HISTORY

How influential and persuasive was the voice of the religious clergy /ulema in the Byzantine and Ottoman empires in the formulation of imperial policy?

Introduction

From the fourth century, the Empire recognized Christianity as an official religion and connects the "luck" of the spread of the new religion; struggles against heresy, the effort of evangelism Gheit peoples, manners and overall teaching advocated the religion of Jesus Christ the Nazarene. The emperor is not only supreme ruler of the state and the army, the chief judge and the sole legislator, is also the patron of the Church, rectum doctrine, the personification of the Christian state of trusting God. It is simply God's chosen. There were, however, a few times when States - Church relationships conflict were manifested, whenever the Emperor adopting some heretical teaching or wanted to have involvement in matters of faith and worship, for which a charge was only fathers and teachers of the Church, they face resistance. In fact during the Middle Ages the Church exercised considerable power as a dynamic factor that places barriers in the governance of each emperor.

The Byzantine Empire was a Christian, and more specifically, with the schism of the Roman Church in 1054 (religious divide between Eastern and Western Christians), confession Orthodox (as opposed to Catholicism). Under pressure from many people outside the Sassanid Persians , Bulgarians, Arabs, Seljuk Turks and the Ottoman Turks , not to mention Western Christians, the empire had a variable extension. Twice in the sixth century with Justinian and xi century with Basil II, the empire reached its maximum extension. For centuries he possessed the Balkans, in Europe, where he exerted considerable influence. On the other hand, The Ottoman Empire was established after the Ottomans took over the Byzantine Empire in 1453. They also renamed Constantinople into Istanbul and made it their new capital while also conquering Egypt, Syria and western Arabia during 1516 to 1517. Throughout its duration, the Ottoman Empire, from 1300s to the 1900s, remained a strongly Muslim State. In both empires, role of religion and religious authorities remained prominent. Ulema in Ottoman and Clergy in Byzantine influenced the state affairs.

Discussion

Influence of Clergy in Byzantine Empire

Caesaropapism is the idea that the emperor had complete control over the Orthodox Greek Church in the Roman/Byzantine Empire, relegating the church to something like a department of state, subordinate to, rather than independent from, imperial power. This is a western perspective never found in Byzantine sources. In the Byzantine/Orthodox perspective there was, ideally, a harmony between emperor/imperial power (imperium) and church/ecclesiastical power (sacerdotium), not a domination and subordination, respectively.

The emperor was constantly concerned to ensure peace in the church and took action when theological controversies threatened to rend it into competing factions because these quickly devolved into quasi-political factions. The emperor did not decide such controversies unilaterally. Instead, he relied on the church. The emperor, starting with Constantine I, summoned all bishops together to an ecumenical ("universal") council where they could officially establish Orthodox doctrine and ...