East-West Schism
From Simple English Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The term East-West Schism is a term related to history of Christianity. Some people use the term Great Schism in place of East-West Schism. To understand the meaning of East-West Schism, it is useful to understand the meaning of schism. In very simple words, when differences arise among one group of persons or organizations and they divide themselves into two or more groups, this is schism. The term East-West Schism describes the division, which happened in Christianity. Christian church became divided into two major groups: Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Most people accept that it happened in 1054. However, this separation or the East-West Schism was the result of differences of many years. One difference was the "filioque clause" in the Nicine Creed. This stated that the Holy Spirit had descended from the Father and the Son, whereas before it was declared that It had descended from just the Father. The major reason for the division was the acceptance of authority of the Pope. The Eastern Orthodox group was of the opinion that the Pope’s authority over them was only for namesake. It was only honorary, and the Pope had real authority over the western Christians.
