Medieval Law and Its Practice45- Le Roi Soleil Byzantin: L’Orthodoxie comme instrument politique et juridique sous Manuel I Comnène (1143-1180)

This study analyses how rhetoric actively mediated between law and society, establishing the sacerdotal imperial imagery as a core component of Byzantine public law and the Byzantine-Roman constitutional tradition under the reign of Manuel I Komnenos (1143–1180). The Komnenian era was marked by an ultra-conservative political programme that reinforced imperial authority through Orthodox theology and Roman-Byzantine legal traditions. Under Manuel I Komnenos, imperial propaganda employed a highly sacerdotal vocabulary to portray the emperor as a divinely sanctioned ruler. This study examines how rhetoric mediated between law and society, framing sacral imperial imagery as a component of Byzantine public law and constitutional culture. It argues that Orthodoxy functioned not merely as a religious doctrine but as a calculated tool of imperial propaganda and legitimacy within the broader framework of Byzantine political and legal ideology.