Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople

But yeah, then he eventually is ordained the Bishop of Constantinople.

So he's a sort of Patriarch of Constantinople in 398.

And this is the...

the capital of the Roman Empire.

And he knew, well, yeah, it doesn't turn out well for St. John Chrysostom, at least like physically.

Yeah.

to be the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Because, so what's interesting is, so since it's the Patriarchate of Constantinople, since it's sort of the political center of the world, the This position comes with a lot of wealth and privilege and a lot of honor attached to it.

Nevertheless, he still nourished designs against the Normans and renewed his overtures to Argyros at Bari.

But the interference of the Pope with Apulian affairs and his negotiations with the Catapan excited the jealousy of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Keroularias, and combined with theological disputes to sharpen the strife for precedence between the two seas, which was gradually widening the breach between the Eastern and Western branches of the Church.

The Patriarch, in a letter to the Bishop of Trani, denounced the heresies of the Latins, especially the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist.

A warm correspondence was carried on by chosen representatives of both sides on this subject and on the question of precedence, each Pontiff laying claim to the title of Universal Bishop.

Nevertheless, he still nourished designs against the Normans and renewed his overtures to Argyros at Bari.

But the interference of the Pope with Apulian affairs and his negotiations with the Catapan excited the jealousy of the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Keroularias, and combined with theological disputes to sharpen the strife for precedence between the two seas, which was gradually widening the breach between the Eastern and Western branches of the Church.

The Patriarch, in a letter to the Bishop of Trani, denounced the heresies of the Latins, especially the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist.

A warm correspondence was carried on by chosen representatives of both sides on this subject and on the question of precedence, each Pontiff laying claim to the title of Universal Bishop.

You read like Venerable Bede or Geoffrey of Monmouth or something, and they're talking about councils to decide whether priests can have wives, for example.

And this is one of the divisions within the Eastern Christian tradition and um we'll say catholicism is that the patriarch of constantinople or the patriarch of antioch or the patriarch of alexandria they say yeah the pope has a certain standing but he's it's more like the first among equals we're not subservient to him and you recall in 1054 the patriarch of constantinople and the and the pope excommunicate each other

yeah

and that has never been resolved That happens, and so that means that they are assuming an authority, right? The patriarch of Constantinople is assuming an authority.

I can excommunicate you, and I did.

Mm-hmm.

This is

going to play directly into a fundamental theological divide that exists even today between the Latin tradition and the Greek tradition.

Why not propose amendments, even modifications or corrections, so these texts will no longer be ambiguous? Another case in history was Pope Honorius I in the 7th century.

He wrote two letters which belonged to his authentic pontifical magisterium, to the Patriarch of Constantinople regarding Christology.

These letters of the Pope were so unclear, so ambiguous.

They were not directly heretical, not directly erroneous, but quite ambiguous.

Wherein someone that lives in Athens is obviously going to like look at...

I realize it's called Istanbul now but it's still, he's still the Patriarch of Constantinople.

You're gonna look at the patriarch- Like basically you're just gonna look at the patriarch that is closest to you.

Mm-hmm.

Like he's still a guy.

But he lives in Istanbul now.

He lives in Is- in Istanbul, but he's also the, the guy who's the current patriarch of Constantinople is often at odds with the national churches because they s-- the... and this was also a tension like during the Greek war of independence, like between the heads of the church in Asia Minor versus the local clerics in the lower Balkan peninsula.

Okay.

The liturgy is the same.

We're supported by the ecumenical patriarch.

There's all sorts of ways you could achieve consolation, justify just, look, it's UOC versus OCU.

Just switch some letters around.

And lately, the EP, let alone some of the rhetoric that almost insinuates a sort of ortho-papacy, like of his supremacy.

And part of this is that the EP, which...

If you believe the article that we read shows that there's deep state US intelligence ties with the ecumenical patriarchy in Constantinople.

And they have been doing in ways the bidding of the West really since the end of World War II.