Powers and Thrones: A New History of the Middle Ages

by Dan Jones

While Tribonian oversaw Justinian’s program of legal reforms, the new emperor was also turning his mind to the intertwined issues of heresy, unorthodoxy, disbelief, and sexual malpractice. Here too there was much to do. One of his toughest tasks was trying to negotiate a path through the difficult issue of schism and heresy within the imperial church. By the time of his accession, wranglings between Arian and Nicene Christians, which had tormented the western empire during the barbarian invasions of the fifth century, had been complicated by another dispute, between Chalcedonians and Miaphysites, who disagreed over the exact nature of Christ and the balance between his human and divine qualities.17 Today the issues at stake between these two groups can seem arcane to all but specialist church historians. But in the sixth century they were enough to cause popular riots and international diplomatic crises. Bishops had been murdered by mobs for professing views at odds with their