As Early As the Fourth Century

The Great Schism 1054

As early as the fourth century

A.D., there were cultural, sociological, political and linguistic differences

between the Christians of Eastern and Western Europe which eventually led

to separation in the Church. The Eastern Christians spoke Greek where

the Western Christians spoke Latin. Where the Eastern Church's

administration was governed by a group of bishops (i.e., Constantinople,

Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem) which shared a common language and cultural

background, the Western Church's administration was governed by a single

bishop: the bishop of Rome. In the East, the Emperor was superior to the Patriarch (or head of the church.) In the West, the bishop of Rome (or Pope) was superior to even the Emperors. All these factors led to some basic theological differences between the Orthodox Church of the East and West.

Unfortunately, by the eleventh century A.D. the differences between East and West became great enough to cause a separation of the One Holy Orthodox Catholic Church. The Eastern Church became known as the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Western Church became known as the Roman Catholic Church, for it was governed and administered by the bishop or Pope of Rome. Again it must be emphasized that there were many factors besides theological ones which led to the schism of the one Christian Church. However, some theological issues which were promulgated by the Western Church were never and are not to this very day accepted by the Eastern Church such as: the Pope of Rome as the deciding factor on matters of Church doctrine, the total and unchallenged authority of Pope of Rome as head of the religion, the belief in Purgatory, the immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, and the unauthorized addition of "and the Son" to the eighth article of the Nicene Creed.

In the West, the Pope would soon become more powerful than the rulers. They had the power to excommunicate (or remove from the church) any emperor who they felt was not acting in accordance with the laws of the church. In the East, the emperor retained power over the church. They were absolute rulers, and therefore had the power to hire, and fire, bishops and patriarchs of the church if they were not benefitting the government.

Basic doctrine within each church began to differentiate as the schism took hold. In the Roman Catholic Church clergy men were not allowed to marry, and church services were conducted in Latin (the official language of the Western part of the Roman Empire). In the Eastern Orthodox Church clergy men could marry, and services were held in either Greek, or in the local language of the parish. Both churches, however, retained the core belief that that Jesus was the Messiah, and retained the Bible as their Holy Book. Both churches also utilized priests or bishops as the local church leaders, and worked to spread Christianity throughout the empire, and outside of its borders. The two churches also held different ideas about icons. Icons are physical representations of holy figures. The Western Catholic church allowed the creation of icons, however the Eastern Orthodox Church believed icons broke one of the Ten Commandments, and therefore would not allow them in churches.

Missionaries worked to spread the different religions around Europe. Some of the most important missionaries for the Eastern Orthodox Church were St. Cyril and St. Methodius. One of the well known Catholic missionaries was St. Ansgar. These men worked to gather converts to their religion.