John II Komnenos - Religious Matters

Religious Matters

The reign of John II was taken up with almost constant warfare and, unlike his father who delighted in active participation in theological and doctrinal disputes, John appears to have been content to leave ecclesiastical matters to the Patriarch and the church hierarchy. Only when religion impinged directly on imperial policy, as in relations with the papacy and the possible union of the Greek and Latin churches, did John take an active part. He organised a number of disputations between Greek and Latin theologians.

John, alongside his wife who shared in his religious and charitable works, is known to have undertaken church building on a considerable scale, including construction of the Monastery of Christ Pantokrator (Zeyrek Mosque) in Constantinople. This monastery, with its three churches, has been described as one of the most important and influential architectural constructions of Middle Byzantine Constantinople. Attached to the monastery was a hospital, of 5 wards, open to people of all social classes. The hospital was staffed by trained layman doctors rather than monks. The monastery also served as the imperial sepulchre for the Komnenian dynasty.

Very active persecution of the followers of the Paulician and Bogomil heresies characterised that last few years of the reign of Alexios I. No records from the reign of John mention such persecution, though countermeasures against heresy by the Byzantine Church remained in force. A permanent synod in Constantinople investigated the writings of a deceased monk named Constantine Chrysomallos which had been circulating in certain monasteries. These works were ordered to be burnt by the Patriarch of Constantinople, Leo Styppes, in May 1140, on the grounds that they incorporated elements of Bogomil belief and practices.

One of the few members of the imperial family to be placed in an important position by John was his cousin Adrian Komnenos (son of John's uncle the sebastokrator Isaac). Adrian had become a monk and had accompanied John on his campaigns of 1138. Soon afterwards Adrian was appointed Archbishop of Bulgaria. Bulgaria was an autocephalus see and required a prestigious man as archbishop.