Extracts from Father Terry's Verbal Conscience website (http://www.frterry.org), Handouts 100, 102
1. Sentence of excommunication delivered by Cardinal Humbert against Michael Cerularius
[Editor's note: In
1015
A.D. Humbert entered the monastery of Moyenmoutier in the Vosges and
became
a
fervent supporter
of reforming the church. Pope Leo IX, who had been Bishop of Toul,
brought
him to Rome as
secretary,
made him a cardinal and entrusted several missions to him, including
one to
Constantinople.
He was a man of character but unbending, uncompromising and without
pity.
Michael
Cerularius
(1000-1058 A.D.), born of a great family in Constantinople, had become
a
monk following his
imprisonment for a plot against the emperor. The friendship of another
emperor
brought him the
status of patriarch in 1043 A.D. He proved very hostile to the Latins.
In 1058
A.D. he was
arrested
and deported by the Emperor Isaac Comnenus and died before being
brought to trial.]
As for Michael, who has
improperly
been given the title patriarch, and those who share
in his folly, they sow an
abundance
of heresies each day in their midst (in the city of
Constantinople). Like the
Simonians,
they sell the gift of God; like the Valesians, they
make their hosts eunuchs and then
elevate them up not to the priesthood but also to
the episcopate. Like the
Nicolaitans,
they allow ministers of the holy altar to be
contracted in marriage ... Like
the Pneumatomachi (those who fought against the
Spirit) they have suppressed the
procession of the Holy Spirit a filio ["from the Son"]
in the creed. Like the
Manichaeans,
they declare that fermented bread is alive ...
Moreover, allowing beard and hair
to grow, they refuse communion with those who,
following the custom of the Roman
church, cut their hair and shave their beard ...
That is why, being unable to
bear
these unprecedented injuries and these outrages
directed against the chief
apostolic
see... we sign against Michael and his supporters the
anathema that our most reverend
pope has pronounced against them if they do not
return to their senses ...
May Michael, the neophyte, who
improperly bears the title of patriarch . . . and all those
who follow him in the above
mentioned
errors, may they all fall under the anathema,
Maranatha, with the Simonians.
.. and all the heretics, and indeed with the devil and his
angels, unless they return to
their senses ... Amen, Amen, Amen!
2. Reforming Decrees
The election of the pope: decree of 1059 (Nicholas II)
Instructed by the authority of
our predecessors and other holy fathers, we have
decided and established that after
the death of a pope of the universal church of Rome,
first of all the cardinal bishops
shall together, and with the most careful attention, seek
out the most worthy person, and
then present him to the cardinal clergy; finally, the
rest of the clergy and the people
shall come forward to support the new election.