THE BREAK BETWEEN THE ROMAN AND BYZANTINE CHURCHES
As Western Europe and the Byzantine Empire became more and more isolated from each other,
differences between the Christian religious practices of Rome and Constantinople increased. Romans said
their religious services in Latin; the Byzantines used Greek. Roman priests were clean-shaven and were
expected not to marry; Byzantine priests were bearded and often married. Roman bishops were
supposedly free from secular (political) control; Byzantine patriarchs were considered state officials, and
head of the church in Byzantium, the patriarch of Constantinople, was appointed by the emperor himself.
Byzantine emperors bitterly resented the alliances of the popes with the Frankish rulers, whom they
considered their inferiors in rank, power, and culture. They also resented, and strongly resisted, the
attempts of the popes in distant Rome to regulate a church that in Byzantium was looked upon as a part
of the government.
THE ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY, 726 – 843
During the reign of the Byzantine Emperor Leo III (emperor 714-741), a dispute over theology drove the
popes and patriarchs further apart. Leo, a devout but practical man, was worried by two developments in
the church: the growing wealth of the monasteries, whose monks, landholders as they were, opposed his
efforts to reform the system of landowning; and the increasing veneration of icons (sacred paintings or
statues), which he feared would lead to paganism. His efforts to reduce the power of the monks and to rid
the church of icons led to a major struggle between the church and state called the “Iconoclastic
Controversy.”
In 726 Leo ordered the destruction of all icons in the churches and monasteries, and his followers
enthusiastically rushed around smashing statues and earning the name “Iconoclasts” (image-breakers).
Many monks and priests, eager to defend both their beloved icons and their property rights, opposed the
Iconoclasts. The pope, who favored icons, excommunicated Leo, denied him the right to take part in
religious services, and declared him and his followers to be heretics.
The struggle over icons that Leo had begun continued for more than a century after his death. It was not
until 843 that the Emperor Michael III (emperor 842-867) admitted defeat and allowed the icons to be
restored to Byzantine churches. The controversy left the eastern and western Christians more divided than
they had been, for most western Europeans had supported the popes, while many Byzantines had
supported their emperors.
THE SEPARATION OF THE ORTHODOX AND CATHOLIC CHURCHES, 1054
During the two centuries after the end of the Iconoclastic Controversy, the Byzantine Empire enjoyed its
greatest power and cultural achievement, and its church leaders shared the power and self-confidence of
the emperors. At the same time western Europe was divided among weak, poverty-stricken, and often
short-lived kingdoms, and church leaders there were frequently occupied in resolving disputed among
themselves over matters of faith and church government. Not surprisingly, differences between eastern
and western Christians became ever greater.
In 1054 the pope sent a legate (representative) to Constantinople. Largely as a result of political and
cultural differences (although supposedly because of a dispute over the nature of the Trinity), the papal
legate and the patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated each other. After this event the Roman and
Byzantine churches drifted so far apart that their separation was generally taken for granted; although it
was not so regarded at the time, 1054 later came to be accepted as the definite date of the schism (split).
After the schism, the church of the Byzantines called itself the Orthodox Church. Reflecting the Greek
Byzantine tradition in its language and forms of worship, it was tied closely to the Byzantine government
and was headed by the patriarch of Constantinople. The Roman Catholic Church, using the Latin language
of ancient Rome and headed by the Roman pope, continued to dominate the religious life of western
Europe. Each church considered itself to be the true heir of the pure Christian tradition, catholic in the
sense that it included all true Christians and orthodox in the sense that its beliefs truly reflected Christ’s
teachings. Whatever the merits of the claims of each church, one fact was certain: the Christian Church,
like the old Roman Empire, had divided into two different and often hostile parts.