Great Schism Dbq

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With excommunications of both the Patriarch and the Pope, a Great Schism was brought about that would change two empires forever. There were many issues that created the Great Schism between the east and the west both before 1054 and after. It would appear from the documents that the east had more issues with how the west was conducting and controlling religion through the governing of the church. Prior to 1054, the Catholic issues revolved greatly around the abandonment of the Catholic empire by bishops of the west. The west was looking to restore their empire as bishops left and headed east to Constantinople. Pope John VIII requested by “papal authority” that the incoming bishops should not be allowed to perform any ordinations, and should they be allowed to perform the east …show more content…

The eastern orthodox also believed that the catholics were going against the scripture, making their own rules up rather than following the set of rules God had set for them (Document 8). For both churches, the priorities and ways of governing the church are totally different. The eastern Orthodox churches have two patriarchs while the Catholics have one pope. The Orthodox citizens have come to a conclusion at this point in the schism that there is no hope for the churches rejoining if the catholics can not accept the ways of their religion (Document 6). There was also the point of geography in the schism. Should the east had accepted union with the west, they would become a part of the west. The eastern orthodox had issues with this as they did not like the idea of abandoning their empire of Byzantium to become a part of the west (Document 7). Through all of the time before and after the Great Schism, the issues present after the war had the greatest impact on the schism, keeping it around for a very long time. Between the church encouraging its members to fight against the Orthodox by telling them they would

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