CERULARIUS, MICHAEL

CERULARIUS, MICHAEL, Patriarch of Constantinople (ca. 1005–1059). Cerularius was the subject of the excommunication laid down by Cardinal Humbert da Silva, papal legate, on 16 July 1054, the date customarily given as marking the schism between Rome and the East. It is a peculiar irony that Patriarch Michael, an arrogant and ambitious man who had raised the claims of Church (the patriarch) over the state (the emperor) to their highest pitch ever in the history of Byzantium (q.v.), should have quarreled with Humbert, an equally ambitious and choleric individual who was also a mainstay of the great papal reforms with their claims advancing the papacy (q.v.) as supreme in the spheres of both Church and state. While it is the case that the Crusades (q.v.) were unquestionably more important in creating and sustaining the schism, it is also true that the rupture that took place because of Cerularius and Humbert was never subsequently healed. This Patriarch himself did grow extremely powerful. Particularly after the incident in 1054, he ran the government until suffering exile at the hands of Emperor Isaac I, whom he had helped place on the throne.