Editing Theocracy (section)

=== Byzantine Empire ===
{{main|Byzantine Empire#Religion}}
The [[Byzantine Empire]] ({{sm|a.d.}} 324–1453) operated under  [[Symphonia (theology)|Symphonia]], meaning that the [[List of Byzantine emperors|emperor]] was both the head of [[civil society]] and the ultimate authority over the ecclesiastical authorities, the [[patriarchates]]. The emperor, regarded as God's representative on earth, ruled as an absolute [[Autocracy|autocrat]].<ref>{{cite book |first= Steven |last= Runciman |author-link=Steven Runciman |title= The Byzantine Theocracy |location= Cambridge |publisher= [[Cambridge University Press]] |date= 1977}}</ref>

Jennifer Fretland VanVoorst argues that "the Byzantine Empire became a theocracy in the sense that Christian values and ideals were the foundation of the empire's political ideals and heavily entwined with its political goals".<ref>{{cite book |first=Jennifer Fretland |last=Van Voorst |title=The Byzantine Empire |url= https://books.google.com/books?id=RyOoBQiCm88C&pg=PA14 |year=2012 |publisher=Compass Point Books |page=14 |isbn= 978-0-7565-4565-9 |via=[[Google Books]] |access-date=2015-08-13 |archive-date=2023-01-19 |archive-url= https://web.archive.org/web/20230119145749/https://books.google.com/books?id=RyOoBQiCm88C&pg=PA14 |url-status= live }}</ref> [[Steven Runciman]] writes in his book ''The Byzantine Theocracy'' (2004):
{{blockquote|The constitution of the Byzantine Empire was based on the conviction that it was the earthly copy of the Kingdom of Heaven. Just as God ruled in Heaven, so the Emperor, made in His image, should rule on earth and carry out his commandments. ...It saw itself as a universal empire. Ideally, it should embrace all the peoples of the Earth who, ideally, should all be members of the one true Christian Church, its own Orthodox Church. Just as man was made in God's image, so man's kingdom on Earth was made in the image of the Kingdom of Heaven.<ref>Steven Runciman, ''The Byzantine Theocracy'' (Cambridge: Cambridge Press, 2003; 1st printing 1977), 1–2, 162–63.</ref>|title=|source=}}