The Schism of 1054

---translated from the magazine Orthodoxie, Sept. 1978
http://orthodoxievco.net/bul/001.pdf  

[My comments are bracketed, in green.  T. Davis]

"Let us begin by explaining what a schism is. The word comes from Greek and means split, separation. A schism in the Church is therefore a split among Christians, meaning that a portion of the faithful leaves the communion of love, gathers separately, and thus tears apart the unity of believers. A schism is not yet a heresy (false belief), but since the communion of love is broken, the first step toward heresy is taken. There have been schisms throughout the history of the Church, and there will be until the end of time. This is the battle of the Church against the forces of darkness; and closing our eyes to this reality would endanger the very life of the Church.

What we will say about the schism between Orthodoxy and the papacy is, of course, the orthodox point of view, that goes without saying. In matters of faith, we always speak within a very specific context:  that of a truth in which we believe and which we must confess as we believe it.

The schism of 1054 between the West and the East was not a one-year affair, and its causes were multiple.  The symptoms can be traced back several centuries before the date of the fatal rupture, and the divide has continued to widen to this day.

The main causes were the Pope's claim to absolute authority over the entire Church and the dogma of the Filioque.  Secondary causes, both theological and cultural, were also present and were exacerbated by politics.

Let's examine this summary in more detail:

From the earliest times, the Bishop of Rome enjoyed a primacy of honor in the Church; in Rome, the ancient capital of the empire, the princes of the apostles, Peter and Paul, were martyred.  This title of honor was never contested by the Eastern Church.  The tension between East and West arose when, for the first time in the 4th century, the Pope's claim to change this title of honor into a title of authority was felt.  [A distorted claim to authority was based on the Pseudo-Clementine Epistles.]  Initially hidden, "this latent tension would come to light in the 9th century and transform into open opposition" (J. Meyendorff). 

With the emergence of the Carolingian Empire and a new type of Christianity formed by the northern peoples, recently still considered "barbarians," the conflict intensified, not without some responsibility on the part of the Eastern Christians who prided themselves on their antiquity.  The interests of the Frankish Empire aligned with the Pope's claims to oppose the East. [Popes began to base their authority on a handful of forged documents: the Pseudo-Symmachian Forgeries, the early parts of the Liber Pontificalis, the Constitutum and Donatio Constantini, and the Pseudo-Isidore Decretals.  See: "Papal Forgeries: A Road to Schism", by Ubi Petrus:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uBPdjkY_RX4 ]

Language and cultural problems arose, as well as questions of custom and Church discipline:  clerical marriage, fasting rules, the Eucharistic bread, etc.

The first schism erupted in the second half of the 9th century, between Pope Nicholas I and the Patriarch of Constantinople, Photius.  [Pope Nicholas, relying on the Pseudo-Isidore Decretals, inserted himself into the affairs of the Constantinopolitan patriarchate; also, he had adopted the heretical error of St. Augustine that conflated the eternal and temporal procession of the Holy Spirit, and attempted to promulgate the heresy through missionaries to Bulgaria.]

The mission among the Slavs was also a stumbling block between Byzantium and the West.

Charlemagne had already used the "Filioque" for his political ends (without, however, the support of Rome).  The same dogma was once again a source of conflict between Greek and Germanic missionaries in Slavic lands.  This time, the papacy "gave its full support to the Germans and was henceforth no longer neutral" (T. Ware).  The Filioque controversy persisted until the Council of Constantinople in 867, where Pope Nicholas was excommunicated.  Photius, in turn, was deposed by the emperor that same year, and, by a council intended to be the Eighth Ecumenical Council, he was anathematized and condemned.  In 879, Photius was reinstated to the throne by a council, and its decisions were accepted by Rome.  [The 869 Council was annulled by Rome, under Pope John VIII, and this 879 Council was honored as the true 8th Ecumenical for 200 years, until the Gregorian Reforms.]  Peace seemed to have been restored. 

The Filioque subsequently caused further tensions in 1009, and again at the coronation of Emperor Henry II in 1014, when it was interpolated into the Roman Creed.  The mention of Pope Sergius was removed from the diptychs in 1009 [for adding 'filioque' to the Creed], and from then on, the pope's name no longer appeared on the diptychs of Constantinople.  From that moment, communion between Rome and Constantinople ceased.

A serious quarrel broke out between the Normans and the Greeks of Italy; it resulted in the closure of the Latin churches of Constantinople in 1052.  The patriarch, however, strove to restore peace the following year.  For his part, in 1054, the pope sent three legates, headed by Cardinal Humbert.  The contact between the two parties was far from amicable, and from then on the patriarch refused any further contact with the legates.  Humbert lost patience and placed a bull of excommunication on the altar of Hagia Sophia.  Thus began the schism, though it was neither clear nor definitive.  “It was the Crusades that made the schism definitive:  they introduced a spirit of hatred and bitterness, and brought the conflict to the very level of the people.” (T. Ware)

The sack of Constantinople in 1204 and the sacrileges committed by the Crusaders shattered the last vestiges of communion of love between East and West.

An attempt at union, driven by political ends, at the Council of Lyon in 1274, failed.

Another council (in Ferrara and Florence, 1438–1449), where Saint Mark of Ephesus defended Orthodoxy, was no more successful in uniting what was no longer, in substance, the same faith.

From a human perspective, both sides failed time and again.  But in matters of faith, the Orthodox Church did not waver.  The same cannot be said of the Roman Catholic Church (which has entered a new phase of degeneration in our time) [Vatican II]. 

Reunion is not impossible; not through confusion, but through a return to communion in love and truth."

Hm. Cassian

Not in the American News

This article, written by Miles Matthis, answers the question, "Come on, why would our government just make up stories?"  All emphasis is from the original article.

State of the Disunion, by Miles Matthis*

February 25, 2026

Both the Republicans and Democrats embarrassed themselves at the State of the Union address, showing the real state of the union. All these people on both sides of the aisle are mentally ill and should immediately be institutionalized before they cause more harm. Yes, they are actors, so some of them are feigning illness, but that doesn't excuse anything. The script is for maximum chaos, remember, so none of this was organic. The heckling was scripted, Trump's taunts were scripted (he is reading from a script, remember, you can seeing him reading straight from the Teleprompter), and all the commentary on both sides was scripted to melt your mind. They want you focusing on these manufactured stories instead of focusing on the real problems. It is all the usual Phoenician vaudeville and conjob, pulling your eyes to their circuses.

And that includes the Epstein saga, which is, at its core, just the greatest Men-are-Pigs project ever written.

I remind you all those people Trump dragged out to give medals to and have moments of silence for are fake. The Coast Guard dude from the Camp Mystic flood is an actor, since that never happened. The pretty chick from Ukraine killed by the black pimp is an actress and she isn't dead. That was faked. Same for the little girl hit by an illegal alien trucker: fake. All scripted emotionalism and MysteryScienceTheater2026 BS.

Presidential Medal of Freedom for a Hockey Goalie?

While giving Bayer/Monsanto immunity against Round-up lawsuits? That's one of the things they were keeping your eyes off with this noisy spectacle. What else?

Well, Trump and RFK and Musk were supposed to be shutting down the experiments on dogs and cats at NIH, but turns out that was just the usual lip-flapitude. Despite RFK being the head of HHS, which oversees NIH, these horrible experiments continue. Why hasn't Trump or Kennedy fired Nicole Kleinstreuer? If you or I had been appointed head of HHS or elected President, that is the very first thing we would have done, day one. How hard is it? You rescue the animals, home them or send them to shelters or vets, and lock the doors of the labs. You fire all those ghouls and prosecute them for animal cruelty.

What happened to prosecuting Fauci? That's old news and they have to keep you inundated with new news.

What happened to all the prosecutions for LIBOR and many other huge banking scandals, where all the biggest banks in the world were involved up to their necks, stealing trillions from stock markets, retired people, municipalities, and everyone else? Somehow that also just evaporated while you were watching Game of Thrones and MSNBC and Fox News and CNN and the Olympics, didn't it?

What else? How about the largest “defense” budget in history by far? Defense against what, exactly? That budget is ten times larger than Russia or China. No one is attacking China, are they, so we could get by on a budget of about 50 billion, rather than one trillion. Saving you $950 billion in one year, off the top. But you are an American: you like paying ten times more for everything, it just makes you feel important. You make fun of those people who shop at Whole Foods and pay five dollars for a pear, but you don't mind paying huge taxes to buy $2 billion bomber jets. No, Trump isn't much worse than Democratic presidents in that regard, but they all promise to get us out of wars and lower the defense budget, then do the exact opposite. They then run these daily circuses to keep your mind off it . . . and you let them.

How about Artemis, the big fake Moon project you are paying billions for? That's just what you asked for, right, another fake trip to the Moon? But this time they have CGI, so they can almost make it look real, if you are bombed on enough pharmaceuticals. If you're not . . . ask your doctor!

What about auditing the Fed? How did that turn out?

How about the gold in Fort Knox? How did that turn out?

How about the declassified Kennedy documents? What did you learn there? Same thing you are about to learn from the declassified alien documents. We will learn again what gobemouches we always were (look it up—it's a great word—every cat should know what cat means).

How about your income taxes going to zero, paid for with Trump's tariffs? It is tax season: is that what you are entering on your forms?

How about house rental prices coming down? Is that your experience? How about meat and egg prices coming down? Is that your experience? How about chocolate and coffee prices coming down? Is that your experience? No, it and won't be your experience ever again, since due to hyperinflation things will only rise ever faster. That is a guarantee due to the quadrillion-dollar debt you “owe” to bankers and other rich people, since you can't pay them any other way. You have zip in the bank, so the only way you can pay them this manufactured “debt” is through food and housing prices and so on. But forget about that and concentrate on AOC's dress or Pelosi's dentures or Don Lemon's Gucci boots.

What about the vaccine genocide? When is Pfizer going to pay back all the money it stole there? When is the company going to be put into receivership and cashed out to pay all the lawsuits for death and injury with malice? When are all those people going to be locked up as mass murderers? Not any time soon, since Trump is still calling their CEO Bourla a “great great man”. Sort of like calling Goebbels or Mengele a great great man.

Funny Trump didn't have anything to say in his 108 minute speech about all the tens of billions of your taxes he is sending to Israel, and all the weapons he is selling them. But wait, money is going in both directions in that sentence isn't it? So is Israel buying weapons from us with your money we just gave them? How does that work? I'm no accountant, but it looks to me like you are footing the bill for Israel's entire military, which they can then use against unarmed Palestinian children, clearing the Middle East of non-Jews to make room for Trump's New Riviera. All of Palestine turned into a Mar-a-Lago of private golf courses and upscale hotels and overpriced bistros and planted palm trees.

What middle-class American wouldn't want to be taxed to subsidize that? Like larger and larger swaths of the US: you paid for it but you aren't welcome there. You can't afford it, so stay in your tiny house and enjoy your lab-grown “beef” slurry and your plastic cheese and your sponge bread and your GMO beet-sugar diabetic-coma doggie treats. While you are gagging on that, the TV or computer will tell you the latest government reports, where you learn all companies are worth trillions and all other people are earning more and more, so it must just be you. You didn't invest right so you deserve all the “bad luck” that comes your way. How could little ole you, who can't even manage his or her pathetic little life, think to question anything your elders are up to? How could you even think of doubting the great people on the screens, the Kakus and Sagans and deGrasse Tysons and Hawkings and Buffetts and Springsteens and Shapiros and Faucis and Cohens and Carlsons and Altmans and Musks? As a financial entity you are so insignificant you are lucky to be allowed the same allotment of air as those magnificent people. 

*Miles Matthis, besides being a secular commentator, is a professional portrait artist, whose work includes nude portraits.  Therefore, I don't recommend his website in general, even though many of his analyses of photographic evidence and art exposes a myriad of "events" for the shams they are.