Βυζάντιο και Ρωμαϊκό Πρωτείο κατά τον 11ο Αιώνα: Το Πρόβλημα της Συνειδητοποίησης των Παπικών Αξιώσεων

Aim of this paper is to question the awareness of the 11th century Byzantine theologians regarding papal claims to universal ecclesiastical leadership, as the latter had been established in the context of the Gregorian Reform. Conventionally, it is considered that the Byzantine Church had not fully perceived these claims until the First Crusade, when it came into close contact with the Western Christianity. However, this view is openly challenged here, on the one hand, on the basis of the respective Greek sources – which certainly remain scarce, as the Byzantine historiography does not show the expected attention to the events of 1054, which irreparably marked the relations between the two Churches – and, on the other hand, owing to the valuable testimony of the 11th century monumental art, which has been ignored by the scholars. Consequently, in this article it is argued that the lack of any clear Byzantine references to the ecclesiastical primacy thorny issue before 1100 does not occur due to ignorance. In effect, any contingent engagement of Constantinople in an ecclesiological discussion with Rome would severely affect the new Byzantine clergy Keroularian perceptions, according to which the New Rome was then the center and the guardian of Orthodoxy, since the Old Rome had taken the road to heresy, due to its doctrinal aberrations.