Study The ’Schism’ Of The Christian Church In The Middle Ages

In the second half of the 9^thcentury,in order to strengthen the control of the Christian world,the Byzantine emperor Michael III deposed the original Ignatius——the Patriarch of the Church of Constantinople and appointed his trusted subordinate Photius as the new Patriarch,which directly triggered the conflict between the Western Church and the Eastern Church.The reaction from Rome was furious.The Pope resolutely opposed the direct intervention of secular imperial power in the internal affairs of the church,and refused to recognize the legitimacy of the Patriarch Photius.Rome wasn’t built in a day.As a product of the intensified conflict between the Eastern and Western churches,the outbreak of the Photius Event has a deeper cause,and its essence lies in the struggle for the dominance of the Christian world between the two sides.These reasons were mainly attributed to three factors:firstly,the occupation of Moravia by the East Franks;secondly,Pope Nicholas I denied the legitimacy of Photius as Patriarch;thirdly,the contention for the ownership of the church in Bulgaria.Under the protection of the secular Byzantine regime,Photius not only actively improved relationship with the former patriarch,but also excommunicated Nicholas I,and strengthened the fight for the Bulgarian church’s jurisdiction,in order to counter the papal pressure and threats.This paper is divided into three parts:introduction,text and conclusion,among which the text contains three chapters.The first chapter traces the historical origin of the Photius Event from the aspects of interest dispute,doctrinal disagreement and power struggle.The second chapter elaborates the causes of the Photius Event,and combs the suppression and counterattack measures taken by Photius and Byzantium as well as the Pope and Rome.The third chapter analyzes the conflicts of interests behind the Pushtu Event,and evaluates the extensive impact of the event on the deterioration of the relations between East and West churches and the political relations and the promotion of the religious and political changes in the Balkans.The conclusion of this paper is that the Photius Event is not isolated,but the cumulative result of long-term conflicts between the Patriarch Constantine and the Pope of Rome,between the Eastern and Western churches,between the Eastern and Western countries,and between Greek culture and Latin culture.It intensified the contradictions behind the religious conflict,which led to the second schism of Christendom and further promoted the separation between East and West.