The Division of Religion :: essays research papers fc

The East-West Schism, cognise also as the Great Schism (though this latter term sometimes refers to the later western sandwich Schism), was the event that divided Chalcedonian Christianity into Western Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Though normally dated to 1054, when pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated to each one other, the East-West Schism was actually the result of an extended period of estrangement among the two Churches. The primary causes of the Schism were disputes over papal potentialthe Pope claimed he held authority over the cardinal Eastern patriarchs, while the four eastern patriarchs claimed that the primacy of the Patriarch of Rome was only honorary, and thus he had authority only over Western Christiansand over the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicaean Creed. There were other, less significant catalysts for the Schism, including variance over liturgical practices and contrasted claims of jurisdiction.The Church split along doctrin al, theological, linguistic, political, and geographic lines, and the fundamental breach has never been healed. It might be alleged that the two churches actually reunited in 1274 (by the blurb Council of Lyons) and in 1439 (by the Council of Basel), but in each case the councils were repudiated by the Orthodox as a whole, given that the hierarchs had overstepped their authority in consenting to these questionable "unions". Further attempts to reconcile the two bodies have failed however, several ecclesiastical communities that sooner sided with the East changed their loyalties, and are now called Eastern Rite Catholic Churches. For the about part, however, the Western and the Eastern Churches are separate. Each takes the view that it is the "One hallowed Catholic and Apostolic Church", implying that it was the other group that left the avowedly church during the Schism.Since its earliest days, the Church recognized the special positions of three bishops, who w ere known as patriarchs the Bishop of Rome, the Bishop of Alexandria, and the Bishop of Antioch. They were joined by the Bishop of Constantinople and by the Bishop of Jerusalem, both confirmed as patriarchates by the Council of Chalcedon in 451. The patriarchs held both authority and precedence over baby buster bishops in the Church. Among them, the Bishop of Rome (the Pope) was deemed to hold a higher status, by honor of his position as the successor of Saint Peter. Moreover, the Popes see was of particular importance, as Rome was the capital of the Roman Empire. Even