Michael I Cerularius

Michael I Cerularius, (b. Constantinople c. 1000 - d. 1059), also known as Michael Keroularios or Patriarch Michael I, was the Patriarch of Constantinople from 1043 to 1059.

The exact date and place both of his birth and death are unknown, and few details of his life are certain. During the reign of Michael the Paphlagonian (1034–41) he was banished for conspiracy, but he was raised to the patriarchate by Constantine Monomachus, who hoped to find in him a firm ally. Cærularius, however, strenuously defended the rights of the Church, and his chief importance is due to the fact that his course resulted in the complete cleavage between the Greek and Roman Churches. At the very time when the Norman War gave the Byzantine court and the pope an opportunity to draw more closely together, the patriarch violently suppressed the Latin ritual observed in many cloisters and churches, and renewed the ancient charges of Photius in a letter to the bishop of Trani in Apulia, reserving his special attack for the Roman use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, which he condemned as Jewish.

Pope Leo IX replied with a haughty defense of the primacy of Rome, and at Constantine's request an embassy was sent to Constantinople, headed by the Cardinal Bishop Humbert of Mourmoutiers. The legates excommunicated him, and he likewise excommunicated them, starting the Great Schism. This schism led to the end of the alliance between the Emperor and the Papacy, and caused later Popes to ally with the Normans against the Empire. In 1965, those excommunications were rescinded by Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras when they met in the Second Vatican Council. This was a significant step towards restoring communion between Rome and Constantinople.

Michael also quarrelled with Emperor Isaac I Comnenus over confiscation of church property. Isaac planned to depose Michael when Michael suddenly died in 1059, though there was no suspicion that he was murdered.

Michael is also notable in that he closed the Latin churches in his area.

References

This article includes content derived from the public domain Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge, 1914.



Preceded by: Alexius I Studites

Patriarch of Constantinople 1043–1058

Succeeded by: Constantine III Lichoudas

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