Barlaam the Calabrian. Three Treatises on Papal Primacy: Introduction, Edition, and Translation - article ; n°1 ; vol.53, pg 41-115

Tia M.Kolbaba

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Revue des études byzantines - Année 1995 - Volume 53 - Numéro 1 - Pages 41-115
REB 53 1995 France p. 41-115
Tia M. Kolbaba, Barlaam the Calabrian. Three Treatises on Papal Primacy : Introduction, Edition, and Translation. — Barlaam the Calabrian, c. 1290-1348, wrote twenty-one treatises against Latin doctrine before 1342. Three of these treatises address the issue of papal primacy. Traditional in most aspects, these treatises are unique in others, especially in their acknowlegment that even a Latin and a Greek who argue in good faith may argue at cross purposes. This article presents an edition and English translation of these texts with introductory notes about the history of the issue and about the life of the infamous Barlaam.
75 pages
Source : Persée ; Ministère de la jeunesse, de l’éducation nationale et de la recherche, Direction de l’enseignement supérieur, Sous-direction des bibliothèques et de la documentation.

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• Publié par: REVUE_DES_ETUDES_BYZANTINES
• Publié le: 01 janvier 1995
• Nombre de lectures: 21
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 4 Mo

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Tia M. Kolbaba
Barlaam the Calabrian. Three Treatises on Papal Primacy:
Introduction, Edition, and Translation
In: Revue des études byzantines, tome 53, 1995. pp. 41-115.
Abstract
REB 53 1995 France p. 41-115
Tia M. Kolbaba, Barlaam the Calabrian. Three Treatises on Papal Primacy : Introduction, Edition, and Translation. — Barlaam the
Calabrian, c. 1290-1348, wrote twenty-one treatises against Latin doctrine before 1342. Three of these treatises address the
issue of papal primacy. Traditional in most aspects, these treatises are unique in others, especially in their acknowlegment that
even a Latin and a Greek who argue in good faith may argue at cross purposes. This article presents an edition and English
translation of these texts with introductory notes about the history of the issue and about the life of the infamous Barlaam.
Citer ce document / Cite this document :
Kolbaba Tia M. Barlaam the Calabrian. Three Treatises on Papal Primacy: Introduction, Edition, and Translation. In: Revue des
études byzantines, tome 53, 1995. pp. 41-115.
http://www.persee.fr/web/revues/home/prescript/article/rebyz_0766-5598_1995_num_53_1_1901BARLAAM THE CALABRIAN.
THREE TREATISES ON PAPAL PRIMACY,
INTRODUCTION, EDITION,
AND TRANSLATION1
Tia M. KOLBABA
PART I POLITICAL HISTORY AND PAPAL PRIMACY
The history of how the Eastern and Western churches developed
different ideas of church organization, including fundamentally dif
ferent conceptions of the papacy's role in the church, has been docu
mented by many scholars, and I intend to give only the briefest over-
1. The edition, translation, and introduction of these texts was originally done as a
thesis for the Licence in Medieval Studies under the direction of Father Robert Sin-
kewicz. I here express my gratitude to Father Sinkewicz and to the late Father Michael
Sheehan, who also carefully read and commented on the work. Ms. Julian Chrysosto-
mides of the University of London read the nearly finished product and provided many
helpful hints, especially for the translation. All three gently questioned many major
and minor points, improving the whole tremendously. The errors that remain are,
unfortunately, mine own.
Here is the list of the abbreviations used in the article.
BF Byzantinische Forschungen
BS Byzanlinoslavica
CVCi Codices Vaticani Graeci Bibliothecae Apostolicae \ aticanae. 8 volumes
(Rome, 1923-1985), designated herein by the shelfmarks of codices
they contain and by year of publication.
Joannou, GOO. Joannou, Perikles. Les canons des conciles œcuméniques, iie-ixe siècle:
édition critique, version latine et traduction française, (Irottaferrata
(Roma): Tipografia Italo-Orientale "S. Nilo", 1962.
Joannou, CSP. Joannou, Perikles. Les canons des synodes particuliers, (irottaferrata
(Roma): "S. Nilo". 1962.
JTS Journal of Theological Studies
Luyd Luyd, John, ed. Barlaarni Contra Latinos [=AL21). PC· 151: 1255-
1280.
Revue des Etudes Byzantines 53, 1995, p. 41-115. ΤΙ Α Μ. KOLBABA 42
view of their work.2 Francis Dvornik has established how the idea
that a see's status stemmed from its founding apostle came to play a
dominant role in the West, where Rome was the only apostolic see.
The same idea played only a minor role in the East. The eastern
church, instead, generally saw the rank of a bishop, including the
status of an archbishop or metropolitan, as based on a combination of
two factors: the civil rank of the city in which he presided and eccle
siastical tradition. Thus the patriarch of Constantinople could claim
second place after "the bishop of Old Rome" because his seat was
"New Rome" from which the emperor ruled. He could not, however,
usurp Rome's place, for ecclesiastical tradition held that the bishop of
Rome was first in honor.
The contrast between Roman emphasis on apostolicity and
Gonstantinopolitan emphasis on civil status developed largely in the
fourth through sixth centuries, when the patriarchs of Constantinople
emphasized their civil status in their struggles with Alexandria and
Antioch for the title of first see in the East. Since had,
in this period, no claim to apostolicity, this emphasis was both neces
sary and predictable. In the West, on the other hand, the bishops of
Rome increasingly stressed their apostolic foundation by the prince of
the Apostles. Moreover, because of difficulties of their own with the
civil powers, they did not emphasize any connection between the
pope's status and Rome's status as the capital city.
Of course, these two ideas developed gradually over a long period,
and there was never a clear opposition between them. The Eastern
church continued to grant validity to the idea of apostolicity and the
West kept the idea of Rome as civil capital alive for many centuries.
Since East and West had little direct contact with one another for
much of that time, no conflict immediately arose from the difference.
As late as 867, the Patriarch Photios listed only five complaints
Med.St. Mediaeval Studies
Mioni Λ Mioni, E. Bibliothecae Uivi Marri Venetiarum. Codices Graeci Manus-
cripli. 3 volumes in 4 parts. Rome: Istituto Poligrafico dello Stato,
1967, 1972, 1960, 1973.
Mioni Β Mioni, E. Bibliolhecae Divi Marri Veneliarum. Codices Graeci Manus-
cripli. 2 volumes + index. Rome: Istituto Poligraiico e Zecca dello
Stato, 1981-1985.
NCE New Catholic Encyclopedia.
2. F. Dvornik, Byzantium and the Roman Primacy, trans. E.A. Quain, New York
1966; Idem, The Idea of Apostolicity in Byzantium and the liegend of the Apostle Andrew,
Cambridge, Mass. 1958; J. Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doc
trinal Themes, New York 1974, p. 90, 97-101; Idem, St. Peter in Byzantine Theology,
The Primacy of Peter in the Orthodox Church, London 1963; J. Pelikan, The Spirit of
Eastern Christendom (600-1700), Chicago 1974, p. 146-170. .
.
.
THE C.ALABRIAN's TREATISES 43 BAHLAAM
against the Latins:3 they fast on Saturdays, their Lenten fast is insuf
ficiently rigorous, they insist on unmarried clergy, they allow confi
rmation only by bishops, and they have added the Filioque to the
creed. Of these, the last was clearly the most important to Photios.
This concern is reflected in other texts as well. In general, before the
twelfth century, Byzantine anti-Latin writings stressed the Filioque
and the use of unleavened bread in the eucharist.4
The dispute about the Filioque clause raised the issue of authority
in the church by questioning whether any bishop, even the bishop of
Rome, had the right to change a conciliar creed in a case where this
was explicitly forbidden by the canons. Nevertheless, papal primacy
became a central issue only gradually and only in the twelfth century.
In that period, Byzantine intellectuals became aware of the extent of
the primatial claims of the post-Gregorian papacy and encountered
first-hand many of the implications of those claims.5 This increased
awareness was largely a result of renewed and extended contact be
tween East and West, made possible by the re-opening of a land-route
across the Balkans and exemplified by the crusades. An exchange of
letters between Pope Innocent III, Patriarch Ioannes Kamateros
(Camaterus), and Emperor Alexios III in 1198 and 1199 shows that
papal primacy had become a serious obstacle to the unity of the
church. Innocent III, using his masterful exegetical skills, made the
papal claims as clear as they had ever been. Kamateros responded to
this clarity with a clarity of his own, making the four primary points
which would continue to be made by Orthodox Christians down to
the present: Peter's primacy among the apostles was a primacy of
honor and only of honor; Peter's death in Rome does not necessarily
3. Photios, Encyrlica epistola ad sedes orientales, ed. Β. Laourdas and L.(l. Weste-
rink, Photii Fialriarchae Conslaniinopolitani Epistulae et Amphilochia, v. 1, Leipzig
1983, Ε p. 2, p. 42-43.
4. The most notable exception to this is Patriarch Michael Keroullarios (Cerularius),
who expanded Photios' list to twenty-three items: Keroullarios, Ep. ad Petrum patriar-
cham Antiochiae, PG 120, 781-796. Note, however, that Keroullarios was rebuked by
Peter of Antioch for treating mere differences of custom as if they were heresy: Peter of
Antioch, Ep. ad Michaelem Patriarcham, PG 120, 796-816. For other examples of
Byzantine discussions of Latin "heresies " see T.M. Kolbaba, Heresy and (Culture, l^ists
of the Errors of the Latins in Byzantium, unpublished doctoral dissertation. University
of Toronto, 1992.
5. Here I agree with ,L Darrouzès, Les documents byzantins du xii'1 siècle sur la
primauté romaine, BEB 23, 1965, p. 48; with D. Nicol, The Papal Scandal. Studies in
Church History 13, 1976, p. 144; and with J. Spiteris, La critica bizantina del Primula
Bomano nel secolo xii, Rome 1979, p. 42. 49, 52-53, 55, etc. Thus I disagree with the
idea that "All of a sudden [after the fall of Constantinople in 1204] the East became
aware of an ecclesiological development which had taken place in the West ."
.1 Meyendorff. St. Peter in Byzantine Theology, p. 16. .