Caerularius, Michael

Caerularius, Michael, patriarch of Constantinople (A.D. 1043-1059). He was one of the chief promoters of the great schism between the Eastern and Western churches. In 1054 Pope Leo IX sent legates to Constantinople to accommodate matters; but they, being displeased at the treatment they received, left a written letter of excommunication, directed against the patriarch, on the altar of the church of St. Sophia, and departed, having shaken off the dust from their feet. The ostensible causes of difference between the churches, as detailed in a letter written by Caerularius and Leo, archbishop of Acryda, to John, bishop of Trani, were the following: that the Latins consecrated with unleavened bread; that they added the words Flioque to the creed of the Church; that they taught that the souls of the faithful make expiation in the fires of Purgatory; and that in some other respects they differed in their customs from those of the East. After this outrage on the part of the Roman legates, Caerularius called together a synod at Constantinople 1054, and excommunicated them and their adherents. Caerularius himself was a man of ambitious views and arrogant disposition, and little likely to ward off the final rupture with Rome, which in fact took place. However, the Emperor Isaac Comnenius took umbrage at his behavior, and, A.D. 1059, having caused him to be seized, sent him to Praeconnesus. Caerularius refused to resign the patriarchal throne as the emperor endeavored to compel him to do, but died shortly afterward in exile Baron. Annal;s, 11, A.D. 1054; Moshelm, Ch. Hist. cent. 11, pt. 2, ch. 3; Neander, Ch. History, 3:580.