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The '''East-West Schism''', or the '''Great Schism''', is the historic sundering of eucharistic relations between the [[Church of Rome|See of Rome]] (now the [[Roman Catholic Church]]) and the sees of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (now the Orthodox Church). It divided medieval Mediterranean Christendom into Eastern and Western branches, which later became known as the [[Eastern Orthodox Church]] and the [[Roman Catholic Church]], respectively. Relations between East and West had long been embittered by political and ecclesiastical differences and theological disputes.<ref name="Cross">Cross, F. L., ed. ''The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church''. New York: Oxford University Press. 2005, s.v. "Great Schism"</ref> Pope [[Leo IX]] and [[Patriarch of Constantinople]] [[Michael Cerularius]] heightened the conflict by suppressing Greek and Latin in their respective domains. In 1054, Roman legates traveled to Cerularius to deny him the title [[Ecumenical Patriarch]] and to insist that he recognize the Church of Rome's claim to be the head and mother of the churches.<ref name="Cross"/> Cerularius refused. The leader of the Latin contingent [[Excommunication|excommunicated]] Cerularius, while Cerularius in return excommunicated the legates.<ref name="Cross"/>
The Western legate's acts are of doubtful validity because Leo had died, while Cerularius's excommunication applied only to the legates personally.<ref name="Cross"/> Still, the Church split along doctrinal, theological, linguistic, political, and geographical lines, and the fundamental breach has never been healed. Western cruelty during the [[Crusades]], the capture and [[sack of Constantinople]] in 1204, and the imposition of Latin Patriarchs made reconciliation more difficult.<ref name="Cross"/>This included the taking of many precious religious artifacts and the destruction of the [[Library of Constantinople]]. On paper, the two churches actually reunited in 1274 (by the [[Second Council of Lyon]]) and in 1439 (by the [[Council of Florence]]), but in each case the councils were repudiated by the Orthodox as a whole, on the grounds that the hierarchs had overstepped their authority in consenting to reunification. In 1484, 31 years after the [[Fall of Constantinople]] to the [[Ottoman Empire|Ottoman Turks]], a Synod of Constantinople repudiated the [[Eastern_Catholic_Churches#Historical_background|Union of Florence]], making the breach between the Patriarchate of the West and the Patriarchate of Constantinople final.<ref name="Cross"/> In 1965, the Pope of Rome and the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople nullified the anathemas of 1054.<ref name="Cross"/> Further attempts to reconcile the two bodies are ongoing.
A [[schism]] is a break in the Church's authority structure and communion and is different from a [[heresy]], which means false doctrine. Church authorities have long recognized that even if their minister is in schism, the sacraments, except the power to ordain, are valid. There have been many other schisms, from the second century until today, but none as significant as the one between East and West.
John Binns writes that, after the fall and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, the natural leading centres of the Church were Antioch and Alexandria. Alexandria had been assisted by Mark <ref>John Binns, ''An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2002, p144</ref>, one of the [[Seventy Apostles]]. Antioch had attracted Peter and Paul and Barnabas, plus others of the Seventy. Antioch was the base from which Paul made his missionary journeys to the pagans. <ref>Acts 11:19-26, Acts 12:24-25, Acts 13:1-3, Acts 14:24-28, Acts 15:1-2, Acts 15:22-40, Acts 18:22-23, Acts 19:21-22, Gal 2:11-14</ref>. The [[Church of Antioch]] sent the apostles Peter and Paul to Rome to assist the fledgling church there in its growth, and because Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire. Antioch regarded Peter as its first bishop <ref>John Binns, ''An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2002, p144</ref>.
Will Durant writes that, after Jerusalem, the church of Rome naturally became the primary church, the capital of Christianity.<ref name="CC">[[Will Durant|Durant, Will]]. ''Caesar and Christ''. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972</ref> Rome had an early and significant Christian population.<ref name="CC"/> It was closely identified with the [[Apostle Paul|Paul of Tarsus]], who preached<ref>{{bibleverse||Acts|28:17-31}}</ref> and was [[martyr]]ed there, and the [[Apostle Peter]], who was a martyr there as well. The Eastern Orthodox liturgy calls Peter and Paul "the wisest Apostles and their princes" and "the radiant ornaments of Rome".<ref>[http://www.anastasis.org.uk/29_june.htm Great Vespers of 29 June]</ref><ref>[http://www.holytrinitymission.org/books/english/menaia.htm#_Toc102863625 Menaion, 29 June]</ref> Peter is seen as founder of the Church in Rome,<ref>[http://www.pittsburgh.goarch.org/illuminator/illum-2004-dec.pdf The Illuminator, The Newspaper of the Greek Orthodox Metropolis of Pittsburgh, Oct.-Dec. 2004, p.7]</ref> and the bishops of Rome as his successors.<ref>[http://www.orthodox.net/saints/70apostles.html "Linus was bishop of Rome after the holy apostle Peter"]</ref><ref>[[Pope Benedict XVI]] is "the 265th successor of the St Peter" ([http://www.archons.org/pdf/2007/2007_Annual_Archon_Report.pdf Order of Saint Andrew the Apostle, 2007 Annual Report to His All Holiness Bartholomew]</ref> While the Eastern cities of Alexandria and Antioch produced theological works, the bishops of Rome focused on what Romans admittedly did best: administration.<ref name="CC"/>
Leading Orthodox theologian, Father [[Thomas Hopko]] has written: "The church of Rome held a special place of honor among the earliest Christian churches. It was first among the communities that recognized each other as catholic churches holding the orthodox faith concerning God's Gospel in Jesus. According to St Ignatius, the bishop of Antioch who died a martyr's death in Rome around the year 110, 'the church which presides in the territories of the Romans' was 'a church worthy of God, worthy of honor, worthy of felicitation, worthy of praise, worthy of success, worthy of sanctification, and presiding in love, maintaining the law of Christ, bearer of the Father's name.' The Roman church held this place of honor and exercised a 'presidency in love' among the first Christian churches for two reasons. It was founded on the teaching and blood of the foremost Christian apostles Peter and Paul. And it was the church of the capital city of the Roman empire that then constituted the 'civilized world (oikoumene)'."<ref>[http://www.orthodoxytoday.org/articles6/HopkoPope.php Roman Presidency and Christian Unity in our Time]</ref>
Soon, Constantine erected a new capital at Byzantium, a strategically-placed city on the Bosporus. He renamed his new capital ''Nova Roma'' ("New Rome"), but the city would become known as [[Constantinople]]. The [[Second Ecumenical Council]], held at the new capital in 381, now elevated the see of Constantinople itself, to a position ahead of the other chief metropolitan sees, except that of Rome.<ref>"The Bishop of Constantinople, however, shall have the prerogative of honour after the Bishop of Rome; because Constantinople is New Rome" (Second Ecumenical Council, [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.viii.iv.html Canon III])</ref> Mentioning in particular the provinces of Asia, Pontus and Thrace, it decreed that the synod of each province should manage the ecclesiastical affairs of that province alone, except for the privileges already recognized for Alexandria and Antioch.<ref>"Let the Bishop of Alexandria, according to the canons, alone administer the affairs of Egypt; and let the bishops of the East manage the East alone, the privileges of the Church in Antioch, which are mentioned in the canons of Nice, being preserved; and let the bishops of the Asian Diocese administer the Asian affairs only; and the Pontic bishops only Pontic matters; and the Thracian bishops only Thracian affairs" (Second Ecumenical Council, [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.ix.viii.iii.html Canon II])</ref>
The [[Fourth Ecumenical Council]] at [[Chalcedon]] in 451, confirming the authority already held by Constantinople, granted its archbishop jurisdiction over the three provinces mentioned by the First Council of Constantinople:
<blockquote>
This led to the primary causes of the Schism - the disputes over conflicting claims of jurisdiction, in particular over papal authority. Pope [[Leo IX]] claimed he held authority over the four Eastern [[patriarch]]s (see also [[Pentarchy]]).
Pope Leo IX allowed the insertion of the [[Filioque]] into the [[Nicene Creed]] in the West in 1014 <ref>Aristeides Papadakis The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy, SVS Press, NY, 1994 p14)</ref>. Eastern Orthodox today state that the 28th Canon of the [[Fourth Ecumenical Council|Council of Chalcedon]] explicitly proclaimed the equality of the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople, and that it established the highest court of ecclesiastical appeal in Constantinople.
The seventh canon of the [[Third Ecumenical Council|Council of Ephesus]] declared:
Many other issues increased tensions.
* Emperor [[Leo III the Isaurian]] outlawed the veneration of icons in the [[eighth century]]. This policy, which came to be called [[Iconoclasm]], was rejected by the West.
* The Western Church's insertion of "[[Filioque]]" into the Latin version of the [[Nicene Creed]].
* Disputes in the Balkans, Southern Italy, and Sicily over whether Rome or Constantinople had ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
==Mutual excommunication of 1054==
Most of the direct causes of the Great Schism, however, are far less grandiose than the famous ''filioque''. The relations between the papacy and the Byzantine court were good in the years leading up to 1054. The emperor [[Constantine IX]] and the Pope [[Leo IX]] were allied through the mediation of the Lombard [[catepan of Italy]], [[Argyrus]], who had spent years in Constantinople, originally as a political prisoner. Leo and Argyrus led armies against the ravaging Normans, but the papal forces were defeated at the Battle of Civitate in 1053, which resulted in the pope being imprisoned at Benevento, where he took it upon himself to learn Greek. Argyrus had not arrived at Civitate and his absence caused a rift in papal-imperial relations.
Meanwhile, the Normans were busy imposing Latin customs, including the unleavened bread—with papal approval. Patriarch [[Michael I Cerularius|Michael I]] then ordered [[Leo of Ochrid]], to write a letter to the [[bishop of Trani]], John, an Easterner, in which he attacked the "[[Judaizers|Judaistic]]" practices of the West, namely the use of unleavened bread. The letter was to be sent by John to all the bishops of the West, Pope included. John promptly complied and the letter was passed to one Humbert of Mourmoutiers, the cardinal-bishop of Silva Candida, who was then in John's diocese. Humbert translated the letter into Latin and brought it to the pope, who ordered a reply to be made to each charge and a defence of papal supremacy to be laid out in a response.
"Even after 1054 friendly relations between East and West continued. The two parts of Christendom were not yet conscious of a great gulf of separation between them. … The dispute remained something of which ordinary Christians in East and West were largely unaware".<ref>Bishop Kallistos (Ware), ''op. cit.'', p. 67</ref>
There was no single event that marked the breakdown. Rather, the two churches slid into and out of schism over a period of several centuries, punctuated with temporary reconciliations. During the [[Fourth Crusade]], however, Latin crusaders and Venetian merchants sacked Constantinople itself, looting The Church of Holy Wisdom and various other Orthodox Holy sites. This event and the final treaty established the Latin Empire of the East and the Latin Patriarch of Constantinople (with various other Crusader states). This period of chaotic rule over the sacked and looted lands of the Byzantine Empire is still known among Eastern Christians as Frangokratia. Later attempts at reconciliation, such as the [[Second Council of Lyon]], met with little or no success until the middle of the Twentieth Century.{{Fact|date=November 2008}}
In 1965, the Catholic Pope Paul VI and Patriarch [[Athenagoras I (Spyrou) of Constantinople|Athenagoras I]] of Constantinople lifted the mutual excommunications dating from the eleventh century.<ref>Joint Declaration [http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/paul_vi/speeches/1965/documents/hf_p-vi_spe_19651207_common-declaration_en.html]</ref>. In 1995 (Jun 29), Pope John Paul II and Patriarch [[Bartholomew I (Archontonis) of Constantinople|Bartholomew I]] of Constantinople again withdrew the previous 11th Century excommunications and concelebrated the Eucharist together.
*Joseph P. Farrell. ''[http://dialectic.wordpress.com/ghd/ God, History, & Dialectic: The Theological Foundations of the Two Europes and Their Cultural Consequences]''. Bound edition 1997. Electronic edition 2008.
*Aidan Nichols. [http://www.amazon.com/dp/0814650198 ''Rome and the Eastern Churches: a Study in Schism'']. 1992
*[[Laurent Cleenewerck]], ''His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches'' (Lulu.com, 2008 ISBN 978-0615183619)
*[[Vladimir Lossky]], ''The Mystical Theology of the Eastern Church'' (SVS Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0913836316)
*[[John Meyendorff]], ''Living Tradition: Orthodox Witness in the Contemporary World'' esp. pp. 64-71 (SVS Press, 1997 ISBN 978-0913836484)
