Whose fault was the Great Schism?

Answer 1

A:The Great Schism of 1054, referred to by the Catholic Church as the Schism of the East, resulted in a permanent split in the Christian Church. The Catholic Church teaches that Patriarch Michael I was at fault, while the Orthodox Churches say that Pope Leo IX was at fault. Regardless of so-called fault, there is no real evidence that the Schism did long term harm to Christianity.

The two parts of Catholic-Orthodox Christianity always had different ideas of Christian worship and even celebrated Easter at different times of the year. So we should not look for "fault" in the Great Schism, when it may have been inevitable.

The underlying issue really concerned the relative authority of two very obstinate men. Because the Council of Nicaea decided that Christianity in the Roman Empire would be led by four senior bishops or Metropolitans representing Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, with provision for Constantinople and Carthage (where Metropolitans were subsequently appointed), the mainly Greek-speaking eastern regions held that the bishop of Rome was one among equals. However, the bishop of Rome, designated in the West as the Pope, insisted that he had greater authority than the other Metropolitans. Gradually, differences built up until, in 1054, Pope Leo IX insisted on the right to make a change to the Nicene Creed, on his own and apart from an Ecumenical Council. The Great Schism resulted when legates from Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other.

When Pope Leo IX authorised his emissaries to excommunicate Patriarch Michael I, he believed that his action would at long last establish the bishop of Rome as the supreme leader of the Church. Michael was only unable to excommunicate Leo because the western pontiff had already died, but when he excommunicated the emissaries, he did not realise that the two actions would lead to the Great Schism. Because neither side would compromise, the Church was set on the path to a permanent schism, known as the Great Schism.

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AnswerHistorically, in the Catholic Church, the Great Schism refers to the 15th century when there were up to three claimants to the Papal Throne, also known as the Schism of the West. Protestant and secular historians usually refer to the Schism of the East as the Great Schism, which occurred in the eleventh century. In both of the schisms, the fault lay in individual's sin, mostly the sin of pride. In the Western Schism, it was national pride of European nations, in the Eastern Schism, it was national pride of some Eastern patriarchs.