- The fall of the Roman Empire in 395 led to a rivalry between its two capitals, Rome and Constantinople, the first of Latin tradition and the second of Greek tradition.
- In the early days of the Church, major decisions were made according to individual traditions, but gradually Rome claimed authority over all Christian territory. Indeed, the city founded by the apostle Peter would thus have a primacy over the other Churches – which Constantinople, the Church of the East disputes.
- At the VIII th century, Rome (theoretically placed under the protection of the Byzantine emperor) approaches the West by asking the help of the Franks to repel the Lombard invasion in Italy:the divide between East and West begins to be felt. At the beginning of the XI th century, it is completed by a theological fracture concerning the trinity:the two Churches do not have the same vision of it and Rome does not manage to have its own accepted.
- Furthermore, since the turn of the century a Norman invasion has been gaining ground in southern Italy and increasingly worrying Rome; it was in this context that Michael Cérulaire was appointed patriarch of Constantinople by the Byzantine emperor Constantine IX Monomakh (1043) while in Rome Pope Leo IX (1049), initiator of the Gregorian reform, was elected.
1054
Characters
Leo IX
Michel Cérulaire
Procedure
Leo IX tries to impose the Latin rite on the East but Constantinople, of Greek language, refuses this rite and makes close the churches which observe it. An exchange of badly translated letters between the two patriarchs increases the tension between Rome and Constantinople; while the latter reproaches the rite, Rome is content to argue its primacy.
While the pontifical coalition (group under the authority of the pope) is defeated in the face of the Norman invasion, the emperor offers peace between the Churches in return for aid in the war. A pontifical delegation is thus sent to Constantinople in order to appease the liturgical conflict (of worship), but the debate escalates with Michel Cérulaire.
When Pope Leo IX had just died, the pontifical delegation excommunicated Michel Cérulaire who, with the support of the people and the Byzantine clergy, triggered riots against the delegation and condemned it; the schism between the Churches of East and West is consummated.
Consequences
- The doctrinal debate between the two Churches has escalated, allowing the cultural gap between East and West to widen.
- The acts of non-recognition of the two Churches accumulate over the years, but the real break occurs during the looting of Constantinople by the IV th crusade in 1204.
- The two Churches contribute to giving a “schismatic” vision of the other, increasing hostility between peoples; the world is thus divided into two opposite hemispheres which change the game of alliances.