ABSTRACT
This chapter examines laws which prevented clerics below the episcopate from spending ecclesiastical resources on themselves and their families. Such laws existed in both England and Byzantium, but a clear contrast becomes evident. In England, the fear that ecclesiastical property, in the form of benefices and prebends, would be misappropriated was linked to clerics of all ranks, from acolytes to bishops. In Byzantium, financial concerns arose only in the case of bishops and clerics below the episcopate who held administrative positions, especially the oikonomoi. All others were allowed to have private property and to spend it as they saw fit, without any mention of their family status. This chapter suggests that the stricter rules which are found in England reflect the greater financial rewards available to the English clergy. Byzantine priests, deacons, and subdeacons, along with their wives and children, were not criticised for misappropriations of ecclesiastical resources because they did not represent a threat to the Church: their gains were neither substantial nor easily alienable, given that they were paid annually to them in cash and kind.
