The Great Schism of 1054: How the Church Became Divided | Church History

Paul wrote to the Ephesians, there is “one Lord, one faith, one baptism” (Eph 4:3). The eastern and western parts of the church have had a long history of unity and disunity as Christianity spread around the world. Historians speak of an East-West Schism as a singular event that took place in the year 1054, when Cardinal Humbert and some other representatives of Pope Leo IX, placed a Bull of Excommunication on the altar of the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, excommunicating the Patriarch, Michael Cerularius, from fellowship with Rome. While this was a significant insult to the Patriarch and a blow to East-West relations, the truth is that the schism had been growing for centuries. The excommunication event of 1054 was just one of many factors that caused the eastern and western parts of the church to drift apart from one another.

When Christianity spread throughout the Roman Empire in the first and second centuries AD, the language and culture was primarily Greek. However, in time, scholars in Rome and the western world shifted to Latin as their primary language. As the centuries went on, Christians in the west became less interested in reading theology in the Greek, and Christians in the east never really took to reading theology in the Latin. This language barrier broke down communication between Christians in both parts of the church.

The political situation became different too. When the Western Roman Empire fell to Barbarian invaders in the fifth century, the empire fractured into several kingdoms, and the churches struggled to maintain unity between the kingdoms. They eventually persuaded their Barbarian kings of the truth of Christianity, but the political and church situations in the west would remain largely decentralized. Even the orientation of church leadership took on the form of a monarchy as if the Pope was the sole king of the western church and his bishops became like princes. It was a different story in the east. The Eastern, or Byzantine, Emperor retained a firm grip on the Byzantine Empire for another thousand years after the Western Empire fell. The emperor, whose capital was in Constantinople, had a close and vital relationship with the Patriarch of Constantinople and the Patriarchs of the Byzantine Church. Christians in the east recognized a College of Patriarchs (where the word college is used like a “college of surgeons” or the “electoral college” in the US), with much equality between equals leading the church.  

In 754, following years of separation from the Byzantine Church, Pope Stephen turned his attention northward and developed a relationship with the Frankish kings: Charles “the Hammer” Martel, Pepin the Short, and Charlemagne. The popes, beginning with Pope Stephen in 754 and continuing from that time forward focused much on France for their political, economic, and military support. This increased the schism between the eastern and western parts of the church.

There were some theological disagreements that mixed in with political disagreements to further the schism as well. Ask Eastern Orthodox Christians today what the main theological difference is between them and the Roman Catholic Church, and they will say, “the Filioque (fill-ee-OH-kweh) Controversy.” At the Council of Constantinople in 381, the Nicene Creed was ratified, and the Holy Spirit was described as proceeding “from the Father.” In 437, the bishops of Spain held a council in Toledo at the behest Leo the Great, who served as a prominent deacon before becoming the Pope of Rome, to address a trinitarian controversy that had arisen in the region and, using Leo’s language, they added the Latin word filioque, “and the son” to the creed they ratified. This group of western bishops explained that “the Holy Spirit proceeded from the Father and the Son.” This became the standard version of the creed in the Spanish speaking world and by the 7th century the French and German translations of the creed included this phrase. The perception in the east was that this exclusively western council had overreached by taking it upon themselves to modify the wording of a famous creed, whose wording without this phrase had been ratified by an ecumenical council. While these filioque discussions began small, they eventually evolved into a major sticking point in the schism between the eastern and western parts of the church. 

In the ninth century, both the eastern and western churches sent missionaries to the Slavs in Bulgaria, which was in the middle of the two regions of the church. Disputes broke out as to whether to include the word filioque in the missionary literature or not. This led to a series of councils in Constantinople and Rome about the matter and about who should be recognized as the true Patriarch of Constantinople. 

Meanwhile back in the West, the Popes in Rome were attempting to solidify their authority over the Western Church among the different Barbarian kingdoms. In the process of doing so, they made claims of the Pope’s authority over the entire church, east and west. Naturally, these claims were ill-received by eastern Christians, who were willing to recognize the Pope as the western patriarch, but only as one among a college of patriarchs.

By the eleventh century, the papacy grew to the height of its political power and made strong assertions of Rome’s authority over the entire church. While Pope Leo IX did not immediately excommunicate Patriarch Michael Cerularius, the pope signed a document, primarily written by Cardinal Humbert, which authorized the cardinal to take extreme action if an investigation in Constantinople warranted. Humbert hastily placed the Bull of Excommunication on the altar of the Hagia Sophia and left the city, thus dramatically formalizing the schism between east and west. The Crusades really solidified the schism and caused it to endure because of the poor behavior of the crusaders in Constantinople and disagreements about who should be in charge of the Church in Antioch. 

What made the schism continue so firmly for centuries was not theological in nature but the behavior of western armies raised and sent by Western church leaders to put down the spread of Islam into Jerusalem and territories of the eastern church. When the western Crusaders came to Constantinople to help the church from persecution, they plundered the city and attempted to set up Latin churches there and elsewhere in the east. History would remember the Crusaders more as misbehaving mercenaries than people protecting their Eastern Orthodox counterparts.

Throughout the church’s history, Christians have experienced difficulty when it comes to unity. Separated by language, distance, politics, and theology; the eastern and western parts of the church seemed to drift apart despite persistent attempts to keep the church unified. While “there is one Lord, one faith, and one baptism” (Eph. 4:5), Christians struggle to maintain unity in the Church throughout the world.

1.  Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, new edition (New York: Penguin, 1993), 53. Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 308. Rodrick K. Durst, “The Great East-West Schism” in Churchfails: 100 Blunders in Church History (& What We Can Learn from Them) (Nashville: Holman, 2016), 80. 
2. Rodrick K. Durst, “The Great East-West Schism” in Churchfails: 100 Blunders in Church History (& What We Can Learn from Them) (Nashville: Holman, 2016), 80.
3. Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, new edition (New York: Penguin, 1993), 44.
4. Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 306.
5. Roger E. Olson, The Story of Christian Theology: Twenty Centuries of Tradition & Reform (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 1999), 306.
6. Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, new edition (New York: Penguin, 1993), 45.
7. Chales Joseph Hefele, A History of the Councils of the Church from the Original Documents: Vol. III A.D. 431 to A.D. 451 (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1883), pp. 175-176.
8. Stephen R. Holmes, The Quest for the Trinity: The Doctrine of God in Scripture, History, and Modernity (Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2012), 147.
9. John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (New York: Fordham, 1979), 92.
10. John Meyendorff, Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes (New York: Fordham, 1979), 92.
11.  Justo González, The Story of Christianity: Volume One—The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, revised and updated edition (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 310. 
12. Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church, new edition (New York: Penguin, 1993), 57.
13. Justo González, The Story of Christianity: Volume One—The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, revised and updated edition (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 313.
14. Justo González, The Story of Christianity: Volume One—The Early Church to the Dawn of the Reformation, revised and updated edition (New York: HarperOne, 2010), 313.