05 — 1204 and the Deepening

The Fourth Crusade’s sack of Constantinople (12–13 April 1204) — documented by the Greek eyewitness Niketas Choniates and rebuked in Pope Innocent III’s own register — and the half-century of Latin empire and imposed Latin hierarchies that followed turned the schism from a hierarchs’ quarrel into the possession of peoples. After Kantara’s thirteen martyred monks (1231), reunion of hearts was effectively impossible.

Tradition: Pan-Orthodox

Contents

File Description
the-sack-of-constantinople.md The diversion of the crusade (Zara, the Angelos deal, the March 1204 partition), the three days’ sack, Choniates’ eyewitness testimony, Villehardouin and Gunther from the Latin side, Innocent III’s Register 8:126 rebuke — with the disputed casualty and loot figures flagged
the-latin-empire-and-the-popular-schism.md The Latin patriarchate of Constantinople, Fourth Lateran’s Licet Graecos, the exiled patriarchate at Nicaea, Cyprus and the thirteen monks of Kantara (1231), Balsamon and the hardening — why 1204 made the schism popular and irreversible

Reading Order

Read the-sack-of-constantinople.md first for the event, then the-latin-empire-and-the-popular-schism.md for its ecclesial consequences.

See Also