The Controversies That Led to the Division of the Church

The Great Schism, also known as the East-West Schism of 1054, was a split in the Christian Church into two main factions, Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy.

Numerous events led to the split in the Church, and the consequences were significant. Christendom did not undergo a similar transformation until the Reformation in the 16th century.

To fully understand the events of the Great Schism and why they unfolded as they did, it is important to look back at history.

About seven centuries before the Great Schism, in the fourth century AD, the Roman Emperor Constantine moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Constantinople, making it the most powerful city.

By the end of the fourth century, the Roman Empire was divided into two parts, the Western Roman Empire on the one hand, and the Eastern Roman Empire on the other.

In 395, Emperor Theodosius I died. This was a key turning point in the history of the empire, as he was the last ruler to rule both regions. After Theodosius’ death, as well as a series of socio-economic and political changes, the Western Empire soon collapsed.

The two halves of the Roman Empire were now completely separated. The political, economic and social characteristics of the West began to differ significantly from those of the East in the following decades and centuries.

One factor that separated them in particular was the language barrier. While Latin was the main language of the West, Greek was the predominant language of the East.

New nation-states also emerged in the West, and the power of the Pope also increased. By the 9th century, the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire (founded by Charlemagne in 800 AD) were crowned and legitimized by the Pope in Rome.

These new Western developments were not copied in the East, where the Eastern Roman Empire continued to exist as before.

The political power of Rome began to increase again, and this was strongly felt in many of the states and countries of the West.

Meanwhile, the East tried to resist, but the influence of the Roman Catholic Church gradually increased.

Before the Great Schism, there were many “small” schisms that contributed to the tension between the East and the West.

It is also important to note that the Church has five patriarchs. They are specially elected bishops who have authority over other bishops in the entire Christian community. These are the Patriarch of Rome, the Patriarch of Constantinople, the Patriarch of Antioch, the Patriarch of Alexandria, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem.

One of the issues that led to the schism in the Church was related to the nature of Jesus Christ – is it divine or human? If He is the Son of God, then what does this mean – is He equal to God or is He a creature of God?

In the 4th century AD. The Church split over the issue of Arianism.

Arianism is an anti-trinitarian view held by the followers of Arius. Arians denied that Jesus Christ and God the Father had the same fundamental nature, viewing the Son as a created being, inferior to the Father. After the First Council of Nicaea, Arianism was declared a heresy.

In 404, a conflict arose in the Byzantine Empire between Emperor Arcadius (ruler of the Eastern Roman/Byzantine Empire) and the Patriarch of Constantinople, John Chrysostom. John Chrysostom was a respected church leader and preacher, but he often criticized the morals of the wealthy and the imperial court, which did not please the emperor and his entourage.

As a result, in 404, Emperor Arcadius refused to recognize John Chrysostom as the legitimate Patriarch of Constantinople.

This caused tension because Pope Innocent I (leader of the Western Church) supported John Chrysostom. The other Eastern patriarchs, however, sided with the emperor and also refused to recognize John as patriarch.

Because of this disagreement, Pope Innocent I broke off all relations with the Eastern part of the Church. The rift lasted for eleven years – only in 415 did the Eastern patriarchs agree to recognize John Chrysostom as the legitimate patriarch, which temporarily restored unity.

Some bishops believed that Jesus had two natures – human and divine, while others believed that He was entirely divine and had nothing human in Him.

In response to these beliefs, Emperor Zeno issued the edict Henotikon ( “Unification”), which was later rejected by Pope Felix III.

Patriarch Acacius was the one who encouraged Zeno to issue the edict. Pope Felix learned of this and anathematized Acacius. The excommunication was lifted in 519, when the Byzantine Emperor Justin I recognized it.

At this point, the two churches had essentially reached an agreement. However, the beliefs of the Eastern Church gradually diverged from those of the Western Church.

Other disputes that arose and led to the Great Schism of 1054 can be traced back to the Nicene Creed, which was approved at the First Council of Nicaea, held in 325. At the council, the council affirmed the equality of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the Holy Trinity, declaring that only the Son was incarnate as Jesus Christ.

In the following centuries, the statement was revised several times, and a problem arose over the wording of the Creed prayer. In 431, at the Ecumenical Council of Ephesus, the council explicitly declared that any further revisions of the Creed would be forbidden.

However, the Western Church added some changes. One of the main ones was the redaction of a part of the prayer that originally read:

“And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the Giver of Life, Who proceeds from the Father.”

The Western Church added the words “and the Son” at the end of the sentence. The Eastern Church disagreed with this statement, stating that it was uncanonical.

Over the centuries, there were a number of other disagreements that led to the Great Schism. It is not surprising that after so many disagreements, a split was inevitable.

One of these was the claim to spiritual authority over the Balkans. As part of Eastern Europe, the Eastern Church considered itself to have authority over this area. On the contrary, due to its proximity to Italy and therefore to Rome, the Western Church considered itself to have authority over this region. This would be a major point of contention for centuries.

Another cause of dispute between the Eastern and Western Churches was the titles and rights of the patriarchs.

One telling case was when the Eastern Church began to call the Patriarch of Constantinople by the title “Ecumenical Patriarch”. In Greek, this means “patriarch of the entire inhabited earth” in a spiritual sense. The Western Church took it literally – as a claim that the Patriarch of Constantinople was universal, i.e. the only supreme patriarch over all Christians.

The Pope and Western clergy objected strongly, because in their opinion this undermined the authority of the Pope of Rome, who in their understanding was “the head of the whole Church”. Thus, a seemingly formal title became a serious source of tension.

Similarly, the Eastern Church was dissatisfied with the power that the Pope had over the other patriarchs. Although the patriarchs agreed that he should be honored more than the other patriarchs, they did not agree that he should have power over the other patriarchs.

The disagreements ranged from the Pope to the Eucharist. Holy Communion or Eucharist (Greek for thanksgiving) is one of the main Sacraments in the Christian Church. It was introduced by Jesus Christ during the Last Supper, when he gave his disciples bread and wine, symbolizing his body and blood.

Thus a dispute arose concerning the type of bread used for the Sacrament. In the West, the church began to use unleavened bread for the ritual. The Eastern Church disagreed with this and dipped the bread in the communion wine, which of course the other church did not agree with.

In the 11th century, some churches in Constantinople began to use Roman Catholic practices instead of Eastern Orthodox ones.

The Ecumenical Patriarch Michael I Cerularius wanted these churches to start using Eastern Orthodox practices instead of Western ones. When they refused, Cerularius closed the churches. He then wrote a letter to Pope Leo IX expressing his indignation and attacking Western practices.

The Pope wrote a reply defending his supremacy. He sent this letter back to Cerularius, along with a delegation. They arrived in Constantinople in April 1054.

The delegation was unhappy with the way they were treated and left the meeting. Cerularius was outraged, but became even angrier when he learned that the seal of the letter had been broken and the delegates had published it for all to read. Cerularius therefore ignored the delegates, refusing to acknowledge their authority.

Before the matter could proceed further, Pope Leo IX died on 19 April 1054, and Cerularius still refused to meet with the delegates. Eventually, the delegates entered the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the ceremony and placed a letter on the altar.

The letter contained a papal bull by which Patriarch Michael Cerularius was formally excommunicated. In response, he publicly burned the document and denounced the papal envoys. As a result, he was excommunicated from the Church of Rome, and Cerularius himself anathematized the Pope and the Western Church from the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Thus the division became official and legal, and since then the Western (Roman Catholic) and Eastern (Orthodox) churches have existed as separate ecclesiastical structures, each with its own spiritual and administrative leadership.

Since the Great Schism in 1054, the churches have never been reconciled. However, their relations have certainly warmed over the years. For example, in 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted the long-standing mutual excommunications imposed by their respective churches.