cut himself off from the Roman world. Seventy years later came the schism. Undoubtedly the rival Empire helped to foster ill-feeling. And, however much loyalty one feels as a Frank and a Latin to the long and splendid line of Western Emperors that lasted for just over a thousand years, from Charles the Great (800) to Francis I (1804), one must also sympathize with the feeling of the Court of Byzantium. After all, they had the direct line of continuity.
The culmination of these unfriendly relations was reached when the Crusaders sacked Constantinople in 1204, and set up a Frank as Emperor even there.[1] The Byzantines never forgot that outrage.
These were the chief causes of Eastern ill-feeling against Rome. Its results are seen long before the actual schism. Never was it shown more plainly than in 691 at the Quinisextum. The first four councils had drawn up, not only dogmatic decrees, but also Canons about Church discipline. There were no Canons of the 5th (553) and 6th (680). The Emperor Justinian II (685–695) thought that this omission should be made good. So in 692 he summoned a council to draw up Canons, as a supplement to the last two general synods. The bishops met under the same cupola in the Palace at Constantinople as the Synod of 680. So this council is called the second council in Trullo.[2] As it was intended to complete the fifth and sixth general councils it is also called Concilium Quinisextum (Σύνοδος πενθέκτη), the "Fifth-Sixth." There were 211 bishops present, all Easterns. But one Basil of Gortyna in Crete belonged to the Roman Patriarchate (Illyricum), and he called himself Papal Legate. There is no evidence of his having received any commission from Rome. The council drew up 102 Canons, no dogmatic definition. Many of these Canons only repeat, word for word, older laws; but most of the
- ↑ See p. 225.
- ↑ Trullanum II; when the council in Trullo is mentioned alone without a number, this one (692) is generally meant.
and silly Pope does not know that St. Constantine transferred the Imperial sceptre, all the Senate and the whole Roman army hither, and that at Rome he left only vile creatures such as fishermen, pastrycooks, birdcatchers, bastards, plebeians, and slaves" (op. c. p. 358).
