But the emperor not being
prepared to go so far, invited the Pope to send three legates to
Constantinople to settle the differences which disturbed the Christian
world. Cardinal Humbert, one of the legates, replied to Nicetas in the
most violent language of theological controversy, and to bring matters
to a conclusion an assembly, which was attended by the Emperor
Constantine, his court, and the Papal legates, met at the Studion on the
24th of June 1054. A Greek translation of the pamphlet composed by
Nicetas was then read, and after the discussion of the subject, Nicetas
retracted his charges and condemned all opponents of the Roman Church.
His pamphlet was, moreover, thrown into the fire by the emperor's
orders, and on the following day he called upon the Papal legates, who
were lodged at the palace of the Pege (Baloukli), and was received into
the communion of the Church he had lately denounced. But the patriarch
was not so fickle or pliant. He would not yield an iota, and on the 15th
of July 1054 Cardinal Humbert laid on the altar of S. Sophia the bull of
excommunication against Kerularios and all his followers, which has kept
Western and Eastern Christendom divided to this day.

When Michael VII. (1067-78) saw that the tide of popular feeling had
turned against him in favour of Nicephorus Botoniates, he meekly retired
to this House, declining to purchase a crown with cruelty by calling
upon the Varangian guards to defend his throne with their battle-axes.
Michael was appointed bishop of Ephesus, but after paying one visit to
his diocese he returned to Constantinople and took up his abode in the
monastery of Manuel (p. 257).[69]

To the Studion, where he had studied in his youth and which he had
embellished, the Emperor Isaac Comnenus retired, when pleurisy and the
injuries he received while boar-hunting made him realize that he had but
a short time to live. In fact, he survived his abdication for one year
only, but during that period he proved a most exemplary monk, showing
the greatest deference to his abbot, and besides performing other lowly
duties acted as keeper of the monastery gate. How thoroughly he was
reconciled to the exchange of a throne for a cell appears in the remark
made to his wife, who had meantime taken the veil at the Myrelaion,
'Acknowledge that when I gave you the crown I made you a slave, and that
when I took it away I set you free.' His widow commemorated his death
annually at the Studion,