king (for I hear that you possess the greatest influence with him), he will be more ready to grant the favor. Come now, most magnificent sir, set out to help Georgios; and by the favor you grant him, confirm the reputation which, as I said, you have already acquired among all men for benevolence and generosity. And if my own influence has any weight with you (as it is likely to have, given my age and the knowledge that many say I possess), help Georgios through me as well. For I would wish him to enjoy the greatest success, as he is a good man, both in word and deed, on my behalf.
That you will act in this way and help Georgios, I know. But as for whether you will see me, you know well that you will see me as a fatherly friend; yet if, due to my old age, anything happens and I am unable to see you, know that I am prepared to do everything for your sake. For all who understand even a faint glimmer of the Greek tongue, all owe you the greatest thanks, being a man both prudent and most excellently trained in military operations, and one who, for the sake of virtue, honors not himself alone, but the wretched race of the Greeks as well. Add, therefore, to your other fine qualities this just favor toward your friend Georgios, that you may appear to be the most excellent of men, not only in wars and political actions, but also in the favors you grant to your friends.
And may God make your magnificence happy. A At Lyon, on the third day before the end of the month of Munychion.
NOVEL CONSTITUTIONS OF THE EMPERORS OF CONSTANTINOPLE
(1220–1453)1. Treaty of Emperor Theodore Laskaris with the Venetians (A.D. 1220)
Theodoros, in Christo God-fearing Emperor and governor of the Romans and always Augustus Comnenus Lascarus.
I have agreed to keep a pure and firm peace, free from scandal, with you, the most fortunate and most noble lord, Ja. Teupulo, by order of the most high Doge of Venice, the Potestà of the Venetians in Romania and Despotes of the Empire of Romania and of one fourth and one half of its Empire, acting in his stead, from the feast of the Assumption of the most holy Mother of God and ever-virgin Mary, recently passed, in this month of August of this current seventh indiction, in the year from the creation of the world 6728, that all Venetians and the men of Venice, going, staying, and returning in all the lands of my Empire, and in all various other places by land and by sea, with their ships and with all the men and goods standing within these same ships, shall be preserved by my Empire without harm and without any annoyance and without any disturbance. And those Venetians, with all their goods, in every subjection of the lands of my Empire by land and by sea, must be free and without any commerce tax and without any other exaction, and they must handle whatever merchandise pleases them throughout my entire Empire and without any inquiry. Indeed, merchants of the lands of my Empire in Constantinople and in other lands of your lordship, going, staying, and returning, must handle their merchandise without impediment, saving the right of commerce which they must pay. B
It is also agreed that, if any ship of the men of Venice shall be in danger, or that of the merchants of the lands of your lordship in the parts of the lands of my Empire; or if a ship of the men of my Empire shall be in danger in the parts of the lands of your lordship, the goods which shall have been extracted from both parties from the danger, must be returned to the men who emerge from the danger.
It is also agreed: regarding the goods of merchants who have been in peril in the lands of my Empire from the beginning of the recently concluded truce, or who shall be in peril, and regarding other men of your lordship, my Empire has provided reasonably; and your lordship must similarly act regarding those who have been in peril or shall be in peril at this time, for the merchants of my Empire, reasonably.
It is further agreed that neither my Empire, nor your Despotate shall have license to mint *hyperpera* or *manuelata*, or stamena of equal form to those of the other party.
It is also agreed: my Empire has promised that until the completion of five years of peace, neither galleys nor long-ships of my Empire shall have license to pass from Constantinople, unless this be by the will of your lordship. Nor shall my Empire take soldiers from the part of your lordship, unless this also be by the will of your lordship.
All these things declared above, my Empire has sworn with its own mouth upon the holy Gospels of God and upon the honorable and life-giving Cross and upon the icon B of the Mother of God, that it will keep these things until the completion of five years.
And thence was brought about this present chrysobull document of my Empire, for the month of August, in the seventh indiction, in the year from the beginning of the world six thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight, in which our power given by God has signed. Theodorus, in Christ God faithful Emperor and ruler of the Greeks, Comnenus Lascarus.
II. Regarding the Emperor Joannes Ducas Vatatzes and the restoration of the monastery at Mount Lembos near Smyrna. (A. 1228.)
The heavens, he says, speak of the tongue... the intellect ... musical ... obligation of thanks ... benefactor ... hidden ... satiety to Him ... C ... and not shall be fashioned a polyphonic harmony in musical systems, and with the *diapason* consonance shall he glorify the benefactor. But if one has been raised to the imperial throne of sovereignty, the weight of the obligation outweighs every movement and power of mind and fluency of tongue and abundance. And thus, above all others, the emperors owe the possible recompense to God. And this the divine psalmist David in spirit hinted at, saying: “O Lord... let them be disgraced and by themselves... being on their own... truce... [monasteries] of his own... among the monks regarding... and theirs... as if from a machine... and polyphonic... the harmony and [of the] imperial D majesty they might complete as is worthy, and might present the ascetics as saints instead of themselves as singers; and being released from the body—which it is necessary to suffer—they might glorify [Him] in these things eternally, and thus glorifying, might prepare even the Great Giver to surpass all excess of great giving at the time of the distributions owed to each. If then these things are so, how shall my Majesty not take thought, regarding the monastery newly raised by it at the place situated upon Mount Lembos and having appropriated the name of the place, for the completion and establishment of this?
1. For the place was a spot of quietude calling to itself the earnest and the peace-loving, and was plainly shown to be such by certain signs; and the divine was glorified there through the psalmody of monks, who had made the free air and the place untrodden and unvisited by the many their seat. And dimly in this were also traces of the ancient happiness impressed: the reconstruction of a church, practiced for its good craftsmanship, yet by time stripped of its beauty; and the other things so far obliterated that not even fragments of the buildings once there remain to be preserved. But my Majesty, having loved the place as an ally of virtue and a dwelling suitable and most appropriate for monks, wished to restore the church, and to build cells for a worthy assembly of monks, and to rebuild the refectory for the brotherly love of the monks in Christ, and to do the other things, as many as contribute to the unceasing service of the monks. And some of these were completed until now.
A of duty, pasture-tax, air-tax, the driving off of merchant vessels, and of horsemen, of exaction of contributions, of giving of sheep, of the driving off of teams of oxen, excepting only the two heads belonging to the public treasury, namely the *agape* and the *sitare* [grain-tax], and every other kind of molestation, even if it has not been expressly mentioned in this present chrysobull of my Majesty. For in accordance with the general principle of the *exkousseia*, my Majesty is pleased that all things pertaining to such a monastery should be exempt, and indeed also the *vivarion* [fish-pond] of the same, from *vivarotaktoi*, from *proskynetikion*, from *opsonion*, and from other customs and dues annually demanded from the *vivaria*. For this reason also, this present chrysobull of my Majesty has been issued for the part of such monastery for everlasting security, released in the month of August of the first indiction, of the 6746th year, in which our pious and divinely-ordained power has also signed it.
For it was granted by my Majesty, and confirmed to it A the estate [proasteion] of Vary, that is to say the orchards, together with those residing in it and those who have migrated from them to that place and have settled in Smyrna with the three brothers, the children of the *melous* [apple-tree owner?], so that the monks may have them for their service and upkeep, and that they may have the use of the three brothers who have settled in such estate and those settling in Smyrna as stated, and may carry off the income from them. And there is among the rights of the region of such estate a house of prayer, Saint George, which was also rebuilt as a *metochion* by the monks. And the monastery also acquired another *metochion* in Smyrna, Saint George the Exokastrites. Likewise, the place in the gully of the sea-inlet by Smyrna, which had lain useless until now, which begins from the canal called that of Asanes and extends as far as the lamp of the *kourtion*, the monks of the same monastery completed, with no small labor and expense, into a *vivarion*. And they also renovated, in the place called the field of the abbots, two water-mill workshops, and in the locality of Kantzourion, some olive trees.
§ 2. And since they also needed a chrysobull of my Majesty for the secure possession and lordship of the same, my Majesty, having received their petition, has granted this present chrysobull, by which it is ordained firmly, irrevocably, and according to the title of lordship that the monastery shall hold all the above-mentioned things, namely the estate of Vary with all its region, and its retention and all its rights and privileges, those of the *paroikoi* residing in it, of the subservient and nomadic land, and of all that has, by custom, been assigned from of old to this [estate] and the *metochion* of Saint George within it. Likewise, my Majesty further commands that the same monastery shall maintain seignorial right over the *metochion* acquired by it near Smyrna, that called Saint George the Exokastrites; over the *vivarion* expressly recorded above; over the two water-mill workshops; over the olive trees in the Kantzourion; and over all that has been or shall be acquired by the same monastery. And my Majesty, through this present chrysobull, is pleased to grant *exkousseia* to such estate, and to those residing in it, and to those who have migrated from them and settled in Smyrna—the three brothers, children of the *melous*—from all and every molestation, *angareia*, *parangareia*, damage, bread-tax, castle-building, labor-building, the cutting down and bringing down of any wood, *stypaxoungou*, hemp, liquid pitch, the burning of cardoons, the providing of *mitaton* and *aplekton*, of the Ducal and Katepan usage.
B It had: John, in Christ the God, faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, the Doukas, C in red letters of the imperial and divine hand.
III.
Concerning the fact that civil magistrates should not intrude upon the goods of metropolitans or bishops. (A.D. 1229)
The Chrysobull of the renowned king, loved by the world, Lord John Doukas Vatatzes.
"The Levites shall be mine," God long ago declared to the high priest Moses. Those whom God has set apart from the others, He consecrates more intimately to Himself and establishes them for the purposes of His own clergy; therefore, how great a reward and exceptional honor they should enjoy from men! Nor is it only those who live the life here, but also those who have moved on to God and have departed from our state, whose life should not only be clear, but whose very migration to God should be glorious and noteworthy. A clear proof [of this is] that very high mountain where Moses, together with the high priest, was ordered to make the ascent: "Go up," he says, "to the mountain, you and Aaron your brother; and strip Aaron of his garment, and let Aaron, having died, be laid there," for both the chrism of Eleazar and the migration of Aaron were famous and on high. And how much respect and dignity my Majesty shows, and with how much honor my Majesty treats the high priests, is known not only to those who approach my Majesty, but the common people have not been ignorant of it. But when those who have served as high priests over any of the metropolises and bishoprics have died in silence—which is the natural fate, when the soul, leaving the body, has flown up to the heavenly bridegroom on feathered wings—those who execute fiscal duties in the territories of my Majesty, having found no one to oppose them, seize what is then left behind by the churches and plunder them, [offering] excuses in
A their sins, saying that they do this for the collection of common contributions belonging to worldly expenses and services. And in this way, not only is filth inflicted upon the deceased, for whom the Psalmist clearly weaves an epitaph more divinely through the lyre of the Spirit: "Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his holy ones" (Ps. CXV, 15), but it also seems that the divine sanctuaries themselves are made gloomy, stripped and shorn of the splendor that adorns them, caused by the lighting and other services, or reduced to a state of extreme lack of the funds whose remainder the unsparing hands of the tax collectors have plundered.
My Majesty, therefore, considering this to be unlawful, decrees through this present golden bull of its own that, when death happens to befall any of the metropolitans or bishops, the dukes of any theme or any of their tax collectors shall not at all set foot in the cells of the deceased high priests (that is, of metropolitans and bishops), nor shall anything be taken from there, nor shall they hold captive the relatives of the deceased present there or those assigned to service for the aforementioned high priests, nor drag them off for the payment of coins, nor take anything from them. And any extortionist shall be driven away from there by the appearance of this present golden bull of my Majesty. Regarding the items found in the cells of the high priests—whether they be books, or provisions for life, or animals, or some other necessities—my Majesty commands that the steward of each church, in the presence of the whole clergy, shall take them and administer them, so that all ecclesiastical administration and order may be fulfilled completely and in a manner pleasing to God, until another high priest arrives.
For this purpose, this present golden bull of my Majesty has been issued to all the metropolises and bishoprics in this land for an everlasting security, released in the month of December of the 2nd indiction, of the year 6790, in which our pious and God-ordained power has signed. B (A.D. 1281.)
IV. Imp. Michaelis Palæologi aurea bulla pro Genuensibus. (f) (A. 1261.)
Michael in Christo Deo faithful Emperor, Emperor of the Greeks, Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos.
Since William, Vicecount, and Guarnerius, Judge, were sent by the mandate of their lords, namely Lord Martin de Facio, Podestà of Genoa, and Lord William Boucha Nigr., Captain of Genoa, with the consent and common council of the eight Nobles and Elders of the people and the Commune of Genoa, as syndics, envoys, and procurators to our Empire, to speak, request, negotiate, confirm, affirm, and complete with our Empire all things that were committed to them by their aforementioned lords, the Podestà, Captain, and the whole Commune of Genoa: they came to our Empire, and our Empire received them joyfully and honorably, and they spoke with our Empire about all the chapters that they were commissioned to request, and they requested from our Empire itself the fulfillment of the same: we descended, and our Empire condescended to fulfill the aforesaid chapters, and swore and promised to the said envoys and procurators and syndics, receiving [these] in the name and on behalf of the Commune of Genoa, the same chapters and the present privilege fortified by the golden bull of our Empire, upon the holy gospels of God and the honorable and life-giving cross and all the saints:
C Imprimis, that from this present day forward, our Empire and its successors shall have love and perpetual peace with the Commune of Genoa and its districts, and that it shall have war henceforth with the Commune of the Venetians and with all the Venetians, our enemies, and that it shall not make peace, truce, or concord with the said Commune without the knowledge and will of the Commune of Genoa. And the said Commune of Genoa shall not make peace, truce, or concord with the said Commune of the Venetians without the knowledge and will of our Empire.
Item, that it shall save, by itself and through its imperial men, those whom it has and those whom it shall acquire by the mercy of God, by sea and on land, in ports and on islands, which it has [or] shall hereafter acquire by divine piety, all the Genoese and those of the district of Genoa and those who shall be called Genoese, both in persons and in goods, if shipwrecked, provided that it is testified to the Podestà of Genoa or the Chapter or the Consuls of Genoa, who shall then be in the parts of Romania, that they are known to be Genoese or of the district of Genoa or the said Genoese.
Item, it has given and granted to the said envoys and syndics, receiving in the name and on behalf of the Commune of Genoa and of individual Genoese, according to their liberty, franchise, and immunity henceforth in perpetuity by sea and on land, in our ports and islands, which it now has [and] which it shall hereafter acquire by the mercy of God; provided, however, that all Genoese and the districts of the Genoese and the said Genoese shall be franchised and free and immune in my whole aforesaid Empire from all commerce, tolls, and exactions, in entering my Empire and leaving, staying, and traveling from land to land, by sea and by land, with goods D and without goods, carried there or bought there, to be taken elsewhere, personally or really.
Item, it has given and granted in the lands written below and any of them, for the free right of property and lordship, in Anea, Simirris, in Landimuti, and by the mercy of God in Constantinople, and in the parts of Saronichi, at Corsandrun, (g) and in the islands written below and any of them, namely in Metelli, in Scio, and by the mercy of God in Crete, in Negroponte, a loggia, and beyond Constantinople, Thessalonica, and Cassandriam.
A a palace, a church, a bath, an oven, and a garden, within the church itself and its cemetery, and as well houses sufficient for the stalls of merchants who shall come there for the sake of trading; provided, however, that no pension regarding them shall be sought or exacted; and in the aforesaid lands and islands, the Genoese must have and possess, and in each of them at their will, consuls, a court, and full and mixed jurisdiction in all civil and criminal matters over all Genoese and those from the district of Genoa and those who are called Genoese. And if there shall be a question as to whether someone is Genoese or from the district or is called such, the assertion of the consuls of the Genoese who shall be in office at that time shall be believed and upheld. He further promised and agreed that he will not receive any Genoese, nor anyone from the district, as a vassal, man, or liege, because he shall always remain under the court and jurisdiction of the Genoese consuls, and shall be held to answer before them as a citizen and inhabitant of Genoa.
Item, he promised and agreed that he will not hinder, nor cause to be hindered, nor permit within our entire Empire—which [God] has [granted] and by the mercy of God he has acquired—any Genoese or anyone from the district or any so-called Genoese to be held for the deed or crime of another on any occasion, regarding their persons or goods, but the punishment shall hold the perpetrators themselves, so that the others suffer no damage or injury for the crime, debt, or robbery of another. And if anyone shall be accused or inculpated or sought for any debt, robbery, or crime of someone else, it shall be heard under the court and jurisdiction of the Genoese consuls. And if someone from the land of our Empire, or someone who is not from our Empire B and is not Genoese, shall offend any of the aforementioned Genoese or shall be a debtor for any amount, our Empire shall proceed and shall do summary and expedient justice.
Item, that he will not permit hereafter in all his land or in the islands of our Empire, which he has and by the mercy of God has acquired, any armed force to be assembled, which is or ought to be against the commune of Genoa or the Genoese and the district; he shall not receive nor permit to be received any armed force against the Genoese in all the said Empire, nor shall he grant to the enemies of the commune of the Genoese any market, except to the Pisans, who are faithful to our Empire; and he shall expel all pirates acting against the commune of the Genoese from his entire Empire, and shall pursue them and punish them according to justice as offenders.
Item, he promised, agreed, and confirmed the rights, reasons, and the privilege of rights and buildings, by the favor of divine mercy, which the commune of Genoa or anyone acting for the commune has been accustomed to have in the great city of Constantinople. And if the omnipotent Lord shall grant to our Empire to recover and take the said city, then he shall give to the commune of Genoa, in the aforesaid city, a palace, a stall, possessions, and in lands; and he shall grant favor to the said commune, namely that he shall give to the said commune the church of St. Mary which the Venetians now hold, with the loggias which are the ground of the Venetian fort, which is in the city itself, if the said commune shall have sent instant and effective aid of galleys for the taking of the said city.
Item, he gave and granted by right of property and dominion, with full court and mixed jurisdiction, the city or place of Simisso and its port, with the aforesaid possessions and district and inhabitants, free and unhindered in the entry and exit by sea and land, for perpetual possession: namely, all that which pertains to the Imperial Majesty, saving the rights of the bishopric and the churches of that city, and of those soldiers who are privileged in that city to inhabit by our Empire in the order of the militia, which is useful to all for the use of trade, and it possesses a good port and is affluent in all goods.
He promised again and agreed to give annually to the commune of Genoa for the solemnities C five hundred hyperpyra and two gilded palls, and to the archbishopric of the Genoese sixty hyperpyra and one gilded pall, as is mentioned in the privilege of [the] happy memory of Lord Manuel, erstwhile Emperor of the Greeks.
Item, he promised and agreed that he will not impose hereafter upon the commune of Genoa any impost in all said Empire, which he has and by the mercy of God has acquired, upon any merchandise, victuals, and grain, but shall permit the Genoese themselves to contract for merchandise, victuals, and grain from all the aforementioned Empire, unto all and singular Genoese, and to carry them away freely and expeditiously, without any impediment of tax, commerce, or exaction.
Item, he promised and agreed that he will not detain, nor cause to be detained, nor permit any ship or timber belonging to any Genoese to be detained on any occasion, nor any Genoese in person or goods, but shall always permit them and these things to leave the entire Empire personally and really, unless he was accused of any debt, theft, or robbery, for which he ought to be judged under the court of the Genoese.
Item, he promised and agreed that he will not impose or exact, nor cause to be exacted, from any person any new commerce, tax, or exaction in all the aforesaid Empire, which he has or has acquired by the mercy of God, upon those goods which he has bought from the Genoese, nor shall he sell to them, nor to those who are called Genoese, unless it was customary under the happy memory of the lord Emperor Kaloioannes, our kinsman, to be exacted or held from civil merchandise.
He promised again and agreed that he will not permit hereafter to trade between the Greater Sea any Latin, unless [he be] a Genoese or a Pisan or those who defended the port or the goods of the Vestiarium, to which Genoese he shall not enforce any prohibition of going between the Greater Sea and returning with goods, or without goods, but they may freely go and return D and be free from all commerce.
He promised moreover and agreed, having signed and ratified
by oath, through himself and his successors, to the aforementioned syndics, envoys, and proctors, receiving in the name and on behalf of the Commune of Genoa and of the individual Genoese, that which is contained in the present privilege, by the Podestà of Genoa, the Captain of Genoa, the eight Nobles, the Ancients, and the whole Commune and the Councilors of Genoa to our Empire, that it shall liberate and absolve from prisons and chains all Genoese and those from the district of Genoa and those who are called Genoese, who are in the prisons of our Empire, and shall permit them to return and depart. Since, therefore, our Empire has received and fulfilled the aforementioned petitions of the aforementioned envoys and has confirmed them by oath, for the aforementioned envoys—namely, William Visconti A and Gualtiero the Judge—have sworn upon the holy Gospels of God, the honorable and true Cross, and all the saints, and have taken upon their souls and the souls of their lords, the Podestà, the Captain, the Ancients, the eight Nobles, and the Commune, all the petitions of our Empire subscribed below, and they must swear many times, namely the Podestà, the Captain, the Ancients, the eight Nobles, and the Commune of Genoa, that they shall fulfill these things, and by oath confirm and ratify what is written below:
First, that the Commune of Genoa shall have from henceforth peace and perpetual love with our Empire and its successors, and shall not make peace, truce, nor concord with the common enemies of our commune, the Venetians, without the knowledge and will of our Empire, just as our Empire is bound not to make truce, peace, nor concord with our common enemies, the Venetians, without the will and consciousness of the said Commune of Genoa.
Item, that they shall save, keep, and defend in Genoa and the district of Genoa, which they have and from henceforth shall acquire, all the envoys and faithful men of our Empire.
Item, that all merchants and each and all who are from the land of our Empire may go to Genoa and conduct trade, and in the whole of its district which it has and from henceforth shall acquire, and may extract from Genoa and its district all merchandise, arms, and horses freely without any duty B or commerce, and that they may be free and exempt in Genoa and its district, which it has and shall acquire, in going and returning, and that they must be guarded in health and from shipwreck.
Item, that they shall not permit any armed force to be made in Genoa or its district, had or to be had, by any enemies of our Empire and by any others against the said Empire or the peoples or islands of our Empire.
Item, that all Genoese and those from the district of Genoa who shall wish to come into the service of our Empire C may come with galleys, arms, ships, and horses, and the said Commune, Podestà, and Captain may not detain them.
Item, that all Genoese and those from the district and who shall call themselves Genoese, who shall be in our Empire, and who shall help to defend and shall defend the land of our Empire and its men in good faith, may not, however, be detained for this reason personally or really, but may always leave our Empire and depart personally and really at their own will.
Item, that if any ship of Genoese merchants be in our Empire, and it then happens that a fleet of the Pisans or Venetians or others, who have war with our Empire, and the Captain or Duke or Castellanus of the place where the aforementioned ship might be should require the men of the aforesaid ship to fortify the castle, and should strike a bargain with the Genoese themselves for as much time as the pact shall be made, giving them wages, namely for ten days or twenty or one month or more or less, that the said Genoese who have made the bargain are bound to defend and save that castle as if it were the proper castle of the Genoese, and not to commit any malice against the said castle or treason against the said castle; the Commune of Genoa, the Captain, and the Podestà shall be bound to make correction and seek vengeance upon them, just as if they were traitors to the Commune of Genoa in a similar case.
Item, that the envoys of our Empire may always at their will extract arms and horses from the city of Genoa and the district held and to be held, freely without any commerce.
Item, when our Empire shall have need of galleys and shall wish to request them for the service D of our Empire, the Commune of Genoa, the Captain, and the Podestà [are bound to furnish] from one galley up to fifty, at the expense of our Empire, just as it appears and is written concerning the expenses in this oath-bound privilege: namely, that the men of each galley shall have every month for provisions 90 cantars of ship-biscuit, which are by the weight of Romania 14,400 pounds; item, 6 cantars of salted meat by the Genoese weight, which are 960 pounds of Romania; item, 1000 pounds of cheese of Romania; item, wine by the measure of Nisi 240. Item, that the men of the said galleys ought to have the wages of our Empire for every month and for every man, as is contained here: namely, the Comites of each galley, 6 and a half hyperpyra; 4 nautileni of each galley, 13 hyperpyra, namely each nauclerius 3 hyperpyra and 6 carats; the supersalientes of each galley, 100 hyperpyra—namely, 2 and a half per man; the panetarius of each galley, 1 hyperpyron and 18 carats; the 107 rowers of each galley, 189 hyperpyra, namely 1 and 18 carats for each. The aforementioned wages and
victuals shall be given and paid by the aforementioned Empire to the personnel of said galleys from the day, after their departure from the port of Genoa, that said galleys move forward, and the Commune of Genoa shall be held to equip well and wholly the said galleys with all their tackles and apparatus. Which galleys and their men must serve A our Empire against all men who are enemies of our Empire, except against the Roman Church and against those Communities and Barons with whom Genoa has peace or a convention, who must be named and known and given in writing on the day that the Podestà, Captain, eight Nobles, Ancients, Councilors, and Commune of Genoa swear against our Empire. And our Empire shall grant leave to the galleys committed to it upon the performance of service: and if it happens before the first day of the coming month of October that the men of said galleys have had the said B solids and the expenses for the forty days immediately following that which they were granted leave, if they have not reached the port of Genoa before the said limit of forty days, the said Commune is held to restore to our Empire the solids and the expenses that remain, of which our Empire may do its own will. And if it happens that our Empire grants leave to the said galleys after the said first day of October, it shall give to our Empire the solids and expenses for the men of said galleys for such time as they remain detained in reaching the port of Genoa. The C admiral, captains, and masters of said galleys are held, however, by oath, that even if our Empire grants them leave before or after the said limit, they shall not, with the said galleys, and by all most efficient means, without any delay, be at Genoa as conveniently as they are able. In the same way, no merchant of Genoa, or of the district, or whoever is called a Genoese, shall carry the goods of any foreigner when entering the land of our Empire or when exiting from it, in fraud of the commerce of our Empire, and this shall be known by letters or the testimony of the Genoese Consuls who may be in Romania at that time. Item, that all merchants of Genoa and its district have D the license to make and exercise and take out from the whole of our Empire all wares, except gold and silver, unless it be by the will of our Empire: golden hyperpyra and Turkish [coins] it shall be lawful for them to take out at their will and carry away. And given that said syndics, nuncios, and procurators requested from our Empire itself a lodge at Landrimir, in Chios, Anea, Marellini, Casandria, Smyrna, and — God willing — in Constantinople, and in Negroponte and in Crete, and it gave and granted these to them, the same nuncios promised and promise that the negotiations which the Genoese and those who are named are to conduct, will be given and manifested and denounced most certainly in writing and by oath to the commissioners of our Empire, so that the commissioners may receive their due from those foreigners, except from the Genoese. But other merchandise, which other Greek merchants and other generations from Genoa may bring, must be placed at the imperial houses, and there the Genoese must share with them, so that the latter may be free, while others pay the trade duty. All the aforesaid and each individual item my Empire promises by this present sworn privilege to save and observe, if the Podestà, Captain of Genoa, the eight Nobles, and Ancients, and the whole Council [and] the Commune of Genoa swear to the aforesaid conventions, sworn to by the aforementioned nuncios, syndics, and delegated procurators, namely Guglielmo Viceconte and Gualterio the Judge, and will save and confirm all those things sworn to and affirmed by the aforementioned syndics, nuncios, and procurators, according to what is contained in the privilege made for this purpose. These things were done in the Empire of Romania in the imperial hall which is at Nisi, in the year 1261 from the nativity of the Lord Jesus Christ, fourth indiction, on the 13th day of March.
Golden Bull of Emperor Michael Palaeologus for confirming peace with the Venetians
Since the most noble Doge of Venice and ruler of Croatia, Dalmatia, and the other lands and islands under his authority, Rainiero Zeno, together with the Lesser and Greater Council of their Commune, and with the consent and judgment of such entire Commune of Venice, having chosen as ambassadors the two noble men and chief councilors, the lord Jacopo Delfino and the lord Jacopo Cantarino, sent them to my majesty, so that they might meet and treat concerning friendship, and fulfill this with my majesty as plenipotentiary ambassadors, possessing the authority and the entire will of the most noble Doge of Venice and their Commune entrusted to them, and that what was done and dedicated by them might be confirmed and ratified and received by the aforementioned most noble Doge of Venice, lord Rainiero Zeno, and the Lesser and Greater Council of Venice and the entire Commune of it, and many meetings and negotiations having taken place with them, my majesty came together and agreed to make and fulfill the friendship with them on the points to be mentioned below; my majesty swears upon the holy Gospels of God and upon the honorable and life-giving
A cross, that from this day, which is the eighteenth of the present month of June of the eighth indiction, it shall hold with the most noble Doge of Venice and their minor and major council and the whole commune of Venice a pure and guileless friendship, as follows:
That after they have been bound in friendship with my majesty, they shall not make friendship with any other race against my majesty; nor even if anyone else, or B any of those now involved in friendship with Venice, should attempt and rush against the lands of my majesty—either the lord Pope, or the King of France, or the King of Sicily, or the King of Castile, or the King of England, or the King of Ragusa, or the brother of the King of France, Count Charles, or another king and count, or the commune of Genoa, or the commune of Pisa, or the commune of Ancona, or another commune, or simply to speak, any Christian or impious foreigner—should rush against the lands of my majesty or a castle or moat of it, that the most noble Doge of Venice or the commune of Venice, or any of the ship-masters or of the lords of Venice, shall come C to battle against the land of my majesty or against a castle or its moat, either by words or by counsels or by deeds or by money, or that they shall charter ships to them for coming, either from the commune in general or from merchants individually and lords of Venice, in such a way as to accept freight, or the commune of Venice or some of the merchants or ship-masters, and transport enemies into the land of my majesty. But if any kings or princes or counts or barons, with a moat, seek to cross over for the purpose of going to the Lord’s tomb or elsewhere, the Doge of Venice and the commune shall first demand an oath from them that they will not come against the lands of my majesty, and thus let them cross over where they wish in their service; but if perhaps ten or twenty travelers wish to cross, the Doge of Venice and the commune shall not require an oath from them.
That the merchants of the land of my majesty who intend to go to Venice shall perform the business that they think fit and shall pay the *commercium* according to the custom of Venice, and shall buy what they think fit without hindrance.
That Venice shall hold the lands that it holds at present, Coron and Modon, as it holds them again. That it shall hold the island of Crete, and as many men of my majesty as are found there, my majesty shall take them, and my majesty shall not occupy this. The islands of the Aegean Sea, as many as the Doge of Venice had for entry, D that he shall have these again, but those that were under the empire and the principality, when the Latins were masters of Constantinople, that by God’s favor they shall be under my majesty and his heirs and his successors and the *Romania*.
To Euripus, that they may have, if they have anything today. That my majesty shall give them in Almyrus a place for a seat, and they shall make resting-places in it. But since my majesty has a war with Euripus, and Venetians are found in it, that my majesty shall have the quay of Almyrus seized, so that the Venetians in Euripus may not take provisions and drink from such a quay, and transport these for the sustenance of the enemies of my majesty, the Latins, in Euripus; until God grants, and my majesty becomes master of Euripus, and then my majesty shall release such a quay to the side of Venice. When my majesty is about to fight, with God’s help, against the Latins in Euripus, Venice shall not send an alliance or money to their aid. But also the Venetians found in Euripus, if they secede from the side of the Latins there and fall away individually, and neither ally themselves with the Latins nor oppose my majesty, that they and their property shall be protected by the side of my majesty, as are the rest of the Venetians; but if these oppose my majesty’s side together with the Latins there in the war that is to happen against Euripus, that my majesty may do to them and to their property what he wishes. After, by God’s help, my majesty takes Euripus, the place which Venice finds it has in it today, my majesty shall give this again to the most noble Doge of Venice and its commune; and they shall have this again, just as they have it today.
Likewise, that my majesty shall give them also in the region of Thessaloniki, excluding the castle, a place where they wish for a seat; in the region of Boleron and Ainos, where they may rest; from the Straits towards the west in two places, wherever they desire; in Constantinople, in whatever place they desire, from the old station up to the Pegae (if perhaps at some time my majesty should wish to give a place within Constantinople or Thessaloniki to any of the Latin communes, then my majesty shall prefer the Venetians, and shall give them a place in such castles); in the Black Sea, wherever they please; at Yrtakion that they may have a place; at Adramyttion the houses and the bath that are there; in Anaea a place that they may enter and exit in it; likewise also in Smyrna.
That my majesty shall drive out from its land their enemies, the Genoese, and shall not receive them. If at some time the Genoese approach my majesty and beseech it to receive them into friendship, my majesty shall not do this otherwise...
than with the knowledge of the Duke of Venice and the Commune, saving the present sworn treaty of my majesty with Venice. But neither shall Venice receive them into friendship without the knowledge of my majesty, saving the sworn treaty of Venice with my majesty. And if such enemies of theirs should arm ships to come against the territory of my majesty, they too shall arm ships and come to their engagement and to the aid of the territory of my majesty, according to the quantity of the Genoese timbers and according to what they decide to engage against them. And that my majesty shall give the alf-expenditure for the maintenance of the crews of such ships, an oath being taken by both the Duke of Venice and their Commune, that as they intend to give half the expenditure for such crews without any deceit, so my majesty shall give the half expenditure for the crews, equal to the expenditure of Venice. And if my majesty notifies some of the lords of Venice and friends of my majesty to arm ships and serve my majesty, and they should wish for the love of my majesty to do this, they shall not be hindered in this by the most noble Duke of Venice or their Commune. Nor shall my majesty send such ships against any country which has friendship with Venice.
C That, if by land a host should happen to come against the territory of my majesty, the Venetians found in that place shall be guarded by my majesty, just as are the Romans under my majesty, whether in Constantinople or in Thessalonica.
That the Commune of Venice shall place a head over their people, and he shall be named bailo, and he shall send judges to the places where they intend to have rests, so as to lead their people. But also the Romans, whoever have some matter with the Venetians and wish to be judged by the bailo, shall be judged also according to justice.
That all recognized Venetians shall have authority in all the territories of my majesty, in which they intend to conduct business, both by land and by sea. But even without business, those coming shall pass through both on land and on sea without any payment or hindrance, and without payment of customs, transit duties, commercial taxes, portage, or any other payment whatever.
D That if it happens that Venetians are endangered with their ships or other vessels in the territory of my majesty, both they and their goods shall be safe, and they shall have aid from the people of my majesty, so that they may secure their goods.
That the Venetians shall have permission to buy grain from the territory of my majesty, and to transport it where they wish, except for the territories of the enemies of my majesty. When wheat is sold in Constantinople at a centenarium beyond fifty hyperpyra, they shall not buy it.
That if it happens that a Venetian causes harm to some Roman, if the one who committed the harm is found, then the bailo shall perform justice according to law. If the one who committed the injury is not found, a term of up to six months shall be given by the bailo to the injured party; and if the perpetrator of the injustice is found, the justice shall take place again according to the law; if he is not found, the bailo, or his deputy, shall take an oath to give notice everywhere where there is authority of the Venetians and his property is found, and the injured party shall be satisfied. And if it happens that a murder occurs, if a Venetian kills a Roman, he shall be judged by the part of my majesty, and likewise a Roman if he kills a Venetian. But if a Venetian kills a Venetian, if he kills him outside of Constantinople, he shall be judged by the bailo; but if the murder occurs in Constantinople by a Venetian against a Venetian, this also shall be judged by the part of my majesty.
That my majesty shall release the Venetians whom it holds captured; and as many Romans as the Venetians hold, the Duke of Venice and the Commune shall release them; and likewise they shall also release the Cretans, the Coronians, and the Methonians, who arrived at being of my majesty and were seized by them when they were of my majesty; and if such Cretans or Coronians or Methonians wish to be back there, they shall stay with them.
That the Venetians carrying goods, wherever they bring them, shall show them to the local commercial officials of my majesty, and with an oath they shall be secured that they do not have in their business the goods of some outsiders, but that all the goods belong to the Venetians, and that they do not conceal anything from their goods, so that the local commercial officials may receive my majesty's customary commercial tax from the outsiders, saving the present sworn treaty of my majesty with Venice. A And that they have their own staters, modii, measures, weights, and cubits in their own places.
That their churches, which they intend to have in the places where they intend to dwell, shall be autonomous under the power of my majesty without inquisition, and that they may perform in them baptisms and sacred rites, as they have the custom.
That if a Venetian dies in the territory of my majesty, whether he makes a will or does not make one, his property shall be managed by the bailo or by his deputy, as he may devise or as the bailo and his deputy may judge, and he shall not find any hindrance or harassment from the part of my majesty. B
Lest my majesty permit any armament to be made from its territory against the Venetians; but if any loss should occur, my majesty shall provide redress for it. Should Venetian corsairs cause any damage in the territory of my majesty, the A bailo and his subordinates shall be liable for their oath, to find them and seize them, and impose penalties upon them, and take up the property of the wronged parties and deliver it to them, provided however that they are not Venetians who hold islands and are not subject to Venice. But if corsairs come against the territory of my majesty from another race or from the islands as aforementioned which are not subject to Venice, they shall not receive them into their territory or island, but shall fight them and drive them off, just as the party of my majesty also does. Whoever receives these, if he finds punishment from my majesty, my majesty shall not be held to [the violation of] the oath on account of the punishment of such persons. B
If it should happen that any fault occurs on the part of Venice toward the side of my majesty, my majesty shall not abandon the love of the most noble Duke of Venice and their Commune, nor move to battle, but shall communicate with the most noble Duke of Venice and the Commune, so that the redress may be provided by them. Likewise, if it should happen that any fault occurs on the part of my majesty toward the side of Venice, the Duke of Venice and the Commune shall not abandon the love of my majesty, nor move to battle, but the Duke of Venice and the Commune shall communicate with my majesty, so that the redress may be provided by my majesty. If it should happen that the most noble Duke of Venice were to take the common burden—which my majesty prays may not happen—the successors to the authority of the Duchy of Venice, their Commune, and the Lesser and Greater Council shall sustain these articles.
These articles my majesty C took upon itself in the presence of the aforementioned two noble men and apocrisiaries, Sir Giacomo Delfino and Sir Giacomo Contarini, as they presented to my majesty the written power and authority which they held from the Duke of Venice and the Commune to treat and fulfill the love with my majesty, which document reads word for word as follows: "We, Renier Zeno, by the grace of God Duke of Venice, make it known to all who view this our present document that we, A together with the Greater and Lesser Council of the Commune of Venice, have entrusted to Giacomo Delfino and Giacomo Contarini, our faithful and beloved men, full power and authority; we have given them to act in these present matters, that is to negotiate and enter into a settlement with the most high lord Michael, in Christ the God faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, Ducas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos, and to have golden chrysobulls issued, and to fulfill and confirm [them] with the aforementioned Emperor as it shall seem best to them, and to undertake and receive covenants and oaths for us and for the Commune of Venice, as it shall seem best to them, and generally to do all things in the aforesaid [matters] and in the things pertaining to them, as it shall seem convenient to them. We promise, in our name and [that of] the Commune of Venice, to hold [as] binding and acceptable and firm [that which they do], and we shall not contradict even if these most noble men, or one of them, to whom the present document appears, should reach a settlement on the aforesaid matters. And that our present authorization might be most full and firm, we have ordained and it was sealed with our leaden seal, and by the hands of Corrado, chancellor of our court, we have ordained and it was noted. Given in the palace of our duchy, in the current year of the Lord one thousand two hundred and sixty-five, in the month of March, on the twelfth day, in the eighth indiction. I, Corrado, notary of the ducal court of Venice, chancellor, have completed and confirmed."
So then stood the matters of the writing. But my majesty D swears in this way to keep all these things, if the most noble Duke of Venice and the Commune thereof, and the Lesser and Greater Council, shall sustain and keep these things for my majesty, for her heirs and successors, and for Romania, inviolate.
Michael, in Christ the God faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, Ducas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos.
VI. Imp. Michaelis Palaeologi renovatio pacis cum Venetis. (A. 1268.)
VII. Imp. Michaelis Palaeologi rescriptum, quo Theodoro Scutariotae diacono dicæophylacis dignitas confertur. (A. 1270.)
Decree of the Emperor Komnenos to Scutariotes, who became [Metropolitan] of Cyzicus. A venerable decree of our mighty and God-crowned holy lord and emperor, when he honored him with the dignity of Dicaeophylax.
My majesty imitates that Moses, the leader of the people, and [looks] toward the legislation of that [lawgiver].
A For just as he dispensed to the Israelite people the law written on the finger of God by means of Aaron, who was then honored with the priestly dignity, in the same way my majesty, having received the substance of the empire, which is honored above all things, from God—which the ancients defined as a lawful authority, and which is hence truly a living law—has ordered that what seems good to it should be both spoken of and believed as a written law. Having found the most honorable among the patriarchal officials in charge of petitions, Lord Theodore, the deacon Scutariota, a man after the heart that is carried in the palm of God, and having found him not only well-versed in other rational sciences but also one who has studied the discourses precisely and who is becoming to the holy and divine register, I honor him with the rank of Dicaeophylax. For it is necessary that he who has gathered knowledge as much as possible from both divine and apostolic canons and from the laws which wise men have set forth, and who is honored with the Dicaeophylacal dignity, B should share honor and order both in the ecclesiastical office and in places and stations. For it is necessary that the man whom my majesty honors in a proportional manner should also be honored equally by your Holiness, and that the man who is honorable in the empire and in the Senate should be deemed worthy of the greater honor by your Church and by the clergy of the most holy Great Church of God; especially if, through God be it said, my majesty is the epistemarch of your Church and manages its affairs according to judgment. For the ecclesiastical offices were set to the pattern of the imperial ones by the celebrated and pious emperors, as it was not obscurely, but most excellently, decreed in the divine edict of the first of the Christian emperors, the great and holy Constantine, which he set forth to the blessed Sylvester; for which reason the copy must follow the original for the sake of imitation. For this reason, my Holiness has ordered that from now on such a Dicaeophylax should have an office of the senior and elevated ones C even in the most holy Great Church of God, and that he should take his place as one enrolled in the clergy of the most holy Great Church of God, and advance after the now most honorable protecdicos, the Gemistos, so as also to be recognized as one of the exocatoicoi from this day forth. For it is absurd that a man honored as is fitting among the greater and more senior ecclesiastical officials of the Hagia Sophia should not also have the appropriate place in the ecclesiastical station and advancement, and should be counted among the exocatoicoi and participate in their honor and advancement. My majesty has already made this known to your Holiness, to whom it will be a task to perform and fulfill this will of my majesty, as it is both God-pleasing and just. For this reason, the present command of my majesty has been issued, which must be returned to the most honorable Dicaeophylax, Lord Theodore, the deacon Scutariota, for security.
In the month of May, indiction 13, by the imperial and divine hand.
VIII. Imperator Michael Palaeologus, his rescript for the promotion of Theodore Scutariota to a higher ecclesiastical dignity. (A.D. 1270)
Another solemn command of our world-creating, mighty, and holy lord and emperor, through which a place suitable for me was granted in the most holy Great Church of God, even though as a result of the unseemly scandals of certain persons and the unfriendly station in the choir of the ecclesiastical officials, I had inclined to choose peace. Not long after, I was sealed as a sakellarios, and I received the form of the sakellion.
Most holy master and ecumenical patriarch, your Holiness knows how my majesty received the most honorable Dicaeophylax, Lord Theodore, the deacon Scutariota, and of what and how great diligence and intimacy I deem him worthy, both on account of his knowledge of divine things and the intelligence and virtue that he possesses regarding affairs. Since, therefore, my majesty has received him in this way, and holds him in this way, and has adorned him with such a dignity, it is by no means fitting that he should not also be D acknowledged and fulfilled by your Holiness and by those of the senate, as is both God-pleasing and just. For this reason the present command of my majesty has been released, which must be returned to the most honorable Dicaeophylax, Lord Theodore, the deacon Scutariota, for security.
In the month of May, indiction 13.
IX. Imperator Michael Palaeologus, his rescript, as it seems, in which the superior of Mount Sinai is named Hypertimos. (A.D. 1271)
Decree of the most pious emperor which he made for the God-trodden Mount Sinai.
If, for men who are skillful in the service of the empire, who desire to command the armies of the leaders, or to be entrusted with the administration of cities, or to lead peoples, or to do other such things, the power of the Roman government metes out the appropriate honor—for those subjects who, by providing sound advice, would be just in looking to the end of these trusts—it receives them; for men who are respectable in life and manner and draw near to God, [providing] not only those things that contribute to external matters, but better, those that transmit benefit to the soul itself, and even more than this...
A should it be of the utmost importance to the Emperor and to the Emperor's B benevolence to draw [such souls] unto himself. If, indeed, their purpose is God-beloved, and the matters of their petition are directed toward my divinity, in which a community of divine and holy men resides—laborers for every good thing, who through their whole life laboriously plow the rough furrow of virtue—how would they not immediately receive the compliant ears of my majesty, at the time when, through this one method, we provide grace to the good [ones] under our hand, and through them we also serve God?
α'. Since, therefore, the one kin to my majesty, the Komnenian lord Nicholas, the Maliassenos, has beseeched my majesty so that a golden bull of its own might be issued to him concerning the possessions of the venerable patriarchate monastery belonging to him by descent, known as the Makrinitissa, which is honored in the name of my most holy Mother of God of the Quick Visitation and is situated near the mountain of Drogos—which are these: namely, whatever the such monastery possesses in the region of Demetrias, through vineyards, fields, land both C mountainous and plain, water mills, and the men sitting attached to them; and the Saint Onouphrios; the hermit-place known as the Kalitza; the village Kroupous, with all its rights and privileges, and its two dug-out boats and fishermen, fields, vineyards, and the land, mountainous and plain, possessed by the said monastery as far as the village Aeidaroraches; the village Kapraina with all of its rights and privileges; the metochion [of] Saint Demetrios, which is situated near the Great one, with the men sitting attached to it and all of its arable land; the metochion known as of lord Hilarion, which is situated in the region D of Almyros, with the vineyards and all of its rights and privileges; the vineyards that devolved to the said monastery from purchase in the place of Moribor; the vineyards that devolved to the said monastery from the offering of certain Christ-loving men in the such place of Almyros; the small field of the Kyrakale in the mountain of Zagora, with those sitting there and all of its rights; the metochion known as the Rasousa; in addition to these, the monastery of the holy Forerunner lying there—which possessions the such monastery is found even from of old and until today to be possessing and holding.
β'. My majesty, having graciously accepted his supplication, extends this present golden bull to the such monastery, by which it is also decreed that the declared possessions of the such monastery—namely, whatever the such monastery possesses in the region of Demetrias in terms of vineyards, fields, land both mountainous and plain, water mills, and the men sitting attached to them; and the Saint Onouphrios; the hermit-place known as that of Kalitza; the village Kroupous with...
X. Imp. Michaelis Paleologi aurea bulla de possessionibus monasterii Macrinitissae. (A. 1272.) Golden bull, the first, a mark of imperial generosity.
The imperial power from God, always looking more favorably upon the petitions of its subjects, cannot overlook the supplication even of those well-born, and especially of those who are bound [to it] by the goodwill and faith regarding our majesty, which indeed...
A of all its rights and privileges and of its two monoxyla, and of its fisheries, fields, vineyards, and the mountainous and level land possessed by such a monastery as far as Aaidarorache; by the village of Kapraina, with all its rights and privileges; by the dependency of Saint Demetrios situated near the Great [Church], along with the people settled therein and all its arable land; by the dependency named after Lord Hilarion, situated in the district of Almyros, together with its vineyards and all its rights and privileges; by the vineyards that came to such a monastery through purchase in the place of Moribori; by the vineyards that came to such a monastery through the offering of certain God-loving men in the aforementioned place of Almyros; by the small field of Kyrakale on Mount Zagora, with the people settled therein and all its rights; by the dependency called Rasousa; and in addition to these, by the monastery of the honorable Forerunner abandoned therein; all such things, which of old and until this day are found to be possessed and held by such a monastery, may such a monastery possess and hold from here on, inalienably, B irrevocably, undisturbed, and unshakeably, according to the summary of the rights belonging to it, and superior to any and every public imposition and dispute, without, however, the two following items, namely, the construction of castles and the construction of war-engines; for these shall indeed be required for common benefit even from such properties of the monastery.
Upon the presentation, therefore, of this present chrysobull document of my majesty, such a monastery shall possess such properties from here on as inalienable, inseparable, undisturbed, unshakeable, and unmolested, excluding the two aforementioned items, just as it is found to be possessing and holding these even from of old and until this day, with their rights; for such was the purpose for the aforementioned venerable patriarchal monastery, the one called Makrinitissa and honored in the name of my most holy Theotokos of the Swift Visitation, situated around the mountain of Drogos, C which belongs by right of ancestry to the kinsman of my majesty, the Komnenos Lord Nicholas Maliasenos, and [for] this present chrysobull document of my majesty, released in the month of May of the now current 15th indiction, of the year 6780, in which our pious and God-ordained power has also set its seal.
XI. Imp. Michaelis Paleologi rescriptum, quo Theodorus Scutariota metropolita Cyzici hypertimi dignitate condecoratur. (α) (Inter 1275-1282.)
Order to the Metropolitan of Cyzicus
My majesty, wishing to bring back the former glory, those golden days, and the prosperity of the cities and lands and the churches of God, and reviving things that have aged with long time, and running back to the zeal of the good and magnificent emperors of Romania who reigned before, and hastening to restore their works which are at once magnificent, divine, and most venerable, and [wishing] to renew the honors bestowed of old upon the hierarchs of the brilliant city of Cyzicus to the most holy Metropolitan of Cyzicus, has granted this, namely, that he possess the dignity befitting the divine hierarchs and [Metropolitans], and that he wear the sakkos and the polystaurion during the divine mysteries, and that a candle-bearer proceed before him throughout his entire diocese. Wherefore my majesty also decrees that the aforementioned Metropolitan of Cyzicus be called and addressed as Hypertimos, and that he hold every distinction that was of old adapted to such a dignity, according to the custom on this matter; and that he also be clothed in the sakkos and polystaurion during the divine and holy mysteries, and that a light shining in front of him proceed [throughout] the entire diocese. For Christ declared that his disciples are the light of the world; and his beloved disciple also says that the light shines in the darkness. Wishing, therefore, that the hierarchs, the disciples of the Lord and those throughout the entire land under the obedience of my majesty, be lightened, D and that they shine most brightly through their virtue in the darkness of this life (as indeed the great money and thing of the high priesthood has descended to them from a certain heaven-reaching ladder of the servants of the Word and disciples), [my majesty] has reasonably judged that the light of his most holy Metropolitan of Cyzicus also should go before, and has gifted him the other insignia through this same order; which, also having been issued, was delivered to him, having to be recognized also by the documents of the sacred chartophylax of the most holy Great Church of God. It was [signed]: In the month and [year of the] indiction, through the red letters of the imperial hand.
XII. Imp. Michaelis Paleologi decretum in gratiam monasterii Novæ Petræ (b).
Order of the same God-crowned Emperor, the second one.
Since the kinsman of my majesty, the Komnenos Lord Nicholas Maliasenos, requested of my majesty to obtain the decree for this, [concerning] the venerable patriarchal women’s monastery situated on the mountain of Dreanouse, which had been raised from its foundations by the niece of my majesty, the Komnenos Lady Anna Palaiologina, his wife, the one honored in the name of the honorable Forerunner and called New Petra, it being decreed that such a monastery be preserved unshakeable and undisturbed with the two dependencies belonging to it,
A along with their ancient possession and retention, and along with the other immovable property of this same monastery, namely vineyards, fields, and other rights belonging to it, in accordance with the summaries of the written legal documents pertaining to it, and the episcopal letters of authorization of the most God-beloved Bishop of Demetrias, and the patriarchal memorandum issued concerning these, and that it should not be subject to any molestation or any kind of harassment from anyone regarding these.
α'. For my imperial Majesty, having heard this petition, grants this present decree B to such monastery, by which it is ordained that the written legal documents pertaining to such monastery are to be held fast and irrevocable, both the episcopal letters of authorization of the aforementioned most God-beloved Bishop of Demetrias and the patriarchal memorandum issued concerning these, so that such monastery may hold the aforementioned two dependencies of it, along with their ancient possession and retention, and its vineyards, fields, and its other rights, in complete freedom, undisturbed, and inalienably, in accordance with the summaries of such legal rights of its, and that it should not be subject to any molestation or any kind of harassment from anyone regarding these, but that for the sake of security C this may be maintained unshakeable and undisturbed by the appearance of the present command of my imperial Majesty, which ought to be attached to such monastery.
XIII. Golden Bull of Emperor Michael Palaiologos, by which the monastery of the Savior Christ Latomos, which is in Thessalonica, is granted to Comnenos Joasaph Maliasenos, and concerning the union between the monastery of Makrinitissa and those of New Petra.
Third Chrysobull Decree.
D Even the argument of physical nobility has some power before an emperor, if anyone who is linked to the imperial lineage presents his nature through such a relationship, and, putting this very fact forward as a plea, makes his purpose effective. But it is much more so if anyone also demonstrates his inner disposition through his character and by expending all his care on divine and God-pleasing things and having the grace therefrom that tends toward spiritual benefit. And if both have converged in someone—the one appearing from external and bodily things, and the other from internal things and those according to God—then the argument of the request might be extended alongside; and the reasonableness of the petition would be recognized from the goodness of the character, and the thing requested would be obtained. But these matters have been determined in this way by judgment; the argument of truth will be recognized in the deeds themselves.
The most honorable among monks, the beloved cousin of my imperial Majesty, Comnenos Lord Joasaph Maliasenos, being of a family related to my imperial Majesty, and in no way falling short of others in his considerations for what is good, brings forth greater endurance in critical and necessary needs for his own family, according to the times, and nobility of soul-disposition; so that from this he shows a zeal for those of his own clan, as much as might be appropriate for one in such a position, yet no less also his sincere well-disposed attitude toward our imperial Majesty, and he does not lower the honorable and grave character of his nobility by these deeds, but rather justifies it entirely through a proportionate and balanced display of these things. That he never ceases to take care for the good and saving work, and in every way and through all kinds of forms of good deeds reveals the state of his soul hidden within this, many other things reveal, but that which is currently brought forward in the petition is an altogether clear and obvious sign of his God-pleasing mind and resolve toward the good. For even before he was clothed in the monastic (or, to say it, the angelic) habit, he was in effective action regarding this state, and yielded not so much to those in the world as he was always adding to the holier things, such that even the two monasteries he raised on the patriarchal stauropegion (the one pertaining to him from his ancestors regarding the mountain of the Drongoi, situated and honored in the name of my most holy Theotokos, called Makrinitissa and Oxeia Episkepsis, and that which was rebuilt from the very foundations by him and his wife, the beloved cousin of my imperial Majesty, the Comnene Lady Anthousa Maliasene the Palaiologina, and situated above the mountain of Dryanouvaina, which is also honored in the name of my honorable Forerunner of New Petra) he was strengthening and advancing for the better even while he was still living among the secular. And now, when he has actually arrived at the matter itself, and has exchanged those soft garments and various and multiform fashions for the humble tunic of the life according to God, he kept himself firmly attached to this God-beloved work, setting it as his aim to say and do everything for the sake of the soul, [and] chose to demand nothing else from our imperial Majesty than that which contributed to his goal and facilitated it in this previous manner. And that of his petition is that my imperial Majesty would grant to him the venerable monastery of my Savior Christ, the Latomos, within the great city of Thessalonica, along with the rights and property belonging to this, which it is now found to hold within Thessalonica and outside, through fields, vineyards, mills, and rental properties, and that these two aforementioned monasteries of his may have this in
A possession from now and for the future, inalienably, entirely, and inseparably, in perpetuity.
β'. My Majesty, therefore, granting this both because of the sincerity towards it which he possesses and his nobility of body, and also in reward for his endurance and nobility on behalf of the Roman race during the exigencies of the times, and furthermore receiving the reasonableness of his petition as acceptable to God with kindly fulfillment, bestows the aforementioned venerable monastery of my Savior Christ, the Latomos, in Thessalonica, upon this much-beloved nephew of mine, the most honorable among monks, Komnenos kyr Ioasaph the Maliasenos; and my Majesty ordains and decrees through this present chrysobull document that the two aforementioned monasteries of his shall have this monastery united with them, and shall hold it as a possession in perpetuity from now and for the future, inseparably, inalienably, and indivisibly, together with the rights and properties recently found pertaining to it, through fields, vineyards, mills, rental properties, and the rest [of its holdings] inside and outside the city of Thessalonica. And let those monasteries find no annoyance, agitation, or obstruction from anyone at all regarding this, but let the declared monastery of my Savior Christ the Latomos remain a possession of these two declared monasteries, in every way inseparable, inalienable, and indivisible in perpetuity by the appearance of this present chrysobull document of my Majesty, which shall also serve to ensure that said monastery remains united with the two monasteries above mentioned as a most secure fortress, barring absolutely anyone who might wish to effect any subversion against anything that has been ordained and decreed by my Majesty regarding said monastery, and preventing all annoyance and harassment. B
[Regarding the monastery] of the Mother of God, the All-Holy, it was assigned as a dependency by the hieromonk Theodosios through his own written document and surrender—he who also established it toward the venerable monastery of my All-Holy Mother of God, the Makrinitissa, and the Oxeia Episkepsis, together with the rights and internal properties held by it until now—and it ought to hold this likewise and remain inalienably and inseparably as a dependency of the aforementioned venerable monastery. The two declared monasteries of his, that of my All-Holy Mother of God, the Makrinitissa and Oxeia Episkepsis, and that of my honorable Forerunner of the New Petra—which indeed belong to them by hereditary right—ought not to rise up against one another, but each is to be maintained according to the entire order and status kept in the principal monasteries, and to retain the landed properties and dependencies that have fallen to each in its own share; and let them never attempt to lead the other into the status of a dependency and make it subordinate to itself, but let them remain separate and by themselves, just as their founders also considered and commanded. And the son of them both, the kinsman of my Majesty, Komnenos kyr Ioannes Palaiologos the Maliasenos, ought, after their passing, to be and to be reckoned...
XIV. Imperial golden bull of Andronikos the Elder regarding the immunity of the inhabitants of Monembasia (A.D. 1284)
Chrysobull for the region of Monembasia
It was not fated, then, that the city of Monembasia should remain altogether beyond the reach of time, nor that it should stand fixed in the same way while all other things received change and tasted of it. Yet it did not fall entirely outside the nature of this recursive movement of time; rather, it touched upon this as well, just as it had touched upon the changing of all things in long-past times, and it is stirred, albeit by a movement toward the worse, which is of no benefit. For having been brilliant in the past and enjoying prosperity under the Roman scepter, it had tasted of blessedness; but time, as if unable to bear maintaining so much splendor, determined to snatch it from the hand of the Romans. C And so the yoke of the Italians is imposed upon it; from D thence it extinguishes all the brilliance of the city at once, and fills the city that was not long ago the most beautiful among cities with much shame in a short time. Yet it was not to be that its citizens, possessing such nobility of character and adorned with such numerous blessings, should be overlooked by God and suffer such hardship for very long. Therefore, they were not deprived of divine oversight, but the all-seeing Eye again became favorable toward them; they receive immediate deliverance from the alien servitude, and return straightway to their former blessedness and splendor under the Romans.
A
It is for this reason that, since they have now also requested that they might obtain these same boons by a chrysobull of my Majesty, having assented with the greatest willingness and readiness to their petition, I grant to them this present chrysobull document. By this it is enjoined and decreed that the inhabitants of the city of Monemvasia shall continue to enjoy henceforth the same authority and immunity from molestation that they have possessed hitherto; their patrimonial and personal properties shall be kept altogether inviolate and free, and exempt from every burden and tax, just as they are found to have been possessed with such freedom until the present day; and they shall remain altogether unmolested and without being called to account regarding the payment of the commercial tax upon whatever merchandise they may choose to purchase in the said city of Monemvasia. For my Majesty desires that they all might fully enjoy, in view of this present chrysobull of my Majesty, the freedom and relief granted in these matters, and that they may experience no molestation or dispute concerning them. For this purpose, this present chrysobull of my Majesty has been issued and granted to them in the month of August of the current 12th indiction, in the year 6792, in which also our pious and divinely appointed state has set its seal.
Andronicus, in Christ the God faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos.
XV. Privilege of Emperor Andronicus the Elder for the Spanish merchants. (A.D. 1290.)
Since the inhabitants of the land of Barcelona, of Aragon, of Catalonia, of Mallorca, of Valencia, of Tortosa, and of the other lands of the most high King of Aragon and Sicily have presented a petition to my Majesty through the consul of the Catalans who has come here to Constantinople, the prudent man Sir Dalmau Sunyer, as some of them desire to land in D Constantinople and its other lands and to carry on trade therein, and they have requested and entreated that a chrysobull of my Majesty be granted to them for this matter, so that they may have permission for this and come without hindrance, and that there might also be for them some governance regarding the payment of the commercial tax.
1. My Majesty, having received their request and petition, issues this present chrysobull to them, by which it is ordained that the aforementioned inhabitants of the said land of Barcelona, of Aragon, of Catalonia, of Mallorca, of Valencia, of Tortosa, and of the other lands pertaining to the most high King of Aragon and Sicily, have permission to reside in Constantinople and in the other lands of my Majesty as often as they wish and as many of them as choose to do so, and to carry on the trade that seems good to them in these places, unmolested and without oppression, being obliged to pay for the commercial tax, for imports, three hyperpyra per hundred hyperpyra, and likewise for exports three further hyperpyra; they shall not be assessed beyond this, but rather shall be preserved unharmed in their persons and their property, and shall suffer no other injury, oppression, or plunder from anyone on the part of my Majesty. Furthermore, just as they have requested in this matter, if it should happen that a ship of theirs is endangered by a storm at sea and blown upon the shore in the land of my Majesty, the inhabitants of the said land or any other persons shall not be permitted to plunder or gain anything from their goods that have been saved; but such property of theirs shall be preserved unchanged by the power and authority of this present chrysobull of my Majesty. For upon its presentation they shall be kept unmolested and uninjured after paying the recorded commercial tax, and they shall not suffer any injustice or injury, or any affront or attack from anyone whatsoever.
For this reason, this present chrysobull of my Majesty has been issued, granted, and provided to the aforementioned inhabitants of Barcelona, of Aragon, of Catalonia, of Mallorca, of Valencia, of Tortosa, and of the other lands pertaining to the most high King of Aragon and Sicily, for confirmation, defense, and security.
XVI. Aurea Bulla of Emperor Andronicus the Elder concerning the metropolises of Philadelphia, Thessalonica, and the Lithodori. (Circa 1292.)
XVII. Golden Bull of Emperor Andronikos the Elder regarding the privileges of the Metropolitan of Monemvasia (A.D. 1293)
A golden bull from the most serene among emperors and unconquered Andronikos, Emperor of the Romans, to the most holy Metropolitan of Monemvasia and his successors.
Even if it has not happened before that many similar acts were made by emperors and others—and no less so by us—and that this might be thought to happen in the future, perhaps this present transaction, now offered by my Majesty, has discovered such a fine model A of goodness; indeed, it might rather be said that it has, by its own nature, innovated it entirely, having thus taken a most excellent beginning for it to be demonstrated as effective in the time to come; so much does this act have from every side what is persuasive and reasonably compulsory. For surely the renowned city of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese is in truth far superior to all those around it, and is clearly reckoned the first among all, not allowing any to be left behind by any other in this region. Although its name is somewhat recent and full, and does not come from far back in the past, nevertheless, it carries about everywhere countless and extremely long-standing praises, such that, if one were to hear of anything else that is illustrious and glorious, it is not only in my own imperial domain that one hears it, but in almost every other also. For the city is adorned with other things besides: the convenience of its location, the strength of its fortifications for security, the dense number of its inhabitants and their great prosperity, the nobility of its constitution, the practice of the arts, and the abundance of its market—in all things, it is essentially most suitable for trade, if anything else is, and in every way has a location well-suited for all navigation and all parts of the sea. And so, the population living there is quite capable in navigation and seafaring, and possesses a strength and a spirit that is active and practical, and—most beautiful of all—a loyalty to my Majesty that is energetic and completely unshakeable, B and a reference and interaction with my race that remains invulnerable in times of crisis and affairs, whether things are going well or otherwise, having already given proof of this in many of the preceding years, and its faith is recognized as it has been known at other times.
Such is the account of the city, in few words, so as to avoid lengthiness in this discourse. But this further point is now worthy of admiration: that the most holy Church located there has recently been led by one who is the best of all, one who from his youth has been great in things pertaining to God, and even into old age... this man now, having persevered in his labors, and being adorned to the pinnacle of his own blessed life, steadfastly continuing from the beginning of his resolve and completely unyieldingly, as if someone young were fervently taking hold of it, and not in the slightest degree—by reason of such a long, many-yeared, and indeed intensely violent mode of living and bodily exhaustion, and having been thoroughly worn down by every labor and toil C —is he at all moved in his old age, nor does he succumb to such labors, but rather continues remarkably and perseveres in his resolve from the beginning. And just as he is now seen to be more pressing and diligent, he is not, as it were, one who has progressed this far so as to settle himself safely in a harbor and in calm; indeed, he is not at all persuaded, even in the midst of such a state of soul regarding the good—nor is he bent, by both this most venerable old age (as has been said) and by so many labors and ascetic sweats, to break his body in this most beautiful resolve, nor does he slacken little by little, nor yield from his efforts, nor is his mind conquered. But though the body is already defeated and is turning to yield to so many preceding labors and to time, his reasoning remains untarnished; he does not yet consider himself to have had enough of good things, as indeed happens to everyone, but thinks that the struggle for these things should be entirely unspending, completely tireless, and irreversible. Thus, having gathered such a spiritual state—as I have said—over so many years already, and having attained so very far and brought to such a complete conclusion D the purpose of his life, he walks about as a living example and image of this life and of this high philosophy; and that he is truly such, and is perceived as such by the many, he does not take pride in for the rest of his time. He remains entirely the same in these things, and as most and better men who are undergoing instruction are always preparing themselves—today, yesterday, and the day before—he is always himself, and is like someone competing, fearing, and exerting himself to run forward, training himself for all time, and wearing out his body in relentless labors, in fastings and vigils, and in intense standing, and what could be said of the customary and most beautiful contests? And legally, or rather even more than before, he is considered by those who have begun well and are flourishing in the spiritual path to be one still, even now, after so many years of continued exertion. And indeed, all other things in his character reflect that of this wonderful shepherd and are in harmony with each other; for instance, his liberality toward all, his wondrous and quiet nature, his compassion, the tranquility of his soul, which is such that he neither in his thoughts nor in his words thinks or says anything evil about anything whatsoever; but concerning all things, he wishes and seems and says that all things are good, having this faith from his own internal treasures. And further, to sum it all up, everything which the archbishop and pastor of so great a Church and so numerous a flock requires—and which is at once most arduous and very rare to find in one person, as is plainly the case with him of whom this discourse is now about—there is no need here to lengthen the discourse further, except for that which the discourse has already recognized from above. Such are the things regarding the—
A man’s achievements according to God, and the brilliance and loftiness and almost incomparable nature of his citizenship and life. And furthermore, the various good qualities belonging to the city of the church under him are such that, perhaps, these alone suffice to move my imperial majesty to transform and promote this most holy church under him to a better and higher state and honor and standing, even if, as has been said, such things had not previously occurred and had not been considered custom. Perhaps this, as I said, would have had sufficient cause to provide and suggest the form and law in these matters, which in fact, as it seems, has previously worked similar things and given the beginning to them.
Since, however, the imperial law concerning these matters, having preceded, as I said, stirs and bestows, and strongly moves these very things that have been mentioned—and let it be said with God—and the love of beauty of my empire is especially contributed to this, and the concern of this empire, by the grace of God, to perceive what is necessary and to deliberate upon the most beautiful and God-pleasing works, and the very active eagerness and zeal to execute and bring them to completion; from all these things, therefore, it was decided by my imperial majesty to renew something for the better, and to promote the affairs of the most holy church of Monemvasia.
And so, it has already previously declared and destined this most holy metropolis to hold a certain higher rank, and to have a certain position and order of another church, as though having surpassed others; and indeed, it has also arranged and duly regulated the exarchate of the greatest diocese and its bishoprics accordingly. Since the aforementioned most holy hieratic administrator of such a church requested that these very things be confirmed by a chrysobull, and that they be secured and made unchangeable, my imperial majesty accepted the terms of such a request and was pleased to bring it to fulfillment.
1. And thus, it releases the present chrysobull document, through which, with God, it wills, approves, and decrees that both the current, as has been said, hieratic administrator of such a most holy metropolis of Monemvasia, and those who shall subsequently succeed to its throne, shall enjoy the honor belonging to the throne of Side in all things, that is to say, in seats, in processions, in standing positions, in documents, and in general in all customary hieratic actions and ministries. Furthermore, to wear the sakkos in divine sacred rites, and likewise the didampoulon, and simply to have all the privileges and rights of that church. And that he alone shall be, and be called, the exarch of the whole of the Peloponnese, the one who is the hieratic administrator of such a most holy church, and that he shall enjoy the honor resulting therefrom, just as is customary for other most holy bishops deemed worthy to preside over various provinces and regions. B Likewise, among other things, it decrees and commands that he be addressed and titled "most holy" in reports and writings, and that he again in the notes and letters display the indiction to them and to all his eparchy in place of another signature. Since it had previously happened that these bishoprics were added to such a most holy metropolis—that of Kynouria, that of Elos, that of Maina, that of Reon, and that of Zemeno—my imperial majesty previously confirms and establishes these for it by the present chrysobull document; and it decrees and orders that they remain under it henceforth, just as they are found to be up to the present time. Furthermore, through this very document, desiring to increase and intensify its benevolence toward it, it approves and commands that other bishoprics also be under it, namely that of Koroni, that of Methoni, and that of Androusa, and that these likewise be subject to the same most holy church of Monemvasia, just as the others, as being their metropolis, and that they receive for their bishops whichever person the bishop residing in the aforementioned most holy metropolis deems it appropriate to ordain and install over them.
2. The circuit of this eparchy, as in a descriptive model, is as follows. First, then, is the ancient Epidaurus, called Limera; after this, proceeding toward the east, is Zarax; and proceeding from Zarax, descending along the sea, is Kyparissia; then the temple of Saint Leonidas; after the holy sacred shrine, that which is called Astros; ascending, the village called Kastanitsa; after this, it goes also to another village called Zintzina; then to the temple of the Holy Unmercenaries; then to the ancient Alai, and to the Ziron spring, after which it descends to the temple of Saint Euthymios; then thus to the venerable monastery C honored in the name of Saint George and surnamed Lykebounon; and from this venerable monastery it passes through the plain, and arrives at the holy monastery opposite, of the All-Holy Theotokos, also honored in the name of Eleousa, being near the village of Arkasa; D then it departs to another village named [Soka] at the foot of Mount Taygetos; and from there it ascends to its summit, where there was also an oratory of the prophet Elijah, surnamed Pentadaktylon; and again it descends on the right to another oratory of the same prophet Elijah, which lies at the end of the valley and the harsh and impassable gorge, in which water also flows; and after the aforementioned oratory, it descends again on the right side to these villages and small towns to be mentioned: Dyrrhachion, an ancient city so called; after this it descends to the mound of the one called Graos; then it crosses the royal road and arrives at the Choirolakkoi; then it ascends to the Voulkane.
and crosses to the so-called Opening A of the mountain, and proceeds thus to the mountain called Orthion, and descends to the Pylon, the one called Avarinos, in which there is also a great harbor. All these things, and whatever the aforementioned places encompass and define toward the southern parts, this is, as has been said, the periodic form of the province, as in a summary of the most holy metropolis of Monemvasia, excluding the two bishoprics of Kynouria and Zemenas. However, even if some of the aforementioned most holy bishoprics are currently found in the part of the Latins, nevertheless, both now and whenever God grants that they return and be saved again to the part of the empire, they shall be under the said most holy metropolis of Monemvasia, and its presiding official shall have the authority, with the right belonging to higher clergy, to ordain bishops in them, just as in the aforementioned other bishoprics.
For thus indeed my imperial Majesty has judged concerning these matters, and through the grace given to it by Christ, concerning such lawful and truly divine independence and authority, has ordained: primarily, that is, as has been said, that the one presiding in the archieratic manner over this most holy metropolis of Monemvasia hold the place of the extinguished and long-lost church of Side, and enjoy the honor belonging to such a throne, as has been declared, entirely and fully in every way; furthermore, to hold the exarchate of all the Peloponnese; and in addition to this, to have the other C benefits, as has been stated above, and likewise the bishoprics determined under him, both those which it formerly had as subject, and those which my imperial Majesty has now allotted to it as extras, which have been all declared by name and descriptively. For to the confirmation, safety, and unchangeable stability of all these matters, so that for all time… to be cherished in this way and not after a short while to be changed or any change whatever to occur to them, the present chrysobull word of my imperial Majesty has been granted D of such a most holy church of Monemvasia, as pre-eminent and exarch of all the Peloponnese and holding the place of Side, but also to those who shall succeed him on the same throne, released during the month of June of the current sixth indiction, in the six thousand eight hundredth [first] year, in which also our God-fearing and divinely-ordained power signed.
Andronicus, in Christ God faithful king and autocrat of the Romans, Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos.
XVIII. Imp. Andronicus the Elder regarding ordinations to be performed without the payment of customs. (A. 1295.)
That a new imperial legislation proceed concerning ordinations. (See G. Pachymeres, Hist. Andronici III, 3. Vol. CXLIII, col. 436.)XIX. Imp. Andronicus the Elder, golden bull in favor of Gregory Melissenos. (A. 1296.)
XX. Imp. Andronicus the Elder, golden bull concerning the possessions of the church of Monemvasia. (A. 1501.)
The great and divine herald of the truth and apostle of the common Master and Savior says it is not a great thing if those who are the leaders of piety for us, and the tillers and shepherds of the evangelical seeds and doctrines, having sown the spiritual things for us, should themselves reap the carnal things from us. For indeed it is not even worth enough to compare these things to those of theirs, and compared to those, nothing that one might give in return, exerting oneself well and zealously, is Great; because, as the sacred scriptures say, one does not even have an equal compensation for the soul, which, apart from the tillage of the Spirit, would otherwise be lying ready for destruction and destined to risk and undergo the ultimate loss, and for which even the world itself is not at all worthy; yet the sowings and deposits of the apostolic and divine seeds both save and successfully perform and render fruitful with goods... [alt-version omitted]
and without loss. Therefore, concerning this apostolic and divine word, it is no great thing that anyone, in return for such great bounty and in return for spiritual goods and the sharing and participation and grace of the divine [treasures] themselves by which he is provided for, nourished, sustained, and grows and is perfected—or rather, is rendered more perfect in the better, holy, and all-venerable things—should contribute something in return and offer back anything at all. Though indeed, of the things pertaining to them, those that are bodily—as it seems to him and to others—may truly be of no great account, yet it is truly a great and blessed thing when God grants one the ability to grasp matters in such a way as to be able to display a mind both desirous of the good and naturally inclined toward the better, judging and choosing the good, being exceedingly effective in its accomplishment, and not being deprived of the potential effectiveness that lies in the matter itself, nor turning away from the unavoidable labor of the things themselves as if it were idle and useless. Perhaps this too might be a matter of wise and perfect divine providence. And it is possible to perceive B it occurring clearly at every moment, that those natures that are lovers of the noble, and in whom a great and inextinguishable love for the beautiful and the divine burns from within the soul, are established upon matters worthy of their intent and are given tasks that are becoming and sufficient for their disposition, so that at once they might both powerfully both create the better things and conduct themselves among men, and at the same time, as is natural, take on zeal and advance and truly proceed forward. For it seems to be not only a most beautiful thing, and most profitable for the individual alone, but also the most life-beneficial thing for human affairs in general throughout the whole of life, when someone meets with better-than-average circumstances and receives a very good opportunity for virtue, and is then able to perceive the good providence and attempt himself and utilize it as seems best; and someone who is well-endowed in mind, judgment, and impulse, and in love for the greatest and divine things—having come into some station of rule and royal and authoritative oversight—knows how to use himself most beautifully, C knows how to display his nature, knows not to remain idle, knows how to execute better ordinances, and not only to render back many and great returns for what he has already received in this life—and indeed in his soul especially—but also the justice and the emerging duty, which, though small and truly modest in comparison to such great bounty, is also to exert himself further and to trade wisely through these present and fleeting things for those which are future and permanent, and through the God-loving and noble stewardship and liberality in these things—which are for the most part unstable and in any case will perish shortly, even though he has received them freely—to acquire those which are everlasting and immutable.
§1. If, therefore, our Empire D can speak of these things tolerably and blamelessly, and has indeed accomplished them, many other things (the word being with God) testify to this, and the present declaration now does so as well; for many things have indeed been effected and demonstrated by it for the most holy metropolis of Monemvasia in the Peloponnese, worthy of account and praise by the grace of Christ: both those things which bring it a certain honor and preeminent rank and distinguished dignity and place, more so than before, and also those which concern the affluence and generosity of the possessions and estates belonging to it; which other various decrees of this [Empire] indicate in detail. And since the bishop of such a most holy metropolis has recently requested of my Empire—a man who is all-excellent and most capable in such a dignity, to speak briefly, and for this very reason capable of persuading my Empire in all things for which he requests—and since he has thus, as has been said, requested that a golden bull be issued concerning the possessions belonging to the such-like most holy church under him, [my Empire] now accedes to his request and grants and bestows this golden-bull word of his, through which it is pleased, orders, and determines that the aforementioned most holy metropolis of Monemvasia shall hold, and henceforth continue to hold, all the estates and rights belonging to it, which are held by it up to the present time, and shall possess them outside of all injury and disturbance, and to be absolutely inalienable, exempted and raised above every disturbance. Which, by name, are as follows: the village of Gangania, with the paroikoi and hypostatikoi therein and all rights and all possession of it; the estate in the village of Nomia [(r)] with the paroikoi therein and the autourgia in the same village and in Taireia; the small field of Lyra with the paroikoi and hypostatikoi therein; and further, that of the Mountousai, but also the autourgion in Sion; the village in the plain called Episkopeia with the paroikoi therein, and the land belonging to the church and the remaining hypostatikoi, and further, the woodland belonging exclusively to the same most holy church up to the present time, whereas the remainder of the woodland subject to the public [fisc] ought to be [held] again under the public [authority]; fields in various places of the district, with the four watermills therein which were erected by the church’s party and the vineyard; the small field called that of Saint Kournoutos with the paroikoi therein; another small field of Kamaras with the paroikoi and hypostatikoi therein; the monastery of Saint George, that of Prinikos, with the paroikoi and autourgia under it, and the lake belonging to such monastery of Prinikos, and further the contribution of the bath.
A For the half of the contribution of this bath was previously held by the part of said church, and the other half by the public treasury; but now my Majesty is pleased and commands that the entire contribution of this bath be held by the part of the said most holy monastery, unmolested and undisturbed: the village of Pezianoi with the paroikoi within it and all its rights and all its possession; the village of Philodendron with the paroikoi and appurtenances within it; the monastery of the holy Forerunner of Saphon with the paroikoi under it and the remaining rights; the vineyard at Phota; the amount of twenty-five hyperpyra in the village of Polla Xenia; the houses inside Monembasia which Ares once held; the small field of Ripiai together with the place near it, the Kalamion, and that of the courts; the suburb of the Laimones; and furthermore, the autourgia which the same most holy church hitherto finds itself holding and possessing in Sorax, Kouledia, Koumaraia, Boulkane, Mesis, and Dodeia, but indeed also in Noun, and in the Lake, and the Tower, and the Palaeokastron. All these things, so many as are discussed above, shall be held and possessed by the portion of the said most holy church together with the rights attached to them until now, as has been said—namely, land, vineyards, mills, various trees, orchards, and the rest. B In addition to these, the part of the said most holy church shall have the freedom to purchase also the kermes [prinokokkos] which the paroikoi of the said monastery of Saphon and the paroikoi of the declared village of Gankaneas gather from the place belonging to the same most holy church; however, as much kermes as such paroikoi of the church gather from public land, this the public [treasury] must purchase. These things, then, are also at the manifestation of the present golden bull decree of my Majesty; and all such estates and autourgia of the aforesaid most holy church of Monembasia shall remain and be preserved entirely unmolested and inalienable according to the possession and holding which it is found to have, as has been declared, until now upon them, and further, freed and beyond all and every kind of injury and encroachment. For no one of all men ought to bring upon them any damage or destruction at all, nor indeed to attack them with disorder and injustice, nor in any way to cause disturbance; since everyone who shall attempt to bring any such thing upon them will be utterly cast out and driven away and once for all repelled, as the present golden bull decree of my Majesty ordains; which was also granted and bestowed upon the said most holy church of Monembasia, issued in the month of June of the ninth indiction of the year 6812 [A.D. 1304], in which our pious and God-defended state also gave its sign. C Andronicus in Christ our God, faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, Doukas Angelos Komnenos Palaiologos.
XX. Emperor Andronicus the Elder regarding the metropolis of Aprus (A.D. 1304)
(This privilege we have already published among the constitutions of Patriarch John Glykys, under no. XLVIII, tom. CLII.)XXI. Golden bull of Emperor Andronicus the Elder for the Genoese (A.D. 1304)
When there were sent to our Empire on behalf of the illustrious Commune of Genoa, of our beloved fraternity, noble and prudent men, namely Lord Guido Embriacus and Lord Acursus Ferrarius, to set forth before our Empire the articles, by which some seemed to pertain to the rights of the Genoese themselves and ought to be observed, and some requested out of special grace according to those things which our Empire is accustomed to do by reason of the affection, grace, and love which our Empire has toward the illustrious Commune of Genoa: which articles having been set forth and narrated by these same envoys, our Empire agreeing, granted these same articles as is distinguished below. And behold, we grant and bestow this present privilege of our golden bull to the same illustrious Commune of Genoa, for the declaration, strength, and firmness of the immovable and inviolable perseverance of the same articles, which we have accepted and fulfilled according to the request of the said illustrious Commune. The tenor of which articles is as follows. D First, that the Genoese ought to have in the place of Galata the location which they requested, terminated and assigned in a quadrangular shape, according to the extent of that location by the trench made round about; and we will and command that the location measuring from the circuit of that place be totally empty, remaining without any habitation of any person for the space of sixty cubits. And from the wall of the Castle of Galata, according to the width of the same wall, unto the confines of the Genoese themselves, the location must also be totally empty, and it shall not be permitted for anyone to have a habitation there in any way; but within the aforesaid location of the habitation of the Genoese themselves, they the Genoese shall have the liberty and mandate to make mansions and structures and other fortifications and every other security at their will, beyond only the wall of the castle, which indeed we will shall not be permitted to be constructed in that same place. Item, that the Genoese and those who are held to be Genoese may have in the same place liberty without any impediment, and may have a meat market and the butchers of the Genoese, and the bread sellers of the Genoese, a loggia, a bath, written by command of the Emperor in the month of May, indiction I, a. (A.D. 1302) [sic].
A And that satisfaction for such damage ought to be made, just as they themselves shall have proven in truth and sworn in the presence of those who hold the authority of the Genoese in the presence of a messenger of our Empire. Likewise, others who are discovered in the same shipwreck, who have escaped from that danger, ought to prove [the same] with true oaths in the presence of that same messenger of our Empire, who shall see those witnesses swear, as was said above; and this ought to suffice for the demonstration and proof of the truth.
Item, that we shall always provide to the party of the illustrious commune of Genoa and to individual Genoese and those of the district of Genoa, and those who are held to be Genoese, freedom, franchise, and immunity from now on always, as much on sea as on land, in our ports and islands which we have and shall have by the grace of God and the intercession of the most holy Mother of God, so that all Genoese and those from the district of Genoa and those who are held to be Genoese shall be free and released, paying nothing in all the land of our Empire for commerce nor on account of any exaction, namely, while entering throughout the whole land of our Empire or departing from it, selling and buying and exchanging or trading in any other way by the accustomed modes of commerce, except for salt and mastic, staying [there] and moving from land to land, by land or by sea, with merchandise or without merchandise, carrying to the places or extracting from them through purchase or other profit and carrying elsewhere, personally or really.
Item, if any Genoese or one who is held to be a Genoese shall pay anything or has been damaged in any land subject to our Empire, and it has been taken from him by reason of B *staliana* or *maxeria* or for another cause or manner [of operation] acting against the said franchise and liberty of those same Genoese, that our Empire ought to cause satisfaction to be made and restitution to be made to those who have suffered damage, for all that which those same persons shall have sworn in the presence of the Potestà or Consuls of the Genoese that they had given in such a manner or that it had been taken from them.
Item, that our Empire ought not from now on to receive any Genoese or anyone from the district of Genoa as a vassal, such that he should be exempted and not have to be under the examination and jurisdiction of the Potestà or Consuls of the Genoese, but such a person himself ought to be judged by them just as other citizens and inhabitants of Genoa.
Item, that we shall not impede, nor cause to be impeded, nor permit to be impeded in the whole land of our Empire, which we have and by the grace of the Mother of God shall acquire, any Genoese or anyone from the district of Genoa on account of an act or crime or theft or robbery or debt of another person in person or in any thing, but each Genoese or one who is held to be a Genoese under his own guilt ought to be examined in such a way under the court and jurisdiction of the Potestà or Consuls of the Genoese, and that he be punished and render an account C of his guilt and debt; and that satisfied, D [the remainder of the column is occupied by the text beginning of the next page].
part of our empire: and on account of such merchandises, they should not be compelled to pay anything in any way by reason of commerce or other tax.
Also, we shall not detain, nor cause to be detained, nor permit any ship or any timber-vessel of any Genoese, or of those who are held as Genoese, nor any Genoese, or one who is held as a Genoese, in person or in goods; but they must have all manner of liberty and space to depart without impediment from all the lands of our empire, personally and really, unless perhaps they have been accused of some debt, theft, or robbery, B for which there ought to be a trial in the Genoese court, so that by them a just execution of such crime or debt ought to be made.
This present privilege of our Empire was enacted in our sacred palace of the Blachernae, written by the hand of our court notary, Nicholas de Perina, in the month of March of the second indiction, in the six thousand eight hundred and twelfth year from the creation of the world according to the number of the Greeks, and according to the number of the Latins, from the incarnation of the Lord, the one thousand three hundred and fourth year, in the second indiction. C Subscribed with our imperial red signature, and confirmed with the golden bull of the Empire appended below, for the declaration and firmness of all the chapters therein particularly distinguished, and that they may remain unchangeable.
XXII. Synodal constitution of Emperor Andronicus the Elder, proposed by Patriarch Athanasius concerning various causes. (A.D. 1306.)
Novel of our holy Father Athanasius, Archbishop of Constantinople.
If indeed to anyone of those deemed worthy by Christ D to hold the scepters of the kingdom which He received from God and the Father as an inheritance of the nations, it has uniquely fallen—more than anything else that adorns this [kingdom]—to think and judge uprightly, and to embrace piety,
A and to do so lawfully, and not to hold in contempt, nor for the sake of gain, nor out of regard for any person, he who has obtained the lot of judging such matters, leaving them alone, when the human soul remains there, because he did not preserve men from the fear of perdition, nor did he appear as a minister of God, an avenger for just wrath against those who do evil, having preferred in his inaction to bear the sword in vain or essentially as a minister of God.
γ'. And that it be proclaimed and enforced that a woman should not cast away her honor, and especially a virgin, for anyone who desires her. But if someone should violate her in a desolate place, let him be punished as the laws deem fit; but if she gives herself up willingly, she is to be disciplined by tonsure and public exhibition (z). And let not the defiler, in either case, remain unpunished, but let him fully satisfy what is lawful to the public; and if he does not have the means, let him again [receive] what is lawful.
δ'. And that the law also be annulled which stipulates that, upon the death of a child, the woman or the man—the child having passed away—is to be the heir of all the child's patrilineal or, if it happen, matrilineal property, while the parents of the deceased, in addition to the loss of their child, are most unjustly being deprived of the property; instead, it is to be kept so that one third of the dowry goes to memorials, one third to the parents, and one third to the betrothed (a).
ε'. That he who is caught in murder be punished lawfully upon his own person, but let him not be utterly stripped of his property to the detriment of his children who have no knowledge of the deed; rather, his estate is to be divided according to the soul of the matter, from which let a portion also be given to the one who suffered the murder, and only the [share] of the murderer is to be assigned to the public treasury. For what justice is there in the victim receiving nothing, especially if he died in poverty, survived by a wife and children (b)?
ς'. In addition to these things, let neither monks nor nuns conduct themselves disorderly in the cities, but rather as it has been prescribed for them by the laws and the canons; and as for those who are abandoned to their passions, if they do not look toward repentance, let them be shut away and fed, against their will, only on bread and water, if indeed we care at all about seeing God and preserving our own.
ζ'. Let the faithful spend the feast days, and especially the holy Sunday, in rest, devoting themselves to the holy temples and not to revelry, drunkenness, taverns, and baths, [the latter] not being opened from the ninth hour of Saturday until the ninth hour of Sunday; nor, on any other night after sunset in the taverns—I do not say [to prevent] the buying of necessary things, but [to prevent] those who drink together from being found there. For the daily evil of drinking is enough for the wine-sellers.
η'. If, however, any women of loose character are caught [doing] these things, [or] if, perhaps, the husband is the heir of the dowry of the woman who has predeceased him, according to the same manner as the woman [is the heir] of the man, and then the child also dies. It is decreed that if such a thing should ever happen, the dowry is to be divided into three parts: one part is to be given for the memorials of the deceased, the second to the parents of the latter, and the third to the party who is left behind, whether it be the husband or the wife.
A If anyone, disregarding the rule—whether they be monastics or laymen—should hold their soul in a state of hazard, they shall be subject to confiscation of property. For how can those who appear to be faithful, but who openly manage the workshops of thieves and harlots, not draw down upon themselves, on those who see them, and on those who remain silent, the wrath from above? For we know that God is in anger even when one does nothing more than mix wine with water.
c. The fines imposed for breached contracts and agreements are to be enforced, so that we may not be liable for a false document, and so that what has been agreed upon may be held firm and inviolable.
i. It is binding that all the prescribed days of healing during the holy fasts be kept, especially those of Easter; and that one should practice dry-eating, genuflection, and furthermore be diligent in almsgivings. B In particular, during the week of the holy and saving Passion, every Orthodox person should live in contrition and compunction, refraining not only from taverns and baths, but from all bodily comfort.
ia. Those wishing to contract marriages shall not do so without the consent of the priest in whose parish they attend church. For whoever does not do so owes the public treasury an amount equal to whatever her dowry is found to be.
For just as we know that the supply of every good thing for the well-ordered state of cities comes from God and faith, so likewise do the contrary things result from disorder; wherefore the faithful must prize the life according to the law even above life itself. Knowing that this is dear to God, the Orthodox emperors have not hesitated to signal such things and [inscribe them] in red letters, just as the God-protected empire of your majesty, C making us even more bound to her by indissoluble bonds of love, does now, so that we may pray willingly for her to be granted by God health and a long and victorious life against both seen and unseen enemies, and furthermore, in a ripe old age, along with earthly power, a heavenly kingdom. It also bore a patriarchal signature.
23. Emperor Andronikos the Elder, that civil magistrates may not seize the goods of deceased metropolitans or bishops.
Proclamation of our mighty and holy lord and emperor, lord Andronikos Palaiologos.
Since the most blessed Archbishop of First Justiniana and all Bulgaria has reported to my empire that, whenever one of the archbishops serving in that most holy church under him, or one of the most God-beloved bishops serving under him, reaches the end of his life, certain people engaged in public service in those regions arise and seize the D who serve them, causing them not a few harmful and grievous things, and taking from them whatever they may find that they happen to possess as their own; and likewise they take possession of the lands and revenues of that holy widowed church itself; for this reason, he sought that a proclamation of my empire be issued that this should not be carried out by any of the public officials. My empire considers such a deed to be wholly unjust and unholy, and if indeed this has been carried out by anyone, it did not happen according to the judgment and desire of my empire, but outside of its decree, knowledge, and will. And had it heard of this, it would have immediately brought great wrath upon the one who performed such an act, and it would leave nothing of this unpunished or unaccountable. For it has recognized that even when the most holy ecumenical patriarch, lord Germanos, had petitioned some time ago regarding such a matter to the late and ever-memorable emperor, lord John Doukas, the uncle of my empire, a chrysobull was issued and put forth, commanding, declaring, and utterly forbidding and obstructing that the aforementioned deed be done or perpetrated by anyone at all. And following such a chrysobull, a precious letter of the aforementioned most holy patriarch was issued, [ordaining] that this ordinance should remain firm and immutable, effectively guaranteed and declared, and imposing terrible and most heavy excommunications upon those who would set it aside and not keep it. My empire wishes that these [provisions] be maintained and kept firm and unchangeable by all, since it also strives with much zeal and longing for the observance and safety of ecclesiastical laws and ordinances—of this, God, who knows all things, is cognizant, as are all right-thinking men who follow. Wherefore, whoever dares to set aside the declared ecclesiastical and terrible excommunications shall be clearly liable for great and intolerable penalties; but also, by the empire, as one who becomes an author of harm to it, he shall suffer prejudice and, by setting aside this present ordinance, he shall suffer great wrath and punishment. Therefore, my empire commands and ordains—which it also confirmed and established many years ago—that no one from the public sector, or those in positions of authority, or any others at all, shall have free rein to seize anyone of those who are at any time serving as archbishops in the...
aforementioned most holy archbishopric, or any other of the most God-beloved bishops under him, or any of the higher clergy at all, following his death, nor shall they bring upon him any injury, emotional distress, or harassment, nor shall they seize any part of his personal property; rather, let them abstain completely from it. But if, besides this, any other ecclesiastical item is found, those of the party of the same most holy Church are bound to receive, hold, and guard this, as also the remaining income of the church, in secure, true, and acknowledged ledgers, until another high priest A is again installed in it and these items are handed over to him in accordance with the canonical and legal observance regarding this matter. For this reason, this present command of my majesty was issued. My majesty further ordains that whoever does not observe this aforementioned decree of mine unshaken, let him know that he shall be excommunicated and shall not be permitted to enter either a divine temple or the palace of my majesty; and not only this, but he shall also incur the great and unforgiving wrath of my majesty. It was also issued with red letters by the imperial and divine hand, in the month of June, indiction 10, in the year 6850.
XXIV. Golden bull of Emperor Andronicus the Elder granted to the people of Monemvasia. (A.D. 1317.)
(Existing in the History of G. Phrantzes. See Vol. CLVI.)XXV. Of Emperor Andronicus the Elder concerning the metropolis of Ioannina. (A.D. 1312.)
(Existing among the episcopal acts of Patriarch Glykys, under number LI. See Vol. CLII.)XXVI. Privilege of Emperor Andronicus the Elder granted to the Spanish merchants.
Since the most high king of Aragon, Valencia, Sardinia, and Corsica, Count of Barcelona, and beloved uncle of my majesty, Lord James, has sent to my majesty his writing along with the Catalan merchants—namely Berenguer Carbonell, Bonato Renzi, Guglielmo Bertolini, and Tommaso da Podio—signifying to my majesty that, because of the love and genuine affection of my majesty for him, such merchants might obtain by the decree of my majesty immunity from harassment in her territory, in order to conduct the business they see fit; and in addition to these, my majesty orders that both they and others who are to come from their land in the future into the countries of my majesty for trade shall enjoy the same immunity from harassment; my majesty has not only accepted this readily and willingly, but along with this, because of his love B and genuine affection, which he holds for the same most high king and beloved uncle of my majesty, he has distinguished and ordained that they should have greater control in the payment of the due toll owed by them on their merchandise than what they had before, and they are already making a reduction even from the toll itself, which they were accustomed to pay previously, as has been said.
For this present chrysobull releases them, by which it is ordained that the above-mentioned merchants and others, as many as wish to come from the aforementioned land of the same most high king and beloved uncle of my majesty to this place, and to the God-guarded, God-magnified, and God-protected Constantinople, and to the other lands of my majesty C, may reside without hindrance as often as they wish, and conduct their business in them without harassment and without oppression, being obliged to pay for the toll, for imports, two hyperpyra per hundred, and similarly for exports two other hyperpyra, and they shall not be compelled to give more; but rather they shall be kept unharmed in both their persons and their property, and shall suffer no other damage, oppression, D or seizure by anyone at all from the side of my majesty. Furthermore, just as such merchants requested regarding this, if it happens that their ships are endangered at sea by waves and fall upon dry land in the territory of my majesty, the inhabitants of such a country or any others shall not have the right or permission to plunder or profit from any of their saved property. Rather, such property shall be guarded for them untouched; since whoever dares to cause damage to such shipwrecked merchants and to take away anything from their property, they shall be bound to return and make satisfaction and offer restitution in full for whatever they take; and they shall also be punished as those who violate this present chrysobull of my majesty. For by the appearance of this, all merchants from the aforementioned land of Catalonia shall be kept unharassed after giving the mentioned toll, and they shall not suffer from anyone any injustice or any damage or any insult and attack whatsoever.
For this reason, this present chrysobull of my majesty was made for them, and was awarded and granted to the aforementioned merchants and the others who, from the aforementioned land of the declared beloved uncle of my majesty, the most high king, shall wish to come here and to the other lands of my majesty, for confirmation, defense, and security.
[index: entries preserved]
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XXVII. Imp. Andronicus the Elder regarding the Metropolis of Brysis. (A.D. 1324.)
A My majesty, having through the grace of God received from above the license and permission of the holy Church of God to raise and promote, for greater honor, as many of the holy churches as it deems fitting for this purpose, decrees now also by this present edict that the most holy archbishopric of Brysis shall be and remain a metropolis, and that the most holy archbishop who is found in it shall enjoy, in every way that they also share, the same rank and honor as the other most holy metropolitans of the divine and holy great council. Whence also now the most holy metropolitan of Brysis and hypertimos is bound to possess such rank and honor; this shall likewise apply in succession to those who will in the future from time to time be found to be the legitimate archbishops of the said most holy metropolis of Brysis, inasmuch as he who has received promotion by my majesty to such a most holy church is bound to maintain the established and unchangeable status. For this reason the present edict of my majesty has been issued and given forth. Given in the month of December, Indiction 7, by the red markings of the imperial and divine hand.
XXVIII. Imp. Andronicus the Elder regarding the Metropolis of Brysis. (A.D. 1325.)
XXIX. Imp. Andronicus the Elder's Pacts initiated with the Venetians. (A.D. 1285, 1302, 1310, 1324 and 1325.)
XXX. Imp. Andronicus the Elder's Golden Bull, by which certain estates are donated to Irene Augusta.
Golden Bull regarding a certain imperial intent. To strive to prove what is now before us to be in accordance with the goal and judgment as reasonable and not exceeding justice, nor outside of what is customary and settled and done by emperors, I consider superfluous and entirely untimely, and indeed not even knowing regarding which matters the constructions and proofs and the wealth and power of words are, that because concerning matters not at all clear and entirely acknowledged as just, or even strongly disputed, one must then and only then proceed to a contest and help the challenged rights. But where not only does everyone agree concerning the matter at hand, but even further seeks that the fitting should be preserved, as less than that which is happening and not even coming close to the value of what has been received, what is necessary...
A to search for inventions of arguments, and to embellish and to employ artifice, and to appear to achieve something great, supposedly ridding themselves of blame, lest by chance they seem to have done something contrary to expectation and to have overstepped justice? When it is necessary, more than anything else, to look to the contrary and to be diligent in showing that they are not liable to the accusation, as though owing great things, but exchanging them for small things, and falling short of what is deserved. For emperors pride themselves upon gifts and distributing and assigning these to those who receive them according to reason; this, emperors themselves proclaim in writing, and those who fulfill the speeches of ambition regarding such things. And if this, having been examined, is good in regard to all in general, what could one say regarding those who are genuinely joined and have come by lineage to be emperors, and who from every side demonstrate and put forward bright and great grounds, so that the emperors themselves—in the way we have spoken, having been eager and wishing to bestow favor—immediately turn the whole thing over and draw it to themselves? Or is this, at least, clear to everyone?
α'. And if these things are so, whether my partner in empire, my deeply beloved Augusta, would have wished, and asked for, this more than anyone would, of course, say it is just for them—to those very ones to whom she might wish it—to use them immediately as complete, or if she has not wished [to claim them] and is not seeking justice and things most reasonable, but assigns only slight and small care to these, and so much so as not to touch upon such things, or to appear to touch them only dimly—for this reason, especially, if we were to know [this], we would act according to this very mind of hers, without her having been forced to do so. I, for one, think so. But before this, she herself helps our affairs by contributing money for public needs, and she overlooks private usages and what she might have had to spend and expend on her own necessities, but prefers the needs of the many and aids them in this way, having provided everything possible, having magnanimously set it in the middle and having taken no account of the time and the matters at hand. So that to those who reason rightly from this, what we are currently doing would not be considered in the light of a favor, for we are not giving back anything new, but doing what seemed good based on what was already hers, and [ordering it] to remain for all time in her full authority, not as a favor so much as in the way we spoke of—purchased. These things D are as follows: for the sake of which we also needed the present speech, and we set it out, establishing it as fixed, unshaken, and immovable. And we, indeed, have done so. But what of you, who are now present at what has been done and who will later be understood in all time, you who are heirs of the inheritance given to us by God A of this beginning and empire, what do you say and what does it seem to you? Is the matter great and burdensome and not such as you would also wish to undergo and preserve? Or could not even one person say this—that it is rather small and cheapened and falling far short of expectation, yet agreeable even to you, who are considering all that has been said and at the same time reckoning the brightness from above and the conspicuous and most lofty [nature] of the lineage, from which she is born and resides with us B in the participation of the rule, as God so willed and ordained it in His good pleasure? And indeed, if it had not come to us in this way, but by some other chance, what would we have done? Would we not have shared some of the worthy, fitting, and great things? And how would we not have seemed to be insensible to perfection and to the knowledge of what is good? And so, keep for me this golden-bull discourse, entirely indestructible, and as much as we wish in this, to remain forever.
β'. We wish that the properties mentioned by name be, for this my deeply beloved Augusta, open in continuous time and through all things, entirely undisturbed, inseparable, unbroken, and according to their entire extent and tenure; and not only so, but also regarding all things by which these might have been improved and advanced to growth, far removed and repelled from any other power that is [trying to] shake and C attempt to alter them, and indeed from any hand that is grasping and meddlesome and prying. For no other of all those who have known [these things] shall be one who has acted in any way contrary to what is currently known to us; but rather, everyone who keeps records shall stand from afar, and shall not draw near or meddle with such things, daring to attempt and to prune and to undo and to alienate, whether something from the beginning and until now has been harmonized, or if things better and improved have been established later. Moreover, these things shall be entirely as they are, and not in the least let go, nor overturned, nor slipped into a lesser state and brought under [other control], nor [shall they fall] even to those whom my own deeply beloved Augusta might know to govern and bestow [them]—those who have clearly been born of me and her, or in another way, as children who have come to us D genuinely, who themselves shall hold them, possessing them as their own property, equally as others [do], as their own things by all rights, and these, having taken them confidently from her by gift and favor, or if you wish to call it, a just inheritance. Moreover, these also [shall do so] towards those from them, and those [later] towards those from them, and the following towards those who follow them coming into generation, thus also having assigned them according to all will, just as they themselves, in the way we spoke of, obtained [them] with so great and most excellent a right.
XXXI. Gold-sealed decree of Emperor Andronicus the Elder, by which the estate of Cutzi is granted to the Serbian monastery on Mount Athos at the petition of the King of Serbia.
The intention of the present discourse immediately meets the petition—which the most high King of the Serbs and my beloved [relative] proposed to me—not only as a just one, and indeed very just, but also as one involving a small matter compared to a great and most mighty one. And let no one think that, had we refused, anyone could rightly hold us to account; rather, all would say that even now, at its completion, it is not worthy [of note], neither for the favor of him who proposed and accepted it, nor for the sake of the subject matter by which he decided to present the request. And so, it is not our task to show that what was done was reasonable and did not exceed justice; but rather that we did not just suppose it was fitting to grant so much, but rather as much as seemed good to the recipient, and it was done by us according to his will.
But before this, I wish to prefix a little something and to set down for future time a narrative of a great miracle of God concerning me and the inheritance placed under me by Him, for a confession of Him—a common one, I say, by all men who have chosen to be pious. For from this, the entire purpose of the present discourse shall become clear and manifest to those wishing to learn. A For a multitude of the Persian army is gathered together into a great and vast host, and then it crosses into Thrace—I mean this land which is under us and is our own—and forces are mustered for them from everywhere, and they become enemies against our people, thinking and meditating on great things. Many of their own kin run forward to join them again and again, and with others always coming upon others, and greater numbers upon many, the matter grew to a great height, and what they deemed was something terrible and grievous.
B They, having taken hold of security and filled with boldness by it, fancied themselves to be irresistible and uncontainable in their raids; and they were puffed up with a great deal of arrogance and were flowing everywhere in their incursions. Then again, coming together in crowds, they were haughty and were casting into their minds that they would suffer nothing terrible, nor would there be anywhere [to face] them, nor would anyone meet them, but that they would rather be able to do and accomplish all things. And they were indeed like that; but we, on the other hand, looking toward God and His Mother, drew up in opposition. And so, our armies gathering under God—who were indeed both brilliant and noble, and very capable of defending [themselves]—we did not decide to be emboldened by these things, nor by the sword (r) and the bows, but we awaited the arrows sent from heaven to strike the enemies. And we beheld, as it were, the bow being bent there and the instruments of death being prepared upon it (s); yet we were hoping, and hoping very much, and taking confidence in these things, and we were not in the least deceived in our expectations.
But what indeed happens? The sword of God slays those who fight, and it gets drunk, having been filled with their blood (t); and all their bows are shattered, and the sword which they brandished and threatened against us turns and drives into their own hearts (u), and they all fall—not in the same place, but all of them nonetheless; and not one of them flees and is saved, C neither on land nor sea. And thus this monument of victory stands, visible and great and mammoth, against that insolence of the impious of which we spoke. And many, being a countless multitude, seemed to be more numerous in being slain and captured than those who were beyond the slaughter and the blow. And so, all those things which they, having thought upon and taken confidence in, were [using] against us, God turns all upon their own heads (v), who is glorified in power (a), and against whose arm no one struggles nor is anyone able to stand. And such is the end of the impious and the hostile; such too is the monument of victory against them for us who are pious, fighting and drawing up under God.
D And for our armies at that time, it is surely no small thing that the Serbian force (y) also joined and acted with us—a force also strong and noble, moving against the enemies and readily crashing into them for as much as possible. For my beloved son here selects this [force] from his own, and does not equip...
A bodies only with bronze weapons, but now also sharpens their souls with exhortations and consolatory words given by God; and in this way, and through such preparations, he instills courage in them, and urges and prepares them to stand firm against the oncoming enemies, and to grapple with them, and to endure. And they were mindful of his commands, and did not forget, nor were they unremembered in the struggles and the camp set against the enemies. What then? After those enemies had all fallen and perished entirely, and some great turmoil had been brought down everywhere against all of Persia, our armies crossed over and warred against them within that very place, and there also crossed over to the support along with the Serbians themselves another power of no small repute. And this man, who is dearest to me and holds rule over them, does not endure—wherever the enemies are, and wherever our ranks are set against them—not to rise up himself and join the fray at the same place. And he wishes indeed to be present in body, and very much wishes and is eager; but since this is not possible for him (for neither to depart nor to shift from his own [posts] is safe for them), this second thing he does not refuse, but he also gives this readily as much as is possible to the greatest extent.
α΄. And therefore instead of these things (but imagine even this! And it is here for those wishing to observe the intent of his mind): for on account of the aforementioned deeds which he says have been granted to us from God against the enemies, he wishes to dedicate to God Himself some offering and thank-offering, and to bring and attach it to the venerable monastery of the all-holy Mother of His Christ, God, on the mountain of Athos B, remaining through all time, and never falling away or being released from it. And first indeed he asks for and receives from my imperial majesty the locality around the Strymon also called Koutzi, and dedicates it to this venerable monastery. Now, however, he intends to deposit money, and in return for these [sums] the estate is to be as if purchased and given over to the monastery. And he acts thus. But how was it reasonable for us, while seeing these things for the sake of money, to overlook what we said were his efforts on our behalf, and his excessive will and zeal? Not to mention that it was for such a small favor and recompense, but if something was worth much and was most valuable, whether he wished it in this way or another, at his pleasure we should do what we deemed best to be done. Therefore, what we have already determined to have done, we are now doing. And what more? By publishing the present chrysobull document to this very all-holy Mother of C God, and through her to the mentioned venerable monastery, by which it shall hold the aforementioned estate forever, and shall hold it without any disturbance from any quarter, neither from any of those conducting public affairs, nor from any hand recording and investigating matters concerning it, but this property shall be whole in every boundary that even now is a part and is fitted to it; and if anything in this shall be improved for the better by the monks, it shall be held in the same manner by the monastery, with none of its rights being cut off, nor alienated, nor changing hands in any way by anyone.
And thus, by the power of this chrysobull document, these things shall be so, just as it is already commanding and ordaining, since for this reason it has come to be granted to such a venerable monastery.
XXXII. Imp. Andronici senioris aurea bulla pro componendo dissidio inter monachos.
A chrysobull document regarding the union of the disagreeing monks, who are then coming together into one with the fullness of the Church, having received a resolution of the things set against them.
Peace and harmony, and a common mind free from every disagreement and strife and contention, is surely a most excellent thing everywhere for those who examine and consider [it], and indeed a most perfect good. Yet, even in the lot of Christ and this Church, standing upon the straight and unerring dogmas of itself and having all other things well and safely, what would one who is God-loving and Christ-loving, with God cooperating and helping him toward the achievement, more diligently strive for, than that those who think the same things about God and agree and harmonize on the true confession, and all other things, be bound by one mind, and that these not differ or oppose each other, and in no way be set as if against one another, but in every way bear towards one [goal], consistent with one another and harmonizing, and as one mouth D and one tongue proclaim upon the Church itself, together sending forth the same voices to God, and as they are securely established upon one and the same faith, so indeed one may know the whole Church of Christ, and [that it is] agreeing with itself, and consistent, and wearing its own garment whole and unbroken, woven from above, and admitting no schism or division or tearing and separation into parts. For even to the one dividing and cutting so much as is from what the Weaver prepared, and who has stained and colored it with His own blood, it is prepared and lies ready for torture and punishment, as is surely clear to those who...
contemplate it and deeply understand the audacity A of their opinion. And we, in our turn, have again made every effort, by every means, to drive back those who think on theological matters in ways equal to the others, and to ensure that their judgment also becomes the same—for the sake of this very harmony among us, all difference having been removed. And this comes to pass and meets with my own diligence and judgment. How does it come to pass? They come to us. And whatever disturbs, agitates, and casts them into fear, they propose in the midst; and they seek that we, having done this, might cease, being fearful of their own reasoning. And we do this very thing—that which we said was the greatest good, commanded to us by God, and preferred above all else—which is peace.
What, then, do we do? That great man already anticipates [the struggle]—for it is greater, more shameless, and bolder than what those who crucified Him dared; for they did not divide, but they spared, having cast lots, as the holy Gospels say. Therefore, in order that this [the Church] might be whole, and undivided throughout, and that the Church of Christ, which He Himself is the head of, might be joined and gathered together—Christ Himself not only to the disciples then, but also to those after them and to all with whom He promises to be until the end of the age—cries out and commands that they have love for one another, and not only that, but He also gives and leaves His own peace B, because it is not even otherwise possible for His own to be united and joined and gathered to the one Church, of which He is the head, if peace does not join and bind them to those who [stand] for the truth and for right dogmas, like an indissoluble bond and holding them from every side. And so, because this is the case, and it behooves us to yield to the commands of God, being eager as far as possible to serve and minister to Him—if we have been eager, as is fitting, and have served, and have left nothing undone of the efforts for His Church—what need is there to speak, starting from the beginning and going through everything for those who know and are ignorant of nothing of these things? You all know, of course, both the harsh storm and disturbance C that was brought upon this [Church], and that which was cast upon those who were rightly and firmly established from the beginning in the dogmas of the confession, and that it was able to shake, unsettle, drag away, and remove them; so that both how we again, and with such great, fervent, and burning zeal, stood against the harassers, or rather the absurd dogmatists, and defended and stood before the truth, and again, having restored it to the Church, which was rightly and soundly known, have given it back to God — holding this as the first of all things, seeing that all other matters contribute little or nothing to this. And so, every spurious and imposed dogma we completely removed and drove from our midst. And it was necessary for all those who hold right views, and who support the truth, to have labored, once the Church was so brightly opened, to be within it D and to partake of her bread, which is pure and unadulterated, and which she offers and provides, not participating in any leaven of wickedness and strangeness, and to drink the cup which she offers, fully pushed away and driven out being the one who would disturb the mixture. Yet they remained standing outside, as many as for whom this has happened [in whatever way].
Of the struggles of Joseph the Patriarch
C struggles, much and [of his] steadfastness and endurance; and having in no way yielded or conceded any of the confession to those who through long periods of time were forcing him and attempting to force him to resign the patriarchal throne, those men having clearly given way, and he having been victorious to the end. And so, when he saw the trophy raised by us under God the overseer, so brightly against those who were warring [against the truth], that famous Joseph—that great athlete, renowned first for the heights of his virtue and the things done in his life, but even more renowned for the final contests and those things he struggled through—breathed easily, and he renounced all other things in the manner we said, taking no account or interest in any of the things here that are considered great by men. And he indeed [is] so; but the Church of God, as if rewarding him for his labors and his toils on her behalf, proclaims him by name as equal to the others who have renounced nothing, but who at once in piety and on the throne have ended their lives in similar struggles and times. And so, this very proclamation becomes for those who are in disagreement with them a source of scandal and a pretext, and they seek to have this silenced and stopped. And we shall stop, having remained silent, doing things in this regard that are friendly to him, and, as it were, renouncing according to the judgment what he renounced, and neither doing nor devising anything further beyond what was granted to him.
Second, they speak of certain oaths and censures, and at the same time of certain slights and annulments that were made a long time ago, and they bring charges against those involved. Yet, lest any [consequence] from those things should descend even to those who come after, there is a desire that the forgiveness and release be made manifest, and they are persuaded that God forgives, the patriarch having petitioned and appeased [Him] with supplications. And this man shall stand and shall offer atonement, acting as a mediator, and
he shall provide the pardons from there to those in need, as we have said.
Consequently, since Bekkos had wickedly fastened himself onto the Church, and had spewed forth the filth of subversion and confusion against her and all that was rightly decreed by her, immediately those who had been ousted from the platform—as many as had made use of his hands and, believing themselves to be perfected by them, had crept inside of it—were driven away. And if any of such people, having also taken [authority], have remained hidden until now, we say first, and those who have come after us say the same as we do, that these men are to be driven away and cast out and must fall from every divine and sacred ministry; and it shall be manifest that he who has been removed shall be cast out. Not only this, but also if any among the deacons, if any among the priests, if any among the bishops should be convicted in truth of being involved in any way, they shall remove him from both the rank and the order in which he stands, either on account of a life that is profane and not at all belonging to the divine and sacred table and the fearful mysteries therein, or on account of an ordination absolutely forbidden by the apostolic and patristic traditions; and this man shall in no way escape the judgment which the apostles themselves and the Fathers, in deposing him, have rendered against him.
Those who have been in possession of the patriarchal throne and have subsequently resigned it shall no longer ascend it again; nor indeed have they ascended it, because it is not even permitted henceforth, their resignations having been secured by indissoluble oaths; and they shall therefore remain for all time, observing and keeping safe this very thing which has seemed good to them in this way. B
And furthermore, [the Emperor] must demonstrate that he possesses lists and preparations of arms, and is able to enumerate many and great forces in contests against enemies. For in this way, the Emperor would show himself against those who wage war, coming as one fearsome for defense, and he will provide his subjects with much confidence, displaying that he possesses great things on their behalf to use with God. Likewise, in accordance with the royal and philanthropic intent, he must not be negligent of political affairs nor allow them to be carried on as it happens, nor consider this a matter less worthy of concern, but should rather think it necessary to expend much care upon them, so that they might be administered as excellently as possible, with good order being established everywhere and with equality and justice being well distributed to all. For since there are two such times—namely, peace and war—and since matters concerning these are clearly divided, the Emperor shall meet both worthily, having well distinguished and provided what is appropriate and profitable to each: while peace exists, showing political [affairs] to be in good order, and while wars [exist], having practiced strength from afar. Not only this, but concerning these matters it is thus; yet, concerning the care of souls, setting all his zeal toward the heavens and having chosen once and for all to live according to God, I say that the Emperor who reigns from God ought to consider nothing less incumbent upon himself—or rather, that he should consider it even more [incumbent]—to place places of meditation and sacred dwellings under his care, and for these to be established in the beginning, and once established, to remain firmly and securely. For what reason? Because those who have renounced the world in the way we have said, and all things in the world, and have acknowledged that they must attend to God alone throughout their whole life, appease Him and make Him merciful to us through their supplications, and also prepare Him to stretch out His mighty hand of help in all matters that concern us. And indeed, it is possible for everyone who reflects well and is able to judge prudently to say exactly this: that whatever a person brings and piously dedicates to these sacred places—as if in this way comforting the bodily needs of those who have chosen to live there, and indeed furnishing [them] with goods and properties, which are of necessary requirement for them even for their corruptible life—he contributes more and provides a greater momentum toward the better for the common public taxes than if he were to happen to contribute and add these things to those that seem beneficial according to the world. And besides these things, the Emperor has also his own personal profit for the sake of this good resolve. For if he should assist and join in the zeal of those who have detached themselves from the material things that are below and from the things that are dragged upon the ground, and who are traveling wholly to the things above, and if he should smooth out the good path for them, he would certainly also become a partaker of the rewards stored up from God, toward which—and for the sake of which—the toils and the studies and the tyranny of the body are performed by them, fleeing as they do all sensation and the pleasure following upon it, and having turned to the soul and attached themselves to it entirely. Not only this, but these things regarding this:
The doctrines of our Church—I mean this very one, the Catholic and Apostolic—are pure, as we have received them in the Gospels and as the apostles handed them down to us and the Fathers preached them; and we have proclaimed them with a great and loud voice, and have securely strengthened them, having bravely cast down and thrust aside every spurious, treacherous, hostile, and enemy doctrine that had crept into them, and now again we shall in the same way strengthen and proclaim them. And what has been done shall be done again, and everything shall be as has been said, some things from the beginning and before you asked, as we have rightly and well acted and performed [them], and others even now for your sake and for the sake of the common peace, having recognized that it is necessary to undertake and to do [them]. C D
XXXIII. The Golden Bull of Emperor Andronicus the Elder regarding the joining of the monasteries of Galysios and of the Holy Resurrection.
A golden bull decree on the union of the monastery in Galysios and that of the Holy Resurrection, so that henceforth they shall not be two, but one, and shall be ordered and led under one superior.
And the royal zeal, which is praised and of good intent, is for these things to be placed in the meditation of as many [people] as possible; and [regarding] the armies, it is manifest—
and remains in doubt, so that no one, absolutely no one, holds a double opinion regarding its being otherwise than as has been said, or would speak differently of them, if he were one who had examined it well and wished to speak the truth.
A For what purpose, then, and toward what scope does the discourse tend? The venerable monastery of my all-immaculate Lady and Theotokos, located in the east at the place of Galesios, has been famous ever since it was founded, and is very greatly marveled at, for it has been able to assist souls choosing to live according to God, and even now it preserves this good, and reaches out its right hand to those who, wanting to pursue this way of life within it, are eager to fulfill their desire. For it is founded in a certain uninhabited place, far from worldly tumults. Lazarus, the man renowned for his asceticism and great in his manner of life according to God, first established and organized it, having selected this spot and consecrated this marvelous monastery there to the Theotokos, and having built and established it as a workshop of virtue, or rather, having sought out a certain space that of its own nature possessed the power to produce improvements of souls, he there came to a stop, having found what he was seeking. For the place is a mountain, steep and rugged, possessing nothing for the comfort or physical consolation of the soul; for it is neither shaded by trees, nor does it produce grass or vegetation, nor does it yield any other useful things from the earth at all. It is entirely dry and utterly void of such shoots, even if it is otherwise fertile in virtue—producing this, one might say, as something self-born—and receiving seeds, and thus conceiving, bringing forth, nourishing, and increasing them manifold. And thus it charms the soul, while grieving the sense. And you, behold the way leading to the monastery, not only narrow and straitened, as it leads clearly to life, but also having the addition of the labor of sharp stones and a winding path, not leading in a straight line, yet leading straight to God. Behold also this city of God, located above the mountain, which is not hidden, but rather, because of its virtue, is least concealed; and see the path of the monks, or rather of the athletes, who are eager for the ascent and are straining B to reach the final end and conquer Belial and to enjoy an incorruptible, but rather an unfading crown, blooming for the ages, which Christ from above holds out to those running toward him, He who is the great adjudicator of the struggle and the just giver of prizes. It is for you surely to marvel at the endurance of these men; and marvel greatly! How they do not yield in summer to the heat, nor are they defeated by sweltering fire in a waterless and shadeless place, and in winter, again, they wrestle against cold and frost, these being, diametrically, the utter opposite, as one might say, of evils, and towards which there is to no one any need to be subjected, being noble without a soulless and completely ruptured physical affection. Nevertheless, the discourse does not wish to abandon this theater in which the struggles take place lightly, nor merely to cast a shadow over those who are tireless, having spoken dimly of them and not yet known to those who have not known them through experience. Therefore, it would describe the nature of the struggles more clearly. There, the sun of summer casts down, scorching the rocks no less than fire falling among thorns; it burns the air together with them, and casting this, as it were, from a furnace against the face, it dissolves the bodies of those falling into the flame. But they, blessed for their struggles, endure, because, having despised their bodies, they are covered by nothing because of their imperishable hopes. Therefore, they do not only stand firm against what I said the fire was testing them with, and they win in the end, but they are also afflicted by snowfall and cold, a hostile force to the body, indeed unbearable and destructive. Yet, passing through the great trial of fire, considering a little bit of water, they go forth into refreshment, marvelous in their struggles and their endurance. But far more than the battle against the combatant and the trophies won over him, and furthermore, these men, having stood against the creation itself, as if it had declared war upon them, were not defeated, nor did they retreat like those who are weary, but they maintain the intensity unyielding until the end. These things, therefore, all others also acknowledge for these men over a long time, and those who speak of them speak with eloquent tongues. Our empire, with great kindness regarding this venerable monastery of those who are living or rather struggling so god-lovingly, has shown clear signs of favor toward it, and everything that time had already acquired for it from various sources, it confirmed with chrysobulls and other supports to remain immovable. In addition to these things is also the present occurrence, at once for its sake and for the sake of the venerable monastery here in the great city, I mean that of the Resurrection of our God and Savior C. For it conjoins both and leads them into one, and shows them to be one out of two as of old, that whatever was part of them respectively should for the rest be common, having enjoined that they be led under one and the same spiritual teacher, who explains to the monks in both the same way, and who in the same manner looks after their affairs and manages them well and provides for them well. Thus our empire judged concerning them, and ordered the same union to be thus. And it was so.
XXXIV. Imp. Andronicus the Elder regarding judges.
A decree from the Emperor against those committing injustice, leading...A the judges to oaths, and in every way affording aid to those suffering injustice.
The discourse now present to you, which will be most mighty to declare for the benefit of all those who are under our governance and the authority and empire granted to us by God, is this: if justice is indeed the mightiest and most beneficial of all things, then it is the intention of this discourse to strive in every way to put this into effect, so that no person henceforth, having been wronged by anyone, should be forced to endure it, as if those by whom they suffer harm were invincible and no relief from anywhere appeared.
And you might perhaps wonder if this, being so excellent and useful a principle for a blessed government, has not been decreed by us, or, being strongly decreed, that we have not immediately hastened to bring it into the midst, but rather have come to these, the best and most useful things decreed from the beginning, so slowly. We shall presently state the causes of this, not least because we ourselves are not altogether ignorant of them all. And the discourse shall have begun from a little further back.
God, by his mercies alone—for I brought nothing of my own, for what is he who, even before he came to be, was deemed worthy to rule and reign under Him?—God Himself, therefore, from my mother’s womb, bearing me, placed me upon this high and great throne of authority. Had He first harmonized the power of this position and its magnitude, even as it behooves all things to happen, as others of you say—you yourselves who are wise in God’s ways and perceive well and rightly the benefits from Him that come to you—I, since I came at once to birth and to empire, was by necessity in the first stages of my age yielding to nature, as my body was tender and could not yet contain reasonings or activities or perceptions of affairs. But when my mind was already emerging and, as it were, overtopping the incompleteness of the body and was leading beyond all that is appropriate to the time, then at once, as I came to noble reasonings for myself, a firm and secure conviction became mine: that neither the empire itself, being a matter so high and great and of the greatest magnitude, nor anything else, not even B the smallest thing, could exist or be managed, unless God also assisted and established with ease both the undertaking and, at the same time, the completion of its end. And that we might attain this well, I knew that we must seek God, and seek Him very fervently, to have Him as a fellow-worker in all things, and that we must diligently employ that by which He would be propitiated, so that we might not draw Him merely with words, but with deeds themselves, to which God looks all the more, and thus Heeds our petitions, clearly examining the deeds first.
Immediately, therefore, I was pressed by almost all the words of the prophets, all the teachings C of the apostles, all the instructions of the holy Fathers, and before all, by the saving and holy Gospels of Christ Himself, being well and truly aware that those who are engaged in justice do not perform this service to God in any small or trifling way; rather, it is sufficient to open His bowels of compassion, and it encourages us, standing upon this virtue, not to fall either from Him or from the great mercies that are proffered to us with righteousness from Him. As, on the contrary, those who set themselves to injustices fall from all hope in Him and deservedly fall into all difficulties, because, as it says (l), they did not appoint God as their refuge and stronghold, nor His helper, but they possessed a multitude of wealth, having seized the illusions of greed, and held hopes in this. And so, having become strong in their own vanity, they were brightly—if one may say so—deceived, as they were thus well strengthened in this manner.
D At this, zeal for the just still held me as I reigned with my father. But the intent of my mind was revealed all the more, the whole power having come purely to me after him. For indeed, I myself, being above every law and every force, having it in my power to do all things that kings who were long before our time, having but one law and one stronger than all, the will itself, had done, yet I myself overlooked the mastery according to this, and this—being just from the greatest possible usage—a golden-bulled discourse is read; and an oath of the judges also proceeded. And as many as were chosen from the senate, standing out in legal experience and wisdom; and it was established as a fearful tribunal, giving judgments equally to the great and the small; even if it did not last long, but little by little, like the striking of musical strings, it had been weakened and had fallen out of tune.
A And so, first of all, I legislate justice for myself for two reasons, one of which is that I myself might gain the great rewards.
What are these? David heard it clearly said: "The Lord is righteous and He has loved righteousness" (m), and, "I have not seen," he says, "a righteous man forsaken" (n), and, "The righteous shall flourish like the palm tree" (o), and, "Light has arisen for the righteous" (p); and he says many things with diligence, as if sitting beside the songs and singing for justice. And if these things are so (and they are indeed so), is there anything at all that is more to be preferred than to gather all things into one and to set it as a gain of the love of God? And surely no one, I think, of all mankind, will ever have arrived at such a pitch of folly or ingratitude toward God, that with both these things lying before him for choice—the love of God, that is, and the possession of the whole world, if it were possible—he would have a divided mind and would not immediately run toward God, loving Him and being called by Him, wishing to make Him his own. But how great a thing it is, again, for every man, and even more so for an emperor, not to be forsaken by God, but to know safely that from that source he has God co-operating with him in all things! And if the righteous man alone flourishes while all others wither away, do you have anything you would value more profitably for yourself than this good, or anything you would love more than the light that is born for the righteous from the heights of the east and never fades? You could not say so!
But, as I was saying, I set justice at the head of my government and empire, both for the sake of these things already mentioned and for many other great gains, both in the present and in those that are eternal. And I have omitted to go through them one by one and to use the Holy Scriptures that bear witness to them, because it is perhaps superfluous to elaborate on the proofs of things that are clearly acknowledged by all.
Nevertheless, I also knew that I should practice this virtue for your sake. Why? So that you, looking at your emperor and having in him a kind of figure and example of the good, might flee injustice and pursue justice, knowing well that the more you partake of this manner, the more you will do things pleasing to our power; for if there is anything at all that it requires of you before all else, it is good order. For you see, surely, what kind of man I am toward you all (let it be said with God), and toward all the emperors who have ever been, as lovers of justice—if anyone has surpassed this resolution. For I have never desired—but why is it necessary to speak about desire? Indeed, I have not even endured to let it enter my mind; but the argument hardly tolerates saying even this, nor that such a calculation ever occurred to me, B or that I would willingly favor any injustice; but it is more truthful to say that it is because it is also similar. What is this? That, just as it is impossible to find in fire or light any power that cools, or in the latter any participation in darkness, so also not even in me is there any unjust mind to trouble me. But if I ever happened to do wrong by betraying some of my rights, I did wrong only in this; and even here, though I know it is well, since everywhere it is an evil for justice to be harmed, yet I relaxed in such matters, in order that from that surplus I might draw you on to honor what is right, and that you might abstain altogether from the property of others, when you are not entirely pedantic even about your own, but might learn to concede something, having the instruction from the very things that concern us.
And therefore, having thus understood regarding justice, I deemed it proper to maintain it in all things in the manner mentioned, clearly with zeal for the effort on its behalf, which has not been negligible among you. And I had these expectations. But experience showed clearly that nothing meets these expectations, for all things would sooner and more easily happen to those who are willing than that justice should have its own power through types and examples alone, and not be aided by authority.
What then follows from this? I looked toward the court, and for judges to sit as protectors of what is right, and to give power to laws well established long ago. Another logic entered my mind. And I reflect on this, and I bestow bright power upon the judges, a new remedy, not that I have invented something new for those suffering injustice, nor a recent one, but a new thing to say that all things can be C and for all to yield to this and not be willing—small and great, those higher and those lower, those of the upper and first rank, and all the rest in order—to attend securely to our decree, and not seem to slight any of those brought to trial that the judges have decreed, or clearly to bear contempt against these very instructions from us, if anyone should despise the court. And so that one might not have a double opinion, without any suspicion that the votes are unbribable, it was necessary to provide for these things, and they have been provided for. For since the cause from which those who are entrusted with the search for justice sin (for either they fell short of what is fitting through ignorance of the rights, or, with a base mind, they went away having betrayed what was rightly presented), we reasonably kept the judges safe and blameless on both counts. For we put them forward, having chosen them as the best in all things to understand what is right, so that not even for those who are strictly condemned would there remain any way to complain of being wronged, on the grounds that the judges were ignorant. But if they, knowing where the right leads, then willingly sinned, they will accept the exposures being laid bare D
A and would not maintain that they were wronged, because they were well convinced in their conscience; yet if they were caught while ignorant, and thus will obey the judges, having from the outset the proof of their condemnation as righteous, because it seemed so to these very judges.
Now, they sit having taken an oath, having provided beforehand the bonds incumbent upon each. For as they will judge the great and the small with equality, and will not take a bribe, will not take a person, and will not show favor through friendship, they have secured this well—that they will never make anything more precious than justice. And yet, even without the oaths, the manner of proceeding is enough to ensure that everything from them is correct; but they judge having sworn oaths, so that for you who wish to do injustice (and may there be no one, so that one might not also be ashamed by the reproach of such a court, and nothing more will come to him in the end from an evil purpose), that at least no pretext might be left to you as though the matters of the condemnation were not fashioned with justice, for the sake of which we have renewed an ancient custom, having caused those who have been allotted to judge to swear the oaths beforehand.
And who, then, is still so shameless and so utterly going against the laws and the things that are righteous, who, departing from this very court condemned, will not be compliant to what has been decided? Or looking to what, while still having some noble recourse to disburden himself of the condemnation, will he despise the votes, holding to those things from before? For this man will be to me utterly detestable, and nothing will in any way release him, even if he were to propose everything; and nothing will be like one striving to appease the judges by means of the right.
For it is indeed so. I wished to be myself an investigator for those being judged, and for the resolutions to come from no other source than from myself for those engaged in the lawsuits; but since this is impossible for an emperor above all else, with ten thousand other matters pouring around and turning upon themselves, I fulfill my will for me through this very court. And you, every man who is being judged, as if from our own mind and voice, without arguing anything, accept the vote, which has no less power than our own mandates. For you will not be able to ever dissolve this, even if you bring all the dignities, even if you are come to us most closely by lineage and rule, even if the past time, during which you did not share, might be yielding to you now, perhaps awaiting the correction.
I proclaim this too imperially, and if you wish, I advise all in common with Isaiah (q): "Learn to do good, seek out judgment." And perhaps he desires that even others who are able may rescue you who are wronged; but I say, do not do wrong, and if you do, then I myself will rescue the one who is wronged, considering it better to bear toward me the voice of the prophet. B "Why do you love vanity," David (r) says, shaming you, "and seek after lies," profits not remaining, except only as much as to constitute sin and kindle for us fire that is punishing without end? "If I were looking upon injustice in my heart," the same (s) says again, "may the Lord not hear me." And how will God hear you, when you are here calling upon Him because some dark distress has taken hold, and there you are being justly dismissed into punishment?
But also, "The eyes of the Lord are upon the righteous, and His ears," he says (t), "are for their prayer." But will you not rather love to be in the visitation of God and to be a fair sight to His eyes, practicing justice? But you, as though He will turn His face away from you who are oppressed, perhaps because you are paying the penalties for sins committed out of injustice, thinking that He will not listen—neither quickly nor late, nor ever at all, though you cry out much and are in pain—will you not rather be in haste to set this right? Then will you congratulate yourself, that having obtained much you have "treasured up" (to speak so) the "wrath" of God, great matters and "hay and stubble" being tested in the coming judgment and being burned up with "unquenchable fire"?
And let these words persuade you, and let Paul (u) persuade you, and let Peter (v) also persuade you, saying, "The Lord knows how to rescue the godly from temptations, but to keep the unrighteous, being punished, for the day of judgment." And to that, what do you say, when the same apostle (x) in this insists that the children of God are manifest, and again the children of the devil, saying, "Everyone who does justice is born of God," and "everyone who does not do justice is not of God"?
And why do you not shudder, when in the Gospels you hear the Lord now indignant against the Pharisees, and saying (y), "Woe to you, because within you are full of all rapacity and wickedness; and because you tithe the mint, but pass by the judgment," and now turning away from you who do injustice, C and insisting (z), "I do not know where you are from," and still with greater, and as it were, a grievous anger more strikingly crying out, "Depart from Me all you workers of injustice"? And the threat to these is how fearful and great! "There will be," he says (a), "the weeping and the gnashing of the teeth" (a).
And Christ indeed said these things, being God who is not false and the judge of the coming age, who will also set some on His right and will call them "blessed by the Father" and will call them to inherit the kingdom of the heavens. D
A [which is prepared for them from the foundation of the world], while He will condemn others with the goats on the left side and will send them away into the eternal fire—not because they lusted after the property of others (for this is what is held against you) and set upon them with rapine and injustice (for to them He does not reproach any rapine or any greed at all), but because of something much more moderate than this: that they did not offer food to the hungry, nor did they give drink to the thirsty, nor did they clothe the naked, nor did they bring in the stranger, nor did they visit the sick, nor did they go to those in chains, nor did they minister to Him in any way, nor in any of the ways that have been numbered. For He even demands the whole; and if you bestow even a little, He receives it with kindness, and especially when it is according to one's ability; and whatever you might do well, being eager, to one of these little ones and His brothers, He receives it as though it were done purely to Himself.
So much for these things. But you, instead of providing food and drink, and sharing hospitality, and bringing them into your homes, will you bring field to field and vineyard to vineyard, and join house to house? B And to what end? So that you may take away from your neighbor, and make him go hungry, and perhaps thirsty, and force him to stay outside, having become a stranger to his own kin or perhaps even cast out before your own gates, and in great need—not that you might share from your own things for the sake of the commandment, but that you might merely yield back to him his own, from which you have evilly deprived him.
And indeed, on the one hand, from that source Isaiah [(b)]—he who had his lips and tongue cleansed by the divine coal and was commanded from then on to use these instruments of the Spirit—says: "Woe to you," and he laments much and bewails from afar as if foreseeing where at the last you shall arrive in punishment; but here Christ Himself leads the judgment. And see indeed the righteous going into life, and into the enjoyment of a certain [delight] not in any way ever coming to an end. But you, to where will you go? You will be dragged to torments, and the angels, having taken you, will surely lead you thither, C where you will pay the penalties eternally. And nothing will avail you then of the present things, not the great wealth heaped up from injustice, nor in any way at all—for how could it? Seeing that even here you have often escaped from these very things from which you had taken, or even from others afterwards.
Man, either come to a realization of what is to come, or else consider it better regarding yourself in the present. For what is it that you even desire? Mostly, to eat the good things of the earth and for contentment to last for you, and for your seed to be for a blessing and not to be in need or even to come to the seeking of bread? But these things are allotted to the righteous as is meet. And let Isaiah persuade you, and let David persuade you, and Solomon [(c)], saying that the ends of an unjust generation are some grievous things, and their root shall be as dust, and the seed of the ungodly shall be destroyed, but the righteous, they say, shall inherit the earth.
And indeed, if you care nothing for the great things promised to the righteous, nor for the fearful things with which those who act unjustly are threatened, yet do not desire to pass over this (which they call the second word). What do I mean? Lest, having chosen sin for the sake of base pleasure arising from greed, there will be no gain in the end of your evil choice, and it will be added, indeed, to be even more grieved, having been in the experience of things belonging to others and of things which were not fitting, and then having undergone the just taking away of these very things. For you will not trip up, you will not deceive, by any means, the judges, and even if you pursue all the ways of laws and justice, you will not be stronger than those of whom these are the guardians—before God in the first place, and in the second place by me—and they sit as allies. You will depart from the court empty, having failed in everything D of which you were clearly taking part greedily, and of which you evilly hoped that the votes would be with you, clearly, so as to overturn justice.
For consider it thus: you are strong and great, but surely not as great as it is fearful to fall into the hands of the living God, as Paul [(d)] says, and of the judges themselves, no one doubts it. Indeed, not even will they make more account of your worth than of me, the king, who demands justice from them and stands over it (you see how much). But will you steal away with gifts? But you will give nothing as great as what God promises, saying, [(e)] "Judge for the orphan and justify the widow," and everything clearly [concerning] him who is oppressed by injustice, "and come and let us reason together." Then what? He adds gifts, and such as these—how high and great, and than which nothing is more honored by God: "If your sins be as crimson," He says, "I will make them white as snow; and if they be like scarlet, I will make them white as wool." These things God gives as great gifts to those who judge rightly; these things my judges attend to, and will always attend to. But they will not partake with you in wicked gain, nor will they share in your rapine, nor will they admire you coming with gifts, nor will they love anything of yours for the betrayal of justice, nor will there be any portion for them with you stealing the votes. But that word of Scripture is here more fitting: "A bribe," he says [(f)], "hates the righteous." [(g)]
Neither indeed will Habakkuk—nothing will be [granted] to them—who finds fault with the judges of injustice, for whose sake he even feels vexation toward God Himself and lays hold of warmer words and, as it were, accuses His great long-suffering: "How long, O Lord..."
shall I cry out A and You will not hear? I shall shout to You because I am wronged, and will You not deliver? Why have You shown me toils and pains, to look upon misery and impiety? Judgment has come against me, and the judge receives a bribe." [Habac. I, 2] And following this, He brings in the threat: "Behold," He says, "you despisers, and look, and marvel at wonders, and be vanished." Those words are against the lawless judges; these are clearly against you, the unjust—you, quite obviously, for whom this brilliant disdain toward the weaker of these little ones persists, neither attending to the voice of Christ nor even being afraid of what He threatens: "See that you do not despise any of these little ones." [Matt. XVIII, 10] For this reason, you shall also be driven away hereafter, condemned by the universal court, with the angels pushing you aside and driving you away—they who constantly behold the face of God in the heavens, but who stand over those now wronged as guardians and suffer together with their misfortunes. You shall also be driven away here, and there will be no way or piece of trickery by which, wishing to ensnare, you will ensnare the judges; for the whole of their account is inviolable and superior to any deceit attempting to act against the truth.
B You, however, are to keep the laws safe, not because you sit as examiners and arbitrators of those who have lawsuits while God looks on, and another examination and impartial judgment awaits you again, and you shall be judged by the judgment with which you judged; and it will be measured back to you again by the measure with which you measured. To speak briefly, the discourse is not addressed to you for this reason—bringing a reminder of eternal goods laid up for those who depart with justice, nor threatening an inescapable punishment [doth receive back unjust judges eternally]. For these things are nothing to you, who have honored justice and know such things better than all others, and more than insofar as any other person is ready to teach the ignorant—if indeed there are some ignorant ones among such people—yet not having clearly known only these things, so that perhaps even many among them who have not done the commandment might be scourged and, having sinned through ignorance, find the least amount of forgiveness. But rather I say this: "Justice exalts a nation," says Solomon, [Prov. XIV, 34] and I am persuaded. And so, together with me, take up henceforth your part in this upraising care for the race; deliver the poor and needy from those who plunder them, or rather let us deliver them—you, at least, as far as concerns you, and I again as far as concerns me. You give the votes, and I will place much power in them, no longer to be argued against or even utterly abolished by anyone again, only if it seems good to you, the judges, and the hand of each confirms the opinion. C Do justice to the humble and the contrite, and everyone who among you is righteous in his hearings shall be justified. And the works of justice, says Isaiah, [Isai. XXXII, 17; XXX, 6] "shall be peace; and the treasures of this—behold in your fear—says the Lord; those whom you fear shall be brought to fear, and shall flee from you; angels shall be sent, weeping bitterly and beseeching for peace." For to you who practice justice and are well-fenced by it, there is no need for arms and equipment, nor chariots or horses, nor a hoard of money, nor a vast army; indeed, not one of such things. For justice is sufficient in place of all, rendering you fearsome to the enemies who approach, and showing them fleeing from you as God pursues them.
And you, on the other hand, who have suffered terrible things, whether you have been cowed and trembling, and not even able to lament your misfortunes, nor to utter any voice, nor to speak out at all about what has happened to you, nor to seek help from anywhere, nor being released even in the slightest by those who treat you insolently—come! And making use of the judges justly for your defense, stand against the face of those who treat you unjustly, reproving with boldness and no longer fearing anyone hereafter, not even if he should be very great in insults and have wrongly wrapped himself in excessive power. "Behold, I am against every insolent person," says the Lord [Jerem. L, 31]—and behold, I am against everyone who is insolent toward justice, hearing the Lord, and against everyone exalted against the poor who are being set on fire, and against everyone who dishonors the laws and is cast out from equivalence. And every pride that is puffed up from injustice shall fall down. For your sake this court has been brilliantly opened (you see, of course, how it is saving) for those who wish to run to it; and we summon you to this from everywhere, and we send forth the proclamation with all speed to all cities and lands and to those everywhere in our inhabited world who are oppressed by a violent hand and for this reason are in need of help, and we extend to you under God a mighty hand that raises up again falling justice.
What more? The discourse to you judges is not as if I were going to advise or teach you the just things, and from which evil men you must keep away, and to whom you must provide yourselves as allies from those who come [to you] as righteous... D And so, become for me fellow-workers of God, ministers of God, and fellow-defenders to me, standing in battle formation with justice under God the Defender against the enemies. And it will not only be well for you for these reasons, but also for the sake of other things. For by this one way, of which acts of zeal for justice are there not clear specimens of the most beautiful things? Namely, of the love of God, of philanthropy, of sympathy, of love, of zeal for all the best things. For indeed the first is because the readiness is for the sake of God and His commandments, and for the sake of no one else's gain; this would be, in a sense, a love of God.
A And surely who could be more compassionate towards those who are bowed down by the same things, driven out by power and base violence, stripped of their properties and affairs, and in this way miserably and bitterly forced to live, than those who are inclined toward them? One might consider this a great proof of perfect love: to be willing, as it were, to partake of the burdensome things of those in distress, and to consider that they themselves are afflicted by the injustice and suffering of others, and yet to seek their deliverance with a mind equal and identical to theirs. But furthermore, is not the zeal—if it is not the consuming kind, where lawfulness is disregarded and justice retreats while greed prevails—if it happens on behalf of someone else’s benefit, to be considered just, and a certain warmth of spirit that, once awakened, will result in something better?
Thus, justice testifies to almost every good thing among you, as you are diligent about it and have employed every effort. And, indeed, that there is no other gain better than the benefits from it, nor, again, is there anything else that brings more glory following from it worthy of high renown; and it gives you bravery here regarding the present, and gives you bravery hereafter regarding the future; and to me, nothing of yours will ever be more precious than this matter—and for you, if you share this opinion with me (and you do share it), it is time to demonstrate it.
XXXV. An Edict of the Emperor Andronicus the Elder regarding celebrating the feast of the Assumption throughout the entire month of August
.A decree regarding the great and final feast of the entire mystery concerning Christ, both of Him from whence He descended to the heavens again after having ascended with the flesh assumed for Him from the holy Virgin, and also, concerning this all-holy Mother of His, of the manner in which it pleased Him that she should pass on to Him—which is clearly what is being celebrated now. And thus, the decree wishes for this feast not to be celebrated on one single day according to the ancient prevailing custom, but rather, starting from the very first beginning of the month in which the mystery began, to extend it until the very end, and to conclude there where the month also concludes.
For what the Mother of God, through everything in the life of the race of men, has provided, in ways that are marvelous and supernatural, all men are clearly aware, and all are well disposed to acknowledge and proclaim; and there is not one of all these, provided he partakes of sense and reason, who does not strongly desire this. But still, all are surely and well aware that, truly, it is beyond every word, power, and nature to have sufficient B strength to speak of these things, or at the very least, even if they were to try to offer one word for each thing, speaking one by one in a single language, yet not even if they all gathered to the same place, both those who exist now and those who have existed of old; nay, not even if they became one in mouth and one in voice, not even then would they be able to arrive at anything close to mounting this universal symphony of thanksgiving, for it does not fall short of the greatness of the miracles, and fails in nothing at all. But in truth, every human nature is small and weak when tested against such power, so as to be able to say anything worthy of such and so many benefits; and it is again weak, even if it were willing to take up and were to take up—as a means of assisting in fulfilling the hymns of thanksgiving—the angelic or even the archangelic tongues themselves, if any such exist, which are accustomed to the eternal hymns of God; for not only do they overwhelm humanity and our entire rational nature, but also the heavenly powers, and the magnitude of these wonders surpasses them, having been accomplished and now being enacted for our sake in infinite ways.
But nevertheless, we hold firm beliefs and secure hopes that these things are always to be performed in succession. And so that our account may proceed in an orderly fashion, ascending as it were to the beginning: man was fashioned by the hand of God, and partook of the divine image, and in this he was honored more than all visible things. C He might have even received more honor and glory, toward which the reason for his creation tended even more, and would have received it, had he kept the image along with the commandment. But since he was led astray by pleasure and, neglecting the things commanded, entrusted himself to the deceivers, he falls immediately from the place where he was established in luxury and the participation of many and great goods; and he falls away at the same time from the better worthiness he was to experience, and turns back to the earth, crushed by sin, having neither kept what he was, nor having been educated toward the better and higher things to which he was called.
And he, in this way, slipped, falling away from God and the divine portion; but He [God], on the other hand, wishes to draw them to Himself. He wishes this, and observe the magnitude of His philanthropy. He does not disdain to empty Himself, as it were, for us, and to lift up those who have fallen and to take unto Himself those who are lying low, not only into what we were, but, by refashioning us, to save us again to that for which He brought us forth, D so that we might no longer be plotted against by the envier, nor fall, nor be rendered useless again.
God wills these things, and immediately looks toward His own Mother, who would be [born] at the end of time, having chosen her for Himself from all generations before He even brought the whole world into being. And thus this becomes of God...
A a mystery hidden before all creation; then, being fashioned according to generations and receiving shadows, it saves even here, where clearly the type of it or the shadow was shown. And this is evident to one who examines it everywhere.
For Israel is enslaved in Egypt and is tyrannized by Pharaoh with bitter pressures, suffering, and worn down by the weight of works, and dragged towards these very things, as much as books and histories of the ancients tell of him—but Moses rises up, zealous for those who are suffering, and he flees Egypt, and approaches God. And there he sees that great and marvelous sight: a fire in the bush, a fire burning and in no way consuming, B so that—no, not even later did He who called him from it, entering the Virgin, burn her or do her any harm whatsoever. Moses experienced these things then, and he immediately hears that he is treading on holy ground, and to loose the sandals from his feet; and he loosens and lays them aside. For what reason? Because perhaps it is not even fitting that anything dead should touch that place where the presence of God is, and the type of the incorruptible Eden, towards which He who appeared then proclaims that He will settle us again, and He gives the symbols. Or perhaps also C as a mark: He commands that all that was a remedy of the weak flesh from sin be fitted, and to be confident, now that we have bare feet, that we will walk upon the serpents and the head of the dragon, which, having enticed them, had bound them. Moses saw these things, and he trusts in the freedom of Israel from that point on, and he departs confident in the power of the vision, having learned from it also the common freedom of all men, just as from the tyranny of Pharaoh then [He delivered] Israel, so He saves us in the last days from D the bitter tyrant Satan, God having become for us from a Virgin womb. And so, as I said, He saves even there those who are tyrannized and delivers them from the heavy hand of the Egyptians: the type of this saving mystery and the symbols of those who were to be saved later.
But the Egyptians try again to pursue those fleeing the slavery, and they pursued them with all their chariots, driving horses against them. And perhaps they would have captured them and taken them again into bitter slavery, had not here too the shadow of the future clearly preserved them: a cloud of the whole day shading and covering, a cloud, a D clear symbol, as was the fleece of Gideon later. For this lifecup-like rain having descended upon us who are dry and entirely dead, the cloud clearly foreshadows the Virgin, having appeared as the covering of the world and broader than all the heavens.
But this is so much for that. And the Red Sea performing wonders and saving the chosen people for God, but drowning the power of Pharaoh and the Egyptian captains, from where else could these great things have the power, if not by referring purely to her herself, towards whom also the end of the promises of Abraham [was directed] and the multitude of the seed from A her who was born, having re-begotten the world and having made it His own, and having made [it] His own for the genuine [descendants] of Abraham?
Then the rock gushes forth, and more than the miracle, it pours out streams like perennial rivers; and they drink to satiety, suffering from thirst in the waterless place. And the rock is surely from a mountain having the type of the Virgin, out of whom Christ, the chief corner stone and rock of life, on the one hand joins us who were far from God and holds us together in an unbreakable bond, and on the other hand, pouring forth water, provides life that is eternally gushing and never-ceasing.
What more? They hunger in the deserts, and the most grievous suffering, famine, overtakes them; and they again are carried away against Moses, with no means whatsoever appearing even in their hopes: "For if He struck," B they say (Ps. LXXVII, 20), "the rock and water flowed, can He also give bread?" But He did not bring them food from the earth, and these could have become loaves and stones, the same power changing the miracles as the former; but from where does He feed them? He feeds them from the heavens, showing from there the things that were being performed beforehand. And those who had despaired of loaves eat manna, a certain new food and much more precious than what was sought, at the same time also abundant and easy for all who wish to bring it. For it was allowed to take not only as much as sufficed for the need, but also to possess what was left over, even if to others the surplus was inedible C —clearly another miracle, annulling greed, while at same time correcting unbelief, if they stored up the surplus for this reason, so that they might have [it] again when the given supply failed, and were not confident in the Giver, who was able to provide always and abundantly. To some, therefore, the eating strengthened the heart no longer to disbelieve in any of the necessitous things, as it will not happen to those of them who turn back to God and call upon Him genuinely, just as clearly also Moses the great, having been a genuine servant of that One, called upon Him with boldness, and everything had D immediately responded to [his] requests; but it strengthened likewise not only the men of that time, but also all those thereafter, not to disbelieve then that from the heavens there shall descend to us the bread of life and of the enjoyment of the eternal [things], that which provides [them].
And so now the golden urn is established and receives the manna, and bears the image of the future brightly within itself.
But look for me at the tablets also and the God-written law in them, not only helping those on the outside—being a savior of bodies, as it were, in danger—but also reaching and disciplining the souls, and A indeed removing them from every dangerous opinion about God. Look then at these things, and paying close attention to what is seen, learn of the enhypostatic Word written by the finger of God with the divine Spirit upon the Virgin, and [the Word] from the paternal bosom
A emptied, yet not departing, remaining in [the bosom] and filling all things, becoming containable in the mother’s womb, and in this very way saving back the whole world, and rescuing souls held fast in the darkness and shadow of death.
Indeed, these things are so; and thus from above, one will find the matters concerning the Virgin Mother of God, through many and great symbols, everywhere providing the power of supernatural wonders, and at the same time the salvation of those in extreme danger. And the discourse has passed over recounting the majority of them, because it is not even possible—not to say through all (for this is more impossible than anything), but not even to be able to reach a sufficient number of them; for how could it? Since we recalled even these things just now, not so that, having received a few out of many, we might speak of them, nor for this reason did we recall them, but only to touch upon them, and to demonstrate what was said, being clear that in every way they were preserving the types and shadows of those things that were later to be clearly revealed upon the Virgin without any covering.
And since the types have passed and the shadows have retreated, and the truth has clearly come to be among men, bringing glory to the Virgin, hiding all the heavens and surpassing the lights above, while placing the Seraphim and Cherubim beneath herself—what discourse or what tongue would have the strength to recount the multitudes of such and so great, infinite, and fearful wonders? I, for my part, fear lest this also might become a condemnation for me, bringing responsibility, if I approach the God-receiving Ark not only with impure hands but also with impure lips, when far off another wonder threatens, and at the same time prevents those who are not pure from daring to touch even the Ark [that was] in the shadows; and I might justly hear God saying that which is written: "Why, not having used the coal for the cleansing of stains, in accordance with Isaiah, B or not having cleansed your tongue from the heavy burden of the fettering evils, do you recount wonders, for which not even the nature of the angels is sufficient?" For even it is at a loss, contemplating the magnitude.
With these thoughts terrifying me, I have no capacity to proceed to what follows. Nevertheless [I say this], because through you I have been saved, O Mother of God, and having fallen I have been set upright, and having been crushed I have been fashioned anew; how could I, at all having the power of speech and being able to utter some voice, be zealous for anything else before proclaiming these things? Therefore, I shall not be silent about the manner of [our] salvation, but as I am able, I will sing praise.
The one who had enslaved us, having at the beginning deceived us and caused us to depart from God—both from that glory from whence he himself, having been cast out, was rejected—having driven us away from the benefits we were to inherit through his machinations, and having brought us down to passions of extreme dishonor, he held us bound, as it were, in inescapable chains, so that we might not have it in our power, once loosed from his tyranny, to run back to the Master; and he stationed death as a guard over us, C and sealed [the gates]. And we were serving his dominion and tyranny, not even perceiving the very evils in which we were, but were rejoicing in the destruction, honoring the passions from which we were running to the very death [he imposed], wretched in our deception and in such great disgrace. And who were these people? If they were of the image of God, [they were] more wretched than the slavery and the tyranny of the enemy, but far more miserable in their lack of sensibility, because, having abandoned the Creator, we delivered ourselves over to the enemy. And he, having mastered us entirely, was dragging us, following eagerly, into the pits, his own habitation.
Yet, it was not possible for Him to overlook until the end the one He had fashioned with His hands and to whom He had communicated His own image and honor; therefore, He did not overlook [us], nor did He allow [us] to be led away as slaves—[those] whom He had judged worthy not only to be free, but also to rule over those things on the earth. He comes to them, and he is rescued from the one who was ruling, having destroyed the dominion, and at the same time having dissolved the darkness of ignorance under which he held us wandering. And how does He come? My whole discourse is here, since all the types and symbols and those who proclaimed from afar D find their fulfillment here, having their end in the Virgin. For the pre-eternal Word of God Himself, having descended into her—who is pure and blameless, and what else but worthy of the One who descended?—becomes flesh for us, having worn this [flesh] from her own immaculate and all-pure blood, and having taken prior to everything the nature according to the image that had been corrupted, He is mingled with it and fashions it anew by the communion, saving back his own to Himself and making his own those who had been thrust away by sin.
This is the manner of our salvation; this is the mystery, terrible and great, which was of old both typified and foretold, and spoken of to the prophets—God becoming man, so that He might save man; God in the womb of a Virgin, and being embodied and fashioned, and accepting a temporal birth, and being seen as an infant and being carried in the arms of a Mother, He who fills all things and is not at all contained anywhere. At these things, which of the angels, which of the archangels were not struck with awe? Which Seraphim, which Cherubim did not marvel, seeing page continues...
by using what is truly profitable, forcing us, as it were, to make use of it in this way, even if after the experience we love it, having been brought to taste the good? You deliver us from diseases, both by destroying some from afar so that we might not even be caught in them, nor indeed at the beginning, being about to be taken unaware; and you avert the harmful effects of those that have already befallen us. If any of these have prevailed in power, perhaps while you are testing our faith, and the danger has come in a way manifest and beyond all human devising and the skill of doctors and those who seem able to help strongly in such cases, we, as though looking purely with total hope and with all our eyes toward you alone, immediately (O, great and mighty power that can do all things! O, warm assistance! O, swiftest deliverance from evils!) raise us up when we are lying dead, save for a few faint breaths, and even those having almost lost the whole of life. You put to flight incurable diseases, and break the power of mighty sufferings that yield to no one at all. Hence, we who dwell in the weeping of evening come again in the morning reveling in exultation, and we rejoice twice over: because the void, as seems likely from what has happened, has in the end prevailed, and because we have received salvation through you, having at the same time confidence for what follows, that nothing will in any way harm us hereafter, since we are always looking to you.
And indeed, these things are common to all, according to the time, so to speak, in which they are performed. But those things which relate to me peculiarly, how might I express them with enough words? Time would fail me in the telling, and not only in one tongue, but not even if I divided them, however many thousands, so as to have another for each thing to be related. But that the matters pertaining to me individually are clearly different, there is, I think, no one at all who holds a double opinion on this. For both the form and the logic of the source claim everyone, and my own manner—and you all know for certain that I am swayed by every calamity that befalls a person, and conversely, I claim the grace if anyone who is doing well is delivered, having been deemed worthy of divine providence. For this reason, I am more just than all others to render confession to the Mother of God, or rather, as much as gratitude for what we have said and for many others (not that one could say how great and how many they are) comes to a necessary debt for all in common, this for me is not only the whole, but with far more added, it comes to the same proportion; and if not according to worth, at least to pay what is possible, this I myself would not be ungrateful for. But as my heart is widened, my mouth will naturally be widened, set to the tasks of thanksgiving as far as is attainable; for even this, how great a thing did I find in how many narrow, painful straits? The expansiveness, clearly, of soul and the enlargement of heart. You have exalted us even to this throne, and this high portion, and [the portion] of all the others
A kept from the very swaddling clothes, bringing them to bear—a sympathetic and warmly invoked [Virgin]. Therefore, neither do you withhold, but you ever guide our life through more cheerful paths—this indeed has been your desire from the beginning—and we had so remained with the right-hand things, and by the left-hand things we would have been troubled by nothing, not even in the slightest, had we walked after your will and not after our own hearts. But since, having turned aside from the straight path of the good, we have turned to things that were not proper, troubles that justly harass us have come upon us. And so, tied as if by chains by our own [foibles] in despondency, and darkened by difficulties, while their resolution appears nowhere even in [the realm of] hopes, you yourself encounter these difficulties and, having thrust aside the ordeals—since every law of such things yields to you—you cause us to make use of these matters, and indeed to attempt to improve upon them before the difficulties arrive.
B Not, however, that the discourse, having reached this point, has arrived clearly at the particular evident miracles being accomplished, for our aid and for the shattering of those who are attacking (how many, pray, might I say?)—a very great number indeed, and from all sides assailing enemies. For they move, rising up from almost every land; and they move having as their pretext, for some, their own impiety, and others charging us with nothing else but that our affairs are good (a provision certainly of the gifts of your graces), and the abundance of good things strikes them. If, therefore, they came at us from one part, as if harassing us, but less plotting against us, perhaps they would have been a small or no problem at all as we rose to defend ourselves; but now, because they all flow together against the same points from all around, and wrestle with us on every side, and devise terrible things, and at the same time are prepared for these things—there is nothing more to them than their preparation and plotting, for they are turned back rather, being destroyed by their own designs and preparations. Who is it who sees these things and transforms them for us into a better state? Who is it who fights for us while we are mostly at rest, and in the manner mentioned defends against enemies? Who is it who stands over us while we sleep, an all-vigilant guardian, and by persistent standing, wards off coming harms? Who is it who places an iron wall [around us], and smashes within it bows being stretched and a sword coming down, and pushes away all C engines? Who is it who again lashes Egypt and strikes the first-born, and brings on counted plagues, and drowns Pharaoh, and brings down the pride of nations, and preserves Israel, his own inheritance? Who is it (that I might not prolong [this] by speaking of each thing individually) who performs these many and great wonders? And who are we, that such and so many wonders [happen] through us? I indeed spoke, looking to myself: "You have turned away from us and no longer will you add to look with compassion"; but you said: "I will not let go, nor will I ever abandon you, nor will I remove my mercy from you, for the sake of the Mother and Virgin who is always in prayers..." D
Since this is so, it was fitting for you—both those now present and those who will be together with the discourse in later times (for the miracles will certainly not desert you, the people after us)—to offer all wealth and to bring forth fruit in all matters, sparing nothing of what we have; for we possess nothing of our own, but rather we are bringing back what we have received [from you] whenever we offer anything. And let everyone render, if not the whole, at least as much as not to seem utterly deficient in the proper gratitude. But the present discourse does not desire this, but that the offering be in another manner; what manner is this? To repay all with hymns, thanksgiving—things possible for all—especially at all times, as we are always receiving benefits in this way. But if, however (but this is left to your own judgment), this is what we have decided must be proclaimed at this time.
This month is already approaching, in which the festival of the Dormition, or Transition, or Journey to the Son in the heavens—or whatever else one might choose to call it—appears to have been worked for the Virgin, and we, according to an ancient custom, celebrate the festival on one single day in the middle of the month, having previously been purified by a fast before it. And I, praising the law of the fast, do not altogether approve of assigning only one day to the festival for all-night hymnody. But that the festival is one, distributed over the whole period from the beginning of the month until this day currently being honored specifically, and indeed the last, this I think and wish to legislate at the present time. And everyone will surely call the law just, anyone who has felt even slightly both the unceasing hymns that we owe at all times to the Virgin, and at the same time has felt the greatness of the festival. Therefore, as I said, there will not be one beginning for the month and another for the festival, nor will we fast more than we shall rejoice in hymns; but these will be together, and the things of the festival will be even more and further [extended], and truly it will end where the entire passing month ends, so as to be able to call this an entire holy month, and one single [celebration] indeed. So that from the first of the month and for the two others, we shall deem it the first of the festival and of the fast, yielding nothing less than the following days, nor [less] than that in which the mystery is [celebrated], nor even the last, for the sake of the hymns and the other fitting things for the festival, but with all things completed for it equally. And what I say about the first, this will be for the rest also.
A Since we have distributed it in an equal manner, ensuring that not one of the events—neither those representing the middle and principal days, nor those representing what we have called the final day of the celebrants—is omitted. For my law does not desire that these should divide the festival into many parts, rather that it should be one, cohesive festival, which this imperial city, ruling over others, having honored its patron saint, will guard as best as it can for all time; and indeed, having divided the festival into choirs—some of monks, others of priests, and not leaving out the rest from every rank (for on account of common blessings, the thanksgiving too must without fail be common)—it will spend the night in prayers and hymns in this temple first of all, where also the worker of miracles, called by yet another miracle of the Hodegetria, is venerated, and then in another, and subsequently in others. We said that the middle [day] and the mystery shall be celebrated here, where indeed, as in some earthly firmament or a second heaven, or whatever else one might love to call such a high and great and greatest thing, one is not speaking outside of the truth, for the Wisdom of God is an indweller therein. The final day of the month shall be received in a bright manner by the bright temple in Blachernae.
B There is an abundance and a bright public festival, from which to be absent—not to mention due to sluggishness, but not even by any sound sense, nor by anyone who knows in what condition he is—would be to fail to participate effortlessly in what is good. And yet, if there were need of labors and frequent, toilsome efforts, for what would it be more just or even more profitable for one to sweat than in this, and for that for which one naturally strives with eagerness? For if one can see some people laboring excessively even for the sake of small and worthless matters, and the profit that seems to be gained from the hardship steals away the very awareness of it, what kind of blame would they not deserve, who, by simply not wanting to take part, have deprived themselves of the brilliance of the festival? And I do not say this meaning that no one should at all fall away from any part of the festival out of an extremely sluggish soul—for I do not even think that any of the people have come to such a degree of ingratitude, nor again that they choose to live as if in death and remain C insensate toward all that is good, so as to flee the entire festival due to stupor and complete immobility. Rather, [it is] the failure to be present through the whole, or at least, the second [best], the failure to be present through the greater part, that this present decree intends to be held as an accusation and as a crime for the future for those who have been reluctant. Perhaps it even threatens indignation, no less indeed for these than for those invited to the supper in the Gospels, who then excused themselves on account of pretexts: the viewing of a field, and the marriage of a wife, and the testing of five newly bought yoke of oxen. For just as the excuse was not reasonable in those instances, neither is it reasonable here, even if one were to offer any [pretext] whatsoever as an initial justification; there is truly nothing more profitable, nor anything stronger to draw one and turn him toward himself, [at least] the one who is hastening toward the festival with awareness. For what could ever be more precious than this? Or what brings greater profit, or is D equally advantageous to the one who is doing what is profitable? At the same time, much grace will also be present; so either let the profit draw you, being greater than all things and much greater than the things you are busy with elsewhere, or if you are not able to look purely toward this, walk without being seen; become a partaker of the delight and the beauty of what is seen, seeing choirs of priests, choirs of monks, other gatherings singing hymns to the Virgin, the good order of all, the solemnity of all, and the imitation of the heavenly things. And as for the divine and sacred melodies and songs that fulfill the praises and adorn the festival, what excess of pleasure does it leave out? Or who, having turned from such sounds and sights at the same time, will love to attend more gladly to others instead of these, as if to some brilliant things? None at all.
And now, therefore, let everyone who partakes of the festival be completed in it in the appropriate manner, be purified by fasting, cleansed by continence, and sanctified by prayers; let everything be spiritual for you, the festival being spiritual. And if you wish, also leap for joy before the ark, and dance in exultation.
A using David as a guide for your leaps. And though one may say this or that, even if an individual were to reach the ends of the earth, let him run with the apostles; for I believe that they, even again—only not seen—have arrived all at once to cooperate in the hymns, just as they once arrived suddenly from the ends of the earth for the exequies. Do not, therefore, fall behind the leaders, nor come after the dance has concluded or the bridal chamber has been closed, in which, clearly, these holy rites are performed, lest you remain standing outside, knocking, and subsequently lamenting that you were excluded from the joy. Go, being diligent to strive the noble contest and to run ahead of others, knowing well that it is a loss to be found second to the Mother of God.
If some other brilliant thing, which has nothing useful to offer—in that it quickly perishes, though it deceives even so as if it were something precious—were proposed to be shared, you would not have endured not appearing to be first among others to receive a share; but now, when the profit brought forth is so much more precious, will you concede to someone else to take precedence? Surely not you, the lover of God and lover of the festival, and the connoisseur of noble things; but being in high awareness of the present things, be quick to attend to what is being celebrated.
Now there is a common festival of those in heaven and those on earth. Now angels, descending from above, mingle with us humans; now humans, approaching to the same place, meet with the angels and, as if in a dance, sing one melody together, praising the Virgin. Now even Christ, taking his place in the midst of those celebrating—of which there is nothing, nay, nothing greater can be said—rewards the Virgin with blessings. Now God himself, standing by, calls for his mother, and having received her all-holy soul into his arms, carries it up to heaven, with angels escorting her and filling the air with praises. Now the Virgin is departed from us even in body, yet she does not depart, but watches and guards from on high, surveying us throughout the ages. Now we, too, must leave all other things and become wholly of the festival, singing, chanting, giving thanks, and fulfilling all that is our duty, as far as we are able. And so, indeed, it shall be.
But you, O Mother of God, receive us graciously, and using your customary mercies, turn aside the enemies who invisibly strike, so that we may not be harmed in any way by their stratagems; and turn aside those who wage war openly, and always show them to be laboring in vain and meditating on everything that they are clearly plotting and planning against us. Crush even every bow bent against us, and turn the sword in motion back upon those who move it. Stand B as a constant champion, extending your mighty hand, and strike down the heads of those hostile to us, with whatever pride you see them exalting themselves. Behold, we approach you not on chariots, nor horses, nor trusting in sword and bow, trusting in none of these things in the least; since all these are small and worthless, and even if they were of any benefit to those not better armed with the firm hopes in you, which we, having cast entirely and securely upon you, lest we fall from them, or appear put to shame—grant that we may triumphantly celebrate at all times, and grant that this festival be indestructible throughout all ages.
XXXVI. Edict of Emperor Andronicus the Younger concerning the Metropolis of Serrae. (A. 1329.)
This too is a royal privilege: to detach churches that have been subject to bishoprics and to deem them worthy of greater honor. Indeed, the church of Zichna, which from the beginning had been subject as a bishopric to the most holy metropolis of Serrae, has now been elevated to a metropolis and honored by my emperor, most powerful and holy by God, who exercises providence also for that of Serrae, so that it too may have, in another way, that which was lacking, and he substitutes for it another bishopric from those of Philippi, by a venerable edict of his holy majesty containing the following:
Since the most holy bishopric of Zichna, which formerly was subject to the most holy metropolis of Serrae, has been detached and honored as a metropolis by my majesty, and my majesty has judged and deemed it necessary that another bishopric should be substituted for the aforementioned metropolis of Serrae, my majesty decrees and ordains by this present edict: that from now on and hereafter, the most holy bishopric of Nicopolis, which formerly was subject to the most holy metropolis of Philippi, shall be subject to the aforementioned most holy metropolis of Serrae, and is to be held and managed by the most holy metropolitan of Serrae and Hypertimus as his own bishopric; and not only by him, but also by those who shall successively serve as high priests in the said most holy church. Whence the future metropolitan of Philippi also ought to accept this, so far as my majesty decrees and ordains, and be content with the other bishoprics belonging to that metropolis, leaving the part of the aforementioned most holy metropolis of Serrae D entirely undisturbed in the possession and management of the declared most holy bishopric of Nicopolis and all the parish formerly belonging to it. For the security of this matter, this present edict of my majesty has been issued and released. It was [signed] in the month of February, indiction 12, by the red characters of the imperial and divine hand.
XXXVII. Edict of Emperor Andronicus the Younger concerning the Universal Judges. (A. 1329.)
Sworn Edict.
My majesty issues this present sworn edict, by which I swear by the holy acts of
A God and before the precious and life-giving Cross, in the presence of our all-holy Lady, the Theotokos the Hodegetria, as [is fitting], since those who have been elected and assigned as universal judges of the Romans by both the holy Church of God and my majesty, have pledged and promised, as far as their individual letters of agreement contain, that they shall maintain justice for the sake of rightful and unwritten judgment, and that my majesty shall defend them throughout the whole time of its life against any person who might perhaps attempt to rise up and struggle against them on account of a sentence which they are about to pronounce against him concerning some matter stirred up and judged by them; and not only this, but even after their death, if anyone should wish even to struggle and fight against their children, that my majesty shall also be held accountable for the defense and security of them. For this reason this present sworn edict of my majesty was made and issued, and to speak simply, my majesty has granted them such power and authority with full intent and choice and with innate and heartfelt zeal and readiness and sworn promise, that even me myself, if they find and discern [me] to be acting unjustly, they shall rebuke with boldness and in every way constrain to fulfill the most complete rectification of such injustice; and if, as my majesty trusts and hopes in the mercy of God, they find nothing of the sort in me—which is not going to happen—they shall cast off [the matter] with their whole soul and speak and present and triumph before all without fear; and outside of any consideration for this our own injustice, and they shall not cease doing this, unless a complete rectification of such injustice is made by my majesty. And the matter has been established thus, as my majesty trusts and hopes in the mercy of God and in the intercession and succor of the all-holy Theotokos, that from now on no one of all people shall dare to act unjustly and defraud anyone of his own right.
XXXVIII. Edict of Emperor Andronicus the Younger concerning the universal judges. (A. 1329.) Another edict.
Since my majesty, having a great love for justice and having set great and much care upon it and holding it in highest regard, has appointed as universal judges for those subject to it—after they had sworn to do nothing B before justice, but rather to place all things after it and to maintain it in every way as far as their strength allows—has now, by this present edict of its own, also appointed them as heads of all those in the castles and in these regions, having permission and every authority, so that in whatever place of my majesty they may be, if they have need of defense regarding matters which they judge and decide, they may speak also to those who are acting as heads in such place and to any other of those dwelling there whom they wish, and these must pay heed to them and obey and defend and fulfill what they say, whether they are people arriving from my majesty or the rest of its lords and young nobles or those serving in the household of my majesty or soldiers or of any other rank. And whoever among these dares to disobey such universal judges of the Romans and does not defend the matter which they state, whoever those defendants by them may be, and of whatever rank they happen to be, and how much authority and proximity they have to my majesty, if this person who is about to disobey is found to be acting as head in such place or is otherwise culpable, such universal judges of the Romans must remove him immediately from his headship, and furthermore [remove] the culpability of such person by the appearance of this present edict; but if the one who dares not to obey them is found to hold no culpability, whether he is one of the arriving lords or of the remaining lords and young nobles of my majesty or of any other rank, they have every authority to seize the household and the administration of him and to inflict also other discipline and sentence upon him as they shall judge. And these men must also, if any persons lodge complaints against those who are in headship, judge these too and restore what seems to them just, as they have been entrusted and ordained by my majesty regarding all other Romans, and to perform and execute this. For indeed, for the security of this matter, this present ordinance of my majesty was made and issued. It was done in the month of March, indiction 2, by the red-inked writing of the imperial and divine hand.
XL. Emperor Andronicus the Younger regarding the possessions of the monastery situated on the island of Patmos. (A.1331.)
B Since the monks of the venerable monastery of my majesty located on the island of Patmos, which is honored in the name of the holy, glorious, all-lauded, virgin, bosom-friend, beloved, and evangelist, John the Theologian, have requested and besought my majesty that, C regarding their properties, dependencies, and holdings, which they possess through various chrysobulls, ordinances, cadastral restorations, and other rights, they might also obtain a chrysobull of my majesty, and that they may possess these even into the future entirely without burden and free of tax, just as they have held them up to the present—namely, the dependency on the island of Lemnos, which is honored in the name of the holy great martyr George the Myrrh-streamer, and which is situated in the locality of Saint Irene, along with all the vineyards and fields belonging to it; the other dependency honored in the name of the venerable Taxiarch of the heavenly powers, Michael, and called Pterin, along with the eleven residents situated there, D and furthermore the vineyards and fields and the garden of Didymarium, with the winter water-mill and the harbor extending from the cliffs to the place called Kybadion; the venerable and divine church honored in the name of the all-holy Lady and Theotokos the Hodegetria, along with the fields belonging to it; the residents found in various villages on the same island, of whom they formerly held some, and others they received a short while ago through cadastral restoration, as well as the fields handed over to them called the Bounaria, the Trochaleas, and the Livadia (and these residents are named: Nicholas, Mavroleon, Georgius Kouroupis, Theodorus Lachanas, Iatropoulos, Theodorakis along with his brother-in-law, Anna Lecheina, Georgius Tzaggeris, both sons of Brachnos, Michael Loradon, Demetrius Kalanas, Babylia, Eustratius Dalassenos, Argyros, Nicholas Goulimes, Iohannes Mourtatapoulos, Kolyvas, Xenos Zaketes, Demetrius Pentaphoustanes, Stamatas, the children of Symeon, Theodorus Skyriotes, Konidaina, Irene Kasteliane, the brother-in-law of Lachanas, Theodorus Karyotes, the son of Makrenikolaos; and likewise are named the eleven above-mentioned residents and B attendants of the aforementioned dependency of Pterin: Tzianes, Bonophatzos with his progenitor, Siligkopoulos with his brother-in-law, Iohannes Vigles, Demetrius Kalograias, Archangelinos, Konstas Niannes, Manuel the brother-in-law of Arbazos, Katzaros, Iohannes Mountas, Iohannes Tzakites; the surroundings of the same place, the peribola of Irene, of Pegadites and his sister Sophia; the fields in the locality of Pylas with the three mulberry trees in it and the other fields of Skalymenes; furthermore, the other fields called Drakontos with their pasture and surrounding area; in addition to these, the small monasteries situated on the island of Leros, those called Partheniou and Meniou, along with the residents belonging to them, which they possess through the aforementioned chrysobulls belonging to them; likewise the three dependencies on the island of Kos, both that called Aspontion, which is honored in the name of our Master and Savior Jesus Christ, and that of Alsos, with the water-mills and fields belonging to them and the river, together with the plot in the castle of Pylion, upon which the most reverend archbishop of the same island of Kos erected buildings against the will and without the consent of the monks of the aforementioned venerable monastery; in addition to these, also the resident in the village of Repanidion, Nicholas Mavroleon)—
My majesty, having accepted such petition and request of theirs, confirms and grants to them the present chrysobull document, by which it is commanded and ordained that the aforementioned venerable monastery shall have and hold, undisturbed and unshaken, and furthermore inalienably and securely, all such things and the dependencies, properties, and other holdings individually declared above, along with the residents and squatters in them and the taxes and other pastoral rights owed by them, and shall gather and profit from all and every such income, and neither by the person of the tax-collectors in such islands from time to time, nor by the officials of the public treasury or local agents there, nor indeed by anyone else whatsoever, shall it encounter any injurious treatment or molestation; but rather all these ordinances shall be maintained for the aforementioned venerable monastery, and furthermore the residents in them [shall be maintained...]
A regarding the laws, that they be kept above any sort of injustice, neglect, or wearisome harassment, likewise also regarding the customary local exactions demanded there—the capital tax, the grain supply, the air tax, the exemption from civil duties, the marriage tax, the so-called foreign tax, the monthly tax, the salt tax, the yoke tax, and other such public requirements and demands. Since such monks have reported that the most holy archbishops, both of Lemnos and of Kos, are attempting to demand from such branch houses the so-called canonical tax, the memorial fee, and other things which they had no right to demand from them, and have entreated regarding this—my Majesty directs that they shall remain, even from such archbishops, regarding the aforementioned exactions, unmolested and unshaken. Therefore, by the power and authority of this present golden bull of my Majesty, not even those who are to make an inventory assessment and restoration in the aforesaid islands, where the branch houses and other properties belonging to such a venerable monastery are found, shall have the right to enter and perform any assessment or restoration in them; but all these things shall be held and possessed unmolested and unshaken, being moreover inalienable and inseparable, and above any and every wearisome harassment, neglect, and injustice. For this reason the present golden bull of my Majesty has been issued in the month of June of the present 14th indiction of the 6839th year, in which our pious and God-appointed majesty has set [our] mark. Andronicus in Christ the God, faithful King and Emperor of the Romans, the Palaeologus.
On the pact of Emperor Andronicus the Younger with the Venetians (A. 1332)
On the privileges of the merchants of Narbonne (between 1318–1341)
To all and singular who shall inspect the present page, We, Hugo Arnaudi, Domicellus, Lord of Monterotundo, Vicar, and Guillelmus Chaucerii, Bachelor of Laws, Ordinary Judge of the Court of Narbonne for the illustrious and powerful man, Lord Aymeric, by the grace of God Viscount and Lord of Narbonne, make known by these presents that we have seen, read, and inspected word for word a certain privilege of the Emperor of Constantinople written in Greek and Latin letters, sealed with a gold bull hanging from silk cords, signed with red Greek letters at the end of each tenet of the said privilege, as is premised, written separately in the aforementioned letters, not vitiated, not cancelled in any part thereof, but free from every suspicion. The tenor of which privilege is written in Greek letters, and since B those parts cannot be read, the tenor follows in this form:
When messengers came from the inhabitants of the city of Narbonne, subject to the excellent King of the Franks, on behalf of their commune, and entreated that there be granted to them a privilege fortified by the golden bull of our Empire, so that when any of them should arrive both in the city of Constantinople—magnified by God, glorified by God, and guarded by God—as well as in other lands and camps of our Empire, they should have with their merchants the accommodation and payment of commerce; and that if it should happen that pirate ships depart from their lands or others neighboring them, and they should do any harm against any of the subjects of our Empire, those who are then found to be merchants from the said city should not, on that account, suffer any offense or damage in their merchandise. Admitting their entreaty, the Empire grants to them this present privilege fortified by the golden bull of our Empire, by which it commands that those who arrive from the said city and who from time to time come both to the said city of Constantinople and to other lands and camps of our Empire, shall pay for the merchandise which they have brought, for entry and exit together, the quantity of one hundred Hyperpyra according to the first C custom, four Hyperpyra, and after that, no other payment shall be required of them in any way.
Likewise, our Empire commands that if pirate ships depart from their land or from other lands neighboring them, and should cause any damage against any of the subjects of our Empire, those who are then found to be merchants in those parts or in other lands and camps of our Empire should not on that account suffer any offense or damage in their persons and their merchandise, but they shall be dealt with in every way harmlessly and without any offense.
Item, if it should happen that any ship of theirs suffers shipwreck at sea from an accidental storm, and they fall to land in any part of our Empire, the inhabitants of that part and others who are found there shall be held not to usurp or seize any of their goods which have been cast upon the land, but to allow them to collect these goods without any impediment, and that they may do with them according to their will and pleasure. For if any should wish to bring damage to the said shipwrecked merchants and carry off any of the goods D saved, they shall be held not only to restore and satisfy in full for everything which they have taken from them, but also as described [original-script column: see facsimile]
A in our laws. It is also for the prevention of the disturbing and confusing of the appointed and established holy and sacred hymns that my Majesty, by the grace of God, cherishing and maintaining the privileges granted from of old to the most holy Great Church of God by the sacred canons and the pious laws (which laws were indeed decreed and established by my holy masters and emperors, the ancestors of my Majesty, and the other holy emperors, the renowned and blessed ones), and wishing that nothing else be done, but rather grounding and building up upon them, and providing to all such privileges what is fixed, permanent, and unchangeable—while at the same time looking both to the security of the laws in this manner and concerned for those who take refuge here at any given time—issues B the present edict, through which it is decreed and ordained that the said refugees be found in the places of asylum appointed from above and from the beginning, and that they have no fear or any timidity of being dragged from there by force by anyone whatsoever, knowing that if any should dare to act contrary to this command of my Majesty, they shall, in addition to being held liable to the penalties of the laws, be subject to no moderate indignation and punishment from my Majesty. Those who take refuge at various times must, however, wait and persevere in the places of asylum appointed, as has been stated, and under no circumstances proceed beyond them, nor enter within the holy and divine nave, contrary to the regulations of the sacred canons and pious laws. For the security concerning this matter, the present edict of my Majesty is issued in the month of March, indiction 11.
Edict
Most loyal and most faithful subjects of my Majesty, all the inhabitants of the God-glorified, God-guarded, and God-magnified city of Constantine, both clergy and monastics, and all those of the civic body, and the entire common people! C regarding the matters set in motion by that Barlaam against piety, and how they were refuted by the most holy among hieromonks, Lord Gregorios Palamas, and were condemned synodically in the presence of my Majesty; and how Akyndynos, holding the same views as he, was, after a short time, also refuted synodically, and he himself—with my Majesty also presiding in the synod at that time—was justly subjected to the same condemnation; and a synodical D tome was issued upon these matters, comprehensively severing from the Catholic and Apostolic Church of Christ and from all the Orthodox...
A of the Apostolic Church and of the entire fullness of the Orthodox, if any of those things B spoken or written by Barlaam against the monks, namely against the most venerable Gregory Palamas and those with him, should again appear, I believe no one among all is ignorant of them. But after certain men, possessed by a wicked and ambitious spirit, fashioned against my Majesty things that you also know, and from then on a grievous confusion took hold of the Roman realm, Akindynos, using such wickedness of the time as an opportunity, and having deceived and recruited many, with whom also the man who became patriarch, stirred up a revolt against the Church, a terrible one, in no way lacking in comparison with the affairs of the state, defending those heresies of Barlaam, while appearing to renounce the man's name alone for the sake of deception, even if it escaped no one among those who listen with understanding. And since the man who became patriarch—the one who was the supporter and protector of Akindynos and those of his party—deigned to have Akindynos ordained and promoted some of his like-minded followers to ecclesiastical offices, and at the same time, with respect to the most exalted Lady (Despoina) of the Romans and most beloved sister of my Majesty, acting boldly regarding such dogmas and proceeding again against the monks who were justified for their piety—she, having understood from this that those synodical judgments and decisions regarding piety were being annulled and that the synodical tome concerning them was being completely abolished and destroyed by him—having examined these matters many times previously with the most holy archbishops, then also convenes a synod, in accordance with which, an accurate investigation and examination having taken place, all with a common voice submit him to deposition, even if he should not repent, and remove Akindynos and those of his party, and cut them off from the portion of the Orthodox. And this God-pleasing work having been accomplished (for, according to the one who said it, the punishment of evil is also praiseworthy), the Lord resolves the civil strife and grants peace to the Roman realm. And thus, my Majesty, with God granting approval, having entered this great city, found him [the patriarch] deposed, and Akindynos and those with him again excommunicated synodically. And not only did those who gathered there do this according to this synod, but also the most holy metropolitans who were living in their own cells signed the decree in writing, these men adding to the confusion in the dogmas also his other lawless deeds committed against the Church and the Empire, which also those outside who were with my Majesty, both the most holy patriarch of Jerusalem and all the remaining most holy metropolitans, having themselves convened a synod, declared, among other things, that for the sake of communion with Akindynos he should be stripped of all priesthood. C They were not divided, but as if one Spirit were speaking and acting in them, all declared the same thing together. Which also my Majesty, by the grace of Christ, cherishes and supports both now and before. However, after my Majesty’s arrival—although the condemnation had been sent to him by the archbishops through a written document—since I learned that he was offering excuses and still objecting as if he had been condemned in his absence, and saying that he was ready to be present and to offer a defense, having presided together with the most high Emperor of the Romans, the most beloved son of my Majesty, and with the most holy archbishops and the senate, we gave orders for him to appear at the synod. But he appeared to be making his absence an excuse in vain; for he did not dare to appear and come to words at all, although he was called to the synod three and four times.
α. For this reason, he is subjected to the same condemnations as before with the just consent of my Majesty, which also through the present edict, showing and confirming it, is ordained for all to cherish such lawful and synodical judgments and decisions, but to turn away from those who think the thoughts of Akindynos and all those who again proceed against the aforementioned most holy hieromonk, Lord Gregory Palamas, and the monks with him, as being deceivers and again disturbing the Church. For this reason also, and for the sake of peace and security in accordance with piety, the present edict of my Majesty was issued. It also had: In the month of March, Indiction 15, by red letters of the imperial and divine hand.
XLVII. Imp. Joannis Cantacuzeni de metropoli Cygebi. (k). (A. 1347.)
Since the most holy churches situated in the region of Little Russia, the one called Volunion, namely Galicia, Volodimir, Cholmin, Peremischlin, Lucicon, and Turidon, have been subject, ever since the nation of the Russians received the knowledge of God by the grace of Christ, to the most holy metropolis of Kiev, which the most holy metropolitan regarding it, the Hypertimos and Exarch of all Russia, Lord Theognostos, governs, just as the most holy bishoprics of Great Russia; and at the time of the confusion that occurred a short while ago, finding such a time favorable, those who were managing the affairs of the state, but also the one presiding over the Church contrary to what is right, seeking nothing else but to satisfy their own appetites, and to convert the situation of communal and ecclesiastical matters into disorder through these [actions], and having overturned and confounded almost everything and having caused all-encompassing and every kind of harm to the souls and bodies of the Christians...
A regarding the most holy metropolitan see of Kiev, the aforementioned dioceses of Little Russia, and that they should be subject to the hierarch of Galicia, having elevated him from bishop to metropolitan B—which in fact occurred, to the destruction of long-standing customs in that region of all Russia, but appeared burdensome and grievous even to all the Christians dwelling there, who did not endure to be shepherded by two metropolitans, but wished to remain in the unshaken and immovable state which they had by custom from of old, as has been shown, and were making every effort toward the dissolution of such an innovation; just as at other times such an innovation was attempted, but was dissolved and overturned as soon as it occurred, because the Christians there, as has been said, did not endure such an undermining of their own status—the matters regarding this were recently brought to my Majesty by the most noble Great Prince of Russia, my beloved kinsman of my Majesty, Lord Simeon, and it was requested with his entreaty, and that of the other princes there, so that the said dioceses might be restored again through a chrysobull of my Majesty to the aforementioned most holy metropolitan see of Kiev, as also before.
1. My Majesty, judging this request of his to be just and reasonable, both because of what has been said and the ecclesiastical custom that has prevailed from of old until now, and furthermore because of the overflowing virtue and godly manner of life of the aforementioned most holy metropolitan of Kiev, the most honorable C exarch of all Russia, Lord Theognostus, by the present chrysobull D signifies approval and commands and ordains that the most holy dioceses in the aforementioned Little Russia, namely Halych, Volodymyr, Chełm, Peremyshl, Lutsk, and Turów—which, contrary to what is to be expected, were given to Halych, as has been shown, during the aforementioned time of confusion—should once again be subject to the said most holy metropolitan see of Kiev, and that he who currently serves as hierarch in that most holy metropolitan see of Kiev should perform in them all those things which the divine and holy canons command metropolitans to perform in the dioceses under them, and all that the previous metropolitans and this very aforementioned most holy metropolitan of Kiev himself previously performed in them, ordaining and installing bishops in them and examining matters concerning them, and investigating regarding certain ecclesiastical questions, if the need arises, and doing all other things as A are ordained by the divine and sacred canons. And the most God-fearing bishops are obliged to have toward this very most holy metropolitan of Kiev, the most honorable exarch of all Russia, Lord Theognostus, and those who after him will from time to time serve hierarchically therein, the proper obedience in all things that pertain to their premier hierarch, and to obey him in whatever he may have to say and suggest to them concerning the fostering of the Christians there and regarding their other ecclesiastical and canonical polity and condition. Whence also, by the power and authority of this present chrysobull of my Majesty, the aforementioned most holy dioceses of Little Russia B shall henceforth be subject to the said most holy metropolitan see of Kiev and to the most holy metropolitan, most honorable and exarch of all Russia, Lord Theognostus, who for the present governs it hierarchically, and under him the ecclesiastical matters concerning them, as has been shown above, shall be investigated and examined, and they shall attain the proper correction, and all that is owed and appointed in them shall be performed and accomplished; and after him, [this shall apply] to those who from time to time shall serve there hierarchically. And such a status shall be preserved forever, just as it was by custom from of old, as has been indicated, that the dioceses C under them should be found under one metropolitan. For this reason, this present chrysobull of my Majesty was issued and provided to the party of the said most holy metropolitan see of Kiev for the security thereof, released in the month of August of the current 15th indiction of the year 6856, in which our pious and God-proposed power has signed.
XLVIII. The Golden Bull of the Emperor John Cantacuzenus concerning the Monastery of Megaspilaion (A.D. 1348).
The chrysobull of the ever-memorable Emperor John Cantacuzenus.
Since the most honorable hegumen of the venerable monastery of my Majesty located in the Peloponnese, which is honored in the name D of the all-immaculate Lady and Mother of God and called Megaspilaiotissa, which was painted by the most holy Apostle and Evangelist Luke, the archimandrite and protosyncellus and hieromonk Lord Mark, has reported that such a venerable monastery of his possesses through chrysobulls and mandates of both my master the Emperor, the grandfather of my Majesty, and of my most divine...
predecessors, as well as through fiscal settlements and other lawful rights, its dependencies and other landed properties and estates in various locations. These are individually as follows: in Lapatas, a dependency sacred to the name of the holy and God-bearing Father Anthony the Great, with its resident serfs, its sitting tenants, and its registered estates; another dependency near Vostitza sacred to the name of the all-holy Lady and Mother of God, called the Manifested; near Drogos, another dependency sacred to the name of the same all-holy Lady and Mother of God, called the Synodeiriotissa, with the serfs residing therein, and its other rights; near Monodendrion, three hundred modii of land; in the village of Vrachni, the serfs Demetrios and Constantine the elders, and George Bardas; in the village of Zachlorou, certain sitting tenants; in the village of Doumena, serfs and registered estates, which it formerly held; near the castle of Saint John, the winter pasture called Lameia; and another in Vlogokitza, together with the adjacent field called the Prousseinē; the half-share, the Latin portion, of the village of Abysseinē (as the remaining half-share is held by certain different Romans and is under the hand of my Majesty), and the registered estates there nearby belonging to Kardones and Niphon; but also the mill-site therein, together with the antique church of the holy apostle Andrew the First-called. All of these the aforesaid venerable monastery holds and administers B undisturbed and unassailed until now. Recently, the aforementioned most honorable archimandrite and protosyncellus petitioned to obtain regarding these matters a chrysobull of my Majesty. My Majesty, having favorably received his petition, grants and bestows the present chrysobull decree upon the said venerable monastery, that it may hold these inalienably and inseparably, as it has held and administered them until now, suffering no oppression, injury, or harassment from anyone whomsoever regarding the possession of these things.
1. By this it is ordered and decreed that the same most honorable protosyncellus shall be and remain in the abbacy and protection of the said monastery for the duration of his life; and that he shall hold and administer, and in the future occupy, the above-mentioned individual dependencies and other estates, properties, and improvements, totally undisturbed and unassailed, and furthermore inalienably and inseparably, according to the summaries of the chrysobulls, mandates, and other lawful rights C belonging to it, as has been said, and as it is found to hold these.
Since it is for this reason that the present chrysobull decree of my Majesty was made, and was granted and bestowed upon the said most honorable abbot, archimandrite, and protosyncellus, and upon his aforementioned venerable monastery for security, issued in the month of April of the current [σϞς' 6856] indiction, in the year 6856, in which our pious and God-ordained sovereignty has set its seal.
John in Christ God, faithful Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, the Kantakouzenos.
XLIX. Agreements of the Emperor John Kantakouzenos with the Venetians (p). (A.D. 1350.)
L. Chrysobull of the Emperor John Kantakouzenos for the Genoese (q). (A.D. 1353.)
In the name of the Lord, amen. John, in Christ God, faithful Emperor and moderator of the Romans, the Kantakouzenos.
Whereas scandals have arisen between our Empire on one side and the commune of Genoa on the other, on account of which a war was moved between us and the said commune, and D finally, after many parleys held between our Empire and the noble men, the lords Oberto Gatulusio and Raffo Ernireo, syndics of the illustrious Lord Doge and the commune of Genoa, as well as Federico del Orto and the lord Lanfrancho de Podio, in the name and on behalf of the noble man Paganino de Auria, Admiral of the commune of Genoa, and also as syndic and representative in the name of the said Lord Doge and the commune of Genoa, as appears in the public instrument written by the hand of Corrado de Credencia, notary, on the third of June, 1350, by which instrument it appears that the Lord Doge and his council promised to have truce established with the lord Emperor of Constantinople.
A and to hold as ratified, pleasing, and firm all and singular the things that have been done, promised, and received by the said Lord Admiral and those substituted by him, with whatever lords and by whatever title of dignity they may exist; and since Obertus, Raffus, Fredericus, and Lanfrancus are the substituted agents and proctors of the said Lord Admiral, with all the power which he himself possesses for the aforesaid, by the tenor of a public instrument written by the hand of Thomas Octotis, notary, on the thirtieth day of April of the present year; therefore, our Empire, with the aforementioned nobles, has come to the peace described below, as follows.
First, it is understood that we ratify the new and old conventions which exist between the Empire and the Commune of Genoa, with the reservation, however, that the peace and those pacts concluded by the Lord Admiral with Orcanibel Ammirati shall be firm, notwithstanding the aforementioned conventions.
Item, by the pact, our Empire, of its own grace, makes a grant to the Commune of Genoa of Galata with the land, just as the moat extends as far as the castle of the Holy Cross, and beyond said moat for one hundred cubits, within which area no Latin or Greek building or any other new structure may be built. Thus, let these one hundred cubits be in breadth, beginning from the head of Galata as far as the castle of the Holy Cross in a straight line, and from the castle of the Holy Cross as far as the tower of Traverii.
Item, it has been established by the pact and promise of our Empire that our Empire or the Greeks shall not provide any refreshment or reception to any galleys of the Catalans or Venetians that might arrive in Constantinople, nor allow them to drop anchor, nor [admit them] to other foreign castles or to the jurisdiction C of said castles; provided, however, that in those castles in which there is no power to defend themselves against those galleys, if those galleys should receive refreshment there, this shall not be understood on that account as a destruction of the peace or a violation of our Empire's oath. These things shall have force during the war between the Catalans, the Venetians, and the Genoese.
Item, it has been established by the pact and promise of our Empire that if a case should arise, whether in our Empire or in any part thereof or even in Constantinople, where any strife or brawl or offenses should occur between the Catalans [and] Venetians with the Genoese, and the Genoese with the Catalans and Venetians, the Greeks of that Empire shall not in any way involve themselves in said brawl or strife, and if any of said Greeks should involve themselves in the aforementioned, he shall be banished from our Empire or punished by our Empire. Nevertheless, our captains in those places of the Empire where such strife or brawl between the aforementioned Genoese, Venetians, and Catalans might occur, must restrain those who are causing the strife and send the Genoese to the Podestà of Pera, and the Venetians to the Bailie of the Venetians.
Item, it has been established by the pact that if any galley of the Catalans or Venetians should arrive in Constantinople during the said war with the Bailie of the Venetians or some ambassador, in that case, if they should then drop anchor, it shall not be understood as a violation of the peace.
Item, it has been established by the pact that our Empire, on the occasion of the said peace, must give to said Lord Admiral all the Genoese whom our Greeks have in the Empire and whom our Empire also has imprisoned or detained, and must freely release them to the same Lord Admiral; and likewise, the Lord Admiral must freely release all the Greeks whom he has in common only and who are in the common [state].
Item, it has been established by the pact that our Empire must not impose or receive custom duties from a Greek who buys merchandise from a Genoese, and if it were in the conventions that it could or ought to receive the said custom duties, that they shall not be received, unless they are received generally from our Greeks buying merchandise from other Greeks. And likewise, the Commune of Genoa shall do the same for its vendors buying merchandise from Greeks.
Item, it has been established by the pact that if any Greek should sell wine in Pera or in the suburbs, that for the custom duty imposed according to the ordinance of the syndics of the Commune of Genoa, such a Greek must pay it just as other Genoese, and likewise the customs officials of our Empire shall collect and receive the custom duty imposed by us from the Genoese selling wine in Constantinople just as from other Greeks. And the aforesaid shall have effect during the war of the Catalans and Venetians with the Genoese, or until the custom duty on wine is unburdened: if it were pledged—said war.
Item, it has been established by the pact that, if a case should occur—which God forbid—where it might appear to our Empire that something had been done, said, or instigated by the Genoese against the peace, in such a way that our Empire intended to move or wage war against the Genoese, then it is understood by the bond of the oath that it must be announced to the Podestà of Pera by a certain special messenger, and a protest must be made regarding the aforesaid, so that from the day on which it does this until the eight months then next to come, no offense may be committed between the parties for any occasion or by any means, notwithstanding the aforesaid. And likewise, if it appeared to the Podestà of Pera that the peace aforementioned was being violated by our Empire and its Greeks, the Podestà is bound to do the same thing similarly as it is stated above, to protest and to give notice to our Empire, nor may said parties likewise commit any offenses until the eight months then next to come: when those eight months have elapsed, the said parties are and must be at their own liberty, notwithstanding the said peace.
Item, it has been established by the pact that the ships of the Greeks shall not sail nor be obliged to sail to Tana or in the Sea of Tana, unless the ships of the Genoese are sailing there, saving however that when our Empire…
intends to send an embassy regarding the aforesaid to the Lord Doge, to obtain that the said ships of the Greeks might sail there, and if the Lord Doge grants that they might sail there, they may do so, and no war shall be stirred up between the parties on that account.
Item, it is provided by covenant that if Greeks, who were with the said enemies for hire or of their own free will, should be captured by the Genoese on the ships of their enemies, namely the Catalans and Venetians, those same Greeks may be held; unless the said Greeks were taken there by force, in which case the Genoese must release those same Greeks. And the aforesaid shall have effect three months after the day of the conclusion of peace and ending on the Kalends of the coming August. And conversely, if our Empire should find any Genoese with our Empire... that it must hold them. A
Item, it is provided by covenant that no ships of the Greeks may go or return to the places of the Catalans and Venetians during the aforesaid war; except if our Empire, for some reason of its own, should wish to send one armed vessel to the said places, then it may lawfully send the said vessel as often as it shall wish.
Item, it is provided by covenant and agreement that all immovables of the land and possessions of the Genoese that were in the Empire shall be restored to the Genoese as they are, save that if any money from any possessions has reached our treasury, it shall not be restored and shall be retained.
Item, it is provided by covenant and promise that no Genoese may buy any possessions or lands or vineyards from any Greek, except by mandate of our Empire; and if any Genoese should buy without the mandate of our Empire, let him lose the price of the said possession.
Item, that the debts, which are between the Greeks and the Genoese, shall be in that state and right in which they were before the war, except that if any had reached the treasury of our Empire or the commune of Genoa or Pera, such things shall not be restored. B
Item, it is provided by covenant and agreement that if any goods of the Genoese taken by the Catalans and Venetians were sold to the Greeks during the time of the present war, and likewise any goods of the Greeks taken or sold to the Genoese, which were lost, no further requisition may be made concerning them.
Item, that all damages given during the time of the present war and committed by those present, namely by the Greeks to the Genoese and by the Genoese to the Greeks, are remitted, and no requisition or amendment or restitution thereof may be made in any way.
Item, it is provided by covenant, concerning Chios and Phocaea, that our Empire must hear their ambassadors, and if they say to our Empire something that pleases or not, then our Empire may send to the Lord Doge and the commune of Genoa, and whatever shall be agreed upon regarding the aforesaid and done with the Lord Doge, and the Lord Doge, as with our Empire, let that be understood as done; and if the ordinance which the Lord Doge shall make regarding the aforesaid does not please our Empire, our Empire may send to the Lord Doge as often as it shall wish in order to come to an agreement with him.
Item, it is provided by covenant that the Genoese shall not be obliged to seek the blood of Greeks or of any stranger who is under our Empire, branded by the commune of Genoa or Pera; and likewise our Empire grants indulgence to all Genoese against whom it had some grievance.
Which all and singular things written above, we, our Empire and our most beloved son, the Lord Matthew Catacuzene, swear on the holy Gospels of God and on our souls, with the holy scriptures being physically touched, to hold and keep firm and ratified and pleasing in perpetuity, and in nothing to contravene or violate, by right or by fact, in any manner or device, but to observe them with effect and without any diminution and to cause them to be inviolably observed. And let our other most beloved son, the Lord Manuel Catacuzene, be held similarly, when he shall come, God assisting, to Constantinople, to swear to attend to, fulfill, and observe all and singular things, just as we do. And in a similar manner the said lords, Oberto, Raffo, Federico, and Lanfranco, in the aforesaid names, have sworn on the holy Gospels of God, with the holy and sacred scriptures physically touched, and on the souls of the said Lord Admiral and Lord Doge and the commune of Genoa, to have all and singular the aforesaid things kept firm, ratified, and pleasing in perpetuity, and in nothing to contravene or violate [them], by right or by fact, in any manner or device, and to observe them with effect and without any diminution and to cause them to be inviolably observed: and that the said Lord Admiral, the lords Lanfranco Cattaneo, Martino de Mauro, Cattaneo Spinula, and Antonio... counselors of the said Lord Admiral, shall be held to swear always to attend to all and singular things at the will of our Empire as above: and furthermore also let them all swear that the Lord Doge is held to swear in the presence of the ambassador or ambassadors of our Empire, that he will have and keep firm, ratified, and pleasing the aforesaid peace, pacts, and conventions and all and singular things said above. For the caution and fuller evidence of all of which, we have ordered this present sacramental privilege to be made, fortified by the golden bull of our Empire, translated into Greek and Latin by our mandate, interpreted and dictated by our familiar, the great interpreter of our Empire, the Lord Nicolaos Sagio, subscribed in red letters by our own hand in the accustomed manner and fortified by the aforesaid golden bull appended below. C D
A Patriarch, my Imperial Majesty has learned that Basileios Karantenos, of Caesarea in Cappadocia, out of a malevolent spirit and arrogant judgment, has made a submission of a petition, which he recently presented to my Imperial Majesty against your Holiness. For, being held liable to a synodical judgment concerning the charges of which he stood accused, before exhausting the accusations and before seeking from your Holiness a release according to what is deemed right by the holy canons, he decided to run to my Imperial Majesty, contriving to cause trouble for the investigation of his case. But he did not profit from this attempt. For my Imperial Majesty, not being ignorant that the Bishop of Caesarea falls under canonical accountability for these matters, then sent him away empty-handed and with nothing accomplished, but now [my Majesty] also wishes for the holy canons themselves to be spoken plainly. Whence my Imperial Majesty also indicates to your Holiness that, should there be a gathering of the most holy archbishops currently residing in Nicaea, whoever they may be, even if they should fall short of the prescribed number, you should summon also the most holy Patriarch of the Great Theoupolis of Antioch, along with the bishops recently gathered with him in Nicaea, and having deliberated together in common, you should deliver a vote concerning the Bishop of Caesarea according to the canonical regulations, which shall be recognized also by my Imperial Majesty. B Executed in the month of October, Indiction 6th, by red letters of the Imperial and divine hand.
LI. Emperor John Cantacuzene concerning the judgment to be rendered regarding the Metropolitan of Caesarea. (A. 1333.)
LII. Emperor John Palaiologos' pact with the Venetians (z). (A. 1363.)
LIII. Emperor John Palaiologos concerning the privileges of the merchants of Narbonne (a). (Between 1353–1371.)
Since, through the consul of the Narbonnese dwelling in Constantinople, acting on behalf of Narbonne, my Imperial Majesty was petitioned to confirm by a holy golden bull the exemptions, liberties, and graces granted to them by that most glorious lord and my father, the holy emperor of blessed memory, C and my Imperial Majesty deems it worthy to ratify these, having graciously accepted his petition, [my Majesty] orders and wills that this golden bull itself, and everything and each provision contained therein, shall possess the ratification and confirmation of our gift, and that they, indeed fulfilling and observing whatever is provided for by the golden bull, are commanded as follows. My Imperial Majesty further commands that nothing novel should be introduced to them on account of the scale of the measurement of the cubits nor for any other reason, unless it be just as has happened in the case of the aforementioned golden bull granted to them. To which matter, for memory and fortification, I have ordered to be strengthened by the present holy golden bull with writings in red, according to custom, subscribed and [fortified] by the golden bull of my Imperial Majesty.
John in Christ the God, faithful Emperor and Autocrat of the Romans, the Palaiologos.
Another Golden Bull
My Imperial Majesty, accepting and having the will that the most holy metropolis of Monemvasia hold the territory of Helikobounos entirely and completely, in order to perform the liturgies from time to time that are archieratically presiding, two every week, on the days of Wednesday and Saturday, for the souls of the children of my Imperial Majesty buried there, just as the now most holy Metropolitan of Monemvasia, Hypertimos and Exarch of all the Peloponnese, Lord Akakios, has ordained according to the summary of the silver bull issued for this purpose by the most beloved brother of my Imperial Majesty, the all-fortunate Despot, the Porphyrogennetos, Lord Theodoros Palaiologos; D [my Majesty] grants for this purpose and rewards with this present golden bull of ours, by which [my Majesty] agrees, commands, decrees, and ordains that the aforementioned silver bull of the most beloved brother of my Imperial Majesty, the all-fortunate Despot, the Porphyrogennetos, shall have adherence, authority, and stability; and that from now and into the future the most holy metropolis of Monemvasia shall hold the aforementioned territory of Helikobounos, together with the tower therein and all its surrounding region, inalienably and inseparably, according to the summary, force, and power of the aforementioned silver bull, and just as it is righteously entitled, without finding therein any injury, while those who from time to time preside archieratically over such a metropolis are obligated to fulfill...
LIV. Emperor John Palaiologos' pact with the Venetians (b). (A. 1370.) LV. Emperor Manuel Palaiologos' golden bull, by which the possession of Helicobunis is granted to the church of Monemvasia (c). (A. 1406.)
A and treatment, and indulgence in the matter of their commerce; my Majesty, and because of the love which it formerly bore to the noble and illustrious Commune, and because of the request and petition made by its envoy, grants and awards to it this present golden bull.
1. By which it is pleased, ordered, decreed, and determined that in the place which we intend to give to it, it may build a loggia, in which it shall have its own consul, whomsoever it may choose, so as to judge all its own people in their dealings with one another. And if a Roman has a claim against a Ragusan debtor, he must go to the forum of the Ragusan being sued—that is to say, to his consul; B and likewise, conversely, the Ragusan is obliged, when suing a Roman debtor, to go to the forum of that Roman.
2. Furthermore, it may also build a church, if it so wishes. And all its merchants shall pay, for their own trade, two in the hundred; all the Ragusans may import and export all their goods freely, without any hindrance, paying only two in the hundred on their incoming merchandise, whenever they arrive; and this is understood to apply to both import and export, and no more may be demanded for that which has been paid in this way, as we have said. Our commercial officials for the time being are also required to receive the two in the hundred, whether they hold such commercial service by auction or on credit, whenever they arrive with their own merchandise.
3. And they may also dwell here, as many of them as wish. If, however, it should happen that any Ragusan who has incurred a debt to the Romans of the city should depart without having paid the amount owed, let no other Ragusan be held bound or troubled on his account; provided, naturally, that this stands: that if the debtor escapes to Ragusa or to its territories, he shall be compelled there by its own authority to satisfy the Roman to whom the debt is owed, when the matter concerning him is reported to it by written document from our officials, to whom such matters might pertain, or—if he does not provide satisfaction D—that he be cast into prison until he pays the debt in full. The Commune is obligated to do this upon the revelation of such a written document from our officials, and upon the establishing of the debt as true, or also through a person bringing the matter before their court of the Ragusans.
By the strength and power, therefore, of this present golden bull of my Majesty, the aforementioned noble and illustrious Commune of Ragusa shall be granted the right to build a loggia, in which it shall have its own consul, whomsoever it may choose, so as to judge all its own people in their dealings with one another. Furthermore, as for building—
LVI. Emperor Constantine Palaiologos' golden bull for the Ragusans (d). (A. 1451.)
Since the noble and illustrious Commune of Ragusa has shown favor and friendship to our officials and subjects in times past, to those passing through its lands, receiving them with love and honor and good disposition, and moved by these things, my Majesty has decreed that if they come here also to our city for the purpose of practicing their trade, we shall grant some favor regarding their commerce; and this being heard by it, it sent as envoy the noble man, Sir Bolton de Balpalio, and he came and requested that we give him a place to build a loggia, and that they may also have a consul in it, and furthermore a church if they wish, and that they may remain and reside here C and have in our lands from us care and treatment and indulgence in their commerce; my Majesty, and because of the love which it formerly bore to the noble and illustrious Commune, and because of the request and petition made by its envoy, grants and awards to it this present golden bull.
1. By which it is pleased, ordered, decreed, and determined that in the place which we intend to give to it, it may build a loggia, in which it shall have its own consul, whomsoever it may choose, so as to judge all its own people in their dealings with one another. And if a Roman has a claim against a Ragusan debtor, he must go to the forum of the Ragusan being sued—that is to say, to his consul; B and likewise, conversely, the Ragusan is obliged, when suing a Roman debtor, to go to the forum of that Roman.
2. Furthermore, it may also build a church, if it so wishes. And all its merchants shall pay, for their own trade, two in the hundred; all the Ragusans may import and export all their goods freely, without any hindrance, paying only two in the hundred on their incoming merchandise, whenever they arrive; and this is understood to apply to both import and export, and no more may be demanded for that which has been paid in this way, as we have said. Our commercial officials for the time being are also required to receive the two in the hundred, whether they hold such commercial service by auction or on credit, whenever they arrive with their own merchandise.
3. And they may also dwell here, as many of them as wish. If, however, it should happen that any Ragusan who has incurred a debt to the Romans of the city should depart without having paid the amount owed, let no other Ragusan be held bound or troubled on his account; provided, naturally, that this stands: that if the debtor escapes to Ragusa or to its territories, he shall be compelled there by its own authority to satisfy the Roman to whom the debt is owed, when the matter concerning him is reported to it by written document from our officials, to whom such matters might pertain, or—if he does not provide satisfaction D—that he be cast into prison until he pays the debt in full. The Commune is obligated to do this upon the revelation of such a written document from our officials, and upon the establishing of the debt as true, or also through a person bringing the matter before their court of the Ragusans.
By the strength and power, therefore, of this present golden bull of my Majesty, the aforementioned noble and illustrious Commune of Ragusa shall be granted the right to build a loggia, in which it shall have its own consul, whomsoever it may choose, so as to judge all its own people in their dealings with one another. Furthermore, as for building—