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100-567: A Holy Thorn may refer to: One of the thorns from the Crown of Thorns Holy Thorn Reliquary , a reliquary created to hold one of the Holy Thorns The Glastonbury Thorn Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Holy Thorn . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change

200-577: A column topped by a bronze statue of Justinian on horseback and dressed in a military costume was erected in the Augustaeum in Constantinople in 543. Rivalry with other, more established patrons from the Constantinopolitan and exiled Roman aristocracy might have enforced Justinian's building activities in the capital as a means of strengthening his dynasty's prestige. Justinian also strengthened

300-606: A force of approximately 35,000 men (2,000 men were detached and sent to invade southern Visigothic Hispania) under the command of Narses. The army reached Ravenna in June 552 and defeated the Ostrogoths decisively within a month at the battle of Busta Gallorum in the Apennines , where Totila was slain. After a second battle at Mons Lactarius in October that year, the resistance of the Ostrogoths

400-623: A genuine interest in matters of theology, authored a small number of theological treatises. As in his secular administration, despotism appeared also in the Emperor's ecclesiastical policy. He regulated everything, both in religion and in law. At the very beginning of his reign, he deemed it proper to promulgate by law the Church's belief in the Trinity and the Incarnation , and to threaten all heretics with

500-786: A measure of prosperity. The recovery of Africa cost the empire about 100,000 pounds of gold. As in Africa, dynastic struggles in Ostrogothic Italy provided an opportunity for intervention. The young king Athalaric had died on 2 October 534, and a usurper, Theodahad , had imprisoned queen Amalasuintha , Theodoric's daughter and mother of Athalaric, on the island of Martana in Lake Bolsena , where he had her assassinated in 535. Thereupon Belisarius, with 7,500 men, invaded Sicily (535) and advanced into Italy, sacking Naples and capturing Rome on 9 December 536. By that time Theodahad had been deposed by

600-587: A number of barbarian troops. They landed at Caput Vada (modern Ras Kaboudia) in modern Tunisia . They defeated the Vandals, who were caught completely off guard, at Ad Decimum on 14 September 533 and Tricamarum in December; Belisarius took Carthage . King Gelimer fled to Mount Pappua in Numidia , but surrendered the next spring. He was taken to Constantinople, where he was paraded in a triumph . Sardinia and Corsica ,

700-560: A particularly dangerous invasion of Sklavinoi and Kutrigurs under their khan Zabergan threatened Constantinople, but they were repulsed by the aged general Belisarius. Justinian's ambition to restore the Roman Empire to its former glory was only partly realized, with the only noteworthy sustainable conquests in Africa . In the West, the brilliant early military successes of the 530s were followed by years of stagnation. The dragging war with

800-470: A plant native to Africa and Southern and Western Asia, and had allegedly been removed from the crown and kept in separate reliquaries since soon after they arrived in France. New reliquaries were provided for the relic, one commissioned by Napoleon Bonaparte , another, in jeweled rock crystal and more suitably Gothic , was made to the designs of Eugène Viollet-le-Duc . In 2001, when the surviving treasures from

900-544: A publication now in the public domain :  Thurston, Herbert (1908). " Crown of Thorns ". Catholic Encyclopedia . Vol. 4. Justinian I Justinian I ( / dʒ ʌ ˈ s t ɪ n i ə n / just- IN -ee-ən ; Latin : Iūstīniānus , Classical Latin pronunciation: [juːstiːniˈaːnʊs] ; Ancient Greek : Ἰουστινιανός , romanized :  Ioustinianós , Byzantine Greek pronunciation: [i.ustini.aˈnos] ; 482 – 14 November 565), also known as Justinian

1000-467: A relic of the second class is anything known to have been touched or used by a saint; a relic of the third class is a devotional object touched to a first-class relic and, usually, formally blessed as a sacramental. M. de Mély was able to enumerate more than 700 holy thorns relics. The statement in one medieval obituary that Peter de Aveiro gave to the cathedral of Angers , "unam de spinis quae fuit apposita coronae spinae nostri Redemptoris" ("one of

1100-477: A single thorn. But if diligent search were made, the number might be increased fourfold. It is most evident that there must here be falsehood and imposition. How will the truth be ascertained? It ought, moreover, to be observed, that in the ancient Church it was never known what had become of that crown. Hence it is easy to conclude, that the first twig of that now shown grew many years after our Saviour's death. [REDACTED]  This article incorporates text from

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1200-522: A source of tension in the relationship with the bishops of Rome. Justin reversed this trend and confirmed the Chalcedonian doctrine, openly condemning the Monophysites. Justinian, who continued this policy, tried to impose religious unity on his subjects by forcing them to accept doctrinal compromises that might appeal to all parties, a policy that proved unsuccessful as he satisfied none of them. Near

1300-574: A woman was widowed, her dowry should be returned; and a husband could not take on a major debt without his wife giving her consent twice. Family legislation also revealed a greater concern for the interests of children. This was particularly so with respect to children born out of wedlock. The law under Justinian also reveals a striking interest in child neglect issues. Justinian protected the rights of children whose parents remarried and produced more offspring, or who simply separated and abandoned their offspring, forcing them to beg. Justinian discontinued

1400-527: A workaholic who worked tirelessly to expand the Byzantine Empire. One of the most enduring aspects of his legacy was the uniform rewriting of Roman law, the Corpus Juris Civilis , which was first applied throughout Continental Europe and is still the basis of civil law in many modern states. His reign also marked a blossoming of Byzantine culture , and his building program yielded works such as

1500-473: Is documented as receiving more than one thorn from Charles V and VI, his brother and nephew. Two "holy thorns" were venerated, one at St. Michael's church in Ghent, the other at Stonyhurst College , both professing to be thorns given by Mary, Queen of Scots to Thomas Percy, 7th Earl of Northumberland . The "Gazetteer of Relics and Miraculous Images" lists the following, following Cruz 1984: The appearance of

1600-463: Is doubtful and obscure, are among the largest in size, afford a good illustration of this peculiarity. Not all of the reputed holy thorns are considered to be "first-class" relics (relics held to be of the original crown). In Roman Catholic tradition, a relic of the first class is a part of the body of a saint or, in this case, any of the objects used in the Crucifixion that carried the blood of Christ;

1700-525: Is stated to have given a thorn to Germain , Bishop of Paris , which was long preserved at Saint-Germain-des-Prés , while the Empress Irene , in 798 or 802, sent Charlemagne several thorns which were deposited by him at Aachen . Eight of these are said to have been there at the consecration of the basilica of Aachen; the subsequent history of several of them can be traced without difficulty: four were given to Saint-Corneille of Compiègne in 877 by Charles

1800-583: The Codex Justinianeus , a codification of imperial constitutions from the 2nd century onward, was issued on 7 April 529. (The final version appeared in 534.) It was followed by the Digesta (or Pandectae ), a compilation of older legal texts, in 533, and by the Institutiones , a textbook explaining the principles of law. The Novellae , a collection of new laws issued during Justinian's reign, supplements

1900-522: The Passiflora plant to elements of the Passion: the flower's radial filaments , which can number more than a hundred and vary from flower to flower, represent the crown of thorns. Carnations symbolize the passion as they represent the crown of thorns. A critique of the adoration of the crown of thorns was set forth in 1543 by John Calvin in the work Treatise on Relics . He described numerous parts of

2000-586: The Tzani , a people on the east coast of the Black Sea that had never been under Roman rule before. He engaged the Sasanian Empire in the east during Kavad I 's reign, and later again during Khosrow I 's reign; this second conflict was partially initiated due to his ambitions in the west. Justinian is regarded as one of the most prominent and influential Roman emperors, and historians have often characterized him as

2100-458: The Balearic Islands , and the stronghold Septem Fratres near Mons Calpe (later named Gibraltar ) were recovered in the same campaign. In this war, the contemporary Procopius remarks that Africa was so entirely depopulated that a person might travel several days without meeting a human being, and he adds, "it is no exaggeration to say, that in the course of the war 5,000,000 perished by

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2200-649: The Catholic Church , and it was deposited in the Cathedral of Notre-Dame de Paris . The exact plant species used to make the crown is not confirmed. The relic that the church received was examined in the nineteenth century, and it appeared to be a twisted circlet of rushes of Juncus balticus , a plant native to maritime areas of northern Britain, the Baltic region , and Scandinavia. The thorns preserved in various other reliquaries appeared to be Ziziphus spina-christi ,

2300-620: The Corpus . As opposed to the rest of the corpus, the Novellae appeared in Greek , the common language of the Eastern Empire. The Corpus forms the basis of Latin jurisprudence (including ecclesiastical Canon Law ) and, for historians, provides a valuable insight into the concerns and activities of the later Roman Empire. As a collection it gathers together the many sources in which the leges (laws) and

2400-788: The Council of Chalcedon , which had condemned monophysitism , which had strongholds in Egypt and Syria, and by tolerating the appointment of Monophysites to church offices. The Popes reacted by severing ties with the Patriarch of Constantinople who supported these policies. Emperors Justin I (and later Justinian himself) rescinded these policies and reestablished the union between Constantinople and Rome. After this, Justinian also felt entitled to settle disputes in papal elections, as he did when he favored Vigilius and had his rival Silverius deported. This new-found unity between East and West did not, however, solve

2500-565: The Hagia Sophia . Justinian was born in Tauresium , Dardania , probably in 482. A native speaker of Latin (possibly the last Roman emperor to be one), he came from a peasant family thought to have been of either of Illyro-Roman or Thraco-Roman origin. The name Iustinianus , which he took later, is indicative of adoption by his uncle Justin . During his reign, he founded Justiniana Prima not far from his birthplace. His mother

2600-529: The Nika riots , and a conspiracy against the emperor's life by dissatisfied entrepreneurs was discovered as late as 562. Justinian was struck by the plague in the early 540s but recovered. Theodora died in 548 at a relatively young age, possibly of cancer; Justinian outlived her by nearly twenty years. Justinian, who had always had a keen interest in theological matters and actively participated in debates on Christian doctrine, became even more devoted to religion during

2700-682: The Ostrogothic Kingdom , restoring Dalmatia , Sicily , Italy , and Rome to the empire after more than half a century of rule by the Ostrogoths . The praetorian prefect Liberius reclaimed the south of the Iberian Peninsula , establishing the province of Spania . These campaigns re-established Roman control over the western Mediterranean, increasing the Empire's annual revenue by over a million solidi . During his reign, Justinian also subdued

2800-601: The Roman Empire to its ancient boundaries. Although he never personally took part in military campaigns, he boasted of his successes in the prefaces to his laws and had them commemorated in art. The re-conquests were in large part carried out by his general Belisarius. From his uncle, Justinian inherited ongoing hostilities with the Sassanid Empire . In 530 the Persian forces suffered a double defeat at Dara and Satala , but

2900-614: The San Vitale in Ravenna, which features two famous mosaics representing Justinian and Theodora, was completed under the sponsorship of Julius Argentarius. Most notably, he had the Hagia Sophia , originally a basilica -style church that had been burnt down during the Nika riots , splendidly rebuilt according to a completely different ground plan, under the architectural supervision of Isidore of Miletus and Anthemius of Tralles . On 26 December 537, according to Pseudo-Codinus, Justinian stated at

3000-800: The Seventh Crusade , Louis IX of France bought from Baldwin II of Constantinople what was venerated as Jesus' Crown of Thorns. It is kept in Paris to this day, in the Louvre Museum . Individual thorns were given by the French monarch to other European royals: the Holy Thorn Reliquary in the British Museum , for example, containing a single thorn, was made in the 1390s for the French prince Jean, duc de Berry , who

3100-435: The chariot racing factions in Constantinople, normally rivals, united against Justinian in a revolt that has become known as the Nika riots . They forced him to dismiss Tribonian and two of his other ministers, and then attempted to overthrow Justinian himself and replace him with the senator Hypatius , who was a nephew of the late emperor Anastasius . While the crowd was rioting in the streets, Justinian considered fleeing

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3200-614: The church of St. John , three, and as many at Koenigsberg. At the church of St. Salvator , in Spain, are several, but how many I know not; at Compostella , in the church of St. Jago , two; in Vivarais , three; also at Toulouse , Mascon , Charrox in Poictou , St. Clair, Sanflor , San Maximin in Provence , in the monastery of Selles , and also in the church of St. Martin at Noyon , each place having

3300-657: The "Eternal Peace" and invaded Roman territory in the spring of 540. He first sacked Beroea and then Antioch (allowing the garrison of 6,000 men to leave the city), besieged Daras , and then went on to attack the Byzantine base in the small but strategically significant satellite kingdom of Lazica near the Black Sea as requested by its discontented king Gubazes , exacting tribute from the towns he passed along his way. He forced Justinian I to pay him 5,000 pounds of gold, plus 500 pounds of gold more each year. Belisarius arrived in

3400-692: The 30,000-strong Byzantine force was defeated by a small force at Anglon . The next year, Khosrau unsuccessfully besieged the major city of Edessa . Both parties made little headway, and in 545 a truce was agreed upon for the southern part of the Roman-Persian frontier. After that, the Lazic War in the North continued for several years: the Lazic king switched to the Byzantine side, and in 549 Justinian sent Dagisthaeus to recapture Petra , but he faced heavy resistance and

3500-781: The Bald ; Hugh the Great, Duke of the Franks, sent one to the Anglo-Saxon King Athelstan in 927, on the occasion of certain marriage negotiations, and it eventually found its way to Malmesbury Abbey ; another was presented to a Spanish princess about 1160; and again another was taken to Andechs Abbey in Germany in the year 1200. In 1238, Baldwin II , the Latin Emperor of Constantinople , anxious to obtain support for his tottering empire, offered

3600-760: The Chalcedonian faith. Such an approach was supported by the Empress Theodora, who favoured the Miaphysites unreservedly. In the condemnation of the Three Chapters , three theologians that had opposed Monophysitism before and after the Council of Chalcedon, Justinian tried to win over the opposition. At the Fifth Ecumenical Council , most of the Eastern church yielded to the Emperor's demands, and Pope Vigilius , who

3700-514: The Church contrary to the emperor's will and command, while, on his side, the emperor, in the case of the Patriarch Anthimus , reinforced the ban of the Church with temporal proscription. Justinian protected the purity of the church by suppressing heretics. He neglected no opportunity to secure the rights of the Church and clergy, and to protect and extend monasticism . He granted the monks the right to inherit property from private citizens and

3800-507: The East in 541, but after some success, was again recalled to Constantinople in 542. The reasons for his withdrawal are not known, but it may have been instigated by rumours of his disloyalty reaching the court. The outbreak of the plague coupled with a rebellion in Persia brought Khosrow I's offensives to a halt. Exploiting this, Justinian ordered all the forces in the East to invade Persian Armenia, but

3900-498: The Empire. Then, having been recalled by Justinian, Belisarius returned to Constantinople, taking the captured Vitigis and his wife Matasuntha with him. Belisarius had been recalled in the face of renewed hostilities by the Persians . Following a revolt against the Empire in Armenia in the late 530s and possibly motivated by the pleas of Ostrogothic ambassadors, King Khosrau I broke

4000-501: The Goths was a disaster for Italy, even though its long-lasting effects may have been less severe than is sometimes thought. The heavy taxes that the administration imposed upon Italian population were deeply resented. The final victory in Italy and the conquest of Africa and the coast of southern Hispania significantly enlarged the area of Byzantine influence and eliminated all naval threats to

4100-591: The Great , was the Roman emperor from 527 to 565. His reign was marked by the ambitious but only partly realized renovatio imperii , or "restoration of the Empire". This ambition was expressed by the partial recovery of the territories of the defunct Western Roman Empire . His general, Belisarius , swiftly conquered the Vandal Kingdom in North Africa. Subsequently, Belisarius, Narses , and other generals conquered

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4200-561: The Holy Apostles , which had been in a very poor state near the end of the 5th century, was likewise rebuilt. The Church of Saints Sergius and Bacchus, later renamed Little Hagia Sophia , was also built between 532 and 536 by the imperial couple. Works of embellishment were not confined to churches alone: excavations at the site of the Great Palace of Constantinople have yielded several high-quality mosaics dating from Justinian's reign, and

4300-448: The Jews to use the Greek Septuagint in their synagogues in Constantinople. The Emperor faced significant opposition from the Samaritans , who resisted conversion to Christianity and were repeatedly in insurrection. He persecuted them with rigorous edicts, for example, in 529, he banned them from having wills, an intentional act of humiliation. However, he could not prevent reprisals towards Christians from taking place in Samaria toward

4400-430: The Ostrogothic army, who had elected Vitigis as their new king. He gathered a large army and besieged Rome from February 537 to March 538 without being able to retake the city. Justinian sent another general, Narses , to Italy, but tensions between Narses and Belisarius hampered the progress of the campaign. Milan was taken, but was soon recaptured and razed by the Ostrogoths. Justinian recalled Narses in 539. By then

4500-405: The Paris Fire Brigade saved the relic during the Notre-Dame de Paris fire of April 15, 2019. The Catholic Encyclopedia states: Authorities are agreed that a sort of helmet of thorns must have been plaited by the Roman soldiers, this band of rushes being employed to hold the thorns together. It seems likely according to M. De Mély, that already at the time when the circlet was brought to Paris

4600-425: The Patrician , the diplomat and long-time head of the palace bureaucracy; Justinian's finance ministers John the Cappadocian and Peter Barsymes , who managed to collect taxes more efficiently than any before, thereby funding Justinian's wars; and finally, his prodigiously talented generals, Belisarius and Narses . Justinian's rule was not universally popular; early in his reign he nearly lost his throne during

4700-460: The Roman dictator Sulla in 86 BC. Several centuries later, in 410 AD, a Neoplatonic Academy was established that had no institutional continuity with Plato's Academy, and which served as a center for Neoplatonism and mysticism. It persisted until 529 AD when it was finally closed by Justinian I. Other schools in Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, which were the centers of Justinian's empire, continued. In Asia Minor alone, John of Ephesus

4800-399: The Romans. While military efforts were directed to the East, the situation in Italy took a turn for the worse. Under their respective kings Ildibad and Eraric (both murdered in 541) and especially Totila , the Ostrogoths made quick gains. After a victory at Faenza in 542, they reconquered the major cities of Southern Italy and soon held almost the entire Italian Peninsula. Belisarius

4900-411: The Sainte-Chapelle were exhibited at the Louvre , the chaplet was solemnly presented every Friday at Notre-Dame. Pope John Paul II translated it personally to Sainte-Chapelle during World Youth Day . The relic can be seen only on the first Friday of every month, when it is exhibited for a special veneration Mass, as well as each Friday of Lent (see also Feast of the Crown of Thorns ). Members of

5000-497: The West, where Germanic kingdoms had been established in the territories of the former Western Roman Empire . The first of the western kingdoms Justinian attacked was that of the Vandals in North Africa . King Hilderic , who had maintained good relations with Justinian and the North African Catholic clergy, had been overthrown by his cousin Gelimer in 530 AD. Imprisoned, the deposed king appealed to Justinian. Justinian protested Gelimer's actions, demanding that Gelimer return

5100-466: The administration of ecclesiastical property; election and rights of bishops, priests and abbots; monastic life, residential obligations of the clergy, conduct of divine service, episcopal jurisdiction, etc. Justinian also rebuilt the Church of Hagia Sophia (which cost 20,000 pounds of gold), the original site having been destroyed during the Nika riots. The new Hagia Sophia, with its numerous chapels and shrines, gilded octagonal dome, and mosaics , became

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5200-439: The appropriate penalties, whereas he subsequently declared that he intended to deprive all disturbers of orthodoxy of the opportunity for such offense by due process of law. He made the Nicaeno-Constantinopolitan creed the sole symbol of the Church and accorded legal force to the canons of the four ecumenical councils. The bishops in attendance at the Council of Constantinople (536) recognized that nothing could be done in

5300-406: The borders of the Empire from Africa to the East through the construction of fortifications and ensured Constantinople of its water supply through construction of underground cisterns (see Basilica Cistern ). To prevent floods from damaging the strategically important border town Dara , an advanced arch dam was built. During his reign the large Sangarius Bridge was built in Bithynia , securing

5400-478: The bush botanically known as Ziziphus spina-christi , more popularly, the jujube tree . This reaches the height of fifteen or twenty feet and is found growing in abundance by the wayside around Jerusalem. The crooked branches of this shrub are armed with thorns growing in pairs, a straight spine and a curved one commonly occurring together at each point. The relic preserved in the Capella della Spina at Pisa , as well as that at Trier , which though their early history

5500-467: The capital by sea, but eventually decided to stay, apparently on the prompting of his wife Theodora, who refused to leave. In the next two days, he ordered the brutal suppression of the riots by his generals Belisarius and Mundus . Procopius relates that 30,000 unarmed civilians were killed in the Hippodrome. On Theodora's insistence, and apparently against his own judgment, Justinian had Anastasius' nephews executed. The destruction that took place during

5600-452: The centre and most visible monument of Eastern Orthodoxy in Constantinople. From the middle of the 5th century onward, increasingly arduous tasks confronted the emperors of the East in ecclesiastical matters. Justinian entered the arena of ecclesiastical statecraft shortly after his uncle's accession in 518, and put an end to the Acacian schism . Previous Emperors had tried to alleviate theological conflicts by declarations that deemphasized

5700-409: The city of Jerusalem. "There", he says, "we may behold the thorny crown, which was only set upon the head of Our Redeemer in order that all the thorns of the world might be gathered together and broken" (Migne, LXX, 621). When Gregory of Tours in De gloria martyri avers that the thorns in the crown still looked green, a freshness which was miraculously renewed each day, he does not much strengthen

5800-412: The close of his reign. The consistency of Justinian's policy meant that the Manicheans too suffered persecution, experiencing both exile and threat of capital punishment. In Constantinople, c.450, a number of Manicheans, after strict inquisition, were executed by burning. Justinian was a prolific builder; the historian Procopius bears witness to his activities in this area. Under Justinian's reign,

5900-576: The compilers considered that it seemed to be quite as probable that this was only meant for a laurel wreath . The image of the crown of thorns is often used symbolically to contrast with earthly monarchical crowns. In the symbolism of King Charles the Martyr , the executed English King Charles I is depicted putting aside his earthly crown to take up the crown of thorns, as in William Marshall 's print Eikon Basilike . This contrast appears elsewhere in art, for example in Frank Dicksee's painting The Two Crowns . Catholic missionaries likened several parts of

6000-416: The complete revision of all Roman law , something that had not previously been attempted. The total of Justinian's legislation is known today as the Corpus juris civilis . It consists of the Codex Justinianeus , the Digesta or Pandectae , the Institutiones , and the Novellae . Early in his reign, Justinian had appointed the quaestor Tribonian to oversee this task. The first draft of

6100-400: The completion of this edifice: "Solomon, I have outdone thee" (in reference to the first Jewish temple). The church had a second inauguration on 24 December 562, after several reworks made by Isidore the Younger . This new cathedral, with its magnificent dome filled with mosaics, remained the centre of eastern Christianity for centuries. Another prominent church in the capital, the Church of

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6200-684: The conviction that the unity of the Empire presupposed unity of faith, and it appeared to him obvious that this faith could only be the orthodoxy (Chalcedonian) . Those of a different belief were subjected to persecution, which imperial legislation had effected from the time of Constantius II and which would now vigorously continue. The Codex contained two statutes that decreed the total destruction of paganism , even in private life; these provisions were zealously enforced. Contemporary sources (John Malalas, Theophanes , and John of Ephesus ) tell of severe persecutions, including men in high positions. The original Academy of Plato had been destroyed by

6300-444: The crown of thorns do not say what happened to it after the crucifixion. The oldest known mention of the crown already being venerated as a relic was made by Paulinus of Nola , writing after 409, who refers to the crown as a relic that was adored by the faithful ( Epistle Macarius in Migne , Patrologia Latina , LXI, 407). Cassiodorus ( c.  570 ) speaks of the crown of thorns among other relics which were "the glory" of

6400-421: The crown of thorns in art, notably upon the head of Christ in representations of the Crucifixion or the subject Ecce Homo , arises after the time of St. Louis and the building of the Sainte-Chapelle. The Catholic Encyclopedia reported that some archaeologists had professed to discover a figure of the crown of thorns in the circle which sometimes surrounds the chi-rho emblem on early Christian sarcophagi , but

6500-564: The crown of thorns known to him, located in different cities. Based on a large number of parts of the crown of thorns, Calvin wrote: In regard to the Crown of thorns, it would seem that its twigs had been planted that they might grow again. Otherwise I know not how it could have attained to such a size. First, a third part of it is at Paris, in the Holy Chapel, and then at Rome there are three thorns in Santa Croce , and some portion also in St. Eustathius . At Sienna, I know not how many thorns, at Vincennes one, at Bourges five, at Besançon , in

6600-426: The crown of thorns to Louis IX of France . It was then in the hands of the Venetians as security for a great loan of 13,134 gold pieces, yet it was redeemed and conveyed to Paris where Louis IX built the Sainte-Chapelle , completed in 1248, to receive it. The relic stayed there until the French Revolution , when, after finding a home for a while in the Bibliothèque Nationale , the Concordat of 1801 restored it to

6700-399: The emperor's personal bodyguard. The chronicler John Malalas , who lived during the reign of Justinian, describes his appearance as short, fair-skinned, curly-haired, round-faced, and handsome. Another contemporary historian, Procopius , compares Justinian's appearance to that of tyrannical Emperor Domitian , although this is probably slander. When Emperor Anastasius died in 518, Justin

6800-454: The empire, which in 555 reached its territorial zenith. Despite losing much of Italy soon after Justinian's death, the empire retained several important cities, including Rome, Naples, and Ravenna, leaving the Lombards as a regional threat. The newly founded province of Spania kept the Visigoths as a threat to Hispania alone and not to the western Mediterranean and Africa. Events of the later years of his reign showed that Constantinople itself

6900-420: The end of his life, Justinian became ever more inclined towards the Monophysite doctrine, especially in the form of Aphthartodocetism , but he died before being able to issue any legislation. The empress Theodora sympathized with the Monophysites and is said to have been a constant source of pro-Monophysite intrigues at the court in Constantinople in the earlier years. In the course of his reign, Justinian, who had

7000-405: The first cataract of the Nile . The Presbyter Julian and the Bishop Longinus conducted a mission among the Nabataeans , and Justinian attempted to strengthen Christianity in Yemen by dispatching a bishop from Egypt . The civil rights of Jews were restricted and their religious privileges threatened. Justinian also interfered in the internal affairs of the synagogue and encouraged

7100-444: The historical authenticity of a relic he had not seen, but the Breviary of Jerusalem (a short text dated to about 530 AD), and the itinerary of Antoninus of Piacenza (6th century) clearly state that the crown of thorns was then shown in the "Basilica of Mount Zion ," although there is uncertainty about the actual site to which the authors refer. From these fragments of evidence and others of later date (the "Pilgrimage" of

7200-463: The kingdom to Hilderic. Gelimer replied, in effect, that Justinian had no authority to make these demands. Angered at this response, Justinian quickly concluded his ongoing war with the Sassanian Empire and prepared an expedition against the Vandals in 533. In 533, Belisarius sailed to Africa with a fleet of 92 dromons , escorting 500 transports carrying an army of about 15,000 men, as well as

7300-655: The later years of his life. He died on 14 November 565, childless. He was succeeded by Justin II , who was the son of his sister Vigilantia and married to Sophia, the niece of Theodora. Justinian's body was entombed in a specially built mausoleum in the Church of the Holy Apostles until it was desecrated and robbed during the pillage of the city in 1204 by the Latin States of the Fourth Crusade . Justinian achieved lasting fame through his judicial reforms, particularly through

7400-414: The link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Holy_Thorn&oldid=407279893 " Categories : Christian folklore Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Crown of Thorns Since at least around

7500-687: The military situation had turned in favour of the Romans, and in 540 Belisarius reached the Ostrogothic capital Ravenna . There he was offered the title of Western Roman Emperor by the Ostrogoths at the same time that envoys of Justinian were arriving to negotiate a peace that would leave the region north of the Po River in Gothic hands. Belisarius feigned acceptance of the offer, entered the city in May 540, and reclaimed it for

7600-511: The monk Bernard shows that the relic was still at Mount Zion in 870), it is shown that a purported crown of thorns was venerated at Jerusalem in the first centuries of the common era. Some time afterwards, the crown was purportedly moved to Constantinople, the then capital of the Roman empire. Historian François de Mély supposed that the whole crown was transferred from Jerusalem to Constantinople not much earlier than 1063. In any case, Emperor Justinian

7700-559: The new province of Spania before being checked by their former ally Athanagild, who had by now become king. This campaign marked the apogee of Byzantine expansion. During Justinian's reign, the Balkans suffered from several incursions by the Turkic and Slavic peoples who lived north of the Danube . Here, Justinian resorted mainly to a combination of diplomacy and a system of defensive works. In 559

7800-622: The next year saw the defeat of Roman forces under Belisarius near Callinicum . Justinian then tried to make alliance with the Axumites of Ethiopia and the Himyarites of Yemen against the Persians, but this failed. When king Kavadh I of Persia died (September 531), Justinian concluded an " Eternal Peace " (which cost him 11,000 pounds of gold) with his successor Khosrau I (532). Having thus secured his eastern frontier, Justinian turned his attention to

7900-401: The ongoing disputes in the east. Justinian's policies switched between attempts to force Monophysites and Miaphysites (who were mistaken to be adherers of Monophysitism) to accept the Chalcedonian creed by persecuting their bishops and monks – thereby embittering their sympathizers in Egypt and other provinces – and attempts at a compromise that would win over the Monophysites without surrendering

8000-456: The orthodoxy of his empire threatened by diverging religious currents, especially monophysitism , which had many adherents in the eastern provinces of Syria and Egypt. Monophysite doctrine, which maintains that Jesus Christ had one divine nature rather than a synthesis of divine and human nature, had been condemned as a heresy by the Council of Chalcedon in 451, and the tolerant policies towards Monophysitism of Zeno and Anastasius I had been

8100-463: The other conquests, the Empire established a presence in Visigothic Hispania , when the usurper Athanagild requested assistance in his rebellion against King Agila I . In 552, Justinian dispatched a force of 2,000 men; according to the historian Jordanes , this army was led by the octogenarian Liberius . The Byzantines took Cartagena and other cities on the southeastern coast and founded

8200-565: The other rules were expressed or published: proper laws, senatorial consults ( senatusconsulta ), imperial decrees, case law , and jurists' opinions and interpretations ( responsa prudentium ). Tribonian's code ensured the survival of Roman law. It formed the basis of later Byzantine law, as expressed in the Basilika of Basil I and Leo VI the Wise . The only western province where the Justinianic code

8300-533: The regular appointment of Consuls in 541. In Constantinople, under Justinian, hospitals were built and free medical care provided to the many poor residents of the city. In addition, public baths were free for all residents and 20 state bakeries provided free bread to those who needed it. According to one study, “The empire’s social welfare programs ensured that no one went hungry.” Justinian's habit of choosing efficient but unpopular advisers nearly cost him his throne early in his reign. In January 532, partisans of

8400-526: The revolt provided Justinian with an opportunity to tie his name to a series of splendid new buildings, most notably the architectural innovation of the domed Hagia Sophia . One of the most spectacular features of Justinian's reign was the recovery of large stretches of land around the Western Mediterranean basin that had slipped out of Imperial control in the 5th century. As a Christian Roman emperor, Justinian considered it his divine duty to restore

8500-497: The right to receive solemnia , or annual gifts, from the Imperial treasury or from the taxes of certain provinces and he prohibited lay confiscation of monastic estates. Although the despotic character of his measures is contrary to modern sensibilities, he was a "nursing father" of the Church. Both the Codex and the Novellae contain many enactments regarding donations, foundations, and

8600-455: The siege was relieved by Sasanian reinforcements. Justinian replaced him with Bessas , who was under a cloud after the loss of Rome in 546, but he managed to capture and dismantle Petra in 551. The war continued for several years until a second truce in 557, followed by a fifty years' peace in 562. Under its terms, the Persians agreed to abandon Lazica in exchange for an annual tribute of 400 or 500 pounds of gold (30,000 solidi ) to be paid by

8700-434: The sixty or seventy thorns, which seem to have been afterwards distributed by St. Louis and his successors, had been separated from the band of rushes and were kept in a different reliquary . None of these now remain at Paris. Some small fragments of rush are also preserved [...] at Arras and at Lyons. With regard to the origin and character of the thorns, both tradition and existing remains suggest that they must have come from

8800-453: The spines which were attached to the thorny crown of our Redeemer") indicates that many of the thorns were relics of the third class—objects touched to a relic of the first class, in this case some part of the crown itself. Again, even in comparatively modern times, it is not always easy to trace the history of these objects of devotion, as first-class relics were often divided and any number of authentic third-class relics may exist. Prior to

8900-618: The sword, and famine, and pestilence." An African prefecture , centred in Carthage, was established in April 534, but it would teeter on the brink of collapse during the next 15 years, amidst warfare with the Moors and military mutinies. By the mid-540s, under a succession of Byzantine generals, the region was disrupted under civil war, plague and military campaigning. The area was not completely pacified until 548, but remained peaceful thereafter and enjoyed

9000-641: The year 400 AD, a relic believed by many to be the crown of thorns has been venerated . In 1238, the Latin Emperor Baldwin II of Constantinople yielded the relic to French King Louis IX . It was kept in the Notre-Dame Cathedral in Paris until 15 April 2019, when it was rescued from a fire and moved to the Louvre Museum . Reproductions of the crown are available to tourists from shops in Jerusalem. The three Biblical gospels that mention

9100-477: Was Vigilantia, the sister of Justin. Justin, who was commander of one of the imperial guard units (the Excubitors ) before he became emperor, adopted Justinian, brought him to Constantinople , and ensured the boy's education. As a result, Justinian was well educated in jurisprudence , theology , and Roman history. Justinian served as a candidatus , one of 40 men selected from the scholae palatinae to serve as

9200-555: Was appointed consul and commander of the army of the east. Justinian remained Justin's close confidant, and in 525 was granted the titles of nobilissimus and caesar (heir-apparent). He was crowned co-emperor on 1 April 527, and became sole ruler after Justin's death on 1 August 527. As a ruler, Justinian showed great energy. He was known as "the emperor who never sleeps" for his work habits. Nevertheless, he seems to have been amiable and easy to approach. Around 525, he married his mistress, Theodora , in Constantinople. She

9300-426: Was by profession an actress and some twenty years his junior. In earlier times, Justinian could not have married her owing to her class, but his uncle, Emperor Justin I, had passed a law lifting restrictions on marriages with ex-actresses. Though the marriage caused a scandal, Theodora would become very influential in the politics of the Empire. Other talented individuals included Tribonian , his legal adviser; Peter

9400-417: Was finally broken. In 554, a large-scale Frankish invasion was defeated at Casilinum , and Italy was secured for the Empire, though it would take Narses several years to reduce the remaining Gothic strongholds. At the end of the war, Italy was garrisoned with an army of 16,000 men. The recovery of Italy cost the empire about 300,000 pounds of gold. Procopius estimated 15,000,000 Goths died. In addition to

9500-447: Was forcibly brought to Constantinople and besieged at a chapel, finally also gave his assent. However, the condemnation was received unfavourably in the west, where it led to new (albeit temporal) schism, and failed to reach its goal in the east, as the Monophysites remained unsatisfied – all the more bitter for him because during his last years he took an even greater interest in theological matters. Justinian's religious policy reflected

9600-874: Was introduced was Italy (after the conquest by the so-called Pragmatic Sanction of 554 ), from where it was to pass to Western Europe in the 12th century and become the basis of much Continental European law code, which was eventually spread by European empires to the Americas and beyond in the Age of Discovery . It eventually passed to Eastern Europe where it appeared in Slavic editions, and it also passed on to Russia . It remains influential to this day. He passed laws to protect prostitutes from exploitation and women from being forced into prostitution . Rapists were treated severely. Further, by his policies: women charged with major crimes should be guarded by other women to prevent sexual abuse; if

9700-422: Was not safe from barbarian incursions from the north, and even the relatively benevolent historian Menander Protector felt the need to attribute the Emperor's failure to protect the capital to the weakness of his body in his old age. In his efforts to renew the Roman Empire, Justinian dangerously stretched its resources while failing to take into account the changed realities of 6th-century Europe. Justinian saw

9800-471: Was proclaimed the new emperor with significant help from Justinian. Justinian showed a lot of ambition, and several sources claim that he was functioning as virtual regent long before Justin made him associate emperor, although there is no conclusive evidence of this. As Justin became senile near the end of his reign, Justinian became the de facto ruler. Following the general Vitalian 's assassination in 520 (orchestrated by Justinian and Justin), Justinian

9900-735: Was reported to have converted 70,000 pagans, which was probably an exaggerated number. Other peoples also accepted Christianity: the Heruli , the Huns dwelling near the Don , the Abasgi , and the Tzanni in Caucasia . The worship of Amun at the oasis of Awjila in the Libyan desert was abolished, and so were the remnants of the worship of Isis on the island of Philae , at

10000-617: Was sent back to Italy late in 544 but lacked sufficient troops and supplies. Making no headway, he was relieved of his command in 548. Belisarius succeeded in defeating a Gothic fleet of 200 ships. During this period the city of Rome changed hands three more times, first taken and depopulated by the Ostrogoths in December 546, then reconquered by the Byzantines in 547, and then again by the Goths in January 550. Totila also plundered Sicily and attacked Greek coastlines. Finally, Justinian dispatched

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