What was the split between Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox all about?

Answer 1

The split between the Catholic west and the Orthodox, which culminated in the Great Schism of 1054, was all about personal power and political opportunism. Since the second century, the Roman bishops had sought to establish supremacy over the Christian Church as a whole. Even in the west, and long after the split, successive popes sought to move power away from councils of bishops to the person of the pope. The trigger for the schism was the insertion of the filioque clause into the Nicene Creed by Pope Leo IX, without prior agreement by a council of bishops.

This clause was not so theologically significant in its own right, for the pope to risk a split in the Church nor for the eastern patriarch to play his part in the split. However, the filioque clause was symbolic. If the patriarch had backed down and permitted the change, which went against a previous decision of a council of bishops, then he would have conceded considerable power to the pope.

A secondary trigger for the split was the practice of the eastern Church to allow priests to marry, while western priests were supposed to remain celibate. The eastern practice did no injury to the western Church, but the pope decided to exercise his perceived power to enforce celibacy even in the east. The irony is that in the west, celibacy was honoured more in the breach than in fact, for centuries to come.

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Catholic AnswerThe split between the Catholic Church (there is no RomanCatholic Church: It's just Catholic, not Roman Catholic. Roman is an epithet first commonly used in England after the protestant revolt to describe the Catholic Church. It is never used by the official Catholic Church.) was due mostly to political reasons, over the centuries, and individuals who in their pride thought they were more important than the Church. To try and make it more palatable, religious reasons were assigned later, but the actual split was due to political differences between the Eastern leaders and Rome.

from A Catholic Dictionary, edited by Donald Attwater, Second edition, revised 1957

The Schism of the East the estrangement and severance from the Holy See of what is now called the Orthodox Eastern Church was a gradual process extending over centuries. After a number of minor schisms the first serious, though short, break was that of Photius; from then on tension between East and West increased, and the schism of Cerularius occurred in 1054. From then on the breach gradually widened and has been definitive since 1472. There was a formal union from the 2nd Council of Lyons in 1274 until 1282, and a more promising one after the Council of Florence from 1439 to 1472. After the capture of Constantinople it was in the Turkish interest to reopen and widen the breach with the powerful Roman church; the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem were dragged into this policy, Russia and the Slav churches stood out the longest of any: none of these churches, except Constantinople itself in 1472, formally and definitely broke away from the unity of the Church. But in the course of centuries the schism has set and crystallized into a definite separation from the Holy See of many million people with a true priesthood and valid sacraments. The origins, causes and development of the schism are matters of much complication, still not fully unraveled.

from Modern Catholic Dictionary by John A. Hardon, S.J. Doubleday & Co., Inc. Garden City, NY 1980

Separation of the Christian Churches of the East from unity with Rome. The schism was centuries in the making and finally became fixed in 1054, when the Patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularisu (died 1059), was excommunicated by the papal legates for opposing the use of leavened bread by the Latin Church and removing the Pope's name from the diptychs or list of persons to be prayed for in the Eucharistic liturgy. A temporary reunion with Rome was effected by the Second Council of Lyons (1274) and the Council of Florence (1439) but never stabilized.