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Answer:
Dr. Alexander Roman
alex@unicorne.org
Scholars tend to point to the year 1054 AD
as the date of the "official" breakup between East and West.
Others say that the break finally fomented and solidified at the Sack of
Constantinople by the Latins in 1204 AD.
In addition, neither Rome nor Orthodoxy accepts today that the Eastern
Churches ever were "under" Rome and that Eastern Orthodoxy somehow
"broke away" from Rome.
Rome enjoyed a primacy of honour at Ecumenical Councils, to be sure. But
Rome was and is a Particular Church along with those of the East. Rome
did not rule over those Churches, but had the role of general "arbiter"
in theological or ecclesial disputes.
One reason for the schism between East and West was the introduction of
the Filioque by Rome into the universal Nicene Creed. The Councils that
proclaimed that Creed affirmed that no one could add or subtract
anything to it - so Rome's inclusion of the Filioque or "And the Son" to
the section on the Procession of the Holy Spirit was uncanonical.
In addition, the addition was deemed heretical by the East as it
suggested that there are TWO Divine Origins of the Holy Spirit in the
Trinity and not One, or God the Father.
Even St John of Damascus, who is honoured as a Saint and Teacher by the
Roman Catholic Church, affirmed in his "De Fide Orthodoxa" that "we dare
not say the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son." He affirmed that the
Spirit can be said to proceed "through the Son" however, as did St
Maximos the Confessor and St Photios himself.
And the Roman Catholic Church does affirm that in teaching that the
Spirit proceeds "from the Son" it affirms that such is only a "passive
Spiration"
and not an "active Spiration" as it is in the case of God the Father.
Other, less theological issues were involved and came to a boiling point
when Cardinal Humbertus slapped a bull of excommunication against
Patriarch Michael Cerularios on the altar of St Sophia's in 1054.
Clearly, this was a PERSONAL excommunication of the Patriarch and
involved no separation of the Churches.
When the Latins invaded and desecrated Constantinople, it became clear
to the Byzantines that the Latin West no longer regarded them as
belonging to the same Church!
In time, other points of ritual and disciplinary difference between East
and West, long tolerated as part of legitimate ecclesial cultural
diversity, came to be hardened into insurmountable points of doctrinal
difference.
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