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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,{{Fact|date=December 2008}} are valid . There have been many other schisms, from the 2nd second century until today, but none as significant as the one between East and West.
== Dating the schism ==
The Great Schism was a gradual estrangement to which no specific date can be assigned, although it has been conventionally dated to the year 1054. This date is misleading since it seems to imply that there was peace and unity before 1054, animosity and division afterward.
The schism actually took centuries to crystalize. Some place the split in the time of Saint [[Photios the Great|Photios]], for example — or even earlier — or 1204, with the sack of Constantinople by the Fourth Crusade, or even 1453, the fall of Constantinople, when the Latins gave no help to prevent it.
== Terminology ==
In Western circles, the term ''Great Schism'' is often used to refer to the 14th fourteenth century schism involving the Avignon [[Papacy]] (an event also sometimes called the 'Western Schism', 'Papal Schism' or 'Babylonian Captivity').
To distinguish from that event, some historians prefer the term ''Great Ecumenical Schism'' to explain succinctly what happened and to capture the complexity of the event itself.
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>
Saint Thomas went east, and was said to be instrumental in establishing the Church in the Persian Empire and satellite kingdoms, although [[Addai]] and Mari, two of the Seventy Apostles were credited with most of the work of establishment in Persia itself. The [[Persian Church]] was larger than the Mediterranean Church for some centuries, especially in the sixth to eighth centuries with its highly successful movement into India, Mongolia, China, Tibet, [Korea, and Japan <ref>John Binns, ''An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2002, esp pp 28-29</ref>.
In the fourth century when the Roman emperors were trying to control the Church, theological questions were running rampant throughout the Roman Empire<ref>John Binns, ''An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2002, pp 162-164</ref>. The influence of Greek speculative thought on Christian thinking led to all sorts of divergent and conflicting opinions <ref>John Binns, ''An Introduction to the Christian Orthodox Churches'', Cambridge University Press, UK, 2002, p68</ref>. Christ's commandment to love others as He loved, seemed to have been lost in the intellectual abstractions of the time. Theology was also used as a weapon against opponent bishops, since being branded a heretic was the only sure way for a bishop to be removed by other bishops. Incompetence was not sufficient grounds for removal.
In the early church up until the ecumenical councils, Rome was regarded as an important centre of Christianity, especially since it was the capital of the Roman Empire. The eastern and southern Mediterranean bishops generally recognized a persuasive leadership and authority of the Bishop of Rome, because the teaching of the bishop of Rome was almost invariably correct.{{Fact|date=December 2008}} But the Mediterrtanean Church did not regard the Bishop of Rome as any sort of infallible source, nor did they acknowledge any juridical authority of Rome.
After the sole emperor of all the Roman Empire [[Constantine the Great]] built the new imperial capital on the Bosphorous, the centre of gravity in the empire was fully recognised to have completely shifted to the eastern Mediterranean. Rome lost the senate to Byzantium and lost its status and gravitas as imperial capital.
The patriarchs of [[Constantinople]] often tried to adopt an imperious position over the other patriarchs. In the case of [[Nestorius]], whose actual teaching is now recognised to be not overtly heretical, although it is clearly deficient, (Saint Cyril called it 'slippery'), <ref>John McGuckin, ''Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy'', SVS Press, NY, 2004, p173</ref>, other patriarchs were able to make the charge of heresy stick and successfully had him deposed. This was probably more because his christology was delivered with a heavy sarcastic arrogance which matched his high-handed personality <ref>John McGuckin, ''Saint Cyril of Alexandria and the Christological Controversy'', SVS Press, NY, 2004, p173</ref>.
The opinion of the Bishop of Rome was often sought, especially when the patriarchs of the Eastern Mediterranean were locked in fractious dispute. The bishops of Rome never obviously belonged to either the Antiochian or the Alexandrian schools of theology, and usually managed to steer a middle course between whatever extremes were being propounded by theologians of either school. Because Rome was remote from the centres of Christianity in the eastern Mediterranean, it was frequently hoped its bishop would be more impartial. For instance, in 431, Cyril, the patriarch of Alexandria, appealed to Pope [[Celestine I]], as well as the other patriarchs, charging [[Nestorius]] with heresy, which was dealt with at the [[Third Ecumenical Council|Council of Ephesus]].
The opinion of the bishop of Rome was always canvassed, and was often longed for. However , the Bishop of Rome's opinion was by no means automatically right. For instance, the [[Tome of Leo]] of Rome was highly regarded, and formed the basis for the ecumenical council's formulation. But it was not universally accepted and was even called "impious" and "blasphemous" by some.<ref>[http://www.archive.org/download/p2selectletterss02seveuoft/p2selectletterss02seveuoft.pdf The Sixth Book of the Select Letters of Severus, Patriarch of Antioch, vol. II, p. 254]</ref> The next ecumenical council corrected a possible imbalance in Pope Leo's presentation. Although the Bishop of Rome was well-respected even at this early date, the concept of [[papal infallibility]] was developed much later.
Following the [[Sack of Rome]] by invading European Goths, Rome slid into the Dark Ages which afflicted most parts of [[Western Europe]], and became increasingly isolated and irrelevant to the wider Mediterranean Church. This was a situation which suited and pleased a lot of the Eastern Mediterranean patriarchs and bishops <ref>Aristeides Papadakis The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy, SVS Press, NY, 1994 esp p14</ref>.
It was not until the rise of [[Charlemagne]] and his successors that the Church of Rome arose out of obscurity on the back of the military successes of the western Mediterranean adventurers.
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The council also ratified an agreement between Antioch and Jerusalem, whereby Jerusalem held jurisdiction over three provinces,<ref>Fourth Ecumenical Council, [http://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/npnf214.xi.xv.html Decree on the Jurisdiction of Jerusalem and Antioch]</ref> numbering it among the five great sees.<ref>[[Timothy Ware|Bishop Kallistos (Ware)]] (1963), ''The Orthodox Church'' (Penguin Books, London, ISBN 0-14-020592-6), p. 34</ref> There were now five patriarchs presiding over the Church within the [[Byzantine Empire]], in the following order of precedence: the [[Patriarch of Rome]], the [[Patriarch of Constantinople]], the [[Patriarch of Alexandria]], the [[Patriarch of Antioch]] and the [[Patriarch of Jerusalem]] (see [[Pentarchy]]).
===Empires East and West===
Disunion in the Roman Empire further contributed to disunion in the Church. [[Theodosius I|Theodosius the Great]], who established Christianity as the official religion of the Roman Empire, died in 395 and was the last Emperor to rule over a united Roman Empire; following his death, the Empire was divided into western and eastern halves, each under its own Emperor. By the end of the 5th fifth century, the Western Roman Empire had been overrun by the Germanic tribes, while the Eastern Roman Empire (known also as the [[Byzantine Empire]]) continued to thrive. Thus, the political unity of the Roman Empire was the first to fall.
In the West, the collapse of civil government left the Church practically in charge in many areas, and bishops took to administering secular cities and domains.<ref name="CC">Durant, Will. ''Caesar and Christ''. New York: Simon and Schuster. 1972</ref> When royal and imperial rule reestablished itself, it had to contend with power wielded independently by the Church. In the East, however, imperial and, later, Islamic rule dominated the Eastern bishops.<ref name="CC"/>
The seventh canon of the [[Third Ecumenical Council|Council of Ephesus]] declared:
:It is unlawful for any man to bring forward, or to write, or to compose a different (ἑτέραν) Faith as a rival to that established by the holy Fathers assembled with the Holy Ghost in NicæaNicea. But those who shall dare to compose a different faith, or to introduce or offer it to persons desiring to turn to the acknowledgment of the truth, whether from Heathenism or from Judaism, or from any heresy whatsoever, shall be deposed, if they be bishops or clergymen; bishops from the episcopate and clergymen from the [[clergy]]; and if they be laymen, they shall be [[anathematized]]<ref>([http://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3810.htm Extracts from the Acts of the Council of Ephesus]). The creed quoted in the Acts of the Council of Ephesus (the Third Ecumenical Council) is that of the first Ecumenical Council]], not the creed as modified by the [[Second Ecumenical Council|Second Ecumenical Council]], and so does not have additions such as "who proceeds from the Father" (''ibidem'').</ref>
Eastern Orthodox today state that this Canon of the Council of Ephesus explicitly prohibited modification of the Nicene Creed drawn up by the [[First Ecumenical Council]] in 325, the wording of which but, it is claimed, not the substance, had been modified by the [[Second Ecumenical Council|First Council of Constantinople]], making additions such as "who proceeds from the Father".
In the Orthodox view, the Bishop of Rome (i.e. the Pope) would have universal primacy in a reunited Christendom, as ''[[primus inter pares]]'' without power of jurisdiction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.goarch.org/en/ourfaith/articles/article8523.asp|title=Papal primacy|accessdate=2008-10-16|author=Emmanuel Clapsis|publisher=Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America|quote=The regional primacy can be conceived not as power or jurisdiction but only as an expression of the unity and unanimity of all the bishops, and consequently of all the churches, of an area.
Many other issues increased tensions.
* Emperor [[Leo III the Isaurian]] outlawed the veneration of icons in the [[8th 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.
===Previous schisms===
Some scholars<ref>Cleenewerck, Laurent ''His Broken Body: Understanding and Healing the Schism between the [[Roman Catholic Church|Catholic]]and [[Eastern Orthodox]] Churches''. Washington, DC: EUC Press (2008) pp. 145-155</ref> have argued that the Schism between East and West has very ancient roots, and that sporadic schisms in the common unions took place under Pope [[Victor I of Rome|Victor I]] (second century), Pope [[Stephen I]] (third century) and Pope [[Damasus I]] (fourth and fifth century). Later on, disputes about theological and other questions led to schisms between the Churches in Rome and Constantinople for 37 years from 482 to 519 (the [[Acacian Schism]]), and for 13 years from 866-879 (see Patriarch [[Photios the Great]]).
==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, Archbishop 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.
Although he was hot-headed, Michael was convinced, probably by the Emperor and the bishop of Trani, to cool the debate and prevent the impending breach. However, Humbert and the pope made no concessions and the former was sent with legatine powers to the imperial capital to solve the questions raised once and for all. Humbert, Pope Stephen IX, and Peter, Archbishop of Amalfi set out in early spring and arrived in April 1054. Their welcome was not to their liking, however, and they stormed out of the palace, leaving the papal response with Michael, whose anger exceeded even theirs. The seals on the letter had been tampered with and the legates had published, in Greek, an earlier, far less civil, draft of the letter for the entire populace to read. The patriarch determined that the legates were worse than mere barbarous Westerners, they were liars and crooks. He refused to recognise their authority or, practically, their existence.<ref>[[John Julius Norwich|Norwich, John Julius]]. ''The Normans in the South 1016-1130''. ([[1967]]) pg 102.</ref>
When Pope Leo died on [[April 19]], 1054, the legates' authority legally ceased, but they did not seem to notice.<ref>Norwich, John Julius ''Byzantium, The Apogee''. New York: Alfred A. Knoff (1992) p.320</ref> The patriarch's refusal to address the issues at hand drove the legatine mission to extremes: on [[July 16]], the three legates entered the church of the [[Hagia Sophia (Constantinople)|Hagia Sophia]] during the divine liturgy on a Saturday afternoon and placed a papal bull of [[excommunication]] on the altar. The legates left for Rome two days later, leaving behind a city near riots. The patriarch had the immense support of the people against the Emperor, who had supported the legates to his own detriment, and Argyrus, who was seen still as a papal ally. To assuage popular anger, Argyrus' family in Constantinople was arrested, the bull was burnt, and the legates were [[anathema]]tised—the Great Schism had begun.
''The New Catholic Encyclopedia'' says, "The consummation of the schism is generally dated from the year 1054, when this unfortunate sequence of events took place. This conclusion, however, is not correct, because in the bull composed by Humbert, only Patriarch Michael I was excommunicated. The validity of the bull is questioned because Pope Leo IX was already dead at that time. On the other side, the Byzantine synod excommunicated only the legates.
It should be noted that the bull of excommunication issued against Patriarch Michael stated as one of its reasons for the excommunication the Eastern Church's deletion of "filioque" from the original Nicene Creed. It is now common knowledge that the Eastern Church did not delete anything, it was the Western Church that added this word to the [[Nicene-Constantinopolitan Creed]].
==East and West since 1054==
"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.
The Orthodox Church has also emphasised 'economia', or a certain amount of flexibility in the rules depending upon the exigencies of a particular situation.
Some of the Orthodox Churches unofficially acknowledge [[Apostolic succession]] within the Catholic Church and admit the validity of its episcopal ordination.{{Fact|date=December 2008}} The relationship between the Antiochian Orthodox and the Maronite Catholic bishops is a case in point. Some Orthodox Churches do not require baptism in the case of a convert already baptized in the Catholic Church, Most Orthodox Churches allow marriages between members of the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church. The Catholic Church allows its clergy to administer the sacraments of Penance, the Eucharist and Anointing of the Sick to members of the Eastern Orthodox Church, if these spontaneously ask for the sacraments and are properly disposed.<ref>[http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/general-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930325_directory_en.html ''Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism'', 125]; cf. [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P2S.HTM ''Code of Canon Law'', canon 844 §3] and [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PIN.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 671 §3]</ref> It also allows Catholics who cannot approach a Catholic minister to receive these three sacraments from clergy of the Eastern Orthodox Church, whenever necessity requires or a genuine spiritual advantage commends it, and provided the danger of error or indifferentism is avoided.<ref>[http://www.vatican.va/roman_curia/pontifical_councils/chrstuni/general-docs/rc_pc_chrstuni_doc_19930325_directory_en.html ''Directory for the Application of Principles and Norms on Ecumenism'', 123]; cf. [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P2S.HTM ''Code of Canon Law'', canon 844 §2] and [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PIN.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 671 §2]</ref> Catholic canon law allows marriage between a Catholic and an Orthodox only if permission is obtained from the Catholic bishop.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PML.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 813] and [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P40.HTM ''Code of Canon Law'', canon 1124]</ref> The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches authorizes the local Catholic bishop to permit a Catholic priest, of whatever rite, to bless the marriage of Orthodox faithful who being unable without great difficulty to approach a priest of their own Church, ask for this spontaneously.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PN5.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 833]</ref> In exceptional circumstances Catholics may, in the absence of an authorized priest, marry before witnesses. If a priest who is not authorized for the celebration of the marriage is available, he should be called in, although the marriage is valid even without his presence.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG0017/_P3Z.HTM ''Code of Canon Law'', canon 1116] and [http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PN4.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 832]</ref> The Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches specifies that, in those exceptional circumstances, even a "non-Catholic" priest (and so not necessarily one belonging to an Eastern Church) may be called in.<ref>[http://www.intratext.com/IXT/ENG1199/_PN4.HTM ''Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches'', canon 832]</ref>
===Divergent theologies===
'If one wishes to find a villain on the Orthodox side for the development of the schism, [Absentee Greek Patriarch of Antioch] Balsamon is a far stronger candidate than either [Patriarchs of Constantinople] Photius or Cerularius. Hitherto the chief asset of the Orthodox in the controversy had been their doctrine of Economy, the charity that enabled them to overlook and even to condone divergences in the interest of peace and goodwill. But Balsamon was a lawyer; and lawyers like things to be cut and dried. Charity is not one of their characteristics.' — Steven Runciman, ''The Eastern Schism'', Wipf & Stock, Oregon, 3/3/2005, p138
== Sources ==
[[Category:Creeds]]
[[Category:Heresies]]
[[el:Σχίσμα του 1054]]
[[es:Gran Cisma]]
