Despre furt și sperjur în mănăstirile de rit ortodox din secolul al XII-lea
About Theft and Perjury in Orthodox Monasteries of the Twelfth Century

Summary/Abstract: The actions of the Fourth Crusade and the territorial changes brought to the Byzantine Empire imposed some changes in the ecclesiastical architecture of the area previously controlled by the Byzantine monarchy. The Archdiocese of “Bulgaria" with seat in Ohrid was territorially circumscribed to the newly created Despotate of Epirus led by members of the extended imperial family, like Komnenos Doukas Angelos. In the Archbishopric seat of Ohrid, the despot of Epiros – Theodoros Doukas Angelos – appointed Demetrios Chomatenos as archbishop, a well known authority of the ecclesiastical elite who fulfilled various functions within the clerical administration. The intellectual profile and his solid legal, canonical, and theological knowledge turned Demetrios Chomatenos into a court of appeal in matters beyond the territory of his archdiocese and the legal solutions proposed by him covered a wide range of situations, from matrimonial law to canonical provisions connected to monastic establishment. In this article Chomatenos is surprised in the position of conveying a legal solution to a certain hieromonk Sophrony, convicted of theft and perjury, in which he outlines the punishments Sophrony had to perform in accordance with the canon laws of Basil the Great.

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