How did the roman empire dividing make Christianity divide?

Answer 1

The Roman Empire was split into a Western Empire and an Eastern Empire in 394 CE. The Great Schism occurred in 1054 CE for entirely different reasons. The split in the Roman Empire had nothing to do with the eventual split in the Christian Church.

Answer 2

The Roman Empire was never divided. Western Roman Empire and Eastern Roman Empire are terms which have been coined by historians. The Romans only had one term: Roman Empire. Nevertheless, there were differences between the west and east due to geography and the ethnic compositions of the areas. The eastern part was centred on Greece.

The form of Christianity which developed in the eastern part of the Roman Empire was the Orthodox Church, which was Greek in Character. In the Roman days it was called the Eastern or Greek Church. This was because Christianity first took root in Greece

The form of Christianity which developed in the western part of the Roman Empire was the Catholic Church. It first developed in Carthage, in Tunisia and became popular in Italy and in the rest of the west. Its head was the Bishop of Rome, or Pope. In the Roman days it was called Western or Latin Christianity.

Answer 3

To answer this question, we first of all need some background on the division of the Roman Empire.

Emperor Diocletian (284-305) shared his rule of the Roman Empire with a partner, so that there were two emperors; he also introduced an additional two rulers, whom he called caesars, to be subordinate to the two emperors. Therefore, the rule of the empire was divided between four rulers.

During the reign of Emperor Constantine (306-337) sole rule returned, but after Constantine's death the idea of dividing the Roman Empire between two rulers was already so well established that the empire came to be divided into segments again. After some oscillations, it settled into a pattern of a western empire and an eastern empire.

In 476, the leader of the Germanic tribe of Ostrogoths was recognized by the emperor in this east as the imperial authority in the west, giving him the title of "patricius" and not of emperor (augustus).

This change in the secular state did not lead to a division of Christianity, although the two parts of the formerly united Roman Empire followed different economic and cultural paths after this.

When we come to consider the Church, it also had its own path of development. It was arranged, almost from the beginning, into city-based churches. In the third century it came about that the leading cities in each province of the Roman Empire came to exercise some measure of authority over the churches within their provinces. At the Council of Nicea, in 325, this arrangement was formalised, and at the Council of Constantinople of 381, the churches were organized into dioceses. This reflected the organization of the state into groups of provinces called dioceses.

Meanwhile, in the west, the church of Rome had grown in power and authority, and the bishop of Rome was progressively ceded a measure of authority over all of the churches in the west, while in the east, most of the authority rested with the bishop of the capital city of the province. While all the bishops within a diocese also shared in the authority of governing the affairs of the diocese, the bishop of the chief city of a diocese, like Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria, was ceded an additional measure of authority.

It happened that the bishop of Rome also came to exercise authority in the west that is equivalent to the power that was exercised in the east by its regional bishops, such as in Constantinople, Antioch and Alexandria.

So it was not the division of the Roman Empire that led to a division within Christianity, but rather the current "divided" situation of the Church reflects the special situation of the bishop of Rome, and the Catholic Church more generally, in relation to the regional bishops of the Orthodox churches in the east, and the Orthodox churches more generally.

The effective isolation for hundreds of years of the churches in the west from the churches of the east was probably responsible for the independent development of troublesome differences in doctrine. Once these differences became apparent to both sides, an estrangement developed between the bishops of the west, including the bishop of Rome, and the bishops of the Orthodox churches in the east. This estrangement continues until this day, although efforts are being made to resolve these matters.

Answer 4

The Roman empire was never divided. Christianity evolved into two mainstream forms right from its very early days. There was Greek or Eastern Christianity which was the main form of Christianity in the eastern part of the empire and Latin or Western Christianity, which was the main form of Christianity in the western part. The former was developed by Greek-speaking theologians in Constantinople, Smyrnia and Cappadocia (in present day Turkey), Antioch (in Syria) and Alexandria (in Egypt), all of which were in the eastern part of the empire. The latter originated from theologians in Carthage (in present day Tunisia), took root in Italy and spread in the rest of the western part of the empire.

There were also many dissident Christian doctrines, which means that there were many different forms of Christianity. The co-emperors Gratian and Theodosius I issued an edict in 380 which made Greek and Latin Christianity the sole legitimate religion in the empire. The object was to ban the dissident Christian doctrines, which were branded as heretic. Theodosius then persecuted these doctrines and the pagan regions, including the Roman one. This shows how Greek and Latin Christianity belonged to a united empire.