Abstract
The Byzantine Church is often regarded as exemplifying the effects of caesaropapism. This article argues that although Church and state, or ekklēsia and basileia, enjoyed theoretical parity in a symbiotic relationship, in practice the Church – at least in the later Byzantine period – played a dominant role. Indeed, a historical survey of relations between the imperial and the patriarchal office demonstrates that the latter gained steadily at the expense of the former. The emperor’s role as epistēmonarkhēs, or moderator, of the Church, however, was never subsumed into that of the patriarch. Accordingly, the collapse of the empire in 1453 left a legacy which still accounts for some of the difficulties experienced by Orthodoxy today.
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