Comparing The Roman Catholic Church And The Westeren Orrthodox Church

Based on the video lessons, what were the reasons behind the conflicts between the emperors and the popes during this period: The main reason for strife between the popes and the holy Roman emperors starts with Fredrick Barbarossa realizing that the French and English Kings were beginning to wield a lot of power and that there was way too much decentralization going on in his Empire. Fredrick begins by trying to take the Northern Lombard states in Italy for their wealth. The Lombard states however are not really fans of being absorbed into the HRE, and the first seed of discord between the Emperor and Pope is sown when the Pope sides with the Lombard cities. Fredrick begins to support anti-papacy individuals, when he declares that Alexander

Besides theological differences between the two churches there were also political and cultural controversies. Before the split the Western church had begun to push for the solidification of papal authority. The push for papal authority would cause the churches to become more autocratic and centralized (Dennis, The East-West Schism, para. 10). This push had taken a damper on the entire church and the hostility began to grow. “Problems arose in Southern Italy (then under Byzantine rule) in the 1040s, when Norman warriors conquered the region and replaced Greek [Eastern] bishops with Latin [Western] ones” (Dennis, para. 5). After Cerularius was informed that the Normans were forbidding Greek customs in southern

This was a bad scene when the Catholics were fighting against the Eastern Orthodox leading to the conquer of Byzantine, capital of Constantinople. This lead to the Turkish Muslims to advance towards Europe which resulted in the fall of Eastern Europe.

The Great Papal Schism is also known as the Western Schism that lasted from 1378 – 1417, during which the papacy (the position itself) was in great divide between three popes in the Roman Catholic Church. This political upheaval within the Roman Catholic Church caused distrust of the western civilization towards the church. It began after the Avignon Papacy or the more commonly referred to, “Babylonian captivity of the papacy” which was when the papal court was moved to France and French cardinals who later became popes from 1309-1378 resided in Avignon, France (a total of seven French popes by the papal names Clement V all the way to Gregory XI, who moved the court back to Rome) while being heavily influenced by the French kings; this also resulted to the decline of the papal power and authority (Miller, Study.com).

Many issues that created the Great Schism between the East and West, both before 1054 and after 1054. It would appear from the documents that the Eastern Orthodox has more issues with how the West was conducting religion. Some documents would tell us that the Catholic had issues before and after 1054 C.E. Also the Eastern Orthodox had issues before and after 1054. Both religions had issues before and after the time of 1054 C.E., but the Eastern Orthodox had more issues. It would appear to us by the documents that the Catholic had issues before 1054 C.E. In 86 C.E we learned that the Pope had an problem because the jurisdiction of Rome should be restored as possible. We learn that the jurisdiction of Rome was necessary because it helped them

Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Catholics once included a solitary Christian church with two focuses of force, Rome and Constantinople. Known as the Great Schism, was the official split between Roman Catholics and Eastern Orthodox Church. The Church split along doctrinal, religious, phonetic, political, and geographic lines, and the central break as never been mended. Though the Church split because of their differences, they still had some things that were similar.

The Great Schism of 1054 was when the Roman Empire split into halves, to the Roman Empire (which was Catholic) to the west, and the Byzantine Empire (which was Orthodox) to the east. This schism was caused by quarrels about their religion. They believed in different things when it came to who was “in charge”

To understand the rise of the Church in Rome it is imperative to recall that the center of the Christianity had been destroyed in AD 70, when the army of Titus destroyed Jerusalem. Looking for leadership, the Christians would have immediately sought out those in Rome as it was the center of power and capitol of the Empire. In the first and second centuries, all roads did indeed lead to Rome. The second reason that Christians looked to Rome for leadership is because they believed that the church would come from Peter. Many took Jesus statement in Matthew 16:18, “You are Peter…” to literally mean that the Church would form from Peter and he was in Rome, thereby the center of Church leadership would be in Rome and its leader would bear the title Pope. In the following six centuries a sequence of events would eventually lead to the bishop in Rome and the Papacy to great spiritual and political power in all of Western Europe. The intent of this paper is to summarize the rise of papacy power and the factors that contributed to its dominance of Western Europe. The rise of the papacy to increased dominance and power was more likely to a confluence of historical events, divinely inspired as all things come from God, than to the apostolic succession of Peter.

In 1054, the Great Schism occurred between the Roman Catholics and the Orthodox Christians, when the Pope first excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople. Not long after that, the Patriarch excommunicated the Pope, causing the split. There were many issues prior that created the Great Schism between the east and west both before and after 1054. It would appear from the documentation that the east had more issues with how the west conducted the church. The issues that caused the Schism between the two churches happened prior to 1054, but more issues occurred after the split. Before the split occurred, there were multiple differences that the Latin Catholics and the Eastern Orthodox, which could be possible reasons for the schism. The Catholics had different authorities, government systems and rules which they followed daily. For starters, the Catholic Church was separated from political authority, the Pope ruled the church and everything was directed as a monarchy. The Eastern Orthodox had the Byzantine Emperor as the political head of the church, a council of bishops was the supreme religious authority and was ruled as an oligarchy (Doc 4). Their differences would eventually lead to arguments between them, and cause the split. Before that, a man named Pope John VIII sent a letter to the Greek Patriarch Photius, stating that “It is our will that our Bulgarian diocese, which converted to Christianity through the efforts of my predecessor, Pope Nicholas, and which was

Though there is a broad historical, theological and religious consensus that the official break of communion is dated to the year 1054 C.E., when Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other, this was not the sole cause of the schism that would divide these denominations for some two centuries, but rather, to use the cliché, the ‘straw that broke the camel's back’.

I learned a lot from the document on Christianity and World Religions. To start off I learned that question of relations is becoming more prevalent in todays sociality. There are various contributing factors to this issue. Interdependence among different parts of the word is rising. Communication and interdependence have brought greater consciousness of the diversity of religions, with dangers and at the same time the opportunities this implies. The importance of religious dimension in human life and the rise in encounters among people and cultures make interreligious dialogue necessary. It is said in the document “ For this dialogue to be fruitful, Christianity, and specifically the Catholic Church, must try to clarify how religions are to be evaluated theologically. On this evaluation will depend to a great extent the relation between Christians and the different religions and their followers, and the subsequent dialogue, which will be established with them in different forms. The principal object of the following reflections is to work out some theological principles which may help in this evaluation.” Therefore, we know that many questions are still unanswered and require be further investigating and discussing.

After the fall of the Western Roman Empire, there was a period in history where there existed no real centralized political authority in Western Europe; however, the church remained as strong as ever. Taking advantage of the inherent power vacuum, the Catholic Church became the highest authority in Western Europe. Due to the lack of other formal institutions, the church became the center of education, thus the clergy comprised some of the best educated and administrated minds in the chaos following the collapse of the empire. The Church also capitalized on the political entropy to enact the principle of papal primacy. This doctrine elevated the Roman Pope to become the absolute leader of the Catholic Church, giving them unprecedented religious

The schisms of the Catholic Church is instrumental in creating a platform that sparks the Reformation and eventually establishes the Protestant Church. Because of the stronghold Christianity has and its ability to permeate within the confines of the Roman Empire, leaders decide to befriend Christians and seek their support. With this in mind, believers are tolerated and eventually, Theodosius I make Christianity the state religion of the Empire and forbids the worship of pagan gods. After Theodosius’ rule the Empire split, but the church maintains its relevance in both the West and the East (Chase, Jacob, Jacob, & Von Laue, 2013, p. 172).

The Byzantine emperor is afraid the Turks will attack Constantinople, so he asked the Roman church for help. He asked that all the Christians unite and make the Turks leave. The pope agreed to this plan for a few reasons; first, he thought a combined East-West war against the Turks could reunite the eastern and western churches, and second, he wanted to free Palestine and Jerusalem from Muslim rule.

Despite attempts to regain the lost during the disparities, much of the original doctrines have been shattered. Arianism at some point ended but was again spread due to the coming of the West migrants such as Visigoths. Destroying many Catholic churches and bringing disaster, Roman Empire enters the Dark Ages period. Although, at the time, bishops and popes became more functional in civil authority, it was not of power, but because of the opportunity to impart the religious authority. Afterwards, Catholic Church soon became the Roman Catholic Church. On the other hand, the East maintained traditions and at the Council of Chalcedon, Pope Leo disagreed with the decision to make Constantinople equal to Rome and fought for papal primacy.