John-Jerome of Prague (1368–1440) and the Errores Graecorum: Anatomy of a Polemic Against Greek Christians

This paper discusses the anti-Greek writings of the Camaldolese John-Jerome of Prague from 1409 to 1433. It demonstrates how his varied experiences in Poland and the Middle East helped shape his views on eastern Christians, and how these views were further affected by the role Greek theology played in the thought of his great opponents, the Hussites. His hostile statements about the Greeks provide some indication of the depth of the antipathy between the two sides, as well as the limited knowledge of many in the Latin West about the details of ecclesiastical history and Greek theology on the eve of the Council of Florence. A discussion of his writings over a quarter century illustrates how John-Jerome's opinions about Greek Christians changed as he experienced different aspects of the relationship between the Latin and Greek churches. It is interesting to compare John-Jerome's views with two contemporaries whom he knew personally, the Camaldolese humanist Ambrogio Traversari and the Greek Dominican theologian Andrew Chrysoberges.