Accusations of Heresy between East and West

doi:10.1017/9781108556620.016

13 - Accusations of Heresy between East and West

from Part II - Case Studies

Published online by Cambridge University Press: 17 July 2025

Marie-Hélène Blanchet and

Nikolaos G. Chrissis

Edited by

Richard Flower

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Richard Flower: Affiliation:
University of Exeter

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Summary

This chapter examines the reciprocal accusations of heresy between the Byzantine East and Latin West: such accusations were only sporadically made during the first millennium but increased exponentially from the twelfth century onwards on the Byzantine side and, to a lesser extent, from the thirteenth century on the Latin side (where they were generally subsumed under the accusation of schism or ‘disobedience’). The notions of ‘heretic’ and ‘schismatic’, which ought to be distinct and precisely defined according to canon law, increasingly overlapped within the polemical discourse and were collectively applied to the opposite population, in a process of construction of religious otherness.

Keywords

polemics schism (anti-heretical) crusade (religious) otherness Filioque azymes papal primacy.

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Type: Chapter
Information: The Cambridge Companion to Christian Heresy , pp. 252 - 275

DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781108556620.016 [Opens in a new window]

Publisher: Cambridge University Press

Print publication year: 2025

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References

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