The Orthodoxy of the Latins in the twelfth century

This chapter focuses on the Byzantines who maintained that the Latins were orthodox. It provides a detailed study of those who argued in favor of the orthodoxy of the Latins in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. Throughout the early Middle Ages, most Byzantine writers who perceived errors in ritual or doctrine within the Latin Church were nevertheless not overly concerned with such matters. In the twelfth century this position gradually became untenable, more Byzantines adopted the opinion that the Latins were heretics, and those who defended Latin orthodoxy often had to go beyond tolerance of Latin differences to acceptance of them. In the early years of the Komnenian dynasty, the cathedral clergy of the Hagia Sophia and the bishops who made up the patriarchal synod had become the spokesmen of imperial orthodoxy, in large part by cooperating with Alexios I's determination to wipe out heresy in his empire.