The Eastern Schism represented part of the conflicts generated by the Catholic Church of the West and the East, in the mid-11th century, which resulted in the creation of two branches of religion, which remain until the present day:the Roman Catholic Apostolic Church and the Orthodox Catholic Church . From Latin, the word “schism” (schisma ) means to divide, split, separate.
This event, also called the “Great Eastern Schism ”, marked the difference in interests (political, cultural, social) between the parties involved, definitively separating the Catholic religion, being one of the most significant events in the history of religions. Previous events already demonstrated the existing cultural variants between one and the other, however, it was in the Eastern Schism that this separation actually took place.
Abstract
Since the 4th century, the Emperor of Rome, Constantine, elected the Catholic religion as official of the Roman Empire. After the Council of Nicaea (325 AD) and due to the differences existing in each one, the Catholic Church was divided into:the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Catholic Churches of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Consequently, other ecumenical councils took place, however, what was determined was the belief in the divinity of Christ and the union of Christendom.
The conflicts of these two sides date back to the 4th century, with the division of the Roman Empire into East and West, and the transfer of the capital city from Rome to Constantinople.
However, it was in the year 1054 that the Eastern Schism took place in the city of Constantinople, which definitively separated the two strands of Catholicism. It is worth remembering that the headquarters of the Catholic Church of the West was in Rome, while the Catholic Church of the East was in Constantinople.
In the year 1043, Michael Cerularius became Patriarch of Constantinople, developing several campaigns against the dogmas of the Apostolic, which resulted in the excommunication of Cerularius, in 1054 by the Roman Cardinal Humbert.
With the entry of Pope Leo IX into the Roman Apostolic Church, which he assumed from 1048 to 1054, some jurisdictional demands were made that did not please Orthodox Christians. So, in the same way, the Orthodox Church excommunicated Pope Leo IX.
The Orthodox followed the ideals of “Byzantine Caesaropapism” (subordination of the Church to the State), which displeased the Catholics of the West, since the Orthodox of the West elected an ecumenical Patriarch, did not share the belief in the saints and the Virgin Mary, in addition to did not consider celibacy mandatory for priests.
In turn, the Catholics of Rome, credited all the power in the figure of the Pope, at the same time that they venerated the Saints, believed in purgatory (beyond heaven and hell) and still, celibacy for priests was mandatory.
Part of this explains a substantial difference in the iconoclasm of the two strands of religion, since the Catholic Churches of the West are made up of several images of saints, while the Orthodox Churches have none. In addition to the iconoclasm aspect, the orthodox denied the human nature of God, to the detriment of the divine nature, which became known as Monophysitism.
In addition to dogmatic differences, the Roman Empires of the West and East went through different historical processes, which configured different cultural, social, religious and political traits in each of them. Thus, the Western Roman Empire was invaded by the Barbarians, and the East remained with strong characteristics of the classical world, based on the tradition of Hellenistic Christianity.
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- Great Western Schism
- Theocracy
- Catholicism
- Orthodox Church
- Eastern Schism