What led to the schism of 1054?

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What led to the schism of 1054?

The Great Schism of 1054 is certainly one of the most important events in the history of the Christian Church.  And as is generally true of all of history’s decisive moments, there is no one single cause, but rather a series of tension-building events leading up to it.  In this essay, I will attempt to outline some of these major events.

During his reign, the Roman emperor Diocletian introduced a series of reforms, which was to bring about the geo-political environment which would eventually help to divide the eastern and western parts of the Church.  These reforms included appointing leaders to rule over Eastern and Western provinces of the empire.  This new tetrarchy was a large rearrangement of power within the empire, now split between four regional centres of government, in Trier and Milan (near troubled frontiers), and Thessalonica and Nicomedia.  (Jenkins, Mirza, Tsang; 2003, p. 1).

However, it would be wrong to say that the political environment which the church found itself in was the starting point for tensions between east and west.  Long before Diocletian came to power, we can see an assumed authority from the Roman church.  Writing against second century Gnosticism, Irenaeus of Lyons argued for the authority of what was being taught in churches based upon the idea that the apostolic doctrines were carried on through successive bishops. He mentions Rome as ‘the very large, ancient, and universally known church founded by the two glorious apostles, Peter and Paul’, and stated that all believers everywhere are necessarily in agreement with Rome as an apostolic foundation with a cosmopolitan membership and extensive dealings with other churches.  In fact, at this time, the Christian community in Rome was largely Greek speaking (until the middle of the third century) and actually did have frequent contacts with churches in the Greek East.  (McManners; 1990, 1993; pp.38-39).

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However, things were set to start to become uncomfortable between East and West, with the debate over whether the timing of the Jewish feast of Passover (which fell of the 14th day of the Jewish month of Nisan, and therefore could occur any day of the week) should control the timing of the entire Easter festival.  This controversy itself had many reasons for existing, such as wanting to display the Christian break with Judaism, wanting uniformity over the length of time solemn fasts would be held before the Easter festival, etc.  Churches in Asia Minor had been keeping to the ...

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