This thesis is concerned with two homilies by Andreas of Crete, the eighth century Byzantine writer, on the raising of Lazarus and Palm Sunday. The thesis is divided into three parts. The Introduction includes a brief reappraisal of Andreas' contribution to the homiletic tradition, his biography and the historical background, a list of his homilies, a stylistic analysis using three representative homilies in addition to the two on Lazarus and Palm Sunday, the liturgical background of the two feast-days, the treatment of these themes by other Byzantine writers and finally, an outline of the editorial method used in this thesis. The second part of the thesis contains an examination of the manuscript tradition of the homily on Lazarus, a critical edition of the text, a translation and a brief commentary. In the third section, the homily on Palm Sunday is presented in the same way. This thesis represents an attempt not only to offer a critical edition for the first time of two of Andreas of Crete's homilies, but to provide some background on his stylistic and literary technique. It is hoped that it will serve as a basis for further work on this important writer, not only from an editorial, but also from an interpretative point of view.

This thesis is a local analysis of non-Muslim community in the Ottoman Empire. It investigates the workings of community as seen from an Ottoman province in Asia Minor, exploring a series of social and institutional practices among Orthodox Christians in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The study aims to offer alternative angles in understanding this notion and to demonstrate the actual complexity of its application. The perception of Orthodox Christians as a compact and immutable body with clearly defined boundaries that separated it from the Ottoman state and society (i.e. a millet) is no longer convincing or tenable, and fails to make sense of the Orthodox Christian presence in the Ottoman Empire. While this old millet view remains dominant in mainstream historiography, newer historians have been questioning the corporatist perception of Ottoman non-Muslims. The present study aims to carry this alteration further. Rather than reducing the issue to an 'either-or' question, that is whether there was a community or not, this study offers a more nuanced approach to an understanding of how Orthodox Christians lived in the Ottoman world. It poses communal dynamics as being shaped and un-shaped by a set of relations, contexts and situations. When, why and how did it matter that someone was an Orthodox Christian in Ottoman society? What were the particular areas and historical circumstances in which Orthodox Christians were tied to other Orthodox Christians and in what manner? The study uses the local perspective to explore these social ties and relations in practice, carrying out a wide-ranging survey, to cover, in tum, physical and human geography, administration, finances and taxation, corporate status, juridical practice and nationality. This on-the-ground analysis of the meanings and structures of community offers other angles to the ones often portrayed by leading authorities and centres

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This thesis investigates the sacraments of initiation of Grigor Tatevatsi (1346-1409), one of the most prominent ecclesiastical leaders of the Armenian Apostolic Church. Archbishop Mesrob Ashjian in Armenian Church Patristic and Other Essays examined Tatevatsi’s sacraments of initiation, and declared that Grigor Tatevatsi abdicated the theology of the Armenian Apostolic Church and integrated many important issues from Thomas Aquinas. This study challenges Ashjian’s statements, and by examining the political, historical and theological context, elaborates the sacraments of initiation of Grigor Tatevatsi in different colours. At the beginning of the fourteenth century, according to a missionary programme of Rome, successful work was started by the Latin Church in Armenia. During the crucial period for the Armenian Christianity, in time of political, social, intellectual and ecclesiastical changes, Grigor Tatevatsi becomes one of the dominating figures, and the first chapter examines his life. The second chapter of this work examines the purpose of the Dominican Order in Grand Armenia, and the origin of the Unitors, the Latino-Armenian Brotherhood, during fourteen century. The last three chapters deal with Tatevatsi’s sacramental theology of initiation. The third chapter focuses on the sacrament of baptism, the fourth chapter investigates the sacrament of confirmation, and the fifth chapter deals with the sacrament of communion and elucidates how Tatevatsi sees the sacrament that unites us to Christ. These three chapters compare the theology of Grigor Tatevatsi within that of Thomas Aquinas, showing how Tatevatsi engaging with Aquinas, not to abdicate Armenian theology but to defend it within the context of wider Christian practice, comparing Latin, Greek and sometimes Syriac practice to show that Armenian theology reads the early Christian tradition in ways that sometimes differ from the other traditions, but are not inferior to them.

Tributos implícitos refletem a extensão pela qual ativos favorecidos tributariamente têm seu retorno pré-imposto reduzido em comparação com o retorno pré-imposto de ativos sem benefício fiscal e de risco similar. Em condição de equilíbrio de mercado, se dois ativos de riscos semelhantes possuírem o mesmo fluxo de caixa pré-imposto, mas um deles for favoravelmente tributado em relação ao outro, haverá maior demanda pelo ativo menos tributado, que terá, portanto, seu preço relativo aumentado. Conseqüentemente, dado que o retorno pós-imposto é o mesmo para ambos, o retorno pré-imposto do ativo favorecido será menor que o retorno pré-imposto do ativo não-beneficiado. A perda de retorno pré-imposto sofrida pelo ativo beneficiado decorre da tributação implícita. O aumento de preço do ativo beneficiado pressupõe que haja um detentor disposto a vendê-lo um tipo de investidor para o qual a alteração nos preços relativos acontece sem que o seu retorno pós-imposto se altere: o investidor marginal. Investidores que possuam alíquota marginal de imposto explícita diferente da suportada pelo investidor marginal formam a denominada clientela tributária, que se constitui por um investidor para o qual a mudança nos preços relativos alteraria também o seu retorno pós-imposto. Os objetivos da tese são apresentar a teoria econômica e os conceitos subjacentes à tributação implícita, assim como comprová-la empiricamente. Trata-se de tema importante, pois traz à luz um tipo de tributação ainda pouco visível para a maioria dos indivíduos e das empresas, mas que é tão material quanto a explícita (descrita nos códigos e regulamentos tributários e provisionada nas demonstrações financeiras). A MP nº 281/2006, que introduziu a isenção de imposto de renda para os rendimentos produzidos por títulos públicos federais adquiridos por estrangeiros, foi o evento ao redor do qual se examinou o efeito causado pela isenção sobre os retornos da NTN-B, título escolhido pelos não-residentes à época do ato. A hipótese testada foi de que a entrada maciça do investidor estrangeiro reduziria significativamente o retorno pré-imposto do título. Para os testes, empregou-se a análise de séries temporais: o mesmo título foi utilizado antes (sem benefício fiscal) e depois (beneficiado quando adquirido por estrangeiros) da MP. Assim, a diferença de percepção de risco que investidores possuem ao carregar ativos diferentes ficou mitigada, o que permitiu que se isolasse o efeito do benefício tributário sobre os retornos. Os resultados confirmaram que o investidor estrangeiro sofreu uma significativa tributação implícita: a depender da série da NTN-B, o investidor estrangeiro foi tributado implicitamente de 11% a 13%. A pesquisa contém também uma outra situação relacionada à MP nº 281/2006, mas que decorreu de falta de liquidez da NTN-B, quando o estrangeiro quis sair do mercado em momento posterior à entrada em vigor da MP. Nesse segundo instante, comprovou-se que o investidor estrangeiro recebeu um tributo implícito pago pelo governo brasileiro. Procurou-se demonstrar que o tributo implícito não é tipicamente pago para as autoridades tributárias. Na entrada do estrangeiro, houve pagamento de tributo implícito do não-residente para o investidor nacional. No momento seguinte, quando o investidor estrangeiro desejou sair do papel, o governo pagou o imposto implícito recebido pelo não-residente. Esses resultados contribuem para a pesquisa tributária no Brasil ao trazer novos conceitos correlatos à tributação implícita e demonstrar empiricamente que alterações tributárias podem resultar em alteração no retorno pré-imposto de ativos. Por exemplo, decisões de investidores podem ser afetadas quando uma empresa que tradicionalmente pagava dividendos passa a distribuir o seu lucro na forma de juros sobre capital próprio, conforme prediz a teoria da clientela tributária. Os resultados e conceitos também podem auxiliar na análise das conseqüências, sobre a economia como um todo, da implantação de políticas tributárias, assim como na implementação específica de determinado incentivo tributário sobre o retorno pré-imposto dos mais variados tipos de ativo. / Implicit taxes reflect the extent to which tax-favored assets bear lower pre-tax returns than do tax-disfavored assets of similar risk. In equilibrium, when two assets give rise to identical pre-tax cash flows, but the cash flows from one asset are taxed more favorably than those from the other asset, the tax-favored asset will increase relative to the price of the taxdisfavored asset. Consequently, given that the after-tax returns are the same to both assets, the pre-tax rate of return to the tax-favored asset will fall below that for the tax-disfavored asset. The loss of pre-tax return bore by the tax-favored asset is due to the implicit tax. The price rise of the tax-favored asset indicates that there is an investor willing to sell it a kind of investor to whom the prices of the assets change, with the result that the after-tax rates of return will remain the same to them (the marginal investor). Investors with explicit tax rates different from the explicit tax rate faced by marginal investors form a group of investors known as tax clientele. Those investors (clientele) are not indifferent to assets differently taxed. This research aims to present the economic theory and the main concepts related to implicit taxes, and still to test empirically its existence. Implicit taxes are an important issue because it sheds light upon a kind of taxation practically invisible to most people and businesses, but yet as real as the explicit taxes. The Provisional Measure n. 281/2006, which provided income tax exemption to non-resident investors who acquired federal government bonds, was the event chosen to empirically test for implicit tax effects, by examining NTN-B return changes surrounding the act. Indications suggested that foreign investors focused on a long-term Brazilian bond called NTN-B. The hypothesis to be tested was that the massive entrance of foreign investors would significantly reduce the NTN-B pre-tax return. Time series analysis was employed: the same bond was used before (without the tax exemption) and after (with the tax exemption) the act. Therefore, this study is less subject to confounding cross-sectional risk differences, helping to distinguish between the effects of taxes and risk. Results of empirical tests report a significant decrease of return suffered by the foreign investor, from 11% to 13%, depending on the bond invested. The study also investigates another event related to the tax exemption, but actually connected to the small liquidity of the NTN-B. Few months later, the same foreign investor who massively bought the NTN-B in response to the tax exemption decided to leave the Brazilian market. At this time, the Brazilian government paid him a significant implicit tax. The comparison between the first event (tax exemption) and the second one (liquidity) shows that implicit taxes are typically not paid directly to the taxing authority. When the foreign investor first entered the market, he paid implicit taxes to the Brazilian investor. Later on, when the foreign investor decided to sell the bond recently bought, the Brazilian government then paid him implicit taxes. These results contribute to tax research by demonstrating that changes in tax rates may result in changes in pre-tax returns. For instance, according to the theory of tax clienteles, the decisions of investors might be affected when a Brazilian company decides to change its dividend policy, by paying interest on own equity instead of dividends. The results and concepts also provide information to tax policy makers on the economy-wide effects of tax rate changes, as well as the effects of specific tax incentives on pre-tax returns.