Peter of Antioch (2)

Peter Of Antioch (2)

the third patriarch of that name in the current tables of the occupants of that see, which commence with the apostle Peter, was born near the beginning of the 11th century. Contemporary with Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, and Leo of Achridia, he united with them in hostility to the Latin Church. According to Cave, Peter bitterly inveighed against the lives and doctrines of the Latin clergy, and especially against the addition of the word Jilioque to the creed; while, according to Le Quien, he preserved a more impartial tone, and showed everywhere "a disposition averse to schism." Peter obtained the patriarchate in the year 1053, and in the same year he sent synodical letters to the patriarchs of Alexandria, Jertusalem, and Constantinople, and to pope Leo IX, signifying his accession. Cave states that he sent to the pope "a profession of his faith," but it is probable that he has applied this term to the synodical letter, of which a Latin version appears among the letters of Leo IX. Le Quien, who had in his possession the Greek text of these synodical letters, complains of the great discrepancy between the Greek text and the Latin version. Two letters of Peter appear in Greek. with a Latin version, in the Monumenta Ecclesiae Graecae of Cotelerius (2:112, 145). The first is entitled Epistola ad Doeminicum Gradensem, and is an answer to Dominicus Gradensis s. Venetus, patriarch of Venice or Aquileia, whose letter, in the collection of Gotelerius, precedes that of Peter; the second is addressed to Michael Cerularius (Epistola ad Michaelem Cerularium), and is preceded by a letter of Michael to Peter, to which it is the answer. A considerable part of this letter had previously been published by Leo Allatius, in his De Consensu Ecclesiarum Orient. et Occident. lib. 3, c. 12, § 4. There is extant in MS. at Vienna another letter of Peter, Petri Epistola ad Joannem Tranensem in Apulia Episcopum, relating to the matters in dispute between the Eastern and Western churches. See Cave, Hist. Litt. ad ann. 1040, 2:132; Oudin, Comment. de Scriptorib. et Scriptis Eccles. 2:605; Lambec, Comment. de Biblioth. Caesaraea; Le Quien, Oriens Christian. 2:754.