Thursday, August 1, 2024

Fall of the Roman See

...NOT before 1054!

My 1014 Error

I withdraw my conclusion that the entire Roman west fell into heresy in 1014 by professing "Filioque" in the Creed.  My opinion is that the Creed was not changed until later, but was merely inserted into the Gregorian Mass by Pope Benedict VIII, at the request of emperor Henry II in 1014.  This is explained in the three part series:

"Who Invented the Roman Catholic Church?" Parts I-III playlist, NFTU
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nbXwo0gYwaQ&list=PL7g13PP_xaL7svkyJteyH9dsfjpj2apmg

According to the series, the Filioque was added later by Hildebrand  (Gregory VII) and Cardinal Humbert.  It is merely a presumption that Pope Benedict added Filioque in Rome at the behest of the new Emperor Henry II.  

I decided to check available documents.  Indeed, I cannot find evidence that Pope Benedict VIII imposed the Filioque on the Latin Rite in 1014, or at any other time.  I found two documents:

1. The recitation/chanting of the Creed was added to the Mass in 1014, but the addition of Filioque is not mentioned:

5.  (1014 AD)  ...When the presbyters of the Romans were questioned by Henry the emperor why after the Gospel (as was done in other churches) they would not sound the symbol, nor (says Bern) having heard them make such an answer,  viz.: That the Roman Church had not at any time been seriously infected with any heresies, but according to the doctrine of St. Peter continued unshaken in the solidity of the Catholic Church: and therefore it was more necessary for those to frequent that Symbol of St. Peter by singing, who at some time polluted any heresies to be spotted.  But the emperor persuaded [Pope] Benedict to sing it at the public mass...

2.  No epistles or decrees are recorded of Benedict VIII adding Filioque to the Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed, let alone imposing it on the entire Latin Rite. 

The only mention of Filioque is from an undated bull regarding the confirmation of a miracle, gleaned from the Benedictine annals of Monte Cassino, as recorded in 1842 by the monk and historian Luigi Tosti: 

(Migne) Pope Benedict VIII (1012-1024), Epistles and Decrees, pp. 1636-1538 (the last decree)
https://www.documentacatholicaomnia.eu/01p/1012-1024,_SS_Benedictus_VIII,_Epistolae_et_Decreta,_MLT.pdf

XXXIX (Anno 1012-1024) 

[Bull of Pope Benedict VIII, in which he testifies that Henry was restored to health by St. Benedict, and asserts that the Casinense monastery received gifts from the emperor.]

(Tosti, Storia di Monet Casino, I, 251, 1842 A.D.) 

Blessed bishop, servant of the servants of God.

We want it to be known to all faithful Christians, both superiors and subjects, that Lord Henry the Emperor, our spiritual son, went to the monastery of Saint Benedict, which is situated on the mountain called Castrocasini, where the most sacred body of the same saint Benedict was buried. and although he had the greatest devotion to the same place, and asserted that he had never seen a more terrible and venerable oratory, yet he was moved by a doubtful scruple whether the blessed Benedict rested bodily in the same convent of Casinense. But in view of the pain with which the same emperor was being tortured most grievously, the most holy Father Benedict appearing to the same emperor, neither fully asleep, nor fully awake, inquired where he should suffer/be admitted.  To whom immediately confessing his languor, the most holy Benedict said: "I know that until now you have doubted me to rest here; but do not doubt about this any more, and believe that my little body will most certainly rest in this place together with my sister, this will be a sign to you: when you first get up today you will [pass] three small stones in the discharge of your urine, and from then on you will no longer suffer from this pain, and you will know that I am Brother Benedict".  And with these words he disappeared.  Awaking, the emperor immediately arose, and according to the vision he had seen, being restored to his former health, he returned the greatest thanks to God and to Father Benedict.  ...with tears of joy, he reported all that he had seen and heard, adding: "Now I know for certain that this place is truly holy, and that no mortal should doubt it, since this most holy Father rests together with his holy sister." But the faith of the words of those three pebbles, which he had [passed] under the tenor of the vision, he openly showed to all.  And the emperor, rising and coming to the body of the blessed Benedict, presented the following gifts to the blessed Benedict...All these things we placed on the altar of Saint Benedict to be kept there forever.

Wherefore I, the Bishop Benedict above, the servant of the servants of God, together with the aforesaid emperor, all who are considered to be Christians, beseech through the Lord the Father almighty and through Jesus Christ his Son our only Lord, who for the salvation of the world was willing to be born, die and rise again, and through The Holy Spirit, proceeding from both, and through the most blessed Peter, the chief of the apostles, who has the power to bind and loose, that no one ever presumes to take away the treasure and all that the said emperor has previously contributed to the said church for the remedy of his soul...

...he who observes with pious insight and stands in all things as a keeper of our apostolic decrees, and who looks to the worship of God (sic), will receive the grace of blessing from our most merciful Lord in manifold ways through the intercession of the blessed Benedict, and will deserve to be a partaker of eternal life. Amen.

Puppus, the patriarch of Aquilegia, Belgrinus, archbishop of Cologne, with almost all the bishops and abbots of all Gaul and Italy, took part in this matter.

Therefore, according to actual documentation, the only things we know for sure are:
  • The recitation of the Creed was added to the Roman Mass in 1014.
  • Pope Benedict VIII may have professed Filioque when he confirmed Henry II's miracle, though it's possible that the document was falsified, since it is undated, and was not published until 1842.
  • I can find no records of the Roman Synod of 1014.
  • The only "proof" is that the names of both Pope Sergius IV and Pope Benedict VIII were removed from the eastern diptychs, presumably because they professed Filioque. 
  • The east-west schism did not begin until 1054, caused by Cardinal Humbert's unauthorized excommunication during a state of sede vacante. 
  • The main issue of the schism was over Greek Churches in southern Italy,  under the Norman (crypto-yew) yoke, trying to be forced to use unleavened bread.
  • If Popes Sergius IV and Benedict VIII had professed the Filioque heresy, they were antipopes.
  • Filioque had not been officially imposed on the entire Latin Rite until a later date, most likely during Hildebrand's uncanonical Gregorian Reforms (1050-1080).
  • Many Latin-Rite Bishops refused to add Filioque to their Creed, even after the so-called Gregorian Reforms later in the century (they didn't accept Gregory VII as legitimate).
The main claim of the series "Who Invented the Roman Catholic Church?" is that, through the machinations of Antipope Gregory VII (Hildebrand), the absolute monarchy of second millennium Rome was established.  
Please listen to the entire series, linked above, for compelling evidence that the monk Hildebrand, in addition to being ineligible for papal election, was the master-mind of a new papacy of absolute spiritual and secular supremacy. This kind of leadership was never intended by Christ for His Church (Mark 10:42-44).  In order to come to power, Hildebrand set a precedent of collusion with the Italian Jewish banking families.  Their power grew and spread through banking, trade, and by infiltrating peerage and royal families through marriage.  Horrifically, one sees the same tactics being implemented on a universal scale today.

Also See: 



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