Theology · Church History and the Fathers

What Caused the Great Schism of 1054?

The Famous Scene

On 16 July 1054, Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, a papal legate, walked into the great church of Hagia Sophia in Constantinople during the liturgy. He laid a bull of excommunication against Patriarch Michael Cerularius on the altar and walked out. Days later, the Patriarch and his synod excommunicated the legates in return.

This event is traditionally dated as the beginning of the Great Schism between the Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East. It is the deepest and oldest division in Christianity that still exists.

But historians agree that 1054 was a symptom, not the cause. The split grew from centuries of drifting apart, and it was not truly final until long afterwards.

Two Halves of One Church

For the first thousand years, the Church in East and West was one. It shared the same faith, the same seven councils, the same sacraments and the same apostolic succession. Yet the two halves were very different.

Language and culture. The West spoke Latin; the East spoke Greek. By the early Middle Ages, few scholars in either half could read the other’s language well. Each developed its own theological vocabulary and style.

Politics. After the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, the East remained a powerful Christian empire centred on Constantinople. The West broke into kingdoms. When the Pope crowned Charlemagne as emperor in the year 800, the Byzantines saw it as a rival claim to the imperial title.

Church structures. In the East, the Church was organised around five ancient patriarchates (Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), with Rome honoured as first. In the West, Rome was the only apostolic see and its authority grew strong.

The Real Issues

Several disputes came to a head over the centuries.

Papal authority

This was the deepest issue. The West held that the Bishop of Rome, as successor of Peter, had authority over the whole Church. The East generally accepted Rome’s primacy of honour, and often appealed to Rome in disputes, but understood it differently: as the first among equal patriarchs, not as a jurisdiction over them. As the papacy grew more assertive in the eleventh century, especially under the Gregorian reform, this disagreement became sharper.

The filioque

The Western addition of “and the Son” to the Creed was resented in the East, both for the theology and because it had been added without an ecumenical council. (See What Is the Filioque?)

The Photian schism

In the ninth century, a dispute over the appointment of Photius as Patriarch of Constantinople led to mutual condemnations between Rome and Constantinople. It was eventually patched up, but it anticipated the arguments of 1054.

Practices

There were also disputes over customs, which grew into symbols of difference: whether the Eucharist should be celebrated with unleavened bread (as in the West) or leavened bread (as in the East); whether priests should be married; and rules of fasting.

What Happened in 1054

In 1053, Patriarch Michael Cerularius closed the Latin churches in Constantinople, partly in response to Norman pressure on Greek churches in southern Italy, which the Pope supported. Pope Leo IX sent legates led by Cardinal Humbert to negotiate.

The negotiations went badly. Humbert was abrasive, and Cerularius was unbending. The excommunications followed. Ironically, Pope Leo IX had died before Humbert acted, so the legate’s authority was doubtful.

At the time, many did not see this as a final break. Relations continued in many places. But it was a sign of how far apart the two halves had grown.

1204: The Wound That Sealed It

What made the schism bitter and lasting was not 1054 but 1204. Soldiers of the Fourth Crusade, diverted from their mission, captured and sacked Constantinople. They looted churches, desecrated altars, and set up a Latin emperor and patriarch. Pope Innocent III condemned the sack, but the damage was done. For centuries, Eastern Christians remembered 1204 as a betrayal by Western Christians.

Pope St John Paul II expressed sorrow for it in 2001. In 2004, he returned relics taken from Constantinople to the Ecumenical Patriarch.

Attempts at Reunion

Two councils tried to heal the division.

The Second Council of Lyons (1274) proclaimed a union, but it was rejected by most of the Eastern clergy and people.

The Council of Florence (1438–1445) went further. Greek and Latin bishops, with the Byzantine Emperor and the Patriarch of Constantinople, reached agreement on the filioque, purgatory, unleavened bread and papal primacy. On 6 July 1439, the decree of union, Laetentur Caeli (“Let the heavens rejoice”), was proclaimed. But when the Greek delegates returned home, the union was rejected. Fourteen years later, in 1453, Constantinople fell to the Ottoman Turks.

Healing in Our Time

The twentieth century brought real change.

In January 1964, Pope St Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras met in Jerusalem, the first meeting between a pope and an ecumenical patriarch for over five hundred years. On 7 December 1965, on the eve of the close of the Second Vatican Council, they jointly lifted the excommunications of 1054, “erasing them from the memory” of the Church.

Since then, popes and patriarchs have met frequently. A joint international theological commission has worked since 1980 on the questions that divide the two Churches, above all the role of the Pope.

How the Catholic Church Sees the Orthodox

The Catholic Church regards the Orthodox Churches with special closeness. They have preserved apostolic succession and valid sacraments, above all the Eucharist. The Second Vatican Council spoke of them as Churches, and the Catechism, quoting Pope St Paul VI, says that Catholics and Orthodox share “a communion so profound that it lacks little to attain the fullness” that would permit a common celebration of the Eucharist (CCC 838; see also What Does “Subsists In” Mean?).

Under certain conditions, Catholics may receive the sacraments from Orthodox priests when they cannot reach a Catholic priest, and Catholic priests may give the sacraments to Orthodox Christians who ask for them (canon 844).

A Wound Still Open

The Great Schism is a deep wound in the Body of Christ. It divides Christians who share almost everything: the faith of the councils, the sacraments, the priesthood, devotion to Mary and the saints. St John Paul II spoke of the Church needing to “breathe with both her lungs,” East and West.

Catholics are called to pray for its healing, to learn about Eastern Christianity, and to remember that what unites the two Churches is far greater than what divides them.