“Now there is a process of rapprochement”: what did the schism of the Christian church lead to in 1054

On July 16, 1054, three papal legates laid a deed of honor on the altar of Hagia Sophia, anathematized the patriarch of Constantinople and his two assistants. This event is often called the reason for the split of the Christian world, however, according to historians, the process of confrontation began much earlier.

The path to the split

Differences between Rome and Constantinople have existed for centuries. They were aggravated, according to the doctor of historical sciences, academician Oleg Ulyanov, under Charlemagne, who founded the Carolingian empire and received the title of emperor of the West.

"On the personal initiative of Charlemagne, the Orthodox dogma of icon veneration was rejected in the West and the Symbol of Faith was modified (a summary of the dogmas of the church) by adding a filioque Father, it was added “and the Son.” - RT ), ”explained the historian.

“The first obvious split between the Western and Eastern churches occurred in 867 due to a dispute about the canonical subordination of the newly baptized Bulgaria. However, the cathedral in Constantinople in 869–870 reunited the Eastern and Western churches for the time being, ”said Oleg Ulyanov in an interview with RT.

The formal reason for the conflict then became claims of Rome to the legality of the procedure for electing the patriarch of Constantinople Photius. However, in fact, at that time, the Roman curia tried to penetrate the Balkans, which was contrary to the interests of the Byzantine Empire.

• Pope asks for help from Charlemagne at a meeting near Rome
• © Wikimedia commons

According to Oleg Ulyanov, at the global level the rivalry between Rome and Constantinople was associated with various interpretations of primacy in the Christian church.

“The Roman concept is based on the definition of the Apostle Peter in the Gospel and asserts the advantages of the churches depending on the activities of the apostles. And Constantinople, like the New Rome, adheres to the political principle of the primacy of thrones, according to which the church hierarchy is completely subordinated to the political structure of the Christian empire and depends on the political importance of the church departments, ”the historian said.

In the tenth century, the severity of the conflict decreased, but in the eleventh century, rivalry again became fierce.

Clearance

In the Middle Ages, part of the land in the south of Italy belonged to Byzantium, and the local Christian parishes belonged to the jurisdiction of Constantinople. However, the Byzantines in the Apennine Peninsula were opposed by the Holy Roman Empire and representatives of the local Lombards people. It was they who in the tenth century called for help from the Normans, who were actively involved in the political struggle in the Apennines. In the first half of the eleventh century, two Norman counties arose in southern Italy, which in 1047 assumed a vassal dependence on the Holy Roman Empire.

On the lands under the control of the Normans, Western Christian rites began to supplant the Eastern ones, which caused strong discontent in Constantinople. In response, the temples of the Latin rite in the capital of Byzantium were closed. In parallel, the controversy between Greek and Latin theologians has intensified the controversy over which bread — unleavened or leavened bread — should be used in the sacrament of Holy Communion, and on a number of other canonical and dogmatic questions.

• The enthronement of Patriarch Michael Kerularios
• © Wikimedia commons

In 1054 Pope Leo IX sent his legates to Constantinople, led by Cardinal Humbert. Pope conveyed a message to Patriarch Michael Kerilaria in which he laid down his claims to the fullest authority in the Christian church, referring to the so-called Konstantinov gift - a document that was supposedly a message from Emperor Constantine the Great to Pope Sylvester and transferred to Rome the highest spiritual power in the Christian world. Subsequently, Konstantinov was recognized as a false gift (a fake was made, presumably, in the VIII or IX century in France), but in the XI century, Rome still officially called it authentic. The patriarch rejected the claims of the pope, and negotiations with the participation of the legates proved to be fruitless. Then on July 16, 1054, the papal legates entered the Hagia Sophia Cathedral in Constantinople and laid on its altar an otlushitelnuyu letter, betraying the anathema of Patriarch Michael Kerulari and his assistants. Four days later, in response, the patriarch anathematized papal legates.

The consequences of the split

“It was after the split of 1054 that the Roman Church in the West proclaims itself Catholic (“ universal ”), and the Orthodox Church was established in the East to designate the community of all Orthodox thrones,” said Oleg Ulyanov. According to him, the consequence of the split in 1054 was the conquest of Constantinople in 1204 by the Crusaders, who considered the Orthodox schismatics.

Against the background of the weakening, and then the death of the Byzantine Empire, Rome tried several times to persuade the Orthodox Church to unite under its authority.

In 1274, the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII gave his consent to the merger of churches on the terms of the Pope in exchange for military cooperation with the West. This agreement was formalized at the Second Lyon Cathedral. But it was declared insignificant under the new Byzantine emperor - Andronicus II.

• The signing of the Union of Florence in the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore.
• © donskoi.org

Another attempt to conclude the union was made at the Ferrara-Florence Cathedral in 1438-1445. However, his decisions were also fragile and short-lived. After a short time, even those bishops and metropolitans, who initially agreed with them, refused to carry them out: they referred to the fact that they recognized the supremacy of the Pope of Rome under pressure.

In the future, the Catholic Church, relying on the secular authorities of the states controlled by Catholics, led individual Orthodox churches to conclude union. Thus, the Brest Union of 1596 was concluded, which established the Greek Catholic Church on the territory of the Commonwealth, and the Uzhgorod Union (1646), subordinated the Orthodox people of Transcarpathia to the spiritual plan to the Pope of Rome.

In the XIII century, the German Teutonic Order made a large-scale attempt to expand to the east, but his invasion of the Russian lands was stopped by Prince Alexander Nevsky.

In the 16th — 18th centuries (after the Union of Brest), the Orthodox population was subjected to severe repression on the territory of the Commonwealth, which largely provoked uprisings under the leadership of Bogdan Khmelnitsky, and then Maxim Zheleznyak and Ivan Gonty.

“The schism of the Christian world was caused by a number of theological, political and cultural reasons. And above all, the question of the primacy of the Pope of Rome, ”said Roman Lunkin, head of the Center for the Study of Religion and Society at the Institute of Europe, Russian Academy of Sciences, in an interview with RT.

According to him, the Roman Catholic Church is a structure in which everything is subject to the Pope, and Orthodoxy is more diverse.

“In many ways, as a result of the separation of churches, cultural and political development went differently in the West and in the East. The papacy claimed secular power, and Orthodoxy, on the contrary, was subordinated to the state, ”the expert noted.

• Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia Kirill (right) and Pope Francis after signing a joint declaration following the meeting in Havana
• RIA News
• © Sergey Pyatakov

True, in his opinion, in the twentieth century, the contradictions and differences between the churches were to a certain extent smoothed out. This was expressed, in particular, in that the Pope began to lose secular power, and the Orthodox Church in a number of situations turned out to be in opposition to the state.

In 1964, a meeting of Pope Paul VI with the Patriarch of Constantinople Athenagoras took place in Jerusalem. The following year, mutual anathemas were removed. At the same time, Orthodoxy did not recognize the filioque, and Catholicism did not agree with the rejection of dogmas about the primacy of the Pope of Rome and the infallibility of his judgments.

“At the same time, despite the differences, there is a process of convergence: the churches demonstrate that they can be allies in certain issues,” Roman Lunkin concluded.