Eastern Rite Catholic Filipinos: Michael Cerularius

Humbert, cardinal bishop of the holy Roman Church by the grace of God; Peter, archbishop of Amalfi; and Frederick, deacon and chancellor, to all the children of the catholic Church.

The holy, primary, and apostolic see of Rome, to which the care of all the churches most especially pertains as if to a head, deigned to make us its ambassadors to this royal city for the sake of the peace and utility of the Church so that, in accordance with what has been written, we might descend and see whether the complaint which rises to its ears without ceasing from this great city, is realized in fact or to know if it is not like this.

Let the glorious emperors, clergy, senate, and people of this city of Constantinople as well as the entire catholic Church therefore know that we have sensed here both a great good, whence we greatly rejoice in the Lord, and the greatest evil, whence we lament in misery. For as far as the columns of the imperial power and its honored and wise citizens go, this city is most Christian and orthodox.

But as far as Michael, who is called patriarch through an abuse of the term, and the backers of his foolishness are concerned, innumerable tares of heresies are daily sown in its midst.

Because like Simoniacs, they sell the gift of God;
Like Valesians, they castrate their guests and promote them not only to the clergy but to the episcopacy;
Like Arians, they rebaptize those already baptized in the name of the Holy Trinity, and especially Latins;
Like Donatists, they claim that with the exception of the Greek Church, the Church of Christ and baptism has perished from the world;
Like Nicolaitists, they allow and defend the carnal marriages of the ministers of the sacred altar;
Like Severians, they say that the law of Moses is accursed;
Like Pneumatomachoi or Theomachoi, they cut off the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Son;
Like the Manichaeans among others, they state that leave is ensouled (animatum);
Like the Nazarenes, they preserve the carnal cleanness of the Jews to such an extent that they refuse to baptize dying babies before eight days after birth and, in refusing to communicate with pregnant or menstruating women, they forbid them to be baptized if they are pagan;
And because they grow the hair on their head and beards, they will not receive in communion those who tonsure their hair and shave their beards following the decreed practice of the Roman Church.

For these errors and many others committed by them, Michael himself, although admonished by the letters of our lord Pope Leo, contemptuously refused to repent.

Furthermore, when we, the Pope's ambassadors, wanted to eliminate the causes of such great evils in a reasonable way, he denied us his presence and conversation, forbid churches to celebrate Mass, just as he had earlier closed the churches of the Latins and, calling them "azymites," had persecuted the Latins everywhere in word and deed. Indeed, so much [did he persecute them] that among his own children, he had anathematized the apostolic see and against it he still writes that he is the ecumenical patriarch.

Therefore, because we did not tolerate this unheard of outrage and injury of the first, holy, and apostolic see and were concerned that the catholic faith would be undermined in many ways, by the authority of the holy and individuated Trinity and the apostolic see, whose embassy we are performing, and of all the orthodox fathers from the seven councils and of the entire catholic Church, we thus subscribe to the following anathema which the most reverend pope has proclaimed upon Michael and his followers unless they should repent.

Michael, neophyte patriarch through abuse of office, who took on the monastic habit out of fear of men alone and is now accused by many of the worst of crimes; and with him Leo called bishop of Achrida; Constantine, chaplain of this Michael, who trampled the sacrifice of the Latins with profane feet; and all their followers in the aforementioned errors and acts of presumption: Let them be anathema Maranatha with the Simoniacs, Valesians, Arians, Donatists, Nicolaitists, Severians, Pneumatomachoi, Manichaeans, Nazarenes, and all the heretics — nay, with the devil himself and his angels, unless they should repent. AMEN, AMEN, AMEN.

It was there that the influence of the Western Church grew, ever since the Franks were Christianized, and the Normans in Italy were becoming powerful. The Byzantines noticed this.

The Normans in Italy were said to have been forcing the use of Latin in the liturgies of the Greeks. And it was then that the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius I forced the use of Greek in the liturgies of the Latins in the city.

A very significant fact, however, was Cerularius’s attack on the Latins’ use of unleavened bread for the Eucharist, considering it to be a heresy.[1] Cerularius considered the use of unleavened bread to be Judaic, and symbolizes death rather than life. He also stated that it contradicts what is written in the synoptics, as Jesus said to have used bread, despite the fact that the Last Supper was a paschal meal. It is in the Jewish law that during Passover, unleavened bread or azyme was to be used. Cerularius’s opinions also do not even have any clear foundations at all.[2]

During that time, Byzantine bishops were in control of the Church in Alexandria, Jerusalem and Antioch. Since this is the case, Constantinople most likely had power over them.

Cerularius then declared war on the Western Church. His chancellor Nicephorus burst open the Latin tabernacles and trampled on the Eucharists, declaring them invalid, as they were consecrated in azyme. Cerularius himself threw the Eucharist on the streets. This was blasphemy—and the Latin Church had to deal with this sacrilege.

Although Cerularius was excommunicated for a different reason where he struck the name of the Pope from his diptychs, the excommunication was justifiable. No man is to desecrate the Eucharist. The hostility between the Latins and the Byzantines made matters worse.

It was then that the bull was laid down on Hagia Sophia’s altar on the 16^th of July, 1054 by Cardinal Humbert, who issued the bull himself as the Pope he answered to was dead—this act of his was justifiable. The Roman [Holy] See had the power and the duty to excommunicate heretics and desecrators.[3] The Byzantine legates excommunicated Rome in return—invalidly.

This was the beginning of the schism. The Byzantine bishops in the other three Churches followed the lead of Michael I, resulting in the split of the Eastern Churches from the Western Church; the Holy See, which had the power over the other bishops.

And until now, the East and the West are still trying to reconcile their differences.

But one thing is for sure. Michael Cerularius did not only die a sinner. He founded the schismatic Byzantine Church.

by Jared Dale Combista, contributor

[1] The Orthodox Church by Kallistos Ware

[2] Byzantine Theology by John Meyendorff

[3] "If the Roman See recognizes Pyrrhus to be not only a reprobate but a heretic, it is certainly plain that everyone who anathematizes those who have rejected Pyrrhus also anathematizes the See of Rome, that is, he anathematizes the Catholic Church. I need hardly add that he excommunicates himself also, if indeed he is in communion with the Roman See and the Catholic Church of God ...Let him hasten before all things to satisfy the Roman See, for if it is satisfied, all will agree in calling him pious and orthodox. For he only speaks in vain who thinks he ought to pursuade or entrap persons like myself, and does not satisfy and implore the blessed Pope of the most holy Catholic Church of the Romans, that is, the Apostolic See, which is from the incarnate of the Son of God Himself, and also all the holy synods, accodring to the holy canons and definitions has received universal and surpreme dominion, authority, and power of binding and loosing over all the holy churches of God throughout the whole world." (Maximus, Letter to Peter, in Mansi x, 692).