University of London London School of Economics and Political Science THE POLITICS OF RELIGIOUS EXPERIENCE IN FIFTEENTH-CENTURY EUROPE THROUGH AN EAST-WEST ENCOUNTER: A RE-INTERPRETATION John VIII Palaiologos, Emperor of the Romans (1392-1448) The eldest of the six children of Manuel II Palaiologos and Helena Dragas in The Chapel of the Magi: Benozzo Gozzoli’s Frescoes in the Palazzo Medici-Piccardi, Florence Edited by Cristina Acidini Luchinat, Thames & Hudson, London and New York, 1994 The Processionof the Magi, The South Wall, represented as Magus Balthazar KYRIAKI TORTOPIDOU-DERIEUX Interdisciplinary Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Supervisors: Professors Stephan Feuchtwang and Patrick Humphreys, London Department of Social Psychology Declaration I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others. The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of c. 92,000 words. I can confirm that my thesis was copy-edited for conventions of language, spelling and grammar by Gerrie van Noord. London, 30 September 2015 Abstract My thesis works as an experiment, or rather a series of experiments, in methods of thinking about historical material. These methods come from anthropology and engage with myths and ritual, with the concept of “complementary others”, and the concept of “schismogenesis" as it has been developed by Gregory Bateson and advanced further by Marshall Sahlins. My overall goal is not to re-describe a well-researched historical event, but to explore how different ways of analysis, using different analytical frameworks, could lead to valuable explanations of the same political-cum- cultural event. The phenomenon I engage with is the last Oecumenical Council, a major religious event in the history of Councils within already schismatic societies. For this reason, I treat this Council in particular, as a ritual, unprecedented in scale and ambiguous in its inception. I am examining the structure and the return of this Event in History, and the controversies and tensions in the diachrony of East and West. I do this not only through the notion of schismo-genesis and ritual, but specifically the notion of sacrifice as developed by Maurice Bloch, in which the journey from Constantinople to Italy becomes a historical metaphor of mythical realities, regarding the Emperor John VIII Palaiologos. And finally, I explore the significance of Bessarion and complementary others within the notion of transformation and alterity. What I establish through discussions of the historical material, which span eleven centuries of history, is first of all, that there is no event without a system; that means the journey can acquire the form of the ritual. I argue that the relation between the myth and the idea of unity is dialectical in nature; the Event of a Union, which could bring peace in the one Church of Christ, from this moment of realisation becomes a fabrication, a mystery to the witnesses, and all the other myths that will be developed on the way become even more imperative and melancholic, because they seek to express a negative and unavoidable truth. The Event doesn’t portray reality any more, it exists despite it and becomes an extreme position, almost like a dream, and it justifies the vision one wished to be possible, only to show that it is untenable: the “what if it could be”; the possibility of all parts being aspirations to the whole, oecumenicity as a goal rather than unity. Overall, this thesis is about the presence of the past in the present, in relevance to the future. ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! ! For Zoe, for the wonder and the marvel she is, For Remi, for the endless patience, for the generosity of heart, For my parents, Nazli and Kostas, for the meaning of unconditional love, for the meaning of hard work, For my late grandmother Nike, for her solid faith, for her perseverance, For my supervisors, Professors, Stephan Feuchtwang and Patrick Humphreys, for teaching me so much, for believing in me Contents' Timeline! i! Timeline of Meetings between Popes and Oecumenical Patriarchs! ii! Dramatis Personae! iii! Chapter One: Introduction: Structure and the Return of the Event in History! 1! I. Contribution Scope: Continuity as Change in Early Fifteenth-Century Europe! 1! II. La Longue Durée… And Its Myth! 15! III. The Future! 18! IV. “Great Men” and “Culture Heroes”! 22! V. Reviewing! 25! VI. The Notions of Ritual and Sacrifice: Their Relation! 32! VII. The Event and Its Time! 40! VIII. The Notion of Schismogenesis! 46! IX. Epilogue! 48! Chapter Two: Aims and Method! 49! I. Why anthropology? Or how to make sense in the chaos: a reflection on why and how one knows! 49! II. The “Return of The Event” in Fifteenth-Century Europe! 63! III. Writing History: Something Not Set in Stone ! 65! IV. Data Corpus! 70! V. History and Myth – The Intersections! 74! Chapter Three: Controversies and Tensions in Diachrony, East and West; On the Notion of Schismo-Genesis and Ritual! 80! I. Introduction: the Fundamentals and the Notion of Schismogenesis! 80! II. The Case in the East! 83! III. The Case with the West! 89! IV. Crusades! 91! V. Assessment! 95! Chapter Four: On the Notion of Sacrifice; Sacred and Profane in Practice! 97! I. Introduction! 97! II. Sacrifice in Practice – The Journey as Sacrifice! 99! Chapter Five: The Journey as Historical Metaphor of Mythical Realities, John VIII Palaiologos, the Emperor! 116! I. Introduction: Reflect on the Future Consequences of Art beyond Immortalisation of the Event! 116! II. The Journey as Historical Metaphor of Mythical Realities! 119! III. Decline in the Last Centuries of the Byzantine Empire! 123! IV. The Emperor and the Illusion of Unity: Structures in History! 125! Chapter Six: Transformation and Alterity – The Significance of Bessarion and Complementary Others! 132! I. Introduction! 132! II. The Sweetness of Sadness! 133! III. Re-making the Goal of Unity a Permanent Reality! 135! IIIA. Bessarion: A Priest of the Byzantine Church and Later Cardinal of the Holy See in Quattrocento Italy! 136! IV. Complementary Others to Bessarion and Byzantine Greeks! 151! IVA. Scholarios and the Ottomans! 152! VI. Assessment! 157! Chapter Seven: Conclusions and Epilogue! 160! I. Conclusions: How to Understand History as Culture and Vice Versa! 160! II. Epilogue! 178! Bibliography! 182! Glossary! 193! Appendix I! 197! Appendix II! 204! Appendix III! 207! Appendix IV! 210! Appendix V! 222! Appendix VI! 227! ! ! Timeline Produced by Professor Patrick Humphreys, Social Psychology, London School of Economics and Political Science. i Timeline of Meetings between Popes and Oecumenical Patriarchs ii Dramatis Personae ' Emperors John VIII Palaiologos: the central character in the story, Emperor of the Romans. According to J.W. Barker, we are better informed about the physical appearance of John VIII and his father than we are on that of almost any other Byzantine Emperor. According to the same author, John VIII was the leader of the “war faction”, whereas in actuality he was the one for peace. In this study, I posit this argument, underlying the stance that when lasting peace is unattainable, heritage-capital can still resurface and persist through different means. Manuel II Palaiologos: the father of John VIII (see Appendix I, image 7, Palaiologan Dynasty: A Lineage Stemma). Adding to the narrative is a detail that connects Manuel II and John VIII’s policies in relation to their quests for western aid. In his monumental study from 1969, J.W. Barker, Manuel II biographer and evident admirer of him as statesman, discusses Manuel Chrysoloras’s career. Chrysoloras was, like Bessarion, a scholar-ambassador for the Byzantine Empire, and a great cultural figure, but not a priest. He was active in negotiations for the Church Council of Union. It has been argued that his conversion to Catholicism might actually have been encouraged and urged for by Emperor Manuel II in his effort to pursue the Pope’s position in a gesture of inter- Church understanding. Unfortunately, Chrysoloras died abruptly in April 1415. In hindsight, and after studying John VIII and Bessarion’s trajectories we can add value to this argument, although Barker seems to dismiss the commentator’s suggestions as “matters of pure conjecture”. For Barker, Manuel II had a “highly polished formal piety”, which didn’t stop him though from using relics as, what he calls, “practical instruments of policy”, in a “kind of reliquary diplomacy” in his appeals to western rules for aid. John V Palaiologos: the grandfather of John VIII, father of Manuel II. Constantine Palaiologos: despot of Mystra until 1448, when his brother John VIII died. Subsequently the last Emperor of Byzantium. It is not clear if he was crowned Emperor, in which case John VIII was the last Emperor. Justinian I: becomes the first Emperor depicted on the Byzantine hyperpyra, holding the earth with the cross on top. He died in 565. He upheld the Oecumenical ideal, as during his time the Empire became as big as at the time of Constantine I. iii Heraklios: was considered the new Constantine because in 630 he brought the holy cross back to Jerusalem, which was thought an imperial triumph of Christianity. In his De Ceremoniis, Constantine Porthyrogenytos presents the Emperor as much as possible as the image of “Christ among the Apostles”, where the Apostles are the higher ranked officials of the Empire gathered around the Emperor.