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Church and Society in Byzantium under the Comneni, 1081-1261. By Michael Angold. (New York: Cambridge University Press. 1995. Pp. svi, 604. $89.95.)
This massive work of over 600 pages is an ambitious overview of the inner history and development of the Greek-speaking Orthodox Church during a crucial century and a half in the Middle Ages: the period begins with the accession of the great emperor Alexius I Comnenus (1081) and closes with the recapture of Constantinople from the Latins in 1261.The title "Church and Society indicates the parameters of the study: the Church is constantly viewed in relation to the civil society in which it flourished. Thus relations with the Emperor, with the government and leading families, and with the bulk of the population are...