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 (though the Normans prevented his landing there) and then
cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida (1050).
Under Leo, he became the principal papal secretary and on a trip through
Apulia in 1053, he received from
John, Bishop 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 a Bull of
excommunication on the high altar of the church of the
Hagia Sophia during the celebration of the liturgy. This event crystallized in an official way the gradual estrangement of Eastern and Western Christianity, and is traditionally used to date the beginning of the
Great Schism.
In his later years, he was made librarian of the
Roman Curia by Stephen IX, his former legatine companion, and he penned the reform treatise
Lib tres adversus Simoniacos ('Three Books Against the Simoniacs') (1057), which helped initiate the
Gregorian Reform movement. He is also credited as the brains behind the electoral decree of 1059, which stated that popes would henceforth be elected by the
College of Cardinals.
Sources
- Hüls, Rudolf. Kardinäle, Klerus und Kirchen Roms: 1049–1130. Tübingen: 1977. See pp. 133–34.
Category:11th-century bishopsCategory:11th-century Roman Catholic bishopsCategory:French cardinalsCategory:1010s birthsCategory:1061 deathsCategory:Benedictine Oblatesde:Humbert von Silva Candidaes:Humberto de Silva Candidait:Umberto di Silvacandidala:Humbertus de Silva Candidapl:Humbert z Silva Candidaru:Гумберт (кардинал)sk:Humbert de Silva Candida
