Perhaps, you will be amazed to discover that Christian denominations are multiplying on daily basis. The parting lines are not always significant. Interestingly, they quote from the Bible to support their existence and teachings. As stated earlier, the growth is unabated. The separation of the Latin and Greek Churches was politically motivated.
The craving for power, popularity and recognition has always the banes of any institution in our society. Hurlbut said that, although the separation of the Latin and Greek churches was formally made in the eleventh century, it was practically accomplished long before. He explains that between popes and patriarchs strife had been the normal relation for hundreds of years, until finally, in 1054 A.D., the Pope’s messenger laid upon the altar of St. Sophia in Constantinople, the decree of excommunication; whereupon the patriarch in turn issued his decree excommunicating Rome and the churches submitting to the Pope. Since that time the Latin and Greek churches have stood apart, neither one recognizing the churchly existence of the other. Hurlbut further contends that, most of the questions at issue, forming causes leading to the separation, seem in our day almost trivial, yet for centuries these were subjects of violent controversy, and at times of bitter persecutions.
Hurlbut present the following as causes of the separation:
a) Doctrinally, the principal difference lay in the doctrine known as the procession of the Holy Ghost. The Latin Church held that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son in Latin filioque. The Greek Church said the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father leaving out the word filioque. Over that one word mighty debates were held, books in untold numbers were written, and even blood was shed in bitter strife.
b) In the ceremonies of the church, different usages became the custom in the East and the West, and these customs were formulated into laws. The marriage of priests was forbidden in the Western Church, but sanctioned in the Eastern Church.
Throughout the Greek Church at the present time, every village priest (who bears the title of pope, equivalent to father among the Roman Catholics) must be a married man.
c) In the Western Church the adoration of images has been practiced for a thousand years, while in the Greek Church one sees not statues but only pictures. Yet the pictures are in bold relief, as bas relief images, and they are held in the most profound reverence.
d) In the service or the mass the Roman Churches used unleavened bread (the wafer) while common bread is distributed in the Greek communion.
e) As a protest against observance of the seventh day, the practice of fasting on Saturday arose in the West but never in the East. Later, the Roman Catholic fast day was changed to Friday, the day of our Lord’s crucifixion.
f) But deeper than these differences of ceremony, in bringing about the separation of the Latin and Greek churches, was the political cause in the independence of Europe from the throne of Constantinople, in the establishment of the Roman Empire (800 A.D.). Even after the fall of the old Empire of Rome in 476 A.D.
the imperial idea still held power; and the new barbarian kingdoms of the Goths, Franks and other races, in a loose way regarded themselves as theoretically under the emperor at Constantinople. But when Charlemagne established the Empire, it took the place of the ancient empire, separate from and independent of the emperors of Constantinople. An independent state necessitated an independent church.
g) But the most powerful force leading to the separation was the persistent claim of Rome to be the ruling church and of its Pope to be the Universal Bishop. At Rome the church was gradually dominating the state; at Constantinople the church was obsequious to the state. Hence a schism between the two sections with such opposite conceptions was inevitable; and the final rending apart of the two great divisions of the church came, as we have seen, in 1054 A.D. (Hurlbut, 1981, 97).
4.0 CONCLUSION
Perhaps, the revival of the imperial power in the West was brought about as a result of the papacy searching for security and stability. The Bishop of Rome needed strong and formidable allies to ward off enemies that constantly threatened and intimidated the peace of his territories. Therefore, the Frankish rulers paved way for the desired Empire the papacy was searching for. The bishop of Rome intended to use the temporal authority as a tool in his hand to perpetuate his claims as the Vicar of God on Earth. You will recollect that sometimes the papacy achieved that lofty aims, as Emperors and Kings were humiliated
and brought down on their kneels, pleaded for mercy and forgiveness.
This was also the period when the first great schism in the church occurred. The Western and Eastern sections of the church separated to go their respective ways as the Roman Catholic Church in the West, and the Greek Orthodox Church in the East. However, the gloom of the Dark Ages was being slowly dispelled by a revival of learning that began under Charlemagne.
5.0 SUMMARY
Throughout this unit, you have learnt the following points:
Frankish Emperors aided the papacy and supported her claims, whereas, the Germans and French Rulers fought.
The ideal of a revived Roman Empire was never given up after the fall of Charlemagne’s empire.
The German emperors of the tenth century took over from the west Frankish state the tradition of empire, and the empire founded by Otto I was known as the Holy Roman Empire.
The Carolingian Empire also created the problem of whether the Church or the State was the representative of Deity on earth.
The issue of whether God had delegated sovereignty to the Pope or to the Emperor so that one derived his authority from the other was a heritage of Charlemagne’s empire. This issue embittered relationships between the Church and the State for some centuries during the Middle Ages.
The beginning of the Pope’s claim to be a temporal ruler dated from the grant of lands in Italy to the Pope by Pepin, the ancestor of Charlemagne, in 756 A. D.
The Pope as a temporal as well as a spiritual ruler made claims they would not admit were justified on national rulers during the Middle Ages.
The impetus given to culture by Charlemagne must be counted as one of the great marks of his empire.
His reign was a bright light illuminating by contrast the cultural darkness of the Dark Ages elsewhere in Western Europe.
The decline and fall of the Holy Roman Empire and that of Constantinople
6.0 TUTOR-MARKED ASSIGNMENT
1. Discuss the rise and fall of the Holy Roman Empire.
2. Discuss the trends that led to the great Schism of 1054.
7.0 REFERENCES/FURTHER READINGS
Cairns, Earle. E. Christianity through the Century: A History of the Christian Church. (Rev. & Enlarged Ed.) Grand Rapids:
Zondervan Publishing House, 1981, pp. 191-197; 205-206.
Burns, Edward McNall Ralph, Philip Lee Lerner, Robert E. and Meacham, Standish World Civilizations (Vol.1, 7th Edition) New York: W.W. Norton & Company, 1986, pp. 390-397; 423-430.
Hurlbut, Jesse Lyman (1981). The Story of the Christian Church, Grand Rapids: Zondervan Publishing House, pp. 94-98.
Dowley, Tim (ed.). (1996).Lion Handbook: The History of Christianity Singapore: Lion Publishing Plc., pp. 247-262.
Houghton, S.M. (2001). Sketches from Church History. Great Britain:
The Barth Press., pp. 51-53.