Game Session 4: March Pact Debate
November 17, 2023
Context
If the gathered crusaders agree to attack Constantinople, before the attack they must negotiate what their rule will be like in the event of their success. The March Pact was a sort of proto-constitution for crusader rule in Constantinople. In the second of the March Pact debates, characters will debate measures to heal/ overcome the religious differences of the Western and Eastern Christian Churches.
Moderator:
Marquis Boniface of Montferrat
For this debate, Boniface may appoint a proxy moderator. If so, he must announce the proxy moderator at the start of the debate.
Questions:
The third major debate of the game revolves around the Schism of Eastern and Western Churches. Since 1054, the churches of Rome and Constantinople have not recognized each other as legitimate,and the Christian world has been divided. Now this Crusade has a chance to end the schism and reunite the Christian world. However, the Crusaders will first have to decide on whose terms that union will take place and determine to what degree the Greeks should be able to maintain their historical, theological, and liturgical differences from the Latin West.
Must they acknowledge that the pope in Rome is the head of the universal church and accept the Western position on theological issues such as the wording of the Nicene Creed?
Must they also accept Western liturgical practices such as the use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist or even the use of Latin as the language of the Mass?
Finally, who should be patriarch in Constantinople—a Crusader cleric, a Greek churchman, or perhaps even one of each?
Notes
For this debate, students will need to take notes and discuss:
What are the religious differences between the Roman Church under the Pope and the Greek Church headed by the patriarch of Constantinople.
How might we decide to resolve the schism between East and West - what compromises might be taken to restore unity to the Christian world?
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