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Joseph Bryennios and eschatological theology in Late Byzantium
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 07 October 2020
Abstract
The Last Judgment, the extraordinary conclusion to Christ's parousia, played a consequential role in Byzantine religious culture. However, the scarcity of biblical information and the lack of an official council-sanctioned theology of the afterlife resulted in the creation of varying and sometimes contradictory narratives. The most systematic treatment of questions pertaining to the Last Judgment is by Joseph Bryennios (d. c. 1430/1), a theologian and court preacher, in a series of two sermons. This paper offers a detailed investigation of Bryennios’ eschatological thought and discusses its sources and its importance as ‘official’ theology in the last decades of the empire.
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References
1 See the kontakion (sermon in verse) ‘On the Second Coming’ by Romanos the Melode (fl. 6th c.) in P. Maas and C. A. Trypanis (eds), Sancti Romani Melodi cantica: cantica genuina (Oxford 1963) 266–75.
2 See, for example, PG 35: 944–5 (Gregory the Theologian); PG 58: 717–18 (John Chrysostom). For an overview, see Daley, B. E., The Hope of the Early Church: A Handbook of Patristic Eschatology (Peabody, MA 2010)Google Scholar.
3 See, for example, the several sermons attributed pseudonymously to Ephraim the Syrian in K. Phrantzolas (ed. and trans.), Ὁσίου Ἐφραίμ τοῦ Σύρου, Ἔργα, 6 vols. (Salonica 1988) 4:9–232. For these texts and the difficulties of dating them, see Hemmerdinger-Iliadou, D., ‘Les données archéologiques dans la version grecque des sermons de St. Ephrem le Syrien’, Cahiers archéologiques 13 (1962) 29–37Google Scholar; eadem, ‘Éphrem’, Dictionnaire de spiritualité ascetique et mystique, 17 vols. (Paris 1937–1995) 4: 788–819, esp. 800–15.
4 Τριῴδιον (Athens 1960) 27–34.
5 Such as in the tenth-century Life of Basil the Younger in D. F. Sullivan, A.-M. Talbot, and S. McGrath, The Life of Saint Basil the Younger: Critical Edition and Annotated Translation of the Moscow Version (Washington, DC 2014), 344–698; and also in the tenth-century Life of Nephon in A. V. Rystenko (ed.), Materiialy z istoriï vizantiĭs′ko-slov′ians′koï literatury ta movy (Leipzig 1982) 82–104; and V. Marinis, ‘The Vision of the Last Judgment in the Vita of Saint Niphon (BHG 1371z)’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 71 (2017) 193–227.
6 As, for example, in the church of Saint Stephen in Kastoria, Greece, for which see N. Siomkos, L’église Saint-Étienne à Kastoria : étude des differentes phases du décor peint (Xe–XIVe siècles) (Salonica 2005) 91–9. For early Cappadocian examples, see C. Jolivet-Lévy, ‘Premières représentations du jugement dernier en cappadoce byzantine (Xe s.)’, in V. Pace and M. Angheben (eds), Le Jugement dernier entre orient et occident (Paris 2007) 47–52.
7 For a succinct overview, see N. P. Ševčenko, ‘Images of the Second Coming and the fate of the soul in Middle Byzantine art’, in R. J. Daly (ed.), Apocalyptic Thought in Early Christianity (Grand Rapids 2009) 250–72.
8 Such as the Vatican Sakkos, see H. C. Evans, Byzantium Faith and Power (1261–1557) (New York 2004) 300–1; W. T. Woodfin, The Embodied Icon: Liturgical Vestments and Sacramental Power in Byzantium (Oxford 2012) 214–15.
9 The bibliography on this topic is enormous. See the useful overview in J. Clark-Soles, Death and the Afterlife in the New Testament (New York 2006). For the Book of Revelation, in particular, see S. Shoemaker, ‘The afterlife of the Apocalypse of John in Byzantium’, in D. Krueger and R. S. Nelson (eds), The New Testament in Byzantium (Washington, DC 2016), 301–16.
10 The most important study of Bryennios’ life and work remains that by N. Ioannides, Ὁ Ἰωσὴφ Βρυέννιος. Βίος, ἔργο, διδασκαλία (Athens 1985). See also, Ph. Meyer, ‘Des Joseph Bryennios Schriften, Leben und Bildung’, Byzantinische Zeitschrift 5 (1896) 74–111; N. Tomadakes, Σύλλαβος βυζαντινῶν μɛλɛτῶν καὶ κɛιμένων (Athens 1961) 491–611; E. Trapp (ed.), Prosopographisches Lexikon der Palaiologenzeit, 12 vols. (Vienna 1976–96), no. 3257; H. Bazini, ‘Une première édition des œuvres de Joseph Bryennios : les Traités adressés aux Crétois’, Revue des Études Byzantines 62 (2004) 83–132. Bazini notes the popularity of Bryennios’ writings: she was able to identify more than 130 manuscripts, dating from the fifteenth to the nineteenth century.
11 N. Tomadakes, Ὁ Ἰωσήφ Βρυέννιος καὶ ἡ Κρήτη. Μɛλέτη φιλολογικὴ καὶ ἱστορική (Athens 1947).
12 V. Katsaros, ‘Ἰωσὴφ Βρυɛννίου τὰ πρακτικὰ τῆς συνόδου τῆς Κύπρου’, Βυζαντινά 21 (2000) 21–56.
13 E. Voulgares (ed.), Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 3 vols. (Leipzig 1768–84; repr. Salonica 1991).
14 ‘Λόγος Α´ πɛρὶ τῆς μɛλλούσης κρίσɛως καὶ τῆς ἀϊδίου μακαριότητος,’ in Voulgares, Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 2: 361–84.
15 ‘Λόγος B´ πɛρὶ τῆς μɛλλούσης κρίσɛως καὶ τῆς ἀϊδίου μακαριότητος,’ in Voulgares, Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 2: 385–404. Some supplementary material is found in two other sermons both titled ‘On the Consummation [of the World]’, “Λόγος Α´ πɛρὶ συντɛλɛίας” and “Λόγος B´ πɛρὶ συντɛλɛίας,” in Voulgares, Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 2: 190–207 and 208–26.
16 The division between the two latter categories is often blurred as Bryennios sometimes addresses both in an answer.
17 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 392–3.
18 A more detailed explanation of Hades, heaven, and earth (which partakes of the nature of both) is given in Voulgares, Τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 2:204–5.
19 Hades is a temporary site; after the Last Judgment, sinners will move to hell, see section VI.
20 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 396.
21 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 369–70. Translations of excerpts from the New Testament are from the New Revised Standard Version.
22 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 371–72.
23 ‘Λόγος Α´ πɛρὶ συντɛλɛίας᾽, 191. Bryennios preached these sermons sometime between 1416 and 1430. The memory of Bayezid I's blockade of Constantinople (1394–1402) must have still been vivid. Musa Çelebi, Bayezid I's son, assaulted Constantinople in 1411–12, as did Murad II in 1422. As the result of the treaty between the Byzantines and Ottomans in 1424, ‘the Empire was now reduced almost to the suburbs of its capital, and its Emperor was now reduced to renting his throne from the Sultan for a tribute of 100,000 ducats a year’, D. M. Nicol, The Last Centuries of Byzantium, 1261–1453, 2nd ed. (Cambridge 1993), 318–38, quote at 334. See also P. Gounarides, ‘Ιωσήφ Βρυέννιος, προφήτης της καταστροφής’, in T. Kiousopoulou (ed.), 1453. Η άλωση της Κωνσταντινούπολης και η μɛτάβαση από τους μɛσαιωνικούς στους νɛώτɛρους χρόνους (Herakleion 2005) 133–45. Other contemporary authors express similar sentiments, see S. Kourousis, ‘Αἱ ἀντιλήψɛις πɛρὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων τοῦ κόσμου καὶ ἡ κατὰ τὸ ἔτος 1346 πτώσις τοῦ τρούλλου τῆς Ἁγίας Σοφίας’, Ἐπɛτηρὶς Ἐταιρɛίας Βυζαντινῶν Σπουδῶν 37 (1969–70) 211–50, here at 217–28. For what Bryennios considers the moral failures of his contemporaries, see L. Oeconomos, ‘L'état intellectuel et moral des Byzantins vers le milieu du XIVe siècle d'après une page de Joseph Bryennios’, in Mélanges Charles Diehl, 2 vols. (Paris 1930) 1: 225–33.
24 ‘You must understand this, that in the last days distressing times will come. For people will be lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boasters, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, inhuman, implacable, slanderers, profligates, brutes, haters of good, treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, holding to the outward form of godliness but denying its power. Avoid them!’ 2 Timothy 3:1–5; ‘Λόγος Β´ πɛρὶ συντɛλɛίας᾽, 218.
25 On the idea of the completion of the ranks of the just as a requirement for the parousia, see P. Magdalino, ‘The end of time in Byzantium’, in W. Brandes and F. Schmieder (eds), Endzeiten: Eschatologie in den monotheistischen Weltreligionen (Berlin 2008) 119–33, here at 130–3.
26 ‘Λόγος Α´ πɛρὶ συντɛλɛίας’, 191–202.
27 On this point, see A. Rigo, ‘L'anno 7000, la fine del mondo e l'Imperio cristiano. Nota su alcuni passi di Giuseppe Briennio, Simeone di Tessalonica e Gennadio Scolario’, in G. Ruggieri (ed.), La Cattura della fine: varianzioni dell'escatologia in regime di cristianità (Genoa 1992) 151–85, here at 154–62. See also Kourousis, ‘Αἱ ἀντιλήψɛις πɛρὶ τῶν ἐσχάτων’, 217–23; P. Magdalino, ‘The history of the future and its uses: Prophecy, policy, and propaganda’, in R. Beaton and C. Roueché (eds), The Making of Byzantine History (Aldershot 1993) 3–34, and esp. 27–8; Magdalino, ‘End of time’, 130–3; A. Pertusi, Fine di Bisanzio e fine del mondo. Significato e ruolo storico delle profezie sulla caduta di Costantinopoli in Oriente e in Occidente (Rome 1988).
28 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 370.
29 A. Papadopoulos-Kerameus, Ὀκτὼ ἑλληνικαὶ πɛριγραφαὶ τῶν ἁγίων τόπων (St. Petersburg 1903) 6–7. See also 28, and 124. For the tomb of David, see O. Limor, ‘The origins of a tradition: King David's tomb on Mount Zion’, Traditio 44 (1988) 453–62.
30 Translations of excerpts from the Septuagint are from A. Pietersma and B. Wright, A New English Translation of the Septuagint (Oxford 2007).
31 Ὀκτώηχος, ɛἰτ᾽ οὖν ἡ ἀναστάσιμος ἀκολουθία τῆς Κυριακῆς (Athens 1960) 28.
32 Τριῴδιον, 29.
33 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 370–71.
34 Revelation 11:15–19; Matthew 24:31; Isaiah 27:13; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
35 Revelation 6:13–14; Isaiah 34:4.
36 Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:25; Luke 21:26; Haggai 2:6, 21; Joel 3:3–4.
37 Cf. 2 Peter 3:10, 12.
38 Haggai 2:6, 21.
39 Matthew 27:53.
40 Daniel 12:2–3; 1 Corinthians 15:52; 1 Thessalonians 4:16.
41 1 Corinthians 15:50–4.
42 James 2:19.
43 Revelation 6:12–14; Matthew 24:29; Mark 13:24–25; Luke 21:25; Isaiah 13:10, 24:23; Joel 2:10; Ezekiel 32:7.
44 As alluded to in Matthew 24:30.
45 See also The Life of Nephon 84, Marinis, ‘The Vision’, 210–11. The Life of Saint Basil the Younger IV:30–38 also describes the terror of Muslims, Jews, and idolaters at seeing the cross.
46 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 373–4.
47 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 375–6.
48 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 372.
49 PG 29: 372.
50 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 375.
51 ‘Then the righteous will stand with great confidence in the presence of those who have afflicted them and those who make light of their labors’.
52 Wisdom of Solomon 5:4: ‘These are they whom we once held in derision and as a byword of reproach – we fools!’
53 Matthew 19:28. See also Luke 22:30.
54 Daniel 7:9; Psalm 121 (122):5.
55 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 373.
56 For demons as tax collectors, see G. J. M. Bartelink, ‘‘ΤΕΛΩΝΑΙ’ (Zöllner) als Dämonenbezeichnung’, Sacris Erudiri 27 (1984) 5–18; N. Constas, ‘“To sleep, perchance to dream”: The middle state of souls in patristic and Byzantine literature’, Dumbarton Oaks Papers 55 (2001) 91–124, here at 107–9. The most extensive description of this process is in The Life of Saint Basil the Younger II:1–56, for which see V. Marinis, Death and the Afterlife in Byzantium: The Fate of the Soul in Theology, Liturgy, and Art (Cambridge 2017) 29–35.
57 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 389–90. The motif of the weighing of deeds is standard in compositions of the Last Judgment, see Ševčenko, ‘Images of the Second Coming’.
58 Matthew 25:32.
59 Matthew 24:30.
60 Philippians 2:10–11.
61 John 19:37 quoting Zechariah 12:10.
62 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 374–5.
63 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 396.
64 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 376.
65 Matthew 25:41.
66 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 388–89.
67 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 377.
68 Luke 22:28–30: ‘You are those who have stood by me in my trials; and I confer on you, just as my Father has conferred on me, a kingdom, so that you may eat and drink at my table in my kingdom’.
69 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 396.
70 1 Corinthians 13:8, ‘as for the tongues, they will cease’.
71 See also 1 Corinthians 13:11.
72 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 395.
73 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 377–8; ‘Λόγος Β´’, 387–8. Q20 refers also to the sinners, see below.
74 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 393.
75 This is a quotation from a prayer in the funeral service, see T. Christodoulou, Ἡ νɛκρώσιμη ἀκολουθία κατὰ τοὺς χɛιρόγραφους κώδικɛς 10ου-12ου αἰώνος, 2 vols. (Thera 2005) 2: 477.
76 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 392.
77 ‘We will be caught up in the clouds’.
78 ‘The righteous will shine like the sun in the kingdom of their Father’.
79 ‘Then we will see face to face’.
80 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 377.
81 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 393–4. Q30 deals with both the righteous and the sinners, see below.
82 Gregorii Nysseni in canticum canticorum (Gregorii Nysseni opera, vol. 6), ed. H. Langerbeck (Leiden 1960) 245–7. Trans. R. A. Norris, Gregory of Nyssa, Homilies on the Song of Songs (Atlanta 2012) 259.
83 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 395–6.
84 PG 60:673–74; ‘Λόγος Α´’, 378.
85 Bryennios makes no effort to connect the sins with the punishments.
86 Bryennios lists eight ways of sinning: folly, deceit/treachery, robbery, oblivion, tyranny, unfaithfulness, contempt, and wicked disposition, ‘Λόγος Β´’, 387.
87 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 379. The seven deadly sins mentioned by Bryennios are gluttony, fornication, avarice, anger, grief, despair, and vanity. He obviously borrows this concept from the Latin Church. For the history of the seven deadly sins, see M. W. Bloomfield, The Seven Deadly Sins (East Lansing, MI, 1952; repr. 1967); and, more recently, R. G. Newhauser and S. J. Ridyard, Sin in Medieval and Early Modern Culture: The Tradition of the Seven Deadly Sins (Woodbridge, Suffolk 2012).
88 ‘Λόγος Α´’, 378; ‘Λόγος Β´’, 387–8.
89 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 394.
90 1 Corinthians 5:5.
91 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 390.
92 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 390–1.
93 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 391.
94 Bryennios notes that intercession also happens now: through church buildings, offerings, prayers, icons, and holy services, we draw Mary, the angels, and the saints as intercessors. For the theology behind the prayers and charity offered on behalf of the dead, see Marinis, Death and the Afterlife, 97–106.
95 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 391–2.
96 1 Corinthians 15:24–8.
97 PG 61:337.
98 Daniel Th 4:3.
99 Daniel Th 2:44.
100 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 396–7.
101 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 398–9.
102 Sirach 16:12.
103 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 399–400; cf. PG 61:77. Translation from NPNF 12:50 (adapted).
104 Matthew 19:28.
105 Luke 22:30.
106 1 Corinthians 13:8.
107 See, for example, The Life of Saint Basil the Younger II.43; II.46–48.
108 On this topic, see Constas, ‘“To sleep, perchance to dream”’; Marinis, Death and the Afterlife, 24–7, 40–8, 74–81.
109 PG 28:609. For the date of pseudo-Athanasios’ text, see C. Macé, ‘Les Quaestiones ad Antiochum ducem d'un Pseudo-Athanase (CPG 2257). Un état de la question’, in M.-P. Bussières (ed.), La littérature des questions et réponses dans l'Antiquité profane et chrétienne : de l'enseignement à l'exégèse (Turnhout 2012) 121–50. The idea is found in an embryonic form in Irenaeus of Lyons (d. c. 202), see C. E. Hill, Regnum Caelorum: Patterns of Millennial Thought in Early Christianity, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids 2001) 9–17. A virtually identical theology is found in the Kephalaia of Anastasios of Sinai, a work of the same date that probably comes from the same milieu as pseudo-Athanasios, see M. Richard and J. A. Munitiz (eds), Anastasii Sinaitae Quaestiones et Responsiones (Turnhout 2006) 29–41.
110 For these two texts, see J. Baun, Tales from Another Byzantium: Celestial Journey and Local Community in the Medieval Greek Apocrypha (Cambridge 2007).
111 ‘Λόγος Β´’, 400–4.
112 On Bryennios’ knowledge of Latin theology, see S. G. Papadopoulos, Ἑλληνικαὶ μɛταφράσɛις Θωμιστικῶν ἔργων. Φιλοθωμισταὶ καὶ ἀντιθωμισταὶ στὸ Βυζάντιο (Athens 1967) 139–43; A. Argyriou, Macaire Makrès et la polémique contre l'Islam: édition princeps de l'Éloge de Macaire Makrès et de ses deux oeuvres anti-islamiques, précédée d'une étude critique (Vatican City 1986) 86–92; M. Plested, Orthodox Readings of Aquinas (Oxford 2012) 120–2. Both Plested and M. Jugie, ‘Démétrius Cydonès et la théologie latine à Byzance aux XIVe et XVe siècles’, Échos d'Orient (1928) 397, have suggested that Bryennios adopts the questio format in his two sermons. However, there is a long tradition of erotapokriseis in Byzantine theological writing. For Bryennios’ participation in debates with the Latins, see Ioannides, Ὁ Ἰωσὴφ Βρυέννιος, 83–8. Bryennios’ belief that his opinions would have brought about the union, had he had the opportunity to participate at a council, are recorded in V. Laurent, Le mémoires du grand ecclésiarque de l’Église de Constantinople Sylvestre Syropoulos sur le Concile de Florence (1438–1439) (Rome 1971), 408.
113 Voulgares, Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 1: 459–600.
114 Voulgares, Ἰωσήφ μοναχοῦ τοῦ Βρυɛννίου τὰ ɛὐρɛθέντα, 1: 407–68.
115 For an exhaustive study of the apokatastasis, see Ramelli, I., The Christian Doctrine of Apokatastasis: A Critical Assessment from the New Testament to Eriugena (Leiden 2013)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.
116 Bathrellos, D., ‘Love, purification, and forgiveness versus justice, punishment, and satisfaction: The debates on purgatory and the forgiveness of sins at the Council of Ferrara–Florence’, The Journal of Theological Studies 65 (2014) 78–121Google Scholar, here at 94 and n. 66.