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The Byzantine Lists: ERRORS OF THE LATINS (Illinois Medieval Studies), by Tia M. Kolbaba
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The Byzantine lists cataloguing the 'errors' of Latin Christians have been dismissed by generations of scholars as the writings of deranged fanatics. In contrast, Tia M. Kolbaba takes these texts seriously and presents an explanation of their significance that is both erudite and eminently readable. The lists were written by Byzantines who believed that western Christians had fallen into heresy and impiety. Systematically addressing each fault enumerated in the lists - including the Filioque, fasting on the Sabbath, prohibiting clerical marriage, eating unclean food, and crossing themselves the wrong way - Kolbaba traces the likely explanations of the differences in custom and ritual between eastern and western Christians.She considers when Byzantine Christians first raised a given issue and whether any ecclesiastical law speaks to the subject. She discusses whether the Latins actually did what they were accused of and whether any Byzantine Christians also did what the Latins were accused of. She also shows how misinterpretation, misunderstanding, and xenophobia played a role in exaggerating Latin and Byzantine differences. Kolbaba skillfully argues that the lists represent a desperate effort by some Byzantines to retain their cultural independence as Latin dominance in the military and commercial spheres slowly strangled the eastern empire. "The Byzantine Lists" also speaks meaningfully to the issue of xenophobia as it appears in every age: the effort to distinguish between 'us' and 'them' by establishing one's own culture as the norm and condemning difference on the other side.
- Sales Rank: #5043704 in Books
- Published on: 2000-08-16
- Original language: English
- Number of items: 1
- Dimensions: .92" h x 6.25" w x 9.35" l,
- Binding: Hardcover
- 248 pages
Review
"This study shows that, rather than 'ridiculous' or 'hateful' documents -- adjectives Kolbaba herself sometimes finds it difficult to avoid -- the lists may be more productively understood as aggressive, yet complex, attempts to stake out and secure the boundaries of Orthodoxy against challenges, real and perceived, posed by the shifting cultural and political frontiers of the Middle Byzantine period." -- William L. North, Religious Studies Review "Only an outstanding scholar would dare to challenge accepted wisdom, is in this case: The Byzantine Lists were compiled over hundreds of years beginning in the 11th century. They were not assembled systematically until a later century." --The Orthodox Catholic Voice ADVANCE PRAISE "This deeply thoughtful book succeeds in creating an entire world out of evidence which is usually overlooked as myopic and vaguely disgusting. Kolbaba has entered into the imaginative world of Byzantium, to reveal a challengingly unfamiliar insistence on the relation of theology to ritual, of idea to symbol, of food to spirit. This is a model study of one great medieval society revealed in the mirror of its own extreme views of its overbearing western neighbor." -- Peter Brown, author of Authority and the Sacred: Aspects of the Christianisation of the Roman World "No seasoned specialist in the field will be able to go on thinking about things Byzantine without being affected by Tia Kolbaba's challenges. On the other hand, for newcomers to Byzantine studies, her ideas offer wonderful stimulation to further research. This is a superb piece of work by a superb scholar that will be an exciting and highly regarded contribution to Byzantine, Christian, and general religious studies." -- John W. Barker, author of Justinian and the Late Roman Empire
Most helpful customer reviews
17 of 26 people found the following review helpful.
The Hate Literature of Medieval Byzantines
By James Likoudis
This is a remarkable work by an eminent Byzantinist who has specialized in the anti-Latin polemical literature which was to have a profound effect in poisoning relations between medieval Latins and Byzantine Greeks and thereby impeding the union of the Churches.Such religious literature emanating largely from monastic circles and enumerating the abhorrent "errors" of the Latins proved to be far more influential in demonizing them than the works of professional theologians dealing with major dogmatic issues (such as the famous'Filioque'dispute) fueling the Schism between Rome and Constantinople. What were the "errors" which imbedded themselves so deeply in the Byzantine psyche that they caused such fanatical hostility towards Westerners and a massive resistance to the union of the Churches? The Latins were guilty of pillaging and looting during the first 3 Crusades and the horrific sacking of Constantinople, but pious Byzantines were further assured by religious propaganda that the Latin "heretics" were, in addition, vulgar barbarians, alien to refined manners, indecent, and "utterly filthy in their failure to distinguish between sacred things, people, actions, and profane ones". Byzantine grievances were many: Latins ate unclean foods, had contact with bodily excretions, spit near the altar, consecrated a new pope by laying the hands of a dead pope upon him, used icons for toilet seats, etc., etc. These Lists of Latin errors constituted a fascinating species of Hate-literature, but they had a special effect on the Byzantine masses in making them fear, despise, and contemn their conquerors as well as the Byzantine unionists seeking to overcome "cross-cultural misunderstandings" exacerbated by chauvinistic and xenophobic polemics. Not all Byzantines, of course, fell victim to such irrational propaganda but such Lists clearly manifested "the most extreme manifestation of anti-Latin sentiment in Byzantium". Interestingly, this scholarly study reveals that the Byzantine theologians who contributed to the Lists evidenced some serious confusion concerning doctrine and discipline and what constituted necessary and optional elements of the faith. Dr.Kolbaba utilizes the insights of cultural anthropologists and studies in the sociology of religion to analyze in some depth the psychology of medieval Greeks whose Byzantine orthodoxy and orthopraxis was fixated in liturgical and ritual forms regarded as sacred and immutable. Students of Byzantine history, and Catholics and Eastern Orthodox seeking to understand the dynamics of the Byzantine Greco-Slav Schism will find this an enlightening study that can only further genuine ecumenism.
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful.
An Interesting Examination of Medieval Greek Attitudes
By Curt Emanuel
Tia Kolbaba has written a fairly short, but very informative work regarding attitudes of the Greek Christians toward Latins. Beginning in the 11th century many Greek Religious authors composed lists of errors which the Western Church was guilty of. Among the errors listed are matters of foods eaten, religious rituals such as Lenten Fasting and Baptism, dress, behaviors such as marriage and a Latin addition to the Nicene Creed known as the Filioque (the addition of the words; "and the Son", to the procession of the Holy Spirit in the Creed - the Greeks retained the original "from the father", without this addition).
Kolbaba discusses which errors are listed and the frequency with which they are found in the various lists. This is a very interesting portion of the work; however those who have read one of the History's of the Byzantine Empire such as Vasiliev, Ostrogorsky or Treadgold will find later portions more valuable for it is here that she turns to a discussion of what these lists tell us - not about the Latins but about the Greeks themselves.
First Kolbaba discusses how many of the Greeks participate in the same errors as the Latins. She believes that many of these lists were not meant primarily to turn the Greeks against the Latins, but rather to argue that, by engaging in these behaviors, Greeks resembled them. While this is a form of demonization, it is more along the lines of, "You shouldn't be doing that - you behave like a barbarian!" For a society which prided itself on its perceived superiority to the West, this could be very powerful.
In later chapters Kolbaba discusses the general change in tone contained in these lists over time. Where earlier lists decry the Latin errors, they are less hostile and many state that almost all of the errors, with the exception of the Filioque, while wrong, may be forgiven as not reflecting a loss of truth regarding religion. However the later lists become progressively more hostile toward the Latins and tend to point out more negatives not related to religion, such as the barbarians being unreliable, uncouth, loud, violent, uneducated, etc. For obvious reasons, this becomes even more pronounced after 1204. At its extreme, these involve pure demonizing - priests use icons as toilet seats, bathe in urine and use the ashes of animals in rituals.
This also serves as a very interesting illustration of how societies, when threatened, become more conservative and tend to pull into themselves, battling mightily to preserve their sense of what they are and retain what makes their place in the world unique. As any Byzantine student knows, the last half century or so of the Byzantine Empire contained several instances of the olive branch from the West being dangled before them - resolve the schism and join your Church to ours and an Army will come to save you. Whether any army would have staved off the inevitable is arguable. What is not is that when Emperors such as Michael Palaiologos gave any indication that they might accept such an offer, the residents of what remained of the Empire rose powerfully against it.
This was a very enjoyable work. Kolbaba uses an interesting method to organize her work but one which works quite well. If I have a criticism, I believe a bit more time could have been spent on the Latin reaction to these Lists. Were they offended? How often did letters arrive from the West reacting to the latest slander - as they surely perceived it - against their religious practices? Or were they relatively uncaring? Certainly the West wrote their own lists of errors of the Byzantines, but what did they think of these lists written in the East?
In any case, this work will make valuable reading for anyone interested in what the Greeks thought of their Western contemporaries; as well as giving a great deal of insight into how their society defended itself culturally against the physically stronger west; and how the Eastern Empire responded to its approaching destruction.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful.
Byzantine Polemics - The True, the False and the Irrelevant
By Stefano Nikolaou
This is a fascinating book that deals with the Byzantine polemics against Latin errors. There is nothing like it in English. No wonder used copies are so expensive. It deserves to be reprinted.
Despite what Mr. Likoudis is claiming in the other review, the majority of the lists can hardly be described as 'hateful'. Tia Kolbaba analyses 13 lists, only a few of which are full of scurrilous and erroneous (not to mention silly) claims. Most of the texts are by reputable Byzantine authors like Photius, John of Kiev, Theophylact of Ochrid, Niketas Seides and Meletios Galesiotes (who had is tongue cut out for challenging the Catholic-convert Byzantine Emperor). There are some 'low' texts that are anonymous that make some wild claims in order to solidify the differences between Orthodox and Catholics but these are the minority. Many of the minor complaints are correct but are glossed over by Kolbaba. For example, western nobles did eat beaver tail during lent because the Roman Catholic Church had declared it was fish. Latins did fast on Saturdays? Or that monks fought in as warriors in crusader orders. Not deep theology but accurate. Kolbaba is not at her best when analysing these minor complains. On the issue of fighting monks Kolbaba lamely remarks that some Orthodox monks did the same thing and gives the example of a Greek Bishop in Asia Minor who killed a 'saracen' and was defrocked. Not exactly the same as the Templars or the Teutonic Knights!
The top 5 errors (Azymes, Filioque, not fasting properly during lent, baptising incorrectly, Not accepting married priests) along with Papal claims still come up in discussions between Orthodox and Catholics.
There are a number of issues with the book.
1) Kolbaba is not trying to write a balanced book about the two sides. She gives the impression that Orthodox were obsessed with declaring Latins heretics. In reality Roman Catholic polemicists made just as many or more crazy claims against the Orthodox. For example good old Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida in 1054 declared that the Orthodox had 'deleted' the Filioque from the Creed in Constantinople. Other authors kept trying to foster the 'Donation of Constantine' on the Greeks to bolster Papal claims. The Crusader historian William of Tyre claimed that Greeks were effeminate and deceptive. Another nice author is the 13th century Dominican William of Adam, who in his treatise 'How to Defeat the Saracens' advocated the conquest and assimilation of Orthodox lands as a stepping stone for conquering the Muslims. Another hateful author is the German knight Johann Schiltberger. He returned home after years of captivity in the east claiming that Greeks didn't even believe in the Trinity!
2) The second problem is that Kolbaba is concerned with lists rather than polemical literature as such (even though she admits a number of her texts aren't exactly lists). This means she leaves out the numerous polemical texts that only deal with one big issues like the Filioque, Azymes and Papal Primacy. This leaves the reader having the impression that the claims of the lists were more important than they really were. For example 7 lists complain that Latin bishops wear rings, 6 lists complain that Latins don't make the sign of the Cross properly, 12 lists complain about Azymes and 11 lists complain about the Filioque. However, 50 Byzantine authors wrote about the Filioque/ procession of the Holy Spirif and about the same number about the Azymes but these aren't put forward to show how insignificant the minor complains were. As a result authors like Niketas Stethatus (1005-1090), who wrote tracts against both the Filioque and Azymes, and Nicholas of Methone (died 1166), who wrote 3 works against the Filioque and one against Azymes, are not even mentioned.
3) The last problem is that Kolbaba does not adequately deal with the volatile politics of the period. Emotions ran high and tolerance was in short supply. She implies that the Latins were more accomodating but fails to give examples like the burning of 13 Orthodox monks on Cyprus in 1228 or the insistence of the Popes after Lyon in 1274 that the Greeks needed to insert the Filioque into the creed that this was not the case. If anything, Catholic powers were the agressors militarily on most occasions.
The book is only 230 pages long. Lots of room is taken up with the notes, biographical sketches, bibliography and index. The bibliography is excellent and the notes provide helpful elucidations. It would be hard for such a short book to cover the extra things I have mentioned so I'm being a bit harsh. Hopefully someone will write 'THE LATIN LISTS' to even things up.
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