(Redirected from Cardinal Humbertus)'Humbert of Mourmoutiers' (c.
1015 –
5 May 1061) was a French prelate,
Roman Catholic cardinal and
Benedictine oblate, donated by his parents to the monastery of
Mourmoutiers in
Lorraine. He was invited to
Rome in
1049 by the reformer
Pope Leo IX, who made him
archbishop of Sicily in
1050 (though the Normans prevented his landing there) and then
cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida.
Under Leo, he became the principal papal secretary and on a trip through
Apulia in
1053, he received from Bishop John of
Trani the letter from
Leo, Archbishop of Ochrid, criticising Western rites and practice. He translated the
Greek letter into
Latin and gave it to the pope, who ordered a response drawn up. This exchange led to Humbert being sent at the head of a legatine mission with Frederick of Lorraine, later
Pope Stephen IX, and Peter, archbishop of
Amalfi, to
Constantinople to confront
Patriarch Michael Cerularius. He was cordially welcomed by the
Emperor Constantine IX, but spurned by the patriarch. Eventually, on
16 July 1054, despite the fact that Leo had died and the excommunication was invalid, he laid the
excommunication on the high altar of the church of the
Hagia Sophia during the celebration of the liturgy. This caused the
Great Schism and marked the official separation of the Roman Church from the Orthodox Church.
In his later years, he was made librarian of the
papal curia by Stephen IX, his former legatine companion, and he penned the reform treatise ''Lib tres adversus Simoniacos'' (both
1057).
Sources
★
Norwich, John Julius. ''The Normans in the South 1016-1130''. Longmans:
London,
1967.