Religion & Philosophy

The Great Schism of 1054

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire to the Germanic Barbarian tribes, there began a division between the Greek speaking Church of the East and the Latin speaking Church of the West.  In 730 CE Emperor Leo III of the Byzantine Eastern Roman Empire pioneered the Iconoclasm and declared that it was heretical to worship of religious idols.  The Church of Western Roman Empire remained in firm support of Religious images.  Emperor Leo led a military expedition to force Pope Gregory III to comply but failed.   The Pope condemned the Emperor, and Leo in response confiscated all the Roman papal estate and under the rule and Governance of the Byzantine empire.  There was a second council of Nicaea in 787ce where there was an attempt by Regent Irene to temporarily restored the worship of Christian idols the pacify and calm the tension and stranded relationship between the east and the west.

Source: The Crowning of Charlemagne by Britannica

The Gap between both sides divided even further when in 800 CE the bishop of Rome exceeding his authority to crown Charlemagne as the Holy Roman Emperor after the King of the Franks saved Western Rome from a strong Lombard attack in exchange to be appointed Pope of all Christianity.  Since the Regent Irene was a woman and could not become emperor, the new Pope ensured the Franks would be loyal to protect Rome.   This sent a cry of outrage in the East as there was still an Emperor of Rome sitting in Constantinople at this time who had the rightful claim to the true emperor of Rome.  The Frankish Empire became known as the Holy Roman Empire, and considered the people of the Eastern Empire as “Greeks” or “Byzantines”.  However, the Byzantines still considered themselves as Romans and put their faith the Patriarch of Constantinople instead of the Pope in Rome as now both became the most import figures in Church. 

 

There was also the issue of Latin of the Filioque conspiracy where the Latin Western church added “and from the Son” into the Nicene Creed (Britannica, 2020).  The doctrine of that Holy Spirit proceeded not from the Father alone, but not from the Father and Son went against what the earlier Fathers of the Church had been taught.  Another rivalry began when in the Slaving regions when Latin speaking missionaries from Rome claimed superiority over the Greek speaking missionaries of Constantinople.  Disputes over the married Orthodox Clergy verses the Celibacy of the Roman Catholic priests, rules over various religious ceremonies (tonsure) and fasting strained the relationship between both sides.  It became less about worshiping God and more focused on Church doctrine and ecclesial rites (Britannica, 2020)

 

I053 the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Michael I Cerularius ordered the closure of all Latin churches in Constantinople in response to the Roman Catholic church forced the Greek churches in southern Italy to conform to Latin church doctrine and practices. In 1054 CE, relations between the East and the West reached its apex when Pope Leo IX sent emissaries with papal legislation to Constantinople the for the purposes of rejecting the actions of Cerularius, and that he recognizes the Pope as the head of the all the Christian churches (Britannica, 2020). 

 

This disagreement on term lead to the Patriarch of the Eastern Church and the Pope of the Western Church both excommunicating each other, and thus this became known as the great schism (division) of 1054.  The Excommunication was lifted in 1965 when the Patriarch Athenagoras I and Pope Paul VI came to an agreement over similar religious ceremonies (Britannica, 2020).

References

Britannica, 2020. East-West Schism. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/event/East-West-Schism-1054
[Accessed 10 June 20202].

Britannica, 2020. Filioque. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Nicene-Creed
[Accessed 10 June 2020].

Britannica, 2020. The Schism of 1054. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Christianity/The-Reformation
[Accessed 10 June 2020].

Britannica, 2020. Tonsure. [Online]
Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/tonsure
[Accessed 10 June 2020].