International congress of byzantine studies belgrade, 22 27 august 2016

THE LATE BYZANTINE EMPIRE AND THE WEST
Chairs:
 Ivayla Popova, Ionut Alexandru Tudorie 
Eleonora Naxidou
, 
Latin West in the Eyes of the Orthodox East: 
The Paradigm of the Archbishop of Ohrid Demetrius Chomatenus
Brendan Osswald
, 
Le serment de vassalité de Nicéphore I
er
d’Épire au roi Charles d’Anjou (1279) : 
à propos d’un document angevin qui n’a jamais existé
Ionut Alexandru Tudorie
, 
Political Opportunism vs. Ecumenical Project: 
A Reassessment of Michael VIII Palaiologos’ Attitude towards the Church Properties
Simeon Hinkovski
, 
Why Genoese Galley of Pietro Longo Went to Sozopol and Nessebar in January 1352? 
New Observations about the Relations of the Genoese Republic and Bulgarian Kingdom 
in the Middle of the Fourteenth Century
Mickael Bourbeau
, 
Manuel II Paléologue en occident (1399-1402) : la perspective de l’échec confrontée aux sources
Manuela Dobre
, 
The Image of the West in the 15
th
Century Byzantine Sources
Ivayla Popova
, 
The Image of the Other – Byzantium and the Balkans 
through the Eyes of Western Travellers of the 14
th
and 15
th
Centuries
Peter Rokai
, 
Ἐμφύτευσις = feudum

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Eleonora Naxidou
Democritus University of Thrace, Department of History and Ethnology, Komotini, Greece; 
[e-mail]
Latin West in the Eyes of the Orthodox East: 
The Paradigm of the Archbishop of Ohrid Demetrius Chomatenus
This paper aims to contribute to the issue of the relations between the Latin West and the 
Orthodox East after the conquest of Constantinople by the crusaders in 1204. It focuses on the 
attitudes of Demetrius Chomatenus, a prominent Archbishop of Ohrid in the first half of the 13
th
century, towards the Latin Church. At that time the Latin invasion in the Byzantine territories and 
the concomitant collapse of the Byzantine rule instigated anti-Western feelings and strengthened 
the anti-Latin party among the Orthodox clergy. Despite mutual perceptions of the Other as enemy 
and heretic, however, on the political field short-lived alliances were formed between the newly 
emerged Latin, Greek and Slavic dominions which strove for predominance and hereditary rights 
to the throne of Constantinople. Given that, according to imperial tradition, the head of the Church 
legitimized the rise to imperial power, the Orthodox high priests were also involved in this political 
and ideological conflict. An indicative case is that of Demetrius Chomatenus who encouraged the 
political aspirations of the ruler of Epirus Theodore Doukas, while at the same time laid claim to 
Patriarchal status. In this context his views towards the Latin Church are contradictory which is a 
clear manifestation of the overall confusion that reigned in the East after the events of 1204.