Eleventh-Century Echoes of the Argument about the Title of Ecumenical Patriarch

Teresa Wolińska

Abstract

Chronicler Rodulf Glaber has written about a Byzantine legation to Rome in ca. 1024. The envoys were to demand consent, on behalf of the patriarch and the emperor, to use the title ecumenical by the bishop of the Empire’s Capital city. Glaber’s account does not seem reliable. Still, despite some scholars’ doubts, it is believed that the legation really took place. Far-sighted plans of restoring influence in Italy and Sicily may have made Emperor Basil II take up negotiations with Rome. Yet, it was unlikely for the patriarch to seek the Pope’s consent to use the title that his predecessors had used for five hundred years. Even in the era of a fierce argument about that title, which took place during the pontificate of Gregory the Great (590-604), patriarchs did not find the Pope entitled in any way to decide about it. It is possible that the envoys brought a letter, signed by patriarch Eustacius as ecumenical patriarch, which forced Pope John XIX to express his opinion about it. According to Glauber’s account the demand of the Greeks would rouse indignation