Three novellae of Alexius I Comnenus in the Nomocanon of Saint Sava

Chapter 46 of the Nomocanon of St. Sava was an important point in establishing the Christian model of marital and premarital relations in the newly founded Archbishopric of Žiča. Together with the rules laid down in Chapters 55, 56, 58, and 59, it was part of the mixed, canonical and secular materials regulating the topic. This paper presents and analyzes the content of Chapter 46, which contains a section with three laws promulgated by Byzantine emperor Alexius I Comnenus. The Novella of 1095 regulates the process of proving freedom for persons descended from “Bulgarians and the like” and introduces mandatory religious marriage, which the scholarship interprets as the full penetration of the Christian notion of grace into this sphere of life. The other two novellae (1084 and 1092) regulate lawful, “genuine” betrothal, per ecclesiastical and secular law. It was to precede marriage and required a religious ceremony of betrothal for persons of age. The Novella 1092 was enacted on the occasion of receiving an oikonomia from the previous requirements. These Novellae of Alexius I Comnenus were drawn up in response to the peculiar needs of the Byzantine state and society and the conflicting positions in this branch of law; they also directly led to the writing of numerous church treatises and polemics in Constantinople and the provinces. Some of those writings were included in the Nomocanon of St. Sava. Therefore, although grouped into a separate section, Alexius' novellae should be seen in the context of other rules on betrothal and marriage adopted upon the establishment of the autocephalous Serbian Church.