Basil the Physician (died c.1111 or c.1118) was the

Bogomil Bogomilism ( Bulgarian and Macedonian: ; sh-Latn-Cyrl, separator=" / ", bogumilstvo, богумилство) was a Christian neo-Gnostic or dualist sect founded in the First Bulgarian Empire by the priest Bogomil during the reign of Tsar Pe ...

leader condemned as a heretic by Patriarch

Nicholas III of Constantinople Nicholas III Grammatikos or Grammaticus (? – May 1111) was an Eastern Orthodox patriarch of Constantinople (1084–1111). Educated in Constantinople, Nicholas spent much of his early years in Pisidian Antioch, where it is believed he took his ...

and

burned at the stake Death by burning (also known as immolation) is an execution and murder method involving combustion or exposure to extreme heat. It has a long history as a form of public capital punishment, and many societies have employed it as a punishment f ...

Byzantine Emperor This is a list of the Byzantine emperors from the foundation of Constantinople in 330 AD, which marks the conventional start of the Eastern Roman Empire, to its fall to the Ottoman Empire in 1453 AD. Only the emperors who were recognized as le ...

Alexius I Comnenus Alexios I Komnenos ( grc-gre, Ἀλέξιος Κομνηνός, 1057 – 15 August 1118; Latinized Alexius I Comnenus) was Byzantine emperor from 1081 to 1118. Although he was not the first emperor of the Komnenian dynasty, it was during ...

. Originally a monk and a physician, Basil became a teacher within the Bogomil sect around 1070. He first came to the attention of the emperor after imperial officers had tortured a

named Diblatius to reveal the identity of their leader. He admitted that Basil was their leader and that he had selected twelve teachers to act as his apostles. The Bogomils, noted for their

Manichaean Manichaeism (; in New Persian ; ) is a former major religionR. van den Broek, Wouter J. Hanegraaff ''Gnosis and Hermeticism from Antiquity to Modern Times''SUNY Press, 1998 p. 37 founded in the 3rd century AD by the Parthian Empire, Parthian ...

tendencies,

iconoclastic Iconoclasm (from Greek: grc, εἰκών, lit=figure, icon, translit=eikṓn, label=none + grc, κλάω, lit=to break, translit=kláō, label=none)From grc, εἰκών + κλάω, lit=image-breaking. ''Iconoclasm'' may also be conside ...

principles and their detestation of the Orthodox hierarchy, had been rapidly gaining adherents throughout Alexius’ reign, and began to cause alarm among the Byzantine clergy. Eager to confront this threat, he was ordered to appear before the emperor. Although promised a private hearing with Alexius, Basil was deceived by the emperor into giving a full confession which was recorded by an imperial clerk. On the basis of this confession, and with Basil refusing to renounce his opinions, the

patriarch of Constantinople The ecumenical patriarch ( el, Οἰκουμενικός Πατριάρχης, translit=Oikoumenikós Patriárchēs) is the archbishop of Constantinople (Istanbul), New Rome and '' primus inter pares'' (first among equals) among the heads of th ...

, Nicholas the Grammarian, together with a

synod A synod () is a council of a Christian denomination, usually convened to decide an issue of doctrine, administration or application. The word ''wikt:synod, synod'' comes from the meaning "assembly" or "meeting" and is analogous with the Latin ...

of bishops declared Basil a heretic. Alexius then pronounced a sentence of death on Basil, by being burnt at the stake. Prior to the sentence being carried out, Alexius attempted on several occasions to have Basil recant, but each time Basil refused to change his mind, stating that angels would descend from heaven to release him from the stake. Finally, Basil was burned as a heretic in the

hippodrome of Constantinople Sultanahmet Square ( tr, Sultanahmet Meydanı) or the Hippodrome of Constantinople ( el, Ἱππόδρομος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, Hippódromos tēs Kōnstantinoupóleōs; la, Circus Maximus Constantinopolitanus; t ...

. The date of Basil's execution has been a matter of some speculation due to the muddled narrative of that section of the only primary document that details Basil's trial and death, the ''

Alexiad The ''Alexiad'' ( el, Ἀλεξιάς, Alexias) is a medieval historical and biographical text written around the year 1148, by the Byzantine princess Anna Komnene, daughter of Emperor Alexios I Komnenos. It was written in a form of artificial ...

''. Alexander Kazhdan has dated the execution to around the year 1111. According to the 19th century historian

George Finlay George Finlay (21 December 1799 – 26 January 1875) was a Scottish historian. Biography Finlay was born in Faversham, Kent, where his Scottish father, Captain John Finlay FRS, an officer in the Royal Engineers, was inspector of government powde ...

, however, although the sentence was passed in 1110, the execution was delayed for eight years, and performed at the end of Alexius's reign. Finlay used the following passage from

Anna Komnena Anna Komnene ( gr, Ἄννα Κομνηνή, Ánna Komnēnḗ; 1 December 1083 – 1153), commonly Latinized as Anna Comnena, was a Byzantine princess and author of the ''Alexiad'', an account of the reign of her father, the Byzantine emperor, ...

’s, ''The Alexiad'' to support his argument:

Later, the godless ones were transferred to another very strong prison into which they were cast and after pining away for a long time died in their impiety. This was the last and crowning act of the Emperor's long labours and successes and it was an innovation of startling boldness.

His interpretation of statement “the last and crowning act of the Emperor's long labours and successes” was that the execution of Basil occurred at the conclusion of Alexius's reign. This opinion has been supported in recent scholarship by Warren Treadgold who, while unwilling to give an exact date, has placed Basil's execution as taking place in the final years of Alexius's life, either 1117 or 1118.Treadgold, pg. 628

Notes

Sources

* * * *{{citation , last=Comnena , first=Anna , author-link=Anna Comnena , title=The Alexiad , translator-first=E. R. A. , translator-last=Sewter , publisher=Penguin Classics , year=1969 , orig-year=Written around 1148 , ref={{SfnRef, Sewter, 1969 , title-link=The Alexiad , Book XV Year of birth missing 1118 deaths Bogomilism People executed for heresy 12th-century executions by the Byzantine Empire 12th-century Byzantine people People executed by burning Executed Byzantine people Alexios I Komnenos