Master of Christian History ~ Lesson #20
(The Great Schism of 1054)
by Bro. Jim DeManche
1. What was the nature of and what things contributed to a renewal in the Western church in the period immediately prior to the Great Schism of 1054?
Western Christianity was under the influence of the Holy Roman Empire in the latter half of the time period between A.D. 800 and 1054, yet it experienced an internal renewal which offered the fortitude to deal with imperial meddling. Eastern Christianity at this time was more acknowledging of its differences with Western Christianity, and it ended with a great schism wherein the Western and Eastern churches went off on their separate ways.
2. What things made the Great Schism of 1054 almost inevitable? What event became the "straw that broke the camel's back"?
1054 saw the straw that finally broke the camel's back. It was a minor issue. Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople from 1043 to 1059, condemned the Western church for using unleavened bread in the Eucharist. The Western church had been doing it increasingly since the 9 th century A.D. Pope Leo IX sent Cardinal Humbert and two other legates to the East to settle the row. The differences widened as discussions continued increasingly entering into more and more issues. On 16 July 1054 the Roman legates placed a writ excommunicating the patriarch on the high altar of the Hagia Sophia church. The patriarch was furious. The patriarch in turn proclaimed the Roman pontiff and his legates to be anathema.
3. What were the consequences of the Great Schism of 1054, especially as it related to Eastern Christianity?
The surprise of the spread of Islam in the 7th century A.D. and the loss of people and real estate to the Muslims along with two centuries of chaos caused by iconoclasm left Eastern Christianity in a state of shrinkage. There was little change in liturgy, polity, or theology until modern times. It did not have the influence on the world as the Western church has had. Yet in the ancient period of Christian history the Eastern church had been on the forefront in forming Christian theology.
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