7.1. Schism of Christianity (Orthodoxy and Catholicism)
Already in the initial period of its existence, Christianity did not represent a single church in administrative terms. The process of approving the Creed at the Ecumenical Councils demonstrated serious differences between Western Christianity (Catholicism) and Eastern Christianity (Orthodoxy). On the territory of the western part of the Roman Empire, there was only one Roman Catholic Church, owes its foundation to the activity of the Apostle Peter, who preached in Rome and found his martyr's death there. At the head of this church was pope(from lat. pappas - father, father), in the I-II centuries. who performed the dangerous functions of a priest of the Roman Christian community (several popes were executed or died at the hands of the emperor's soldiers). Later, the pope became bishop of Rome, and subsequently received power over the vast territories of Italy, Gaul, Germany and England. In the 7th century representatives of the Catholic Church made a false charter (the so-called "Konstantin's gift"), in which, allegedly, the Roman emperor Constantine I (306-337), in gratitude for the spiritual guidance and deliverance from the leprosy that tormented him, donated the entire western part empire.
Originating in the eastern part of the Roman Empire, orthodoxy unlike Catholicism, it did not undergo rigid centralization, but was a conglomerate (set) of several separate churches headed by separate patriarchs. The most respected and oldest of these churches were four: Constantinople (its patriarch formally continued to be considered the head of the entire Eastern Church), Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (which was the most ancient patriarchy on the grounds that the first bishop of the Jerusalem community would be James, brother of Jesus). But the educational activities of these churches led to the fact that Christianity penetrated into many countries of Eastern Europe precisely in its Orthodox interpretation. Serbia (late 9th century), Bulgaria (865), Romania (4th–5th centuries), and others were among such countries. Thus, we can say that not individual countries, but tribes were subjected to Orthodox baptism living on the territory of future sovereign (independent) states. Formally, these tribes were considered independent, but the recognition of the church authority of one of the Orthodox churches (as a rule, it was about the Patriarchate of Constantinople) made them subject, even in the church question, to Byzantium. Such a position, which suited the leaders of these tribes at the initial stage of relations, ceased to satisfy them later, when separate states began to take shape in the tribal territories, which preferred to adhere to independence in relation to religion. Taking advantage of the crisis of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, connected with the invasion of the Turks into the territory of Byzantium in the XIII-XIV centuries, Bulgaria, and after it Serbia, chose to declare their churches autocephalous(independent) from other Orthodox churches.
Friction between the main directions of Christian doctrine arose shortly after the VII Ecumenical Council (787), which is officially recognized by supporters of the Orthodox Church as the last Ecumenical Council. At the heart of church contradictions lie not only discrepancies of a purely dogmatic nature, the main of which is the addition by Catholics to the Creed "filioque" (translated from Latin - "and from the son"). The meaning of this addition is that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son. An important factor in the final rupture of the churches were political reasons. Their essence was the confrontation between the Italian rulers and the Byzantine Empire, which for some time successfully carried out expansion into the territory of the Apennine Peninsula.
The first step towards breaking up was schism(church conflict) 862-870, provoked by the actions of the Byzantine emperor Michael III, who deposed the Patriarch of Constantinople Ignatius and erected in his place Photius, who, according to his convictions, was an absolutely secular person. Pope Nicholas I considered this moment convenient for proving his power and condemned the new patriarch and demanded the return of Ignatius to the patriarchal throne. Photius, outraged by the interference of the Pope in the internal affairs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, convened a council in 867, which condemned the initiative of Pope Nicholas I. But at that moment the situation changed dramatically, since the patron of Patriarch Photius, Byzantine Emperor Michael III, was killed, and ascended to throne Basil I made a "castling", changing the current patriarch to his predecessor Ignatius (870). However, this candidacy did not suit the pope either, which was facilitated by another aggravation of relations due to the church subordination of Bulgaria, which adopted Christianity in its Orthodox version, but was in the sphere of interests of the Catholic Church. A few years later, Ignatius died (879), and Photius again took his place, forced to agree to a mutually beneficial exchange: Pope John VIII canceled anathema(excommunication) imposed on Photius, but in return received Bulgaria as his subject. The fulfillment of the stipulated terms of the contract turned out to be unilateral. Photius with great triumphs again ascended the patriarchal throne, but was in no hurry to give Bulgaria under the jurisdiction of the pope. In 880, at the Council of Constantinople, which united the patriarchs of all the Eastern churches, Photius was acquitted of all charges brought by the Roman Catholic Church, and was officially recognized in the patriarchal rank. This conflict, which did not result in a long confrontation, became the “first call” of unceasing contradictions, the final aggravation of which occurred in 1054 and ended with the official division of the churches, which from now on divided Christianity into two different directions.
In their official documents, the Western and Eastern churches refer to themselves as ecumenical. Until the 11th century there was a single Christian universal church. What led to its split?
The first political prerequisite for the split was the division in 395 of the Roman Empire into Eastern and Western. This circumstance predetermined the claims of each of the parties to the sole leadership of the church.
The fate of the Western and Eastern empires developed differently. The Western Roman Empire was soon conquered by the Germanic tribes. Over time, independent feudal states were formed on the territory of the western Roman provinces. In the Eastern Roman Empire (later called Byzantium), a strong imperial power was preserved for a long time. The development of the eastern and western regions of the once unified state went in different ways.
Not only did the process of feudalization go on in different ways in the formed parts of the former Roman Empire, but it was also reflected differently in Western and Eastern Christianity. In the western regions, the formation of feudal relations took place at a more rapid pace. Given the rapidly changing situation, the Western Church accordingly amended its doctrine and rituals, in the interpretation of the decisions of ecumenical councils and Christian dogmas. The feudalization of the eastern parts of the former Roman Empire proceeded much more slowly. stagnation public life determined the conservatism of the church life of Orthodoxy.
Thus, under the influence of quite specific historical circumstances, two characteristics Eastern and Western Christianity. The western church has flexibility, quick adaptability, while the eastern one has conservatism, gravitation towards traditions, towards customs, fanned and sanctified by antiquity. As it is not paradoxical, both branches of Christianity successfully used these features in the future. Western Christianity proved to be a convenient form of religion for countries in which the social situation was changing relatively quickly. Eastern Christianity was more suitable for countries with a stagnant nature of public life.
Features of Western christian church formed in conditions of feudal political fragmentation. The Christian Church turned out to be, as it were, the spiritual core of the world fragmented into a number of independent states. In this situation, the Western clergy managed to create their own international church organization with a single center in Rome, with a single head - the Roman bishop. A number of factors contributed to the rise of the Roman bishop. One of them is the transfer of the capital of the empire from Rome to Constantinople. At first, this weakened the authority of the Roman hierarch, but soon Rome appreciated the benefits that could be drawn from the new situation. The Western Church got rid of the daily guardianship of the imperial power. The performance of certain state functions, for example, the collection of taxes by the Roman hierarch, also turned out to be very beneficial for the Western clergy. Gradually, the Western Church gained more and more economic and political influence. And as its influence grew, so did the authority of its head.
By the time the empire was divided, there was only one major religious center in the West, while there were four in the East. At the time of the Council of Nicaea, there were three patriarchs - Bishops of Rome, Alexandria And Antioch. Soon the titles of patriarchs were also achieved bishops of Constantinople And Jerusalem. The Eastern patriarchs were often at enmity with each other, fought for primacy, each sought to strengthen his influence. In the West, the Roman bishop had no such powerful competitors. In the conditions of the feudal fragmentation of the West, the Christian Church enjoyed relative independence for a long time. Playing the role of the spiritual center of the feudal world, she even fought for the primacy of church power over secular power. And sometimes she achieved great success. The Eastern Church could not dream of anything like this. She, too, at times tried to measure her strength with secular power, but always to no avail. The strong imperial power, which survived comparatively longer in Byzantium, determined from the very beginning for Eastern Christianity the role of a more or less obedient servant. The church was constantly dependent on secular sovereigns.
Emperor Constantine and his successors, strengthening their empire, turned the Christian Church into state institute. The Patriarch of Constantinople, in essence, was the Minister for Religious Affairs. Character of the Christian Church in the Eastern Roman Empire as public institution clearly manifested itself during the convening of ecumenical councils. They were not only assembled by the emperors, but also chaired either by the ruler himself or by a secular official appointed by him. This was how the first six ecumenical councils were held, and only at the seventh (Nicene, 787) did the patriarch sit in the chair.
Of course, one should not present the hierarchs of Constantinople as meek lambs. The Patriarch of Constantinople had several ways of resisting imperial power. Sometimes he used his right of mandatory participation in the coronation of a new emperor and could refuse to crown him if the conditions put forward by him were not accepted. The patriarch also had the right to excommunicate the heretic emperor, for example, Emperor Leo VI was excommunicated in connection with his fourth marriage. Finally, he could turn for support to the Roman high priest, who did not submit to the authority of the Byzantine emperors. True, at the end of the eighth century. the Roman bishop was for some time subordinate to Byzantium, but soon the pope again came out from under the influence of the emperors of Constantinople.
From the middle of the ninth century there was a stubborn struggle between the papacy and the patriarchy for dominance in the Christian world. In 857 the emperor of Byzantium, Michael III, deposed Patriarch Ignatius and elevated Photius, whom he liked, to the patriarchal throne. Pope Nicholas I considered this an occasion for intervention and for strengthening his influence over the Eastern Church. He demanded the restoration of Ignatius, and at the same time presented a number of territorial claims (in particular, in relation to Bulgaria). The Byzantine emperor did not make concessions, and the pope declared Ignatius the true patriarch, and Photius the deposed.
Since that time, the confrontation between the two churches begins, the search for accusations against the opponent. Dogmatic disagreements boiled down to the following main questions:
The Eastern Church recognized the origin of the holy spirit only from God the Father, while the Western Church recognized the origin of the Holy Spirit only from God the Father and God the Son;
Each of the churches disputes the legitimacy of the councils that took place on the territory of the enemy (for example, the Council of Constantinople in 381).
Ritual disagreements boiled down to the fact that the Eastern Church denied the need for fasting on Saturday, because. this took place in the Western church, the celibacy of the Western clergy, the elevation of deacons directly to bishops, etc.
Canonical differences were expressed in the fact that the Pope arrogated to himself the right to be the head and judge of the entire Christian church. The doctrine of the primacy of the pope made him superior to the ecumenical councils. The Eastern Church occupied a subordinate position in relation to the state power, the Western Church placed itself in an independent state from the secular authorities, trying to increase its influence on society and the state.
In the middle of the XI century. The papacy drove the Greeks out of southern Italy. In response to this, Patriarch Michael Cerularius ordered that worship in the Latin churches of Constantinople be conducted according to the Greek model, and also closed the Latin monasteries. In 1054 both churches anathematized each other. The split has finally taken shape. The Western Church eventually received the name of the Catholic (universal), and the name of the Orthodox Church (that is, correctly praising God) was assigned to the Eastern Christian Church. The entire Catholic world is subject to a single head of the church - the Pope. Orthodoxy, on the other hand, is a system of autocephalous, i.e. independent churches. Preserving basically the dogmas of Christianity, these currents differ from each other in their peculiar interpretation of some dogmas, in certain features of the cult.
At first, after the split, both churches made attempts to unite. At the end of the XI century. Pope Urban II called on the faithful to the first crusade, which had as its goal the liberation of the “sepulcher of the Lord” and at the same time the enrichment and growth of the power of the Catholic Church. Numerous crusades took place from 1095 to 1270. During the fourth crusade (1202-1204), the crusaders stormed Constantinople, carrying out the armed subordination of the Orthodox Church to Rome. The formed Latin Empire did not last long, in 1261 it fell. The consequences of the crusades led to the strengthening of the power and importance of the Roman high priests, as the main initiators of these campaigns, contributed to the emergence of spiritual and knightly orders that protected the interests of the papacy, further exacerbated the relationship between the Catholic and Orthodox churches. Attempts to reunite the churches were made in subsequent times. In 1965, Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I lifted mutual anathemas from both churches, but no reunification took place. Too many grievances have accumulated.
To date, there are a number of autocephalous Orthodox churches. The most ancient: Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch And Jerusalem. Other : Russian, Bulgarian, Georgian, Serbian, Romanian. The above autocephalous churches are headed by patriarchs. Metropolitans govern Sinai, Polish, Czechoslovakian, Albanian And American churches. Archbishops - Cypriot And Helladic. Metropolitans of the largest churches, such as Roman, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch And Jerusalem, became known as patriarchs. Constantinople, as the high priest of the capital of the empire, received the title of Ecumenical Patriarch.
Dissatisfaction with the Roman church and its desire for transformation intensified in the 11th-15th centuries. There were many dissatisfied people in all strata of Western Christian society. The reasons for the crisis of the Roman Catholic Church were: abuses of the papacy, the decline of morality among the clergy, the loss of the role that the church played in medieval society. Numerous attempts to eliminate shortcomings through non-church transformations ended in failure. The desire of the higher Catholic clergy to establish their political hegemony, to subjugate all secular life and the state as a whole, caused discontent among sovereigns, and governments, and scientists, and bishops, and the people.
The Catholic Church not only announced its claims to complete power in society, but also tried to realize them, using its political influence, military and financial power, and also using the weakness of the central government. Papal ambassadors, church tax collectors, and pardon sellers spread throughout Europe.
What changes were expected from the papacy?
● the pope's renunciation of secular power;
● rejection of violence and arbitrariness;
● the introduction of strict discipline in the life of the clergy and the improvement of its morality;
● the destruction of indulgences that caused particular discontent. (The papal church traded letters of absolution for both past and future sins, which were issued in the name of the Pope for money or any merit to the church);
● the spread of religious education among the people and the restoration of piety in the church.
One of the first real attempts to break papal power affiliated with the University of Prague. Jan Hus, professor of theology at this university, spoke out against the abuses of the Roman church. He wrote an essay “On the Church”, in which he argued that the true church is the totality of not only the clergy, but all believers. He considered the isolation and privileged position of the clergy to be inconsistent with Christian teaching and demanded the equalization of all Christians before God. In the cult, this was expressed in the communion of the laity in the same way as the clergy. (body and blood of Christ). Jan Hus advocated the secularization of church lands. The Pope in 1413 excommunicated Jan Hus from the church. Then, at the Ecumenical Council, Jan Hus was accused of heresy, in 1415 he was burned at the stake.
Jan Zizka continued the work of Hus. Supporters of Jan Zizka denied the spiritual and secular hierarchy, observed moral purity, opposed icon veneration, and demanded the abolition of secret confession. The confrontation with the Catholic Church grew into an armed clash. In 1434, having been defeated by the Catholic troops, the movement of Jan Zizka had to come to terms.
An attempt to reform the church was observed in Italy itself. The Dominican monk Jerome Savonarola acted as a church reformer here. In 1491 he was elected abbot of the monastery of San Marco. With the advent of a new abbot, serious changes took place in the monastery. Savonarola sold off the monastic property, eradicated luxury, obliged all the monks to work, but at the same time the reformer was an ardent enemy of secular literature and humanism. In 1497, Pope Alexander VI excommunicated Savonarola from the church. The next year he was hanged and burned.
General indignation of the Roman church in the XIV-XV centuries. ended in the 16th century. Reformation (lat. - "transformation"). The Reformation, leading to a split in the Roman Catholic Church and the creation of new creeds, manifested itself with varying degrees of intensity in almost all countries of the Catholic world, affected the position of the church as the largest landowner and affected the role of Catholicism as an ideology that had defended the medieval system for centuries.
Reformation processes found in Europe in the 16th century. the nature of broad religious and socio-political movements that put forward demands for the reform of the Roman church and the transformation of the orders approved by its teaching.
Prominent theorists of the Reformation created doctrines that responded to new trends community development XVI-XVII centuries The main criticism was the teaching of the Catholic Church "On the sinfulness" of man's earthly existence. In order to instill in ordinary people the consciousness of their complete insignificance and to reconcile with their position, the Roman Church launched a dogma about the original “sinfulness” of man's earthly existence. The Church declared every person incapable of "saving his soul." The “salvation” and “justification” of the entire earthly world, according to Catholic teaching, is known only by the papal church, endowed with a special right to distribute “divine grace” in the world through the sacraments performed by it (baptism, repentance, communion, etc.). The Reformation rejected the dogma of the Roman Church about the obligatory mediation of the clergy between man and God. The central place of the new teachings of the Reformation was the doctrine of the direct relationship of man with God, of "justification by faith", i.e. “salvation” of a person not with the help of strict observance of rituals, but on the basis of God’s inner gift – faith. The meaning of the doctrines of "justification by faith" was the denial of the privileged position of the clergy, the rejection of the church hierarchy and the primacy of the pope. This made it possible to implement the demand for a “cheap” church, which had long been put forward by the burghers. The ideas of the Reformation strengthened the position of secular power and the emerging nation-states in the struggle against the claims of the pope.
With the conclusion about “justification by faith”, the ideologists of the Reformation connected their second main position, which was fundamentally different from the Catholic teaching - the recognition of “Holy Scripture” as the only authority in the field of religious truth: this entailed the refusal to recognize “Holy Tradition” (decisions of Roman popes and church councils ) and opened up the possibility for a freer and more rational interpretation of religious issues.
As a result of the Reformation, a new Protestant church appeared in many countries of Europe. The reform movement began, and with it the creation of Protestantism in Germany. It was led by the Augustinian monk Martin Luther (1483-1546).
At the end of October 1517, Luther presented 95 theses against indulgences. Luther's words and actions received wide support from German society and gave a powerful impetus to the struggle against the Catholic Church.
Unlike humanists who condemn the remission of sins for a fee, Martin Luther refuted the dogma itself about the possibility of saving the soul only through the mediation of the Catholic clergy and on the basis of a rite established by the church.
There are still enough contradictory opinions in Luther's theses, but the foundations of his teaching have already been outlined. The main place in this teaching is occupied by the concept of “three only”: a person is saved only by faith; he acquires it only through the grace of God, and not as a result of personal merits; the only authority in matters of faith is "Holy Scripture."
The new religion - Lutheranism - turned into a banner of public opposition, its main conclusions were perceived by the masses as the basis not only for church, but also socio-political changes.
Today, Lutheranism continues to be the largest Protestant movement. Evangelical Lutheran churches exist in many parts of the world. In Europe, they are most influential in the Scandinavian countries and Germany. There are few Lutherans in Asian countries, their presence is more significant in America. The total number of Lutherans by the end of the twentieth century. is approximately 80 million. One of the reasons for the rapid spread of this teaching is Luther's idea of two kingdoms. Luther made a clear distinction between religious and social life. The content of the first is faith, Christian preaching, the activities of the church; the second is worldly activity, the state and the mind.
If Luther was the spiritual leader of the moderate burgher-reformist wing of the Reformation, then the revolutionary peasant-plebeian camp was headed by Thomas Müntzer (c. 1490-1525). He was one of the most educated people of his time. At the very beginning of his preaching activity, Müntzer was a fierce supporter of the teachings of Luther. Luther sent him as a preacher to the cities of Juteborg and Zwickau.
However, Müntzer gradually began to move away from Lutheranism. The ideas developed by him brought into the movement a spirit of determination and passionate impatience. From 1524, Müntzer took part in the peasant war in Germany. He developed a program, the main provisions of which were outlined in the "Article Letter". These include the idea of creating a "Christian Association" that will help the people to liberate themselves without bloodshed, only by fraternal exhortation and unity. Joining the "Christian Union" is offered not only to the oppressed, but also to the masters. Those who refuse to participate in the "Christian Association" are threatened with "secular excommunication." No one will communicate with them either at work or during leisure hours. Müntzer's ideas were extremely compressed: the princes were obliged to tear down their castles, give up their titles, honor only one God. For this, they were given all the property of the clergy that was in their possessions, and the mortgaged estates were returned.
In 1525, the princes managed to defeat the rebels in the battle of Mühlhausen. Many were executed by the victors, including Thomas Müntzer.
Until 1526, the Reformation in Germany was led by theologians, and then by the princes. The document that expressed the foundations of Lutheranism, to which the secular hierarchs joined, was the “Augsburg Confession”. In 1555, the Lutherans were granted the right to freedom in matters of faith, but only for the princes. The basis of the religious world was the principle: "Whose country, that and faith." Princes from that moment determined the religion of their subjects. In 1608, the German princes concluded a Protestant union. The agreement of 1648 finally secured the equality of Catholics and Protestants.
In the first half of the XVI century. The reform movement began to spread rapidly outside of Germany. Lutheranism established itself in Austria, in the Scandinavian countries, in the Baltics. Separate Lutheran communities appeared in Poland, Hungary, and France. At the same time, new varieties of Protestantism are emerging in Switzerland - Zwinglianism And Calvinism.
The Reformation in Switzerland, led by Zwingli (1484-1531) and Calvin (1509-1564), expressed more consistently than Lutheranism the bourgeois essence of the reform movement. Zwinglianism, in particular, more decisively broke with the ritual side of Catholicism, refusing to recognize a special magical power - grace - behind the last two sacraments preserved by Lutheranism - baptism and communion. Communion was seen as a simple rite to commemorate the death of Jesus Christ, in which bread and wine are only symbols of his body and blood. In the organization of the Zwinglian church, in contrast to the Lutheran, the republican principle was consistently carried out: each community is independent and chooses its own priest.
Much more widespread Calvinism. Jean Calvin was born in the family of the episcopal secretary of the city of Noyon in northern France. His father prepared him for a career as a lawyer, sending him to study at the then famous University of Bourges. After graduating from university, Calvin was engaged in teaching and literary activities. For several years he lived in Paris, where, apparently, in 1534 he converted to Protestantism. In connection with the persecution of Protestants in 1536, he moved to Geneva, which at that time was a refuge for Protestants.
In the same year, in Basel, his main work “Instruction in the Christian Faith” was published, which contained the main provisions of Calvinism. Calvin's teaching was directed, on the one hand, against Catholicism, on the other hand, against the currents of the popular reformation, whose representatives he accused of complete atheism. Calvin recognized "Holy Scripture" as the exclusive authority and did not allow human interference in the affairs of religion.
One of the fundamental dogmas of Calvinism is the doctrine of “absolute predestination”: even before the “creation of the world”, God predetermined the fate of people, one is destined for heaven, the other hell, and no efforts of people, no good deeds can change what is destined by the Almighty. From the very beginning, Calvinism was characterized by petty regulation of the personal and social life of believers, intolerance to any manifestation of dissent, suppressed by the most stringent measures. In 1538, the Calvinist rules of life were elevated to the rank of a law prohibiting luxury, amusements, games, singing, music, etc. From 1541, Calvin became the spiritual and secular dictator of Geneva. No wonder Geneva was then called “Protestant Rome”, and Calvin “Geneva Pope”.
Calvinism radically reformed the Christian cult and church organization. Almost all external attributes of the Catholic cult (icons, vestments, candles, etc.) were discarded. Reading and commenting on the Bible and singing psalms took the main place in the service. The church hierarchy was abolished. Elders began to play a leading role in Calvinist communities (presbyters) and preachers. The presbyters and preachers made up the consistory, which was in charge of the religious life of the community. Dogmatic issues were the responsibility of special meetings of preachers - congregations, which later turned into local and national congresses of community representatives.
In the Calvinist-Reformed form, Protestantism took hold in England. Unlike other countries where the Reformation began with popular movement, in England its initiator was the royal power.
Henry VIII in 1532 stops payments to the Roman church. In 1533 the king issues a law on the independence of England from the pope in church matters. The supremacy of the pope in the English Church passed to the king. This transfer of power was legalized in 1534 by the English Parliament, which declared the head of the English Church Henry VIII. In England, all monasteries were closed, and their property confiscated in favor of royalty. But at the same time, the preservation of Catholic dogmas and rituals was announced. This is another feature of the reform movement in England - its half-heartedness, which manifested itself in maneuvering between Catholicism and Protestantism.
The Protestant Church in England, completely subordinate to the king, was called Anglican. In 1571, the Anglican Creed was adopted by Parliament, which confirmed that the king had supreme authority in the church, although he did not have the right to preach the word of God and perform the sacraments. The Anglican Church adopted the Protestant doctrines of justification by faith and Holy Scripture”as the only source of faith. She rejected the teachings of Catholicism about indulgences, about the veneration of icons and relics. At the same time, the Catholic dogma about the saving power of the church was recognized, albeit with reservations. The liturgy and a number of other rituals characteristic of Catholicism were preserved, and the episcopate remained inviolable.
The Anglican Church, as a result of a long struggle with Catholicism, finally established itself in 1562 under Queen Elizabeth I, during whose reign there were many supporters of the cleansing of the Anglican Church from the remnants of Catholicism - they were called Puritans (lat. Purus - “pure”). The most determined of the Puritans demanded the creation of independent communities. Elizabeth persecuted the Puritans as fiercely as she did the Catholics. The Anglican Church is currently the state religion in England. In total, there are more than 30 million English believers in the world. The head of the church is British Queen. Bishops are appointed by the Queen through the Prime Minister. The first clergyman is the Archbishop of Canterbury. The external ritual side of Catholicism in the Anglican Church has not changed much. The main place in worship was preserved for the liturgy, which is distinguished by complex ritual and solemnity.
The Catholic Church offered all possible resistance to Protestantism and the Reformation. At first, the Counter-Reformation was expressed in separate, poorly coordinated attempts to oppose Protestantism. The Reformation took the Roman Catholic Church by surprise. Despite a number of proclaimed reforms, Catholicism was unable to make radical changes.
However, from the beginning of the 40s of the XVI century. in Catholicism, the idea of refusing any concessions and indulgences to all new trends in the Roman Church prevailed. In order to eliminate the Reformation, the Catholic Church was forced to change its internal structure, system of power and government. New religious orders, the Inquisition, book censorship, the activities and decrees of the Council of Trent played a special role in the system of means for carrying out the Counter-Reformation.
The main role in the protection of Catholicism was assumed by the Inquisition and book censorship. Created in the XIII century. the inquisition (Latin - “investigation”) in 1541 was reorganized. In Rome, a supreme inquisitorial tribunal with unlimited power was created, extending its influence to all Catholic countries. The founder and first leader of the new Inquisition was Cardinal Caraffa. But not all countries agreed to accept the new Inquisition. In France, Venice and Florence, she acted under the control of secular authorities.
The Inquisition gained enormous influence. It strengthened the spirit of authoritarianism and intolerance of the Catholic Church, suspicion and merciless cruelty towards the enemies of the church. Executions of Protestants became commonplace. Utopian Francesco Pucci, philosopher Giordano Bruno and others perish on the scaffold; Tomaso Campanella has been in prison for 33 years; Galileo Galilei is forced to renounce his scientific discoveries.
The terror of the Inquisition was supplemented by strict book censorship. In 1543, Caraffa forbade the printing of any works without the permission of the Inquisition. The inquisitors oversaw the trade in books and their shipment. In 1599, in Rome, the "Index of Forbidden Books" was issued by the Pope, obligatory for the entire church. According to the law, people were subject to persecution for reading, keeping, distributing forbidden books or failing to inform about them.
played a special role in the fight against dissent Society of Jesus or the Jesuit order (lat. Jezus - “Jesus”), which was officially approved by a papal bull in 1540. The founder and first general of the Jesuit order was the Spanish nobleman Ignacio Loyola (1491-1556), an ardent supporter of the pope and the Catholic faith. The society was based on iron discipline, unquestioning obedience to orders. In addition to the usual monastic vows of chastity, non-possession and obedience, members of the order bound themselves with a special oath of allegiance to the pope. The charter, adopted in 1558, required the Jesuits to commit sin, up to and including death, by order of the chief.
At the head of the "Society of Jesus" was a general for life, who had full control over all the affairs of the order. Under him there was a council with the functions of an advisory and supervisory authority. Both the general and the council were elected by the general assembly, or the general congregation, which formally held the supreme power. Society was built on a hierarchical principle, its members were divided into several classes. It had a strong local organization. The Jesuits divided the world into provinces, led by the provincials, several provinces were part of the assistance. The assistants who headed them were members of the central leadership. The independence of the order from secular and spiritual authorities turned it into an autonomous religious and political community in any country.
The Jesuit order was not monastic in the traditional sense. Its members were exempted from observing the rules of monastic life, from certain monastic vows. Even outwardly, the Jesuits looked more like secular scientists than monks. Active secular activity, the highest position in society were the goals of the members of the order. This allowed them to be at the center of political and social life, having great opportunities to exert a decisive influence on it, as required by the interests of the Catholic Church.
The main means of the Jesuits were education and diplomacy. Their education system was designed for young people from the top of society, but for the sake of popularity, orphanages were created.
In a difficult situation, the Jesuits were clever politicians. In all social circles, they amazed with their erudition, passionate sermons, sober and prudent advice, and various other abilities. At the courts of kings, they were confessors and mentors, in moments of social upheaval they did not shun even the most menial work.
The successes of the Reformation showed that the Catholic Church itself must carry out some internal reforms and rebuild its organization if it wishes to maintain its role in the Catholic world. For the papacy, it was only about some half-hearted reforms that did not affect the basic dogmatic and organizational principles of the Catholic Church.
Such changes could explain the church council, the preparation for which lasted about ten years. The cathedral began its work in December 1545 in the northern Italian city of Trento (Trident). The Council of Trent worked for 18 years, was called upon to group all supporters of the Catholic Church. By his decisions, the Roman Church expressed its attitude towards Protestantism, condemning the new teachings.
In Trento, the conservative direction prevailed. This was facilitated by the enormous influence of the Jesuits on the development of major decisions, the clever work of the papal legates who presided over the council. With the adoption of minor amendments, hastily drawn up decrees on purgatory, indulgences, the veneration of saints, relics and church images, the cathedral ended its activity in 1563. In 1564, Pius IV approved its decrees, securing the right of their interpretation to the Holy See. The victory of the Catholic Church consisted in the fact that all the decisions of the council were placed in complete dependence on the pope, whose authority was recognized as supreme and indisputable.
Simon asksAnswered by Igor, 02/03/2013
Hello Simon.
Let's start by defining the meaning of the words "Catholic", "Orthodox", "Protestant". I will try to use so that the text contains a minimum of subjective information.
Catholicism or Catholicism(from the Greek katholikos - universal; for the first time in relation to the church, the term "Catholic Church" was used around 110 in a letter from St. Ignatius to the inhabitants of Smyrna and enshrined in the Nicene Creed). The motto of Catholicism is "Quod ubique, quod semper, quod ad omnibus creditum est" ("What is recognized everywhere, always and by everyone").Orthodoxy (tracing paper from the Greek "orthodoxy", lit. "correct judgment")
Protestantism (from Latin protestans, genus protestantis - publicly proving) - one of the three, along with Catholicism and Orthodoxy, the main areas of Christianity, which is a combination of numerous and independent Churches and denominations, related by their origin to the Reformation - a broad anti-Catholic movement 16th century in Europe.
The schism of the Christian Church in 1054 is a church schism, after which the division of the Christian Church into the Roman Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church with its center in Constantinople finally took place.
In fact, the disagreements between the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople began long before 1054, but it was in 1054 that Pope Leo IX sent legates led by Cardinal Humbert to Constantinople to resolve the conflict, which began with the closure of Latin churches in Constantinople in 1053 by order of Patriarch Michael Cirularius , in which his "chancellor" Nikifor threw out the Holy Gifts from the tabernacles, prepared according to Western custom from unleavened bread, and trampled them underfoot. However, it was not possible to find a way to reconciliation, and on July 16, 1054, in the Hagia Sophia, the papal legates announced the deposition of Cirularius and his excommunication from the Church. In response to this, on July 20, the patriarch anathematized the legates.
The split has not yet been overcome, although in 1965 mutual curses were lifted.
The schism had many reasons: ritual, dogmatic, ethical differences between the Western and Eastern Churches, property disputes, the struggle of the Pope and the Patriarch of Constantinople for primacy among the Christian patriarchs, different languages of worship (Latin in the Western Church and Greek in the Eastern Church).
You can also find even more detailed information on the topic of the Great Schism.
Rise of Protestantism, Reformation(from lat. reformatio - transformation) - social movement in Western and Central Europe in the 16th century, directed against the traditions of the Christian faith that had developed in the Catholic Church.
The beginning of the Reformation was marked by a speech in 1517 in Germany by Martin Luther. The ideologists of the Reformation put forward theses that actually denied both the need for the Catholic Church with its hierarchy, and the clergy in general. The Catholic Holy Tradition was rejected, the church's rights to land riches were denied, etc.
The Reformation marked the beginning of Protestantism (in the narrow sense, the Reformation is the carrying out of religious transformations in its spirit).
Bible point of view. However, if you want an answer about the reasons for the splits from the point of view of the Bible, it will be somewhat different: the Bible writes about this in several books (, Jacques Dukan's study of the book of Daniel - - I recommend!). This is a very broad topic.
Read more on the topic "Religion, rituals and the church":
| 09 Oct |
For a whole millennium the spiritual unity of European Christianity has been broken. Its eastern part and the Balkans profess mainly Orthodoxy. Its western part, mostly Roman Catholic, experienced internal schisms from the 11th to the 16th centuries, which gave rise to various Protestant offshoots. This fragmentation was the result of a long historical process, which was influenced by both doctrinal differences and political and cultural factors.
The Primordial Unity of the Christian Church
The Christian Church, as it came into being shortly after Pentecost under the leadership of the apostles and their immediate successors, was not a community organized and governed from a single center, as Rome later became for Western Christianity. In each city in which the Gospel was preached, a community of believers was formed, who gathered on Sundays around their bishop to celebrate the Eucharist. Each of these communities was regarded not as part of the Church, but as the Church of Christ, which appeared and became visible in all its spiritual fullness in a certain place, be it Antioch, Corinth or Rome. All communities had one faith and one idea based on the gospel, while possible local features essentially did not change anything. Each city could have only one bishop, who was so closely connected with his Church that he could not be transferred to another community.
In order to maintain the unity of the various local Churches, to preserve the identity of their faith and its confession, it was necessary that there be constant communication between them, and that their bishops could gather for joint discussion and solution of pressing problems in the spirit of fidelity to the inherited tradition. Such assemblies of bishops had to be led by someone. Therefore, in each area, the bishop of the main city acquired headship over others, usually receiving the title of "metropolitan" in doing so.
This is how church districts appeared, which in turn united around even more important centers. Gradually, five large regions developed, gravitating towards the Roman see, which occupied a dominant position, recognized by all (even if not everyone, as we will see later, agreed with the magnitude of the significance of this primacy), towards the patriarchates of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem.
The pope, patriarchs and metropolitans were obliged to diligently look after the Churches they headed and preside over local or general synods (or councils). These councils, called "ecumenical", were convened when heresy or dangerous crises threatened the Church. In the period preceding the separation of the Roman Church from the Eastern Patriarchates, seven Ecumenical Councils were convened, of which the first was called the First Council of Nicaea (325), and the last the Second Council of Nicaea (787).
Almost all Christian Churches, with the exception of the Persian, distant Ethiopian (enlightened by the light of the Gospel since the 4th century) and the Irish Churches, were located on the territory of the Roman Empire. This empire, which was neither eastern nor western, and whose cultural elite spoke Greek as well as Latin, wanted, in the words of the Gallo-Roman writer Rutilus Namatianus, "to transform the universe into a single city." The empire stretched from the Atlantic to the Syrian desert, from the Rhine and Danube to the African deserts. The Christianization of this empire in the 4th century further strengthened its universalism. According to Christians, the empire, without mixing with the Church, was a space in which the gospel ideal of spiritual unity, capable of overcoming ethnic and national contradictions, could best be embodied: “There is no longer either Jew or Greek ... for you are all one in Christ Jesus” (Gal. 3:28).
Contrary to popular belief, the invasion of the Germanic tribes and the formation of barbarian kingdoms in the western part of the empire did not mean the complete destruction of the unity of Europe. The deposition of Romulus Augustulus in 476 was not "the end of the empire in the West", but the end of the administrative division of the empire between the two co-emperors that occurred after the death of Theodosius (395). The West returned under the rule of the emperor, who again became one-man, with a residence in Constantinople.
Most often, the barbarians stayed in the empire as "federates": the barbarian kings were at the same time the leaders of their peoples and the Roman military leaders, representatives of the imperial power in the territories subject to them. The kingdoms that emerged as a result of the invasion of the barbarians - Franks, Burgundians, Goths - continued to remain in the orbit of the Roman Empire. Thus, in Gaul, a close continuity connected the period of the Merovingian dynasty with the Gallo-Roman era. Thus the Germanic kingdoms became the first incarnation of what Dmitri Obolensky very aptly called the Byzantine Commonwealth. The dependence of the barbarian kingdoms on the emperor, although it was only formal and sometimes even explicitly denied, retained cultural and religious significance.
When the Slavic peoples, starting from the 7th century, began to move to the devastated and depopulated Balkans, a similar status was established between them and Constantinople to one degree or another, the same happened with Kievan Rus.
Between the local Churches of this vast romania, located both in its western and eastern parts, communion continued throughout the first millennium, with the exception of certain periods during which heretical patriarchs occupied the throne of Constantinople. Although it should be noted that after the Council of Chalcedon (451) in Antioch and Alexandria, along with patriarchs loyal to Chalcedonian Orthodoxy, monophysite patriarchs appeared.
Harbingers of a split
The teachings of bishops and ecclesiastical writers whose works were written in Latin, - Saints Hilary of Pictavia (315-367), Ambrose of Milan (340-397), Saint John Cassian the Roman (360-435) and many others - was completely in tune with the teaching of the Greek holy fathers: Saints Basil the Great (329-379), Gregory the Theologian (330-390), John Chrysostom (344-407) and others. The Western Fathers sometimes differed from the Eastern ones only in that they emphasized more on the moralizing component than on a deep theological analysis.
The first attempt at this doctrinal harmony occurred with the appearance of the teachings of Blessed Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (354-430). Here we meet one of the most exciting mysteries Christian history. In blessed Augustine, who at the the highest degree there was a sense of the unity of the Church and love for it, there was nothing from the heresiarch. And yet, in many directions, Augustine opened new paths for Christian thought, which left a deep imprint on, but at the same time turned out to be almost completely alien to non-Latin Churches.
On the one hand, Augustine, the most "philosophizing" of the Fathers of the Church, is inclined to exalt the abilities of the human mind in the field of knowledge of God. He developed the theological doctrine of the Holy Trinity, which formed the basis of the Latin doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father. and Son(in Latin - filioque). According to an older tradition, the Holy Spirit, like the Son, originates only from the Father. The Eastern Fathers always adhered to this formula contained in the Holy Scriptures of the New Testament (see: John 15, 26), and saw in filioque distortion of the apostolic faith. They noted that as a result of this teaching in the Western Church there was a certain belittling of the Hypostasis Itself and the role of the Holy Spirit, which, in their opinion, led to a certain strengthening of the institutional and legal aspects in the life of the Church. From the 5th century filioque was universally allowed in the West, almost without the knowledge of the non-Latin Churches, but it was added to the Creed later.
As far as the inner life is concerned, Augustine emphasized human weakness and the omnipotence of Divine grace to such an extent that it appeared that he diminished human freedom in the face of Divine predestination.
Augustine's brilliant and highly attractive personality, even during his lifetime, was admired in the West, where he was soon considered the greatest of the Fathers of the Church and almost completely focused only on his school. To a large extent, Roman Catholicism and the Jansenism and Protestantism that splintered from it will differ from Orthodoxy in that which they owe to St. Augustine. Medieval conflicts between priesthood and empire, the introduction of the scholastic method in medieval universities, clericalism and anti-clericalism in Western society are, in varying degrees and forms, either a legacy or a consequence of Augustinism.
In the IV-V centuries. there is another disagreement between Rome and other Churches. For all the Churches of East and West, the primacy recognized for the Roman Church stemmed, on the one hand, from the fact that it was the Church of the former capital of the empire, and on the other hand, from the fact that it was glorified by the preaching and martyrdom of the two supreme apostles Peter and Paul . But it's superior inter pares("between equals") did not mean that the Church of Rome was the seat of central government for the Universal Church.
However, starting from the second half of the 4th century, a different understanding was emerging in Rome. The Roman Church and its bishop demand for themselves a dominant authority that would make it the governing organ of the universal Church. According to Roman doctrine, this primacy is based on the clearly expressed will of Christ, who, in their opinion, gave this authority to Peter, saying to him: “You are Peter, and on this rock I will build my Church” ( Matt. 16:18). The Pope of Rome considered himself not just the successor of Peter, who has since been recognized as the first bishop of Rome, but also his vicar, in whom, as it were, the supreme apostle continues to live and through him to rule the Universal Church.
Despite some resistance, this position of primacy was gradually accepted by the whole West. The rest of the Churches generally adhered to the ancient understanding of primacy, often allowing some ambiguity in their relationship with the See of Rome.
Crisis in the Late Middle Ages
7th century witnessed the birth of Islam, which began to spread at lightning speed, which was facilitated by jihad- a holy war that allowed the Arabs to conquer Persian Empire, which for a long time was a formidable rival of the Roman Empire, as well as the territories of the patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Starting from this period, the patriarchs of the cities mentioned were often forced to entrust the management of the remaining Christian flock to their representatives, who stayed on the ground, while they themselves had to live in Constantinople. As a result, there was a relative decrease in the importance of these patriarchs, and the patriarch of the capital of the empire, whose see already at the time of the Council of Chalcedon (451) was placed in second place after Rome, thus became, to some extent, the highest judge of the Churches of the East.
With the advent of the Isaurian dynasty (717), an iconoclastic crisis broke out (726). The emperors Leo III (717–741), Constantine V (741–775) and their successors forbade the depiction of Christ and the saints and the veneration of icons. Opponents of the imperial doctrine, mostly monks, were thrown into prison, tortured, and killed, as in the time of pagan emperors.
The popes supported the opponents of iconoclasm and broke off communication with the iconoclast emperors. And they, in response to this, annexed Calabria, Sicily and Illyria (the western part of the Balkans and northern Greece), which until that time were under the jurisdiction of the Pope of Rome, to the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
At the same time, in order to more successfully resist the offensive of the Arabs, the iconoclast emperors proclaimed themselves adherents of Greek patriotism, very far from the universalist "Roman" idea that had prevailed before, and lost interest in non-Greek areas of the empire, in particular, in northern and central Italy, claimed by the Lombards.
The legality of the veneration of icons was restored at the VII Ecumenical Council in Nicaea (787). After a new round of iconoclasm, which began in 813, Orthodox teaching finally triumphed in Constantinople in 843.
Communication between Rome and the empire was thus restored. But the fact that the iconoclast emperors limited their foreign policy interests to the Greek part of the empire led the popes to look for other patrons for themselves. Previously, the popes, who had no territorial sovereignty, were loyal subjects of the empire. Now, stung by the annexation of Illyria to Constantinople and left unprotected in the face of the invasion of the Lombards, they turned to the Franks and, to the detriment of the Merovingians, who had always maintained relations with Constantinople, began to contribute to the arrival of a new dynasty of Carolingians, bearers of other ambitions.
In 739, Pope Gregory III, seeking to prevent the Lombard king Luitprand from uniting Italy under his rule, turned to Major Charles Martel, who tried to use the death of Theodoric IV in order to eliminate the Merovingians. In exchange for his help, he promised to renounce all loyalty to the Emperor of Constantinople and take advantage of the patronage exclusively of the King of the Franks. Gregory III was the last pope to ask the emperor for approval of his election. His successors will already be approved by the Frankish court.
Karl Martel could not justify the hopes of Gregory III. However, in 754, Pope Stephen II personally went to France to meet Pepin the Short. In 756, he conquered Ravenna from the Lombards, but instead of returning Constantinople, he handed it over to the pope, laying the foundation for the soon formed Papal States, which turned the popes into independent secular rulers. In order to give a legal justification for the current situation, a famous forgery was developed in Rome - the "Gift of Constantine", according to which Emperor Constantine allegedly transferred imperial powers over the West to Pope Sylvester (314-335).
On September 25, 800, Pope Leo III, without any participation of Constantinople, laid the imperial crown on the head of Charlemagne and named him emperor. Neither Charlemagne nor later other German emperors, who to some extent restored the empire he had created, became co-rulers of the Emperor of Constantinople, in accordance with the code adopted shortly after the death of Emperor Theodosius (395). Constantinople repeatedly proposed a compromise solution of this kind that would preserve the unity of Romagna. But the Carolingian Empire wanted to be the only legitimate Christian empire and sought to take the place of the Constantinopolitan Empire, considering it obsolete. That is why the theologians from Charlemagne's entourage took the liberty of condemning the decrees of the 7th Ecumenical Council on the veneration of icons as tainted with idolatry and introducing filioque in the Nicene-Tsaregrad Creed. However, the popes soberly opposed these careless measures aimed at belittling the Greek faith.
However, the political break between the Frankish world and the papacy on the one hand and the ancient Roman Empire of Constantinople on the other was sealed. And such a break could not but lead to a proper religious schism, if we take into account the special theological significance that Christian thought attached to the unity of the empire, considering it as an expression of the unity of the people of God.
In the second half of the ninth century the antagonism between Rome and Constantinople manifested itself on a new basis: the question arose of what jurisdiction to include the Slavic peoples, who at that time were embarking on the path of Christianity. This new conflict also left a deep mark on the history of Europe.
At that time, Nicholas I (858–867) became pope, an energetic man who sought to establish the Roman concept of the dominance of the pope in the Universal Church, limit the interference of secular authorities in church affairs, and also fought against the centrifugal tendencies that manifested themselves among part of the Western episcopate. He backed up his actions with counterfeit decretals circulating shortly before, allegedly issued by previous popes.
In Constantinople, Photius (858-867 and 877-886) became patriarch. As modern historians have convincingly established, the personality of St. Photius and the events of the time of his reign were strongly vilified by his opponents. He was a very educated man, deeply devoted to the Orthodox faith, a zealous servant of the Church. He was well aware of the great importance of the enlightenment of the Slavs. It was on his initiative that Saints Cyril and Methodius went to enlighten the Great Moravian lands. Their mission in Moravia was eventually stifled and driven out by the intrigues of the German preachers. Nevertheless, they managed to translate liturgical and most important biblical texts into Slavonic, creating an alphabet for this, and thus laid the foundation for the culture of the Slavic lands. Photius was also involved in the education of the peoples of the Balkans and Russia. In 864 he baptized Boris, Prince of Bulgaria.
But Boris, disappointed that he did not receive from Constantinople an autonomous church hierarchy for his people, turned for a while to Rome, receiving Latin missionaries. It became known to Photius that they preach the Latin doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit and seem to use the Creed with the addition filioque.
At the same time, Pope Nicholas I intervened in the internal affairs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, seeking the removal of Photius, in order to restore the former Patriarch Ignatius, who was deposed in 861, to the throne with the help of church intrigues. In response to this, Emperor Michael III and Saint Photius convened a council in Constantinople (867) , whose regulations were subsequently destroyed. This council, apparently, recognized the doctrine of filioque heretical, declared unlawful the intervention of the pope in the affairs of the Church of Constantinople and severed liturgical communion with him. And since Western bishops complained to Constantinople about the "tyranny" of Nicholas I, the council proposed to Emperor Louis the German to depose the pope.
As a result palace coup Photius was deposed, and a new council (869–870) convened in Constantinople condemned him. This cathedral is still considered in the West the VIII Ecumenical Council. Then, under Emperor Basil I, Saint Photius was returned from disgrace. In 879, a council was again convened in Constantinople, which, in the presence of the legates of the new pope John VIII (872-882), restored Photius to the throne. At the same time, concessions were made regarding Bulgaria, which returned to the jurisdiction of Rome, while retaining the Greek clergy. However, Bulgaria soon achieved ecclesiastical independence and remained in the orbit of Constantinople's interests. Pope John VIII wrote a letter to Patriarch Photius condemning the addition filioque into the Creed, without condemning the doctrine itself. Photius, probably not noticing this subtlety, decided that he had won. Contrary to persistent misconceptions, it can be argued that there was no so-called second Photius schism, and liturgical communion between Rome and Constantinople continued for more than a century.
Gap in the 11th century
11th century for the Byzantine Empire was truly "golden". The power of the Arabs was finally undermined, Antioch returned to the empire, a little more - and Jerusalem would have been liberated. The Bulgarian Tsar Simeon (893–927), who was trying to create a Romano-Bulgarian empire that was beneficial to him, was defeated, the same fate befell Samuil, who raised an uprising to form a Macedonian state, after which Bulgaria returned to the empire. Kievan Rus, having adopted Christianity, quickly became part of the Byzantine civilization. The rapid cultural and spiritual upsurge that began immediately after the triumph of Orthodoxy in 843 was accompanied by the political and economic flourishing of the empire.
Oddly enough, but the victories of Byzantium, including over Islam, were beneficial to the West, creating favorable conditions for the emergence Western Europe in the form in which it will exist for many centuries. And the starting point of this process can be considered the formation in 962 of the Holy Roman Empire of the German nation and in 987 - France of the Capetians. Nevertheless, it was in the 11th century, which seemed so promising, that a spiritual rupture occurred between the new Western world and the Roman Empire of Constantinople, an irreparable split, the consequences of which were tragic for Europe.
From the beginning of the XI century. the name of the pope was no longer mentioned in the diptychs of Constantinople, which meant that communication with him was interrupted. This is the completion of the long process we are studying. It is not known exactly what was the immediate cause of this gap. Perhaps the reason was the inclusion filioque in the confession of faith sent by Pope Sergius IV to Constantinople in 1009 along with the notice of his accession to the throne of Rome. Be that as it may, but during the coronation of the German emperor Henry II (1014), the Creed was sung in Rome with filioque.
In addition to the introduction filioque there were also a number of Latin customs that revolted the Byzantines and increased the occasion for disagreement. Among them, the use of unleavened bread for the celebration of the Eucharist was especially serious. If in the first centuries leavened bread was used everywhere, then from the 7th-8th centuries the Eucharist began to be celebrated in the West using wafers made from unleavened bread, that is, without leaven, as the ancient Jews did on their Passover. Symbolic language was of great importance at that time, which is why the use of unleavened bread by the Greeks was perceived as a return to Judaism. They saw in this a denial of that novelty and that spiritual nature of the Savior's sacrifice, which were offered by Him instead of the Old Testament rites. In their eyes, the use of "dead" bread meant that the Savior in incarnation took only a human body, but not a soul...
In the XI century. the strengthening of papal power continued with greater force, which began as early as the time of Pope Nicholas I. The fact is that in the 10th century. the power of the papacy was weakened as never before, being the victim of the actions of various factions of the Roman aristocracy or under pressure German emperors. Various abuses spread in the Roman Church: the sale of church positions and the award of them by the laity, marriages or cohabitation among the priesthood ... But during the pontificate of Leo XI (1047-1054), a real reform of the Western Church began. The new dad surrounded himself worthy people, mainly natives of Lorraine, among whom Cardinal Humbert, Bishop of White Silva, stood out. The reformers saw no other means to remedy the disastrous state of Latin Christianity than to increase the power and authority of the pope. In their view, the papal power, as they understood it, should extend to the universal Church, both Latin and Greek.
In 1054, an event occurred that might have remained insignificant, but served as a pretext for a dramatic clash between the ecclesiastical tradition of Constantinople and the Western reformist movement.
In an effort to get help from the pope in the face of the threat of the Normans, who encroached on the Byzantine possessions of southern Italy, Emperor Constantine Monomachus, at the instigation of the Latin Argyrus, who was appointed by him as the ruler of these possessions, took a conciliatory position towards Rome and wished to restore unity, interrupted, as we saw, at the beginning of the century . But the actions of the Latin reformers in southern Italy, infringing on Byzantine religious customs, worried the Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cirularius. The papal legates, among whom was the adamant Bishop of White Silva, Cardinal Humbert, who arrived in Constantinople for negotiations on unification, planned to remove the intractable patriarch by the hands of the emperor. The matter ended with the legates placing a bull on the throne of Hagia Sophia excommunicating Michael Cirularius and his supporters. And a few days later, in response to this, the patriarch and the council he convened excommunicated the legates themselves from the Church.
Two circumstances gave the hasty and thoughtless act of the legates a significance that they could not appreciate at that time. First, they again raised the issue of filioque, wrongfully reproaching the Greeks for excluding it from the Creed, although non-Latin Christianity has always regarded this teaching as contrary to the apostolic tradition. In addition, the Byzantines became clear about the plans of the reformers to extend the absolute and direct authority of the pope to all bishops and believers, even in Constantinople itself. Presented in this form, ecclesiology seemed completely new to them and also could not but contradict the apostolic tradition in their eyes. Having familiarized themselves with the situation, the rest of the eastern patriarchs joined the position of Constantinople.
1054 should be seen less as the date of the split than as the year of the first failed attempt at reunification. No one then could have imagined that the division that occurred between those Churches that would soon be called Orthodox and Roman Catholic would last for centuries.
After the split
The schism was based mainly on doctrinal factors relating to different ideas about the mystery of the Holy Trinity and about the structure of the Church. Differences were also added to them in less important matters relating to church customs and rituals.
During the Middle Ages, the Latin West continued to develop in a direction that further removed it from the Orthodox world and its spirit. The famous scholastic theology of the thirteenth century developed a trinitarian doctrine, characterized by detailed conceptual elaboration. However, this doctrine made the formula filioque even more unacceptable to Orthodox thought. It was in this form that it was dogmatized at the councils of Lyon (1274) and Florence (1439), which were nevertheless considered unionist.
In the same period, the Latin West abandons the practice of baptism by triple immersion: from now on, the priests are content with pouring a small amount of water on the child's head. Communion of the Holy Blood in the Eucharist was canceled for the laity. New forms of worship have emerged, focusing almost exclusively on human nature Christ and his sufferings. Many other aspects of this evolution could also be noted.
On the other hand, there were serious events that further complicated the understanding between the Orthodox peoples and the Latin West. Probably the most tragic of these was IV crusade, which deviated from the main path and ended with the ruin of Constantinople, the proclamation of the Latin emperor and the establishment of the dominance of the Frankish lords, who arbitrarily cut the land holdings of the former Roman Empire. Many Orthodox monks were expelled from their monasteries and replaced by Latin monks. All this probably happened unintentionally, nevertheless, this turn of events was a logical consequence of the creation western empire and the evolution of the Latin Church since the beginning of the Middle Ages. Pope Innocent III, while condemning the cruelties committed by the crusaders, nevertheless believed that the creation of the Latin Empire of Constantinople would restore the alliance with the Greeks. But it only weakened Byzantine Empire, restored in the second half of the 13th century, thus preparing the capture of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453.
Over the following centuries, the Orthodox Churches took a defensive position towards the Catholic Church, which was accompanied by an atmosphere of distrust and suspicion. The Catholic Church undertook with great zeal to bring the "Eastern schismatics" into alliance with Rome. The most important form of this missionary activity was the so-called Uniatism. The term "Uniates", which carries a pejorative connotation, was introduced by Latin Catholics in Poland to refer to former communities Orthodox Church who accepted Catholic dogmas, but at the same time retained their own rites, that is, liturgical and organizational practices.
Uniatism has always been severely condemned by the Orthodox. They perceived the use of the Byzantine rite by Catholics as a kind of deceit and duplicity, or at least as a cause for embarrassment, capable of causing unrest among Orthodox believers.
Since the Second Vatican Council, Catholics have generally recognized that Uniatism is no longer a path to unification, and prefer to develop a line of mutual recognition of their Church and the Orthodox Church as "Sister Churches" called to unite without mutual confusion. However, this position faces many insurmountable difficulties.
The most important of them, perhaps, is that the Orthodox and Catholic Churches have different criteria for truth. The Catholic Church justifies its age-old evolution, in which the Orthodox Church sees rather a departure from the apostolic heritage, relying on the doctrine of dogmatic and institutional development, as well as on the infallibility of the pope. In this perspective, the ongoing changes are seen as a condition of living fidelity to Tradition and as stages in a natural and necessary process of growth, and their legitimacy is guaranteed by the authority of the Roman pontiff. Blessed Augustine at one time pointed out to Julian of Eklansky: “Let the opinion of that part of the Universe be sufficient for you, where the Lord wished to crown the first of His apostles with glorious martyrdom” (“Against Julian”, 1, 13). As for the Orthodox Church, it remains true to the criterion of "cathedralism" formulated in the 5th century by the Provençal monk Saint Vincent of Lerins: ", 2). From the Orthodox point of view, a consistent clarification of dogmas and the evolution of a church rite are possible, but universal recognition remains the criterion for their legitimacy. Therefore, the unilateral proclamation by any Church as a dogma of a doctrine like filioque perceived as wounding the rest of the Body [Church].
The above reasoning should not give us the impression that we are at an impasse and discourage us. If it is necessary to abandon the illusions of simple unionism, if the moment and circumstances of complete unification remain a mystery of Providence and are inaccessible to our understanding, then we are faced with an important task.
Western and Eastern Europe should stop considering themselves as strangers to each other. The best model for tomorrow's Europe is not a Carolingian empire, but an undivided one romania the first centuries of Christianity. The Carolingian model brings us back to a Europe already divided, reduced in size, and bearing within itself the germs of all the dramatic events that will plague the West for centuries. On the contrary, Christian romania gives us an example of a diverse world, but, nevertheless, united due to participation in one culture and one spiritual values.
The hardships that the West has endured and from which it continues to suffer are largely, as we have seen above, due to the fact that for too long it has lived in the Augustinian tradition or according to at least gave him a clear preference. Contacts and ties between Christians of the Latin tradition and Orthodox Christians in Europe, where borders should no longer separate them, can deeply nourish our culture and give it a new fruitful force.
REFERENCE:
Archimandrite Placida (Deseus) was born in France in 1926 into a Catholic family. In 1942, at the age of sixteen, he entered the Cistercian abbey of Belfontaine. In 1966, in search of the true roots of Christianity and monasticism, together with like-minded monks, he founded a monastery of the Byzantine rite in Aubazine (Corrèze department). In 1977 the monks of the monastery decided to accept Orthodoxy. The transition took place on June 19, 1977; in February of the following year, they became monks at the Simonopetra monastery at Athos. Returning some time later to France, Fr. Plakida, together with the brethren who converted to Orthodoxy, founded four courtyards of the monastery of Simonopetra, the main of which was the monastery of St. Anthony the Great in Saint-Laurent-en-Royan (Drome department), in the Vercors mountain range. Archimandrite Plakida is an assistant professor of patrology at St. Sergius Orthodox Theological Institute in Paris. He is the founder of the series Spiritualit orientale (Oriental Spirituality), published since 1966 by the Belfontaine Abbey Publishing House. Author and translator of many books on Orthodox spirituality and monasticism, the most important of which are: The Spirit of Pahomiev Monasticism (1968), We Have Seen the True Light: Monastic Life, Its Spirit and Fundamental Texts (1990), Philokalia and Orthodox Spirituality (1997), "Gospel in the Desert" (1999), "Babylonian Cave: Spiritual Guide" (2001), "Basic Catechism" (in 2 volumes 2001), "Confidence in the Invisible" (2002), "Body - soul - spirit in the Orthodox sense" (2004). In 2006, the publishing house of St. Tikhon's Orthodox University for the Humanities for the first time saw the publication of a translation of the book "Philokalia" and Orthodox Spirituality.
Romulus Augustulus - the last ruler of the western part of the Roman Empire (475-476). He was overthrown by the leader of one of the German detachments of the Roman army, Odoacer. (Note per.)
Saint Theodosius I the Great (c. 346–395) – Roman emperor from 379. Commemorated 17 January The son of a commander, originally from Spain. After the death of Emperor Valens, he was proclaimed emperor Gratian as his co-ruler in the eastern part of the empire. Under him, Christianity finally became the dominant religion, and the state pagan cult was banned (392). (Note per.)
Dmitry Obolensky. The Byzantine Commonwealth. Eastern Europe, 500-1453. - London, 1974. Recall that the term "Byzantine", usually used by historians, is "a late name, not known to those whom we call the Byzantines. At all times they called themselves Romans (Romans), and considered their rulers as Roman emperors, successors and heirs of the Caesars. ancient rome. The name of Rome retained its meaning for them throughout the existence of the empire. And the traditions of the Roman state to the end controlled their consciousness and political thinking ”(George Ostrogorsky. History of the Byzantine state. Translated by J. Guillard. - Paris, 1983. - P. 53).
Pepin III Short ( lat. Pippinus Brevis, 714-768) - French king (751-768), founder of the Carolingian dynasty. Son of Charles Martel and hereditary majordomo, Pepin overthrew last king from the Merovingian dynasty and achieved his election to the royal throne, having received the sanction of the Pope. (Note per.)
Romagna called their empire those whom we call "Byzantines".
See especially: Janitor Frantisek. Photius Schism: History and Legends. (Coll. Unam Sanctam. No. 19). Paris, 1950; He is. Byzantium and Roman primacy. (Coll. Unam Sanctam. No. 49). Paris, 1964, pp. 93–110.
Reformation
Folk Christianity
Schism of the Christian Church, also Great split And Great Schism- church schism, after which the division of the Church finally occurred into the Roman Catholic Church in the West with a center in Rome and the Orthodox Church in the East with a center in Constantinople. The division caused by the schism has not been overcome to this day, despite the fact that in 1965 mutual anathemas were mutually lifted by Pope Paul VI and Ecumenical Patriarch Athenagoras.
Events in the second half of the 9th century
Events just before 1054
In 1053, an ecclesiastical confrontation for influence in southern Italy began between Patriarch Michael Cerularius of Constantinople and Pope Leo IX. Churches in southern Italy belonged to Byzantium. Michael Cerularius learned that the Greek rite was being replaced by the Latin there, and he closed all the temples of the Latin rite in Constantinople. The Patriarch instructs the Bulgarian Archbishop Lev of Ohrid to draw up an epistle against the Latins, which would condemn the serving of the liturgy on unleavened bread; fasting on Saturday during Lent; the lack of singing "Hallelujah" during Lent; eating strangled . The letter was sent to Apulia and was addressed to Bishop John of Trania, and through him to all the bishops of the Franks and "the most venerable pope". Humbert Silva-Candide wrote the essay "Dialogue", in which he defended the Latin rites and condemned the Greek ones. In response, Nikita Stifat writes the treatise "Antidialog", or "The Sermon on Unleavened Bread, the Sabbath Fast and the Marriage of the Priests" against Humbert's work.
Events of 1054
In 1054, Leo sent a letter to Cerularius, which, in support of the papal claim to full power in the Church, contained lengthy extracts from a forged document known as the Donation of Constantine, insisting on its authenticity. The Patriarch rejected the Pope's claim to supremacy, whereupon Leo sent legates to Constantinople that same year to settle the dispute. The main political task of the papal embassy was the desire to obtain military assistance from the Byzantine emperor in the fight against the Normans.
On July 16, 1054, after the death of Pope Leo IX himself, in the Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, the papal legates announced the deposition of Cerularius and his excommunication. In response to this, on July 20, the patriarch anathematized the legates.
Reasons for the split
The historical premises of schism date back to late antiquity and the early Middle Ages (beginning with the destruction of Rome by the troops of Alaric in 410) and are determined by the appearance of ritual, dogmatic, ethical, aesthetic and other differences between the western (often called Latin Catholic) and the eastern (Greek- Orthodox) traditions.
Western (Catholic) Church Perspective
Eastern (Orthodox) Church Perspective
However, by 800, the political situation around what used to be a unified Roman Empire began to change: on the one hand, most of the territory of the Eastern Empire, including most of the ancient apostolic churches, fell under Muslim rule, which greatly weakened it and diverted attention from religious problems in favor of foreign policy, on the other hand, in the West, for the first time after the fall of the Western Roman Empire in 476, an emperor appeared (in 800 Charlemagne was crowned in Rome), who in the eyes of his contemporaries became “equal” to the Eastern Emperor and on the political strength of which the Roman bishop was able to rely in his claims. The changed political situation is attributed to the fact that the popes of Rome again began to carry out the idea of their primacy, rejected by the Council of Chalcedon, not according to honor and according to the Orthodox teaching, which was confirmed by the voting of bishops equal to the Roman bishop at councils, but “by divine right”, that is, the idea of their own supreme sole authority in the whole Church.
After the legate of the Pope, Cardinal Humbert, placed the scripture with an anathema on the throne of the Church of St. Sophia against the Orthodox Church, Patriarch Michael convened a synod, at which a response anathema was put forward:
With an anathema then to the most impious scripture, as well as to those who presented it, wrote and participated in its creation with some kind of approval or will.
The reciprocal accusations against the Latins were as follows at the council:
In various hierarchical epistles and conciliar resolutions, the Orthodox also blamed the Catholics:
- Serving the Liturgy on Unleavened Bread.
- Saturday post.
- Allowing a man to marry the sister of his deceased wife.
- Wearing rings on the fingers of Catholic bishops.
- Catholic bishops and priests going to war and defiling their hands with the blood of the slain.
- The presence of wives in Catholic bishops and the presence of concubines in Catholic priests.
- Eating eggs, cheese and milk on Saturdays and Sundays during Great Lent and not observing Great Lent.
- Eating strangled, carrion, meat with blood.
- Eating lard by Catholic monks.
- Baptism in one, not three immersions.
- The image of the Cross of the Lord and the image of saints on marble slabs in churches and Catholics walking on them with their feet.
The reaction of the patriarch to the defiant act of the cardinals was quite cautious and, on the whole, peaceful. Suffice it to say that in order to calm the unrest, it was officially announced that the Greek translators had perverted the meaning of Latin letters. Further, at the subsequent Council on July 20, all three members of the papal delegation were excommunicated from the Church for unworthy behavior in the temple, but the Roman Church was not specifically mentioned in the decision of the council. Everything was done to reduce the conflict to the initiative of several Roman representatives, which, in fact, took place. The patriarch excommunicated only legates and only for disciplinary violations, and not for doctrinal issues. These anathemas did not apply to the Western Church or to the Bishop of Rome.
Even when one of the excommunicated legates became pope (Stefan IX), this split was not considered final and particularly important, and the pope sent an embassy to Constantinople to apologize for Humbert's harshness. This event began to be assessed as something extremely important only after a couple of decades in the West, when Pope Gregory VII came to power, who at one time was the protégé of the already deceased Cardinal Humbert. It was through his efforts that this story gained extraordinary significance. Then, already in modern times, it rebounded from Western historiography to the East and began to be considered the date of the division of the Churches.
Perception of the split in Russia
Leaving Constantinople, the papal legates went to Rome by a circuitous route to announce the excommunication of Michael Cerularius to other Eastern hierarchs. Among other cities, they visited Kyiv, where they were received with due honors by the Grand Duke and the clergy, who did not yet know about the division that had taken place in Constantinople.
There were Latin monasteries in Kyiv (including the Dominican one since 1228), on the lands subject to the Russian princes, Latin missionaries acted with their permission (for example, in 1181 the princes of Polotsk allowed Augustinian monks from Bremen to baptize Latvians and Livs subject to them on Western Dvina). In the upper class, there were (to the displeasure of the Greek metropolitans) numerous mixed marriages (only with Polish princes - more than twenty), and in none of these cases anything resembling a "transition" from one religion to another is recorded. Western influence is noticeable in some areas of church life, for example, in Russia there were organs before Mongol invasion(which then disappeared), bells were brought to Russia mainly from the West, where they were more widespread than among the Greeks.
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