Emperor+Alexius+I+Comnenus+of+Byzantium

**Emperor Alexius I Comnenus of Byzantium**

Alexius I Comnenus (1048-1118), ruled as Emperor of [|Byzantium] from 1081 to 1118.[1] Alexius came from an old military landed family but since the Islamic Invasion of the seventh century, the powerful families of Byzantium had been competing for control. [2] In 1081, Alexius over-ruled his rivals and on Easter Day, April 4th,[3] Alexius had himself crowned as Emperor.[4]

Alexius began his rule by driving away the Normans who tried to invade [|Anatolia] and [|Macedonia][5]. In retaliation Alexius banned the Latin churches of Constantinople from offering unleavened bread for the Eucharist at mass.[6] This led to Alexius being excommunicated from the Church but in 1089, Pope Urban II lifted the excommunication.

Before the eleventh century, the Church had limited authority over Byzantine society.[7] The Churches and shrines had mostly fallen into disrepair.[8] Alexius decided to re-establish the churches “lest God should make him a scrapegoat”.[9] His reconfiguration of the church was the key element of his restoration of imperial authority.[10] The Comnenus family founded or re-established several monasteries and nunneries across the empire.[11] The patronage that Alexius built up within the Church by supporting these religious centres allowed him to intervene in Church affairs.

Alexius is believed to have “reasserted the role of the emperor as the guardian of orthodoxy and as the regulator of the ecclesiastical administration.”[12] Alexius’ also used his imperial role to tie the “moral stature of an emperor to his responsibilities towards the Church”.[13] He also claimed “through him God had intervened to put an end to the laxness and frivolity which had for so long characterised Byzantine life”.[14] Alexius invested himself in the church system by patronage and had placed the Church on a sounder financial footing.[15] He was responding to a surge of interest in religious piety, exploiting and harnessing this highly influential element of daily life.[16] By the end of Alexius’ reign the Church was stronger institut ionally and gaining followers.

Prior to Alexius Comnenus’ rule as emperor, Byzantium was “threatened with collapse”.[17] The Turks had overrun Anatolia after the Islamic conquest of the seventh century.[18] By the eleventh century, the Turks had blocked the pilgrimage routes to the Holy Land. Alexius wrote to [|Pope Urban II], asking for assistance to reopen the roads to Jerusalem. On November 27, 1095 the Pope convinced a council of ecclesiastics and nobles from across Europe to answer Alexius’ call and the First Crusade was launched.[19]

When the People’s Crusade and the knights of the First Crusade arrived in Constantinople, Alexius offered each of them large amounts of money and insisted that the leaders of the Official Crusade swear fealty to him.[20] The emperor had those of the People’s Crusade shipped across the straits into the Holy Land as quickly as possible to prevent them from establishing a permanent camp and from looting and attacking the locals.[21] Scholars and historians agree that if Alexius I had not asked for Pope Urban II’s help, the Crusades may not have taken place.[22]


 * __ Resources __**

__ Primary Sources __

Comnena, A., //The Alexiad//, trans. E.A. Dawes (1928) London

__ Secondary Sources __

Angold, M., //Church and Society in Byzantium Under the Comneni, 1081 – 1261//, (1995) University Press, Cambridge, Every, G., //The Byzantine Patriarchate//, (1962) Billing and Sons Ltd, London Hussey, J.M., //The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire,// (1986) Clarendon Press, Oxford Jordan, W.C., //Europe in the High Middle Ages,// (2002) Penguin Books, London Magdalino, P. //The Byzantine Background to the First Crusade//, (1996) Canadian Institute of Balkan Studies, Toronto Magoulias, H.J., //Byzantine Christianity: Emperor, Church and the West//, (1970) Rand McNally & Company, Chicago

[1] G. Every, //The Byzantine Patriarchate//, (London, 1962), 156. [2] J.M. Hussey, //The Orthodox Church in the Byzantine Empire//, (Oxford, 1986), 125. [3] H.J. Magoulias, //Byzantine Christianity: Emperor, Church and the West//, (Chicago, 1970), 121. [4] Hussey (1986), 140. [5] Every (1962), 156. [6] Ibid. [7] M. Angold, //Church and Society in Byzantium Under the Comneni, 1081 – 1261,// (Cambridge, 1995), 7. [8] //The Alexiad//, 81. [9] Ibid, 80. [10] Angold (1995), 7. [11] Ibid, 69. [12] Ibid, 7. [13] Ibid, 73. [14] Ibid, 71. [15] Ibid, 70. [16] Ibid, 275. [17] Magoulias (1970), 118. [18] Ibid. [19] Ibid. [20] //The Alexiad//, 254 [21] W.C. Jordan, //Europe in the High Middle Ages// (London, 2002), 107. [22] P. Magdalino, //The Byzantine Background to the First Crusade// (Toronto, 1996)