Michael Cerularius
Patriarch of Constantinople who refused to receive the Roman legates of 1054, was excommunicated by them, and with his synod anathematized their bull and its authors.
The two sides describe him in opposite terms. The legates’ bull calls him patriarch in name only, a man who took the monastic habit out of fear, and charges him with closing the Latin churches in the city and persecuting those who used unleavened bread (Bull of excommunication (1054)); their report says he falsified the bull in translation and raised a riot against the emperor (Humbert, Brief Account 3). In the edict of his own synod he is the guardian of the orthodox faith against men who had come from the West with forged letters to corrupt it (Synodal edict (1054) preamble and sentence).
His letter to the patriarch of Antioch shows that he believed the popes had long since been dropped from the liturgy of his church (Michael Cerularius, Letter to Peter of Antioch 9). Peter’s reply asked him to be patient with the Latins and not to make the tear worse (Peter of Antioch, Letter to Michael Cerularius 14 (p. 198); 21 (p. 202)). 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.