Humbert of Silva Candida
Cardinal who led the Roman legation to Constantinople in 1054 and laid the bull of excommunication against the patriarch Michael Cerularius on the altar of Hagia Sophia.
The legates’ report names him first of the three sent by Pope Leo IX, as cardinal bishop of Silva Candida, and the bull opens with his name (Humbert, Brief Account 1–3) (Bull of excommunication (1054)). The report describes how, at the legates’ insistence, a Greek monk publicly withdrew his tract against Latin customs and the emperor had it burnt, and how the legates, refused a meeting by the patriarch, excommunicated him and left (Humbert, Brief Account 1–3).
The synod of Constantinople gives the other view: the legates behaved insolently, refused to appear before the patriarch and his synod, and were not sent by the pope at all (Synodal edict (1054) account of the legates, pp. 160–161 and 165). See the Schism of 1054.
In the timeline
- 16 July 1054, firm dateThe Schism of 1054
Legates of the Roman see excommunicate the patriarch of Constantinople in Hagia Sophia, and his synod anathematizes them in return. The sentences name persons, not churches, but later ages take the day as the breach between East and West.