The «anecclesing» of the Latin Church in metropolitan polemical writings (XI century) / «Анэкклезивность» Латинской Церкви в митрополичих полемических трудах (XI в.) (original) (raw)

The so-called «Great Schism» of 1054 was responsible for the increased production of writings against the Latin faith and practices in the lands that followed the Constantinopolitan Patriarchate, especially in Kievan Rus where most bore the authorship of the metropolitans. This kind of literature, mostly lists enumerating errors, have been discussed in detail by several authors, but little attention has been given to how the lists show a conception of community of faith, which is constructed against the notion of Latin Ecclesia. Therefore, this article aims to analyze how a conception of Church is thought in the polemical writings attributed to two metropolitans of Kiev ‒ Georgy and Ioann II ‒ in a process we’ll call «anecclesing», that is, desacralization of a community of faith and thus revoking its right to be considered a Church.