Résumé :
The name of George Metochites (ca. 1250-1328) is linked to the union of Lyon (1274) and the religious conflicts that broke out after the death of Michael VIII Palaeologus (December 1282) and thedeposition of the unionist leaders (January 1283). Despite the condemnations that were imposed upon him, he continued to support the Union of the Churches and the procession of the Holy Spirit a Patre Filioque: being an outcast and a political convict for the last 45 years of his life (1283-1328), he composed four polemical works, among which the Historia dogmatica is considered to be the most important one. As part of my PhD project dealing with the preparation of the critical edition of the Historia, in this paper I propose to examine, through some autobiographical sections of the first book, how and why Metochites aims at vividly depicting himself as an inflexible unionist. Presenting the first critical edition of some of the most revealing passages (with an English translation), I will try to establish the reasons that guided this subtle operation. In fact, the whole textual construction is intended as a way to protest against the injustice of the anathema imposed on him (and on his unionist companions) by the Tomos of Gregory II (1285) and to prove that none of them should be considered heretics – on the contrary, they always fought for the truth.
