Byzantine Emperor Coronation Oath

Byzantine Emperor Coronation Oath

The imposition of a coronation oath to defend the orthodox faith on new Emperors by the Patriarch of Constantinople is well attested in the Byzantine Empire from the end of the 5th Century onwards. The earliest record of such an oath, is found in De Ceremoniis, written or commissioned by Emperor Constantine VII, who reigned from 913 to 959, contained in a fragment from περὶ πολιτικῆς καταστάσεως (About State Protocol) by Peter the Patrician, the Byzantine Master of Offices under Justinian I, from 539 to 565. Peter is likely pulling from earlier sources. In De Ceremoniis I.92, the extract from Peter describes the coronation ceremony of Anastasius I in 491, following the death of Emperor Zeno. It appears the oath was required to confirm the new emperor’s orthodoxy in the context of doctrinal uncertainty following Chalcedon, with Empress Ariadne setting out that the new Emperor would be required to take an oath publicly in front of the Gospels and Euphemius, Patriarch of Constantinople [490-496]. This was likely the first instance of a such a coronation oath, ad hoc in the instance of Anastasius I, but later becoming a standard part of the coronation cermony. The oath given below is a reconstruction of the oath from two sources [John Cantacuzene, Historia, and Pseudo-Codinus, De Officiis), as it was in the 14th century, but is unlikely to have changed substantially since it’s origin in the late 5th century.

Source: Translated and reconstructed by E Brightman. in Journal of Theological Studies 2 [1901]: 387-88.

I, __________, in Christ [our] God, faithful Emperor and Autocrator of the Romans, with my own hand set forth: I believe in one God . . . [the rest of the Creed follows].

Further I embrace and confess and confirm as well as the apostolic and divine traditions the constitutions and decrees of the seven ecumenical councils and of local synods from time to time convened and, moreover, the privileges and customs of the most holy Great Church of God.

And furthermore I confirm and embrace all things that our most holy fathers here or elsewhere decreed and declared canonically and irreproachably.

And all things which the holy fathers rejected and anathematized, I also reject and anathematize.

And I believe with my whole mind and soul and heart the afore-said Holy Creed.

All these things I promise to keep before the Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church of God.