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Tensions Between Eastern and Western Christianity

What happened in 1054?

  • Background: Justinian (527-565), Hagia Sophia
  • Pope Leo IX (1049-1054), Cardinal Humbert, Patriarch Michael Cerularius (1043-1058)
  • the fateful day: 16 July 1054: excommunication, the Great Schism (1054)

    Why and how did Eastern and Western Christianity differ before 1054?

  • administrative background: reorganization of the Empire under Diocletian (284-305), Constantinople (New Rome) as new capital
  • culture (language): Graeca non leguntur
  • devotion and ecclesiastical discipline: Quinisext Council, Constantinople (692), Emperor Justinian II vs. Pope Sergius I
  • doctrine: filioque
  • exercise of ecclesiastical authority: Old Rome vs. New Rome, Patriarch of Constantinople = Ecumenical Patriarch, translatio imperii, Apostolic See, Pope Paul I (757-767) vs. nefandissimi Graeci

    NB Key terms are underlined.