What Were The Immediate Circumstances Leading Up To The Great Schism?

Question

While I know there were long-burning cultural, linguistic and political issues before the double-excommunications... what were the more immediate causes?

Answer 1

This is one of the great non-events in history! It's 1054 and a cardinal is sent by the pope from Rome to Constantinople to work on getting the Western and Eastern Churches back together. Of course this implies that the churches were already apart when they had their great schism, which is sort of ironic or an oxymoron in and of itself.

In addtion, you've now got a hot-headed cardinal Humbert who is left to chill and cool his heels to 'put him in his place' but he isn't handling it well. In response to his frustration and what he perceives as a slight to the pope and the Church of Rome he walks into Hagia Sophia on a Sunday during their liturgy and throws down a Bull of Excommunication on the altar. It's all an immediate issue of frustration and tempter.

However, when one looks at it, this "Great Schism" is a cardinal doing something he wasn't assinged to do, with no authority (the pope had died while he was in Constantinople, so his mission was at an end and had to be re-approved by the new pope) and what he was supposedly doing was something that was already the case (the churches were already apart ... he was supposed to get them back together).

A couple other interesting theroies I have heard on this ... one is that the real issue was the understanding of the use of leavened or unleavened break in communion. The East used bread with yeast it in to show that communion was the risen Christ, the West used bread without yeast as both a symol of the last supper and also the crucifixion. I've also heard it was an issue over calendar and the determination of the date of Easter, something the East and West still can't agree on.