The Athonites and Their Neighbours in Macedonia in the Tenth And

Rosemary Morris The Athonitesand their neighbours in Macedonia in thetenth and eleventh centuries One of the most important principles in Byzantine monasticism was eremia (solitude) and the Holy Mountain of Athos in Macedonia was originally a place where ascetics could seek that solitude. By the end of the ninth century there were many monastic groups and solitaries on the mountain, and from this time date the earliest written records detailing their relations with each other and with their lay neigbours. These documents, the so-called archives of Mt. Athos, are slowly but surely being published, monastery by monastery, by French scholars and provide the major source for the history of the Athonite monasteries in the Byzantine period.' In the tenth century, with the foundation of the Great Lavra by St. Athanasios the Athonite, actively supported by the Emperor Nikephoros II Phocas, a new era dawned in the history of Athonite monasticism. Lavish amounts of imperial patronage in the form of annual donations of money (rogai) and grants of privileges were given, particularly to the Lavra and to the Monastery of Iveron.2 This house for Georgian monks was founded by the father and son Sts. John and Euthymios and was financed by imperial generosity and, it must be added, by the booty gained by the Georgian general John Tornik (later the monk John the Synkellos) when he emerged from Iveron to lead Georgian forces to the rescue of the young emperors, Basil II and Constantine VIII, from rebellions in Anatolia in 978-9. 3 It was this influx of wealth and the growth of imperial approval which allowed the Athonites in general (and these two houses in particular) both to improve their own buildings I. See R. Morris, "The Origins of Athos" Mount Athas and ByzantineMonasticism ed. A. Bryer & M. Cunningham(Society for the Promotionof ByzantineStudies, Publications 4, Aldershot 1996) 37-46. The Archives de/' Athas are published by a team based at the College de France, Paris. With some 15 volumesalready published,the enterprise is over half way to it~completion. 2. For the life and achievements of St. Athana~iosof Athos see Vitae Athanasii; Lavra l, Introduction; Prot. Introduction 22-31. For donations of rogai (annual payments) and so/emnia (diverted fiscal revenues) see R. Morris, Monks and Laymen in Byzantium (Cambridge 1995)Table 4. By 1057 the Lavra received 2,232 nomismataeach year from imperial donations alone, see Lavra l no. 32. Before 1079 the Monastery of Jviron had received a total of 592 nomismataper annum,of which 288 had been suppressedat some time before that year, cf. lvir. II no. 41 ( 1079). 3. For St~.John and Euthymiossee 8. Martin-Hisard,"La Vie de Jean et Euthymeet le statut du Monasteredes !heressur I' Athos" REB49 (1991)67-142, tr. of life 84-134. The early history of Iviron is discussed in lvir. I 3-102; for a shorter summary see J. Lefort and D. Papachryssanthou,"Les premiersGeorgiens a I' Athos dans !es document~byzantins" Bedi Kartlisa41 (1983) 27-33. JohnTomik-'-i.Gareer is discussedin lvir. 115-16; see also J.-C. Cheynet, Pouvoiret contestationsa Byzance (963-1210) (Byzantina Sorbonensia 9, Paris 1990)28, 330--1. ByzantineMacedonia. Identity Image and History. Edited by John Burke & Roger Scott (Byzantina Australiensia 13, Melbourne 2000). 158 Rosemary Morris and property on the holy mountain itself and to acquire lands and influence further afield. In doing so, they naturally came into contact -and, indeed, conflict - with their secular neighbours and it is some of these relationships which are the subject of the present paper. At the root of the difficulties lay the remarkable increase in the numbers of monks on Mt. Athos. By the mid-eleventh century, the monastic population ran into thousands. Although St. Athanasios had originally stipulated that his lavra should only contain eighty monks, he later allowed for forty more. By 1030 the Great Lavra contained 700 monks and an act of 1102 speaks of a 'great increase in monks', though did not specify how many. It is possible that there were over a thousand monks associated with this one house by the end of the eleventh century; some living in the /avra, some deputed to live on and organise its estates beyond the mountain. 1 Iveron similarly saw a great increase in vocations: by c. 1008 there were 300 monks in the monastery.2 Even in a more modest Athonite establishment which fell on hard times during the eleventh century - the Monastery of Xenophontos - monastic numbers in l 083, before its 'refoundation', were some 55 monks. 3 Given this remarkable expansion in numbers it was inevitable that the monastic houses of Athos should seek to expand their property holdings beyond the mountain itself. For much of Athos was unsuited to agrarian exploitation; vineyards, gardens and small olive groves were carved out around the monasteries themselves, but there was no possibility of the large-scale production that was needed to feed even frugal monastic communities of the size we find in the eleventh century. The problem was already evident by the end of the tenth: the monk Nicholas, the author of a hagiography of the ninth-century St. Peter the Athonite, writing c. 970-80, commented on the regrettable desire of the Athonites of his own time for possession and expansion.4 The Athonites, however, had little choice but to use their new found wealth to acquire land which would supply adequate amounts of three basic commodities - wine, olive oil and grain - to their burgeoning communities. Although it appears that Athos was self-sufficient in wine at the end of the tenth century, since the so called Tragos of the Emperor John Tzimiskes (970-2) legislated against selling surplus wine to the laity living beyond the boundary of the Holy Mountain, it is unlikely that this was the case in the eleventh.5 Certainly, in the case of both Lavra and Iveron, the accumulation of vineyards in the Chalkidike indicates an awareness of the need to acquire productive properties. Lavra, for instance, acquired vineyards at Pisson (present-day Pisona) when it took over the Monastery of St. Andrew at Peristerai (Peristera) and exchanged two vineyards at Sykea for two others on the I. LavraI nos. 27 ( 1030),55 (1102). 2 Life of St~.John and Euthymiosch. 26 (Martin-Hisard108). 3. Xenoph.no. I (1083). 4. Prot.71. 5. Prot. no. 7 (970-2) lines95-100. The Tragosor 'goat' wa~a typikon(regulatory document) so calledbecause it wa~written on a large piece of goat-skinparchment. .

Load more