25/02/2026
Public lecture by Christopher D. Schabel, PhD: ”Orthodox or Heretics? Radically Differing Latin Perspectives on Greek-Rite Christians in the Late Middle Ages”
In both Eastern and Western scholarship, the stereotype of medieval Latin approaches to Greek-rite Christianity is that those who are anachronistically called “Catholics” adopted a rather uniformly negative attitude toward those who are equally anarchronistically called “Orthodox.” While medievalists and Byzantinists, as well as modern Catholics and Orthodox, disagree on the level and meaning of this medieval Western hostility against most Eastern Christians, they nevertheless share the belief that this hostility was basically monolithic. In this talk, based on research carried out over the past three decades, I argue that this was not the case, and that many if not most Latin theologians, especially the Franciscans and their allies, considered Greek-rite Christians orthodox, not heretics. Nevertheless, the Dominicans, led by Thomas Aquinas, had a darker view, and it was the Dominican approach that dominated the Western side of the discussions just before, during, and after the Council of Florence.
https://ts.centre.ubbcluj.ro/2026/02/25/orthodox-or-heretics/
