Published online by Cambridge University Press: 04 January 2016
In this article I analyse the twelfth-century commentaries of Aristenos, Zonaras, and Balsamon on canons that prohibited certain forms of entertainment to clerics and/or laymen. Only when their commentaries are studied as a whole, does a pattern in their treatment become clear: they sought to minimize any distinctions between laity and clergy found in the original canons. This gives us a rare glimpse into lay and clerical interactions and reinforces the view that the Byzantine Church did not wish to maintain clear boundaries between clerics and laymen.
1 Laiou, A. E., ‘God and Mammon: credit, trade, profit and the canonists’, in Oikonomides, N. (ed.), Byzantium in the 12th Century: canon ¡aw, state and society (Athens 1991) 261–300 Google Scholar; Constantelos, D. J., ‘Clerics and secular professions in the Byzantine Church’, Byzantina 13/1 (1985) 373-90Google Scholar; Viscuso, P., ‘Canonical aspects of clerical marriage during the Late Byzantine and Ottoman periods’, in Allen, J. J. (ed.), Vested in Grace: priesthood and marriage in the Christian East (Brookline 2001) 67-120 Google Scholar.
2 On entertainment in Byzantium more generally, see also Tougher, S., ‘Having fun in Byzantium’, in James, L. (ed.), A Companion to Byzantium (Chichester 2010) 135-45CrossRefGoogle Scholar; С. Roueché, , ‘Entertainment, theatre and hippodrome’, in Jeffreys, E., Haldon, J. and Cormack, R. (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Byzantine Studies (Oxford 2008) 677-84Google Scholar.
3 On the three canonists, see Troianos, S., ‘Byzantine canon law from the twelfth to the fifteenth centuries’, in Hartmann, W. and Pennington, K. (eds), History of Byzantine and Eastern Canon Law (Washington, D.C. 2012) 176-83Google Scholar; their work is edited in Σύνταγμα τών θείων каі ίερών κανόνων, 4 vols., eds Rhalles, G. A. and Potles, M. (Athens 1852-4)Google Scholar, hereafter referred to as Syntagma, I for vol. 1, Syntagma, II for vol. 2, and so on.
4 Balsamon is thought to have written his entire commentary on the Nomokanon in 1177. The rest of his commentaries would not be completed before the end of his life. See Schminck, A., ‘Zur Entwicklung des Eherechts in der Komnenenepoche’, in Oikonomides, N. (ed.), Byzantium in the 12th century: canon law, state and society (Athens 1991) 584 n.l71 Google Scholar; Troianos, ‘Byzantine canon law’, 181. There is considerable debate about Zonaras’ date of writing. Based on his comment on canon 7 of Neocaesarea that he had seen a patriarch and several metropolitans present at the second wedding of an emperor, his commentary must have been completed after 1161, the year of the second marriage of the emperor Manuel I Komnenos. See Troianos, ‘Byzantine canon law’, 177; Syntagma, III, 80. Banchich, on the other hand, has argued that this comment might be simply an interpolation rather than Zonaras’ own view. What is more, even if Zonaras was its author, the emperor he was referring to could have been the emperor Nikephoros III Botaneiates (r. 1078-81) who was married three times and whose second wedding took place in 1078. See Banchich, T. M., ‘Introduction: the Epitome of Histories’, in Banchich, T. M. and Lane, E. N. (trans.), The History of Zonaras from Alexander Severus to the death ofTheodosius the Great (London 2009) 7 Google Scholar. Aristenos’ interpretation was the earliest of the three. As evidenced by its title, the composition was initiated at the behest (προτροπή) of the emperor John Komnenos (r. 1118-43), around 1130. See Troianos, ‘Byzantine canon law’, 179.
5 Browning, R., ‘Theodore Balsamon’s commentary on the canons of the council in Trullo as a source on everyday life in twelfth-century Byzantium’, in Angelide, C. (ed.), ‘H καθημερινή ζωή στο Βυζάντιο (Athens 1989) 421-7Google Scholar.
6 This is in stark contrast with Western canon law. The council of Agde (506) decreed that priests, deacons, and subdeacons, should avoid wedding feasts, ‘lest their [senses of] seeing and hearing which have been assigned to the sacred mysteries be polluted through contact with filthy spectacles and words’. This canon was included in the twelfth century in Gratian’s Decretum which became the major source of Western canon law. See D. 34 с 19 in Corpus iuris canonici: Decretum Magistri Gratiani, vol. 1, ed. E.|Friedberg (Graz 1959) 130.
7 Syntagma, III, 219-21; Syntagma, II, 58-9, 642-6.
8 Syntagma, II, 58, 424.
9 Syntagma, III, 465; Syntagma, II, 448-52, 456-60, 90-1.
10 Syntagma, II, 424-7, 460-2; Syntagma, III, 466-7.
11 Eastmond, A. and James, L., ‘Eat, drink ... and pay the price’, in Brubaker, L. and Linardou, K. (eds), Eat, Drink and Be Merry (Luke 12:19): Food and Wine in Byzantium (Aldershot 2007) 175 Google Scholar.
12 There was an enduring Byzantine position that everything made by God, including food and wine, was good. It was abuses, such as excess, that were blameworthy. See Syntagma, II, 67-8. There remained however an understanding that certain foods were unclean. Indeed this was one of the reproaches made against the Latins during the 1054 controversy, see Kolbaba, T. M., The Byzantine Lists: Errors of the Latins (Urbana, IL 2000) 145-69, 189-90Google Scholar. For Zonaras’ and Balsamon’s opinion on unclean food, see also Syntagma, II, 81, 462-3.
13 Syntagma, III, 221. More positive attitudes towards the drinking of wine can be found in some Byzantine texts from the eleventh century onwards, but this is not reflected in the canonical commentaries: see Anagnostakes, E., Όΐνος ό Βυζαντινός’, in Kopidakes, M. Z., Anagnostakes, E., and Georganta, A. (eds), Όΐνος στήν Ποίηση, vol. B2 (Athens 1995) 32-3, 102-5Google Scholar.
14 Gluttony was thought to be the mother of the sin of fornication. Among others, Evagrios Pontikos (d. 399) connected excessive eating with lust, see Sinkewicz, R.E., Evagrius of Pontus: the Greek Ascetic Corpus (Oxford 2003) 21 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. The association continued in the twelfth-century as we see for example in Neophytes’ writings, Galatariotou, C., ‘Eros and Thanatos: a Byzantine hermit’s conception of sexuality’, BMGS 13 (1989) 110 Google Scholar.
15 Syntagma, III, 221; Syntagma, IV, 12; Fögen, M.T., ‘Unto the pure all things are pure: the Byzantine canonist Zonaras on nocturnal pollution’, in Ziółkowski, J. (ed.), Obscenity: social control and artistic creation in the European Middle Ages (Leiden 1998) 263 Google Scholar.
16 Syntagma, II, 58-9.
17 The words most frequently used are κληρικοί, clerics; ίερατικοί, sacerdotes; οί év ίερατικφ καταλεγόμενοι τάγματι, those counted among the sacerdotal order; κεκληρωμένοι, those appointed to the clergy; and ίερώ-μενοι, those who are ordained. The canonists used these terms interchangeably. We can see this in canon 24 of Trullo and its commentaries. The canon itself used the phrase ‘τινί τών έν ίερατικφ καταλεγομένων τάγματι’, Zonaras rephrased it as ‘ίερωμένους’, Balsamon as ‘ίερατικοΰς’, and Aristenos as ‘κληρικός’. See Syntagma, II, 356-60. Cf. Darrouzès, J., Recherches sur les offikia de l’église byzantine (Paris 1970) 88 Google Scholar. See also Balsamon’s own but inconsistent definition of the word κληρικός in Syntagma, II, 485.
18 ‘Τοΰς έπισκόπους, коі τούς τοΰ κλήρου πάντας, παράκλησιν απασι προς άρετήν εΐναι χρή, καί άρχέτυπον, καί παροξυσμον προς άγαθοεργίαν’, see Syntagma, II, 58;Similarly, Aristenos claimed that if priests and deacons were deposed when they refused to desist, ‘even more so should those who happen to be in greater hierarchical rank be deposed’, see Syntagma, II, 59.
19 Syntagma, II, 58. This is in fact one of only two commentaries where the canonists make such a distinction.
20 Ibid., 58-9.
21 ‘βαλλίζειν’ is interpreted by Zonaras and Balsamon as playing cymbals, but by Aristenos as clapping one’s hands, see Syntagma,III, 219-21.
22 Syntagma, III, 219-20.
23 ‘Άπαιτοΰνται οί Χριστιανοί είς γάμον άπερχόμενοι, σεμνώς δειπνεΐν έν αύόρΐς, καί μή όρχεΐσθαι, ή βαλ-λίζειν, τουτέστι, τάς χεΐρας κροτεΐν, καί δι’αύτών κτύπον άποτελεΐν- τοΰτο γάρ άνάξιον χριστιανικής καταστά-σεως’, see Syntagma, III, 221.
24 Syntagma, II, 58-9.
25 Ibid., 424.
26 On the complex manuscript tradition of this constitution, see Hallebeek, J., ‘On the origin of the constitution Alearum lusus (C. 3,43,1) and its insertion into the Codex Justinianus ’, Tijdschrift voor Rechtsgeschie-denis 81:1-2 (2013) 129-43CrossRefGoogle Scholar. Justinian’s Novel 123.10 had also forbidden games of chance specifically to clerics, but we do not find it amongst Balsamon’s references to civil law.
27 Syntagma, 1,329. Balsamon was using the second edition of the Basilika made in the eleventh century, see Troianos, S.N., Oi Πηγές του Βυζαντινού Δικαίου, 3rd edn (Athens 2011) 257-9Google Scholar; Cf. Lokin, J. H. A., ‘The significance of the law and legislation in the law books of the ninth to eleventh centuries’, in Laiou, A. E. and Simon, D. (eds), Law and society in Byzantium, 9th-12’th centuries (Washington, D.C. 1994) 88-9Google Scholar.
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29 Syntagma, I, 320.
30 Noialles, P. and Dain, A., Les Novelles de Léon VI le Sage (Paris 1944) 290-3, here at 291Google Scholar: συντεταγμένη διανοίχ καί άμετακινήτφ νοΐ.
31 Ph. Koukoules, , Βυζαντινώνβίος καί πολιτισμός, vol A.I. (Athens 1947) 186-96Google Scholar. Given the early date of composition of the original canon (4th c), it is possible that the dice mentioned here were used in divination, see Watts, E. J., City and School in Late Antique Athens and Alexandria (Berkeley 2006) 132-5CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
32 Syntagma, II, 358.
33 Annae Comnenae Alexias, eds Reinsch, D. R. and Kambylis, A. (Berlin 2001) 182 CrossRefGoogle Scholar. See also Bryer, A., ‘Byzantine games’, History Today 17:5 (1967) 453 Google Scholar; Koukoules, , Βυζανπνων βίος каі πολιτισμόζ, vol A.II. (Athens 1952) 199 Google Scholar.
34 Syntagma, II, 424.
35 Syntagma, II, 459. For a full translation of this passage, see Browning, ‘Theodore Balsamon’s commentary’, 421-2.
36 Syntagma,II, 459. See also Fögen, M.Th., ‘Balsamon on magic: from Roman secular law to Byzantine canon law’, in Maguire, H. (ed.), Byzantine Magic (Washington D.C. 1995) 99–115 Google Scholar.
37 Nicetae Choniatae Historia, ed. Dieten, J. -L. van (Berlin and New York 1975) 154, 339CrossRefGoogle Scholar; trans. Magoulias, H. J., O City of Byzantium: Annals of Niketas Choniates (Detroit 1983) 87, 187Google Scholar.
38 Mavroudi, M., ‘Occult science and society in Byzantium: considerations for future research’, in Magdalino, P. and Mavroudi, M. V. (eds), The Occult Sciences in Byzantium (Geneva 2006) 81-2Google Scholar.
39 Syntagma, II, 448.
40 Syntagma, II, 457: μηδέ είδότες τί δηλοΰσι.
41 Ibid., 449.
42 Kazhdan, A. P. and Constable, G., People and Power in Byzantium: an introduction to modern Byzantine studies (Washington D.C. 1982) 62 Google Scholar; Haldon, J., ‘Humour and the everyday in Byzantium’, in Halsall, G. (ed.), Humour, History and Politics in Late Antiquity and the Early Middle Ages (Cambridge 2002) 60-2Google Scholar; Garland, L., ‘Street life in Constantinople: women and the carnivalesque’, in her Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200 (Aldershot 2006) 63-164, 173Google Scholar.
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44 Syntagma, II, 449.
45 Ibid., 451.
46 Ibid., 452.
47 Syntagma, III, 465.
48 Syntagma, II, 90-1.
49 Ibid., 90.
50 Grumel, V., Les regestes des actes du Patriarcat de Constantinople, vol. 1 (Paris 1989) n. 1034 Google Scholar. For the dating see also Demetrii Chomateni Ponemata Diaphora, ed. Prinzing, G. (Berlin 2002) 56-7CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For the genre of erotapokriseis, see Papadoyannakis, Y., ‘Instruction by question and answer: the case of Late Antique and Byzantine Erotapokriseis’, in Johnson, S. E. (ed.), Greek Literature in Late Antiquity: Dynamism, Didacticism, Classicism (Aldershot 2006) 91–105 Google Scholar.
51 In the canonical commentaries heresy or Judaic customs are often described as impure. The canonists adopt such language even when it is not present in the text of the canon they are commenting upon. Another example can be found in Zonaras’ commentary on canon 61 of the Apostles where he tells us that Orthodox Christians ought to see heretics and their ceremonies as abominations (βδελύττεσθαι), see Syntagma, II, 61. See also Douglas, M., Purity and Danger: an analysis of the concepts of pollution and taboo (London 2002)Google Scholar.
52 For Balsamon’s use of the expression ἔξωχώραι, see Magdalino, P., ‘Constantinople and the εξω χώραι in the time of Balsamon’, in Oikonomides, N. (ed.), Byzantium in the 12th century, 179-98Google Scholar.
53 The Church Fathers had often expressed their disapproval towards panegyreis because of their associations with commerce, frivolity, and sin, but the pagan festivals were progressively assimilated into the Christian cycle of liturgical celebrations, see Vryonis, S. Jr, ‘The panegyris of the Byzantine saint: a study in the nature of a medieval institution, its origins and fate’, in Hackel, S. (ed.), The Byzantine Saint (New York 2001) 210-14Google Scholar.
54 Pseudo-Luciano, Timarione, ed. Romano, R.(Naples 1974) 55 Google Scholar; trans. Baldwin, B., Timarion (Detroit 1984) 45-6Google Scholar. Cf. with the description of a panegyris found in the enkomion of the patriarch Nikolaos III Gram-matikos (1084-1111), in Darrouzès, J., ‘L’éloge de Nicolas III par Nicolas Mouzalon’, REB 46 (1988) 48–51 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
55 Baldovin, J., The Urban Character of Christian Worship. The Origins, Development, and Meaning ofSta-tional Liturgy (Rome 1987) 268 Google Scholar; Taft, R.F., Through their own eyes: liturgy as the Byzantines saw it (Berkeley 2005) 41-4Google Scholar.
56 See Syntagma, II, 643: είτουν σατανικων άσμάτων, κιθαρών τε, καί πορνικών λυγισμάτων.
57 McKinnon, J., ‘The meaning of the Patristic polemic against musical instruments’, Current Musicology 1 (1965) 70 Google Scholar. For how the psaltery was seen by the Church Fathers, see Maliaras, N., Βυζαντινάμουσικά όργανα (Athens 2007) 65-8Google Scholar.
58 MPG 55:158.
59 Balsamen defined the θυμελικοί in opposition to mimes, who as we will see, were greatly condemned by the canons and the canonists, ‘σκηνικοί mi μΐμοί είσιν, ούχί oi θυμελικοί, οί τάς έπιθαλαμίους φδάς μετά μου-σικών όργάνων φδοντες, ούτοι γάρ εντιμοί είσιν’, Syntagma, III, 415; ‘Μίμους μέν τοι έκείνους λέγε, τούς προ-σωπεΐα ύποδυομένους, δούλων τυχον, ή καί γυναικών, καί μή πάντας τοΰς της θυμέλης- έκεΐνοι γάρ, oi τά μουσικά οργονα μεταχειριζόμενοι, εντιμοι είσίν’, see Syntagma, II, 598. We find the same distinction in the Life of Symeon the Salos. The saint was friendly towards the θυμελικαί, but not towards mimes, see Magoulias, H. J.,’Bathhouse, inn, tavern, prostitution and the stage as seen in the Lives of the Saints of the sixth and eleventh centuries’, EEBS 38 (1971) 248 Google Scholar. Ruth Webb notices that the language of the early legal sources makes no distinction between different varieties of ‘people of the stage’ and she emphasizes in particular the difference between actors and dancers. To that we can also add musicians. See Webb, R., Demons and Dancers: Performance in Late Antiquity (London 2008) 143 Google Scholar. The canonist seems to have made the same distinction in his commentary on canon 24 of Trullo, in which he stated that although some people treated mimes and θυμελικά παιγνία in the same way, the majority and especially the most pious, amongst whom he placed himself, were not satisfied with this, arguing instead that the laws ought to be interpreted in a spiritually beneficial way. See Syntagma, II, 360. The term θυμελικά παιγνία is usually understood to mean some kind of theatrical spectacle rather than a musical one. See Tinnefeid, F., ‘Zum profanen Mimos in Byzanz nach dem Verdikt des Trullanums’, Byzantina 6 (1974) 339 Google Scholar; Caseau, B., ‘Le cérémonial impérial’, in Métivier, S. and Pages, P. (eds), Economie et société à Byzance (VlIIe-XIIe siècle): textes et documents (Paris 2007) 32 Google Scholar. It is more likely though that the canonist is again making a distinction between music and mimes. This is also suggested by his use of the expression: θυμελικών παιγνίων άκούειν, to listen to θυμελικά παιγνία. Bal-samon then argued that everyone should be allowed to listen to music, sung and accompanied by instruments, but no one should be permitted to attend the spectacles of mimes.
60 The term εντιμος and its opposite άτιμος were linked to a person’s legal rights, determining for example if they could act as witness or bring an accusation to court. It was only someone who was εντιμος who could testify against a bishop. See Syntagma, II, 97.
61 Syntagma, III, 220.
62 Garland, ‘Street life’, 169-71, 173-4.
63 The use of the organ declines after 1204, see Maliaras, Βυζανπνάμουσικά όργανα, 252-3, 293-8, 311-28, 338-41, 372-5. For music at the Constantinopolitan hippodrome see also the Kiev fresco with its depiction of an eleven-member court orchestra and eight different musical instruments, in Boeck, E., ‘Simulating the Hippodrome: the performance of power in Kiev’s St. Sophia’, The Art Bulletin 91/3 (2009) 292 CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
64 Syntagma, II, 479: εϊς φδάς έκτρεπομένη θυμελικάς, καί είς ασματα πορνικά [...].
65 Ibid., 480: τάς όρχήσεις τών χειρονομούντων, καί τάς έκτεταμένας έκφωνήσεις.
66 A variety of often interchangeable terms (μϊμος, σκηνικός, θυμελικός, ό έπί σκηνης, γελωτοποιός) was used to describe such performers, but their place in the history of theatre is difficult to ascertain. Tinnefeld examined the evidence for the continuation of mimes and pantomimes after the council of Trullo (691/2), see Tinnefeld, ‘Zum profanen Mimos’, 321-43; Cf. Puchner, W., ‘Acting in the Byzantine theatre: evidence and problems’ in Easterling, P. and Hall, E. (eds), Greek and Roman Actors: Aspects of an Ancient Profession (Cambridge 2002) 307 Google Scholar.
67 Garland, L., ‘Imperial women andentertainment at the Middle Byzantine court’, in her Byzantine Women: Varieties of Experience 800-1200 (Aldershot 2006) 178 Google Scholar.
68 Syntagma, III, 414.
69 Syntagma, II, 425.
70 Syntagma, III, 598; Syntagma, II, 451.
71 W. Puchner, ‘Acting in the Byzantine theatre’, 314-17
72 Syntagma, III, 596-7. Zonaras makes the same distinction in his commentary on canon 45 of Carthage, Syntagma, III, 414. It is unlikely that there was any difference in the performances of the two kinds of mimes, but imperial sanction was enough to increase the prestige of those performing for the emperor. See also the text of the Nomokanon on the same topic as well as Balsamon’s commentary, Syntagma,I, 322-4. A good indication of the contempt the Church had for actors is that, according to canon 18 of the Apostles, men who had married mimes (τών έπί σκηνἢς) were not allowed to accede to holy orders. See Syntagma,II, 25-6.
73 Syntagma,II, 425. See also Dauterman-Maguire, E. and Maguire, H., Other Icons: Art and Power in Byzantine Sectdar Culture (Princeton 2007) 135-53Google Scholar.
74 Syntagma, II, 425.
75 Webb, Demons and Dancers, 179-83.
76 Ibid., 198-200.
77 Ibid., 209-16.
78 Syntagma, II, 424.
79 Ibid., 425. For example, Anastasius I (r. 491-518) abolished fights between men and beasts in 499, see Theodorides, J., ‘Les animaux des jeux de l’Hippodrome et les ménageries impériales à Constantinople’, BS 19 (1958) 74 Google Scholar.
80 Syntagma, II, 425.
81 Syntagma, III, 597-8. The same distinction can be found in the Basilica, B. 21.2.3.
82 Syntagma, III, 598.
83 Syntagma, II, 425, 358. Some historians place the end of animal combats before the council of Trullo. See Cameron, A., Porphyrius the Charioteer (Oxford 1973) 228-30Google Scholar; Mango, C., ‘Daily life in Byzantium’, JӦB 31 (1981) 344 Google Scholar.
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85 Syntagma II, 426: Kai oi λαϊκοί, Χρισταιτοΰ; νταις, σεμνώς άπαιτοΰντοας διαβιώσκειν.
86 Ibid., 425.
87 Balsamon in his commentary on canon 54 of Laodicea directs the reader to the all-inclusive Trullan canon. See Syntagma, II, 220.
88 Canon 24 of Laodicea discusses a form of singing, but has not been included here, because it refers to singing for magical reasons, as in the case of summoning demons or taming wild animals. See Syntagma, III, 203.
89 Magoulias, ‘Bathhouse, inn, tavern, prostitution and the stage’, 238-44.
90 Poem 1: Eideneier, H., Ptochoprodromos: Einführung, kritische Ausgabe, deutsche Übersetzung, Glossar (Cologne 1991) 102 Google Scholar; Alexiou, M., ‘The poverty of écriture and the craft of writing: towards a reappraisal of the Prodromic poems’, BMGS 10 (1986) 1–40, esp. 32-5Google Scholar.
91 Constable, O. R., Housing the Stranger in the Mediterranean World: Lodging, Trade, and Travel in Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (Cambridge 2003) 25-8Google Scholar.
92 See, for example, the seventh-century Life of St Theodore of Sykeon: Vie de Théodore de Sykeon, ed. Festugière, A.-J. (Brussels 1970) I, 3 Google Scholar; trans. Dawes, E. and Baynes, N., Three Byzantine Saints (Oxford 1977) 88 Google Scholar. As inns were places where the profane and the holy could come into contact, they could also act as places of spiritual salvation, see Constable, Housing the Stranger, 29.
93 Syntagma, II, 72.
94 Ibid., 73
95 See Syntagma, I, 72: ού περί βρώσιν καί πόσιν μόνην διεφθάρθαι αύτοΐς τα ήθη, άλλά καί περί τήν ἅλλην πᾶσαν διαγωγήν.
96 Syntagma, II, 426.
97 Syntagma, II, 357-60.
98 See also Cameron, A., Circus Factions: Blues and Greens at Rome and Byzantium (Oxford 1976) 18 Google Scholar.
99 Magdalino, P., ‘The Porphyrogenita and the astrologers: a commentary on Alexiad VI.7.1-7’, in Dendrinos, C., Harris, J., Harvalia-Crook, E., and Herrin, J. (eds), Porphyrogenita: Essays on the History and Literature of Byzantium and the Latin East in Honour of Julian Chrysostomides (Aldershot 2003) 22 Google Scholar. The twelfth-century frescoes depicting scenes from the hippodrome in Constantinople that tsar Vladimir Monomakh had painted in the Cathedral of St Sophia in Kiev, showed musicians, acrobats, and mimes. See Dauterman-Maguire and Maguire, Other Icons, 30.
100 Syntagma, II, 359.
101 According to Cameron, clergymen were part of the demes by the seventh century. See Cameron, Circus Factions, 82.
102 Syntagma, II, 359.
103 Syntagma, II, 357.
104 See Syntagma, II, 358: Ei γάρ πάσα ίπποδρομία ἥ τε εκπαλαι τελουμένη, καί ή σήμερον γινομένη, άπαγορ-εύεται κατά τούς πολλούς, ὤσπερ δή καί πάντα τά θεώρια, κοά τά κυνήγια, άναγκασθήσεταί τις είπεϊν, μηδέ ὅλως γίνεσθαί τι χονοΰτον ποτέ τών καιρών παρά βασιλέως, ή έτέρου τινός• άπρακτησοα δε καΐ τά μετά κυναρύον λαγοκυνήγια, ϊνα μή καί οί λαϊκοί είς ίπποδρομίας, καί θεωρίας, καί κυνήγια άσχολούμενοι, άφορισμφ ύποπέ-σωσιν, ὅπερ ᾃτοπον.
105 Syntagma, II, 426. Balsamon also hints at the real meaning of the word κυνηγίων θεώρια earlier on in the same paragraph, where talking about the old hippodrome he says: ‘They allowed also animal fighting (θηριομαχίας), and other disgraceful and indecent things. For this reason, they say, that also the fifty-first canon of the present synod forbids mimes and theatres and beast fights (τά τών κυνηγίων θεώρια) and dances on the stage’, see Syntagma, II, 358.
106 Syntagma, II, 359.
107 See Syntagma, III, 333, 335: κοά πάσι Χριστιανοΐς κεκήρυκται μή προσιεναι, ὅπου βλασφημίαι εΐσί.
108 Cf. Angold, M., Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261 (Cambridge 1995) 114-15, 152CrossRefGoogle Scholar. He argues that the Church in this period strove to maintain ‘clear boundaries between the laity and the clergy’.