Document Set – The Eastern Schism
Document 1
Source: Nicetas, Archbishop of Nicomedia, 12th century
… we do not deny to the Roman Church the primacy amongst the five sister
Patriarchates; and we recognize her right to the most honorable seat at an Ecumenical
Council. But she has separated herself from us by her own deeds, when through pride she
assumed a monarchy which does not belong to her office... How shall we accept decrees
from her that have been issued without consulting us and even without our knowledge? If
the Roman Pontiff [the Pope], seated on the lofty throne of his glory, wishes to thunder at
us and, so to speak, hurl his mandates at us from on high, and if he wishes to judge us and
even to rule us and our Churches, not by taking counsel with us but at his own arbitrary
pleasure, what kind of brotherhood, or even what kind of parenthood can this be? [if this
happens] We should be the slaves, not the sons, of such a Church, and the Roman See
would not be the pious mother of sons but a hard and imperious mistress of slaves .(Quoted
in S. Runciman, The Eastern Schism, p. 116).
Document 2
Theodore Balsamon, Partriach of Antioch, c. 1190 CE
For many years [he does not say how many] the western Church has been divided in
spiritual communion from the other four Patriarchates and has become alien to the
Orthodox…. So no Latin (Roman Catholic) should be given communion unless he first
declares that he will abstain from the doctrines and customs that separate him from us,
and that he will be subject to the Canons of the Church, in union with the Orthodox
(Quoted in Runciman, The Eastern Schism, p. 139).
Document 3
Source: Chorus of song sung by Catholic Crusaders, 12th century, after their sack of
Constantinople during the 4th Crusade
“Constantinopolitana, civitas diu profana”
Translation: ("City of Constantinople, so long ungodly").
Document 4
Document 5
Nicetas Coniates, 12th century Byzantine historian from his account of the sack of
Constantinople by Catholic Crusaders
. . . How shall I begin to tell of the deeds wrought by these nefarious men! Alas, the
images, which ought to have been adored, were trodden under foot! Alas, the relics of the
holy martyrs were thrown into unclean places!
For the sacred altar, formed of all kinds of precious materials and admired by the whole
world, was broken into bits and distributed among the soldiers, as was all the other sacred
wealth of so great and infinite splendor.
No one was without a share in the grief. In the alleys, in the streets, in the temples,
complaints, weeping, lamentations, grief, the groaning of men, the shrieks of women,
wounds, rape, captivity, the separation of those most closely united. Nobles wandered
about ignominiously, those of venerable age in tears, the rich in poverty
Document 6
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13535a.htm
We must distinguish the position of the pope as visible head of all Christendom from his
place as Patriarch of the West. The position, sometimes now advanced by anti-papal
controversialists, and that all bishops are equal in jurisdiction, was utterly unknown in the
early Church. From the very beginning we find a graduated hierarchy of metropolitans,
exarchs, and primates. We find, too, from the beginning the idea that a bishop inherits the
dignity of the founder of his see, that, therefore, the successor of an Apostle has special
rights and privileges. This graduated hierarchy is important as explaining the pope's
position. He was not the one immediate superior of each bishop; he was the chief of an
elaborate organization, as it were the apex of a carefully graduated pyramid.
Document 7
Source: The Catholic Encyclopedia at http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13535a.htm
(the) four Eastern patriarchates were to some extent contrasted to the one great Western
unity. Had there remained four such unities in the East, nothing further need have
followed. What accentuated the contrast and made it a rivalry was the gradual assumption
of authority over the other three by the patriarch of Constantinople. It was Constantinople
that bound together the East into one body, uniting it against the West. It was the
persistent attempt of the emperor's patriarch to become a kind of Eastern pope, as nearly
as possible equal to his Western prototype, that was the real source of all the trouble…
…The Eastern Schism was not a movement arising in all the East; it was not a quarrel
between two large bodies; it was essentially the rebellion of one see, Constantinople,
which by the emperor's favour had already acquired such influence that it was able
unhappily to drag the other patriarchs into schism with it.
Document 8
Source: the Russian Orthodox Church of Washington DC at http://www.stjohndc.org
Pepin [steward of the Frankish Kings who were allied with the Pope]… took
away from the Lombards [not allied with the pope] the lands conquered by them in
Italy and delivered into the pope's hands the keys to twenty two cities and the
Ravenna Exarchate, which had previously belonged to the Byzantine Empire. Thus,
the Pope was transformed from a subject of the Eastern Roman (Constantinopolitan)
emperor into an independent secular sovereign, not dependent on any other
sovereign, with an independent territory and with possession of supreme state
authority on this territory.
Document 9
Source: the Russian Orthodox Church of Washington DC at http://www.stjohndc.org
Preserving the Faith is the One, Holy…and Apostolic Church, the Synod
[council] of Bishops confesses that the Church has never been divided. The issue lies
only in who does and who does not belong to Her [the church]. Moreover, the Synod of
Bishops fervently welcomes all attempts by the heterodox [Roman Catholics] to study the
teaching of Christ about the Church, in the hope that through such investigation,
especially with the participation of representatives of the Holy Orthodox Church, they
will eventually arrive at the conviction that the Orthodox Church, which is the "pillar and
the ground of truth" (I Timothy 3:15), has fully and without any adulteration retained the
doctrine taught by Christ the Savior to His disciple.
Document 10