Hello everyone and welcome to the history of Byzantium, episode 189, End of Act 2.

Last time we talked about the so-called Great Schism.

The visit of three papal legates to Constantinople and their decision to excommunicate the patriarch.

That year, 1054, was an extremely busy one in terms of our narrative.

It was the first year after the truce was signed with the Paginegs and so Western troops were still on high alert.

The debased gold coins were now circulating out into the distant provinces.

The Turks returned to Armenia and Psellos fled Constantinople.

Let's deal with those last two developments now.

As I mentioned last episode, Psellos was hauled before a church synod to defend himself against the accusation that he was promoting heretical teaching.

Psellos' fondness for Plato and the scholarship that had built on that great philosopher's work had got the attention of the ecclesiastical establishment.

Psellos was cleared of the charges that had to sign a formal declaration of his Orthodox faith.

The ordeal clearly upset our historian a great deal.

His writing about the patriarch and the emperor who failed to protect him are critical, to say the least.

Psellos followed several of his friends who also left the capital during this time.

He headed to Mount Olympus in Bethinia where he joined a monastery.

This put him out of harm's way, but he did not enjoy the ascetic life.

He was a social animal who thrived on high court politics.

He would come scurrying back as soon as Monomacos had passed away.

As for the Turks, the truce agreed between emperor and Sultan clearly held little fear for Tugrill Begg.

The Sultan personally led a huge raid into Byzantine Armenia that same summer.

As we've talked about before, it was in 1040 that the Seljuks won a major battle which opened up the conquest of Iran and Iraq to them.

This process certainly has echoes of the original explosion of the Arabs into the Middle East.

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