271. PROGRESS AND COMPLETION OF THE SCHISM. 317
the one hand the righteous zeal of Xicolns for the cause of the injured Ignatius, and on the other the many virtues of Photius tried in misfortune, as well as his brilliant learning in theology, philology, philosophy, and history ; while we deplore and de nounce the schism as a sin and disgrace of both churches.
NOTES.
The accounts of the Eoman Catholic historians, even the best, are colored by sectarianism, and must be accepted with caution. Cardinal Hergenrother (Kirchcngesch. I. 684) calls the Council of 870 a " Photianische Fseudo-Synode" and its acts " tin dcht byzantinisches Machwerk ganz vom Geiste des verschmitzten Photius durclidrungcn." Bishop Ilefele, in the revised edition of his Conciliengesch. (IV. 464 sqq.), treats this Aftersynode, as he calls it, no better. Both follow in the track of their old teacher, Dr. Dollinger who, in his History of the Church (translated by Dr. Edward Cox, London 1841, vol. III. p. 100), more than forty years ago, described this Synod " in all its parts as a worthy sister of the Council of Robbers of the year 449; with this difference, that in the earlier Synod violence and tyranny, in the later artifice, fraud, and false hood were employed by wicked men to work out their wicked designs." But when in 1870 the Vatican Council sanctioned the historical false hood of papal infallibility, Dollinger, once the ablest advocate of Ro manism in Germany, protested against Rome and was excommunicated. Whatever the Latins may say against the Synod of Photius, the Latin Synod of 869 was not a whit better, and Rome understood the arts of intrigue fully as well as Constantinople. The whole controversy be tween the Greek and the Roman churches is one of the most humiliating chapters in the history of Christianity, and both must humbly confess their share of sin and guilt before a reconciliation can take place.
§ 71. Progress and Completion of the Schism. Cerularius.
HERGENROTHER : PHOTICTR, vol. III. 653-887 ; comp. his Kirchengesch. vol. I. 688 sq.; 690-694. HEFELE: Conciliengesch. IV. 587; 765 sqq. ; 771, 775 sqq. GlESELER : II. 221 sqq.
We shall briefly sketch the progress and consolidation of the schism.
T/ic Difference about Tetragamy.
The fourth marriage of the emperor Leo the Philosopher (886-912), which was forbidden by the laws of the Greek church, caused a great schism in the East (905).1 The Patriarch
1 Leo himself had forbidden not only tetragamy, but even trigamy. His four wives were Theophano, Zoe (his former mistress), Eudokia, and Zoe
318 FOURTH PERIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
Nicolas Mysticus solemnly protested and was deposed (906), but Pope Sergius III. (904-911), instead of siding with suffering virtue as Pope Nicolas had done, sanctioned the fourth mar riage (which was not forbidden in the West) and the deposition of the conscientious patriarch.
Leo on his death-bed restored the deposed patriarch (912). A Synod of Constantinople in 920, at which Pope John X. was represented, declared a fourth marriage illegal, and made no concessions to Rome. The Emperor Constantine, Leo's son, prohibited a fourth marriage by an edict; thereby casting a tacit imputation on his own birth. The Greek church regards marriage as a sacrament, and a necessary means for the propa gation of the race, but a second marriage is prohibited to the clergy, a third marriage is tolerated in laymen as a sort of legal concubinage, and a fourth is condemned as a sin and a scandal. The pope acquiesced, and the schism slumbered during the dark tenth century. The venal Pope John XIX. (1024) was ready for an enormous sum to renounce all the claim of superiority over the Eastern patriarchs, but was forced to break off the negotiations when his treasonable plan was discovered.
Cerularius and Leo IX.
Michael Cerularius (or Cserularius),1 who was patriarch from 1043 to 1059, renewed and completed the schism. Heretofore the mutual anathemas were hurled only against the contending heads and their party ; now the churches excommunicated each other. The Emperor Constantinus Monachus courted the friendship of the pope for political reasons, but his patriarch
checkmated him. Cerularius, in connection with the learned
•
Bulgarian metropolitan Leo of Achrida, addressed in 1053 a letter to John, bishop of Trani, in Apulia (then subject to the Eastern rule), and through him to all the bishops of France
Karbonopsyne, who in 905 bore him a son, Constantine Porphyrogenitus (or Porphyrogennetos, d. 959). See Hergenrother, Phot. III. 656 sq.
1 ~K.r}povAdpio(;, probably from the Latin cerida (tujpioAoc), ceriolarium, a cande labrum for wax-tapers.