seem to take the line that the whole Patriarchate is not contaminated finally; so that each individual Patriarch, or even his subjects, were judged on their own merits. If one Patriarch was a schismatic, that did not exclude the possibility that his successor might be a Catholic.
The first case of, at least, friendliness towards the Latins is perhaps only a small one; but it is significant. The Emperor Manuel I (Komnenos, 1143-1180) was notorious for his Latin sympathies. Because of these he made himself very unpopular at Constantinople. He was accused, not without reason, of trying to impose Frank customs and the Frank religion on his subjects. For a time he was allied with the Norman kings of Sicily; he married twice, both his wives (Bertha of Sulzbach and Mary, daughter of Raymund, Prince of Antioch) were Latins, and he gave his children in marriage to Frank princes. He wrote to Pope Alexander III (1159-1181) asking that Greeks and Latins might again be united as one flock under one shepherd, the Pope. In short, Manuel I must almost, if not quite, be counted a Catholic.[1] His second marriage with Mary, in 1166, was most unpopular among the Greeks. I suppose we should count it as a Catholic marriage; or, if it was mixed, it was only very slightly mixed. I do not know what rite was used, no doubt that of Constantinople; but the significant thing is that, not the then formally schismatical Patriarch of Constantinople, but Sophronios II of Alexandria (c. 1166-c. 1180) came to bless this marriage.[2]
Then, in the thirteenth century, we find Athanasius III of Alexandria (1268–1271), of whom Lequien says that he would never pronounce either for or against the schism.[3] That certainly does not make him a Catholic; but it shows again how much less bitter was the feeling against the Latins in these other Patriarchates than at Constantinople. Niphon (c. 1367) is said definitely to have made his submission to the Holy See. He received a friendly letter, exhorting him to do so, from Pope Urban V (1362–1370).[4] Philotheos I. (c. 1439 and 1450) signed the union of Florence, retracted it, and then accepted
- ↑ For Manuel I's latinizing policy see G. F. Hertzberg, "Gesch. der Byzantiner" in Onckel's Allgem. Gesch., Berlin, 1883), pp. 291-305, and K. Dieterich, "Byzantinische Charakterköpfe" (Leipzig, Teubner, 1909), chap. iv, pp. 35-48.
- ↑ Kinnamos, "Hist.," v, 4 (P.G., cxxxiii, 561).
- ↑ Op. cit., ii, 493.
- ↑ Raynauld ad ann. 1367, No. x (tom. vii, p. 153); Lequien, ii, 498-499. It was the time of proposed reunion under John V, Palaiologos (1341-1376).
