ncellor of the Roman
Church; Peter, Archbishop of Amalfi, and Cardinal Humbert.

The legates were welcomed by the Emperor, but they unwisely adopted a
lofty tone toward the haughty Patriarch, who thenceforward avoided all
communication with them, declaring that on a matter which so seriously
affected the whole Eastern Church he could take no steps without
consulting the other patriarchs. Humbert now published an argumentative
reply to Michael's letter to the Pope, in the form of a dialogue between
two members of the Greek and Latin churches, in which the charges
brought against his own communion were discussed _seriatim_, and
especially those relating to fasting on Saturday and the use of
unleavened bread in the eucharist. A rejoinder to this appeared from the
pen of a monk of the monastery of Studium, Nicetas Pectoratus, in which
the enforced celibacy of the Western clergy, on which Photius had before
animadverted, was severely criticised. The Cardinal retorted in
intemperate language, and so entirely had the legates secured the
support of Constantine that Nicetas' work was committed to the flames,
and he was forced to recant what he had said against the Roman Church.
But the Patriarch was immovable, and for the moment he occupied a
stronger position than the Emperor, who desired to conciliate him. At
last the patience of the legates was exhausted, and on July 16, 1054,
they proceeded to the Church of St. Sophia, and deposited on the altar,
which was prepared for the celebration of the eucharist, a document
containing a fierce anathema, by which Michael Cerularius and his
adherents were condemned. After their departure they were for a moment
recalled, because the Patriarch expressed a desire to confer with them;
but this Constantine would not permit, fearing some act of violence on
the part of the people. They then finally left Constantinople, and from
that time to the present all communion has been broken off between the
two great branches of Christendom.

The breach thus made was greatly widened at the period of the crusades.
However serious may have been the alienation between the East and West
at the time of their separation, it is clear that the Greeks were not
regarded by the Latins as a mere heretical sect, for one of the primary
objects with which the First Crusade was undertaken was the deliverance
of the Eastern Empire from the attacks of the Mahometans. But the
familiarity which arose from the presence of t