Church History
Great Schism (1054)
The definitive break between the Church of Rome and the Eastern Churches. Cardinal Humbert excommunicated Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople, who reciprocated. Causes: Filioque addition, papal supremacy claims, liturgical differences, political rivalry. In reality, the schism was a gradual process spanning centuries.
Sources
- Timothy Ware, The Orthodox Church (Ch. 3: The Schism) archive.org
- St. Photius the Great, Encyclical to the Eastern Patriarchs (867 AD)
- Metropolitan Hilarion Alfeyev, Orthodox Christianity, Vol. 1