to the Ottomans after a two-month siege on 29 May 1453. The last Byzantine emperor, Constantine XI Palaiologos, was last seen casting off his imperial regalia and throwing himself into hand-to-hand combat after the walls of the city were taken."
There is no consensus on exactly when the decline began; several dates have been suggested by historians:
Of these, the Byzantine-Arab Wars and the Battle of Manzikert have traditionally been considered the most significant. However, recent books by Paul Magdalino and J. Birkenmeier have re-evaluated the position of the empire in the 12th century, citing the collapse under the Angeloi (1185-1204) as the most decisive turning point in the empire's fortunes. Although this view is not universally held, historians generally agree that after the Fourth Crusade in 1204, the empire was only a shadow of its former self. The death of Michael VIII in 1282 marks the last period of Byzantine success on anything more than a minor scale. From this date onwards, the empire entered its final decline.
[edit] Historical events
The calamities of the Empire were not limited to the beginning dates or even the following years - Throughout the 14th and 15th centuries the Empire suffered from many natural disasters, invasions and several coups.
[edit] Collapse of the Western Roman Empire
In the 5th - 7th century, the Eastern Roman or Byzantine Empire was a continuation of the Roman Empire. The loss of the Western territories in the 5th century led to the loss of some important cities such as Rome. The creation of the Germanic states of the Franks, Visigoths, Ostrogoths and later of the Lombards out of the rubble of the Western Roman Empire meant that in time they would seek to challenge the authority of the Eastern Roman Empire. General Flavius Belisarius under Justinian I in the early 6th century made a serious attempt to recover the western half; however his gains were short-lived and poorly planned out - resources and troops that could have been used to defeat the Persians were diverted forcing the Byzantines into tribute and diplomacy to deal with this Eastern threat. The loss of the western territories led to the Patriarch of Rome achieving greater independence from Byzantium, which no longer provided adequate protection to the Pope. Consequently, the Holy See and Byzantium would have disagreements, culminating in the schism of 1054 sanctioning Latin invasions of Byzantium in the 13th century.
[edit] Rise of Islam
In the 7th - 9th century and the 11th - 15th century, Islam gave the Arabs a new found zeal and desire to conquer. They expanded to the territories in the Levant and Egypt. The Arab invasions led to the loss of Egypt, Syria, Palestine and for a short period of time, Crete, Sicily, Cyprus and Asia Minor. Though Asia Minor was recaptured and substantial parts of Syria and Mesopotamia either taken back or subjugated, Egypt remained firmly in Arab hands as did the rest of Palestine. The loss of Egypt was a major blow to the Byzantines since the province of Aegyptus had provided much of the Empire's manufactured goods and natural resources, especially grain, ever since the times of Roman Antiquity. Conversely the Arab acquisition of Egypt gave the Ummayad and later Abassid Caliphates huge resources, meaning that the Byzantines had to direct large amounts of resources to stave off constant Arab incursions into Asia Minor and Syria. When the Fatimid Caliphate broke away from the Abassids the Byzantines were able to launch successful offensives into Syria and Palestine, due to this division amongst her enemies.
[edit] The arrival of the Seljuks
Another possible explanation for the disintegration of the Byzantine Empire is the permanent settlement of Anatolia by the Seljuks, a Turkish people between the 11th - 13th century.
It is worth remembering that the Byzantines had faced invasion in Asia Minor for centuries. In the seventh and eighth centuries, in particular, first the Sassanid Persians and then the Muslim Arabs launched major offensives into the region. Though the Arabs were successful in conquering many Byzantine territories during the Byzantine-Arab Wars, they were ultimately unsuccessful in establishing themselves in western Anatolia or the Balkans.
However, a period of civil war in the late eleventh century enabled the Turks to make huge inroads into Byzantine territory. In many places, usurpers used mercenary Turkish troops to occupy strategic towns, only for those mercenaries to take the towns for themselves when the usurpers had departed. Thus by 1095, virtually the whole of Asia Minor, comprising about 70% of the Byzantine Empire, had been lost.
Although the three competent Komnenian emperors, especially Manuel I Komnenos (r.1143-1180), may have had the power to expel the outnumbered Seljuks, several factors combined to ensure that they never did so. Alexios was unable to derive much of the expected benefit from the First Crusade, though it did at least help him to recover Nicaea and western Asia Minor. It has even been argued that it was never in the interests of the Komnenoi to expel the Turks, as the expansion back into Anatolia would have meant sharing more power with the feudal lords, thus weakening their power. If this is so, it is a historical irony, as re-conquering Anatolia may have saved the Byzantine Empire in the long run.
No emperor after the Komnenian period was in a position to expel the Turks from Asia Minor, while the preoccupation of the Nicaean emperors with the attempt to recover Constantinople meant that resources were diverted away from Asia Minor and towards the west. The result was a weakening of the Byzantine defenses in the region, which when combined with insufficient resources and incompetent leadership lead to the complete loss of all the empire's Asian territory to the Turks by c.1400.
[edit] Crusades
Map to show the partition of the empire following the Fourth Crusade, c.1204.The overall outcome of the Crusades leaving the Empire permanently weakened.
Part of the reason why the Crusades were launched was to assist the weakening Byzantine Empire; the other reason was to re-open Jerusalem to Christian Pilgrims. Both of these reasons stem from the arrival of the Seljuk Turks whose newly found Islamic zeal and opportune timing resulted in a victory at Manzikert in 1071 (which is still being debated over its importance, if any, in contributing to the empire's fall) and the fall of Jerusalem in 1076. Though the Crusades assisted Byzantium in driving back some of the Turks, it also opened up Byzantium to Latin aggression which was not always directed at Byzantium's enemies - most notably the Fourth Crusade, which sacked Byzantium and reduced Imperial power to the Nicaean Empire, Trebizond and Epirus. Much of the Nicaean Emperors' efforts went into combating the Latins - even after Constantinople was returned to Byzantine rule, the Empire exerted much of its efforts into defeating its Latin neighbours, whose desires to liberate the Holy Land largely faded by 1291.
[edit] Civil Wars
A series of societal infighting also weakened the Byzantine Empires military power. There were two major civil wars during the late Byzantine Empire one in 1321 another in 1341. These Civil wars also severely diminished Byzantines military capabilities. The civil war of 1321-1328 was led by a grandson of the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II who was supported by Byzantine Magnates who often clashed with the centralized Authority of Byzantine. The Byzantine civil war of 1321-1328 was inconclusive and ended with Andronikos III being made coempror with his grandfather. However this civil war allowed the Turks to make notable gains in Anatolia and set up their capital in Bursa 100 kilometers from Constantinople the Byzantine’s capital. However after the initial conflict Andronikos III dethroned his grandfather and became emperor [1]. Following the death of Andronikos III in 1341 another civil war broke out. This civil war lasted from 1341-1347 when Andronikos III died he left his six-year-old son under the regency of Anne of Savoy then the defacto leader of the Byzantine Empire, John Cantacuzenus who was not only a close Associate of the deceased emperor but an extremely wealthy landowner wanted to become regent [2]. However things did not go his way and he was declared emperor in Thrace, [3]. More or less this conflict was class warfare the rich supporting Cantacuzenus the poorer supporting the empress regent. The civil war of 1341-1347 saw exploitation of the Byzantine Empire by the Serbs whose emperor amidst the chaos proclaimed himself of the Serbs and Greeks. The Serbian king Stefan Uroš IV Dušan made significant territorial gains in Byzantine Macedonia in 1345 and conquered large swaths of Thessaly and Epirus in 1348 [4]. Although Dusan would die along with his dream of a Serbian Greek empire in 1355 [5], Byzantium would still face a powerful Turkish state across the Sea of Marmara. Luckily for Cantacuzenus he conquered Constantinople in 1347 and ended the civil war afterwards [6] In order to secure his authority during the civil war Cantacuzenus hired Turkish mercenaries, these mercenaries although they were of some use, in 1352 they seized Gallipoli from the Byzantines [7]. Although in 1354 the rouge mercenaries were defeated by western crusaders [8] Turkish armies would eventually control many of the Byzantine Empire's once held territories. these two monumentous civil wars severely diminished the Byzantine empires military strength and allowed its opportunistic enemies to make substantial gains into Byzantine territory.
Rise of the Ottomans
The arrival of the Seljuk Turks led to the rise of the Ottomans, warriors that followed the Noble (Bey) Osman I, who carved out a small domain in north-western Asia Minor, raiding Byzantine lands and occupying country land that was poorly defended. Attempts by the Byzantine Emperors to drive back the Ottomans yielded little short term success - the excessive use of mercenaries led to much peasant resentment, giving the Ottomans support in the regions in Asia Minor. Following a number of civil disputes in the Byzantine Empire, the Ottomans subjugated the Byzantines as vassals in the late 14th century and attempts to relieve this vassal status culminated in the Fall of Constantinople in 1453.
As a symbol and expression of the universal prestige of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, Justinian built the Church of the Holy Wisdom of God, Hagia Sophia, which was completed in the short period of four and a half years (532–537), and after it's fall in 1453, the Ottomans converted it to an Islamic Mosque.
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