Text: Unknown philosopher
Unknown philosopher
After the division of the Roman Empire, affected by the political, economic, ethnic, and cultural differences between the east and west of the empire, the Western Church centered on Rome and the Eastern Church centered on Constantinople gradually developed within Christianity.
After the rise to power of Photius in the 9th century, the conflict between the two churches intensified in the new era, which eventually led to a split, was this split accidental or inevitable?
Interests come first, and the East and West churches are irreconcilable
During the Roman Empire, Christianity was divided into two churches, East and West.
The two churches initially "respected each other," but they fought for their own influence.
Their doctrinal and cultural differences have led to controversies and conflicts, such as the Christosexual controversy and iconoclasm.
The rise of the Frankish kingdom in the 8th century became a rival power with the Byzantine Empire, and the Pope of Rome allied with the Frankish kingdom to free itself from the Byzantine Empire.
These factors led to a split between the Eastern and Western churches.
Can't Theology and Doctrine Coexist?
In the Byzantine Empire, which lasted about a century from Justinian I to the end of Justinian's time, there were also changes in the imperial script, Latin was no longer recognized, and people were influenced by Greek culture to use the Greek script.
The church has a great conflict over the choice of words.
The Eastern Fathers associated the teachings of Christianity with Greek philosophy, elevating the doctrine to the highest philosophical thought, and developing more and more in the direction of rationalization.
The Western Church Fathers, on the other hand, put religion and philosophy in complete opposition, arguing that Christianity is based on divine revelation and cannot be replaced by any rational thinking.
Factors such as the activities of the Arabs in the Mediterranean, the different social and political structures, and the religious mentality and church organization that were very different from Latin Christianity also contributed to the schism of the Western Eastern Church.
These factors led the Eastern and Western churches to hold different or completely opposite views on a number of major issues, and these doctrinal differences ultimately led to an important factor in the split between the Eastern and Western churches in the 9th century.
In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Latin Church Fathers gradually brought the idea of the "harmony" sentence into the right track and was accepted by the people, forming a consensus on this issue in the Western Church.
The Eastern Church, on the other hand, maintains that the Holy Spirit comes only from the Father.
It wasn't until the Council of Toledo in 589 that the phrase "and" was added to the prayers of the Church.
This led to the formal recognition of the phrase in Spain and Gaul and spread to most of the churches in Western Europe in the 7th century, however, the Eastern Church was intolerant of the phrase as contrary to the expression of faith adopted by the General Council of Christianity, and the Eastern Church rejected the views of the Latin Church altogether.
The Holy See was incompatible with the Byzantine imperial power
There is also an irreconcilable political relationship between things.
The promulgation of the Edict of Milan in 313 shows the emperor's efforts to encroach on the rights of the church.
It is not difficult to imagine that the promulgation led to a confrontation between the church and the imperial power, especially in the western part of the Roman church.
During this period, the Church of Rome grew in strength and, through the impetus of the bishops, made great strides in politics, economics and size, thus being able to confront the imperial power.
The Frankish kingdom, as a new empire that saw itself as the legitimate heir to the ancient Roman Empire, still exacerbated contradictions in the face of the Byzantine Empire and elevated it to the political level. In order to protect Rome from the Lombard invasion, the pope enlisted the Franks to resist, further exacerbating the political and religious conflict.
The Franks provided political, economic, and military assistance to the Roman Church and posed a great threat to the Byzantine Empire.
The Pope, in turn, played an important role in the struggle of the Franks against the Byzantines.
These events had an impact on the later struggle of the Holy Roman Empire against the Byzantine Empire.
The fuse and significance of the "Fotiu Incident".
The trigger for the Photius incident was that the Byzantine Emperor Michael III was not satisfied with his authority and was threatened by his mother, so he removed his mother's close confidant, Patriarch Ignatius of Constantinople, and promoted his own person to replace him, that is, the famous lay Photius as the new patriarch.
However, this change was not approved by Pope Nicholas I, leading the pope to refuse to recognize the legitimacy of Photius.
This removal of the patriarch sparked tensions between the Eastern and Western churches.
On the issue of jurisdiction over Moravia and Bulgaria, both the Byzantine Emperor and his mother wanted to gain an advantage in influence, and after a period of friction, large and small contradictions accumulated, which eventually led to the outbreak of the Photius Incident.
After coming to the throne, Photius made a series of efforts to maintain his position as patriarch.
Even at the behest of Pope Nicholas I, he actively sought to mediate with the Pope.
At the same time, he tried to bring the former Patriarch Ignatius and his supporters closer, while he tried to reconcile with the pope.
As the Illyrian question was not resolved, Nicholas I not only refused to recognize the legitimacy of Fotius, but also excommunicated him in 863.
In the face of the punitive measures of the Pope, Photius eventually abandoned his rapprochement with Rome and, in order to counter the Pope's intervention in the internal affairs of the Church in Constantinople, convened a synod in 867 and punished the Pope.
This gave rise to the second ecclesiastical schism, the "Photius Schism", which lasted until the end of the 9th century.
In the Photius Affair, the three Roman popes, Nicholas I, Adrian II, and John VIII, took concerted action against Photius.
Although there were popes who wanted to make some concessions on the Leah question, in general, the pope's attitude towards the patriarchship of Photius was negative.
In 863, Nicholas I convened a synod and excommunicated the former Patriarch Ignatius on the grounds that he had been treated unfairly and that Fotius had been illegal.
In 867, Photius convened a synod to actively compete for Bulgarian jurisdiction and excommunicated the pope, further deepening the conflict between the Eastern and Western churches.
Adrian II regained the initiative in 869 and brought back the former patriarch Ignatius.
And during John VIII's tenure, the two sides clashed again over Bulgaria, further exacerbating the rift between the Eastern and Western churches due to the unwillingness of both sides to compromise.
Thus, in 881, John VIII, holding up the Gospel in St. Peter's Basilica, announced the re-excommunication of Photiug.
These actions show the anti-Phoetian actions taken by the Pope of Rome.
Evaluation of the "Photiu Incident".
Although the cause of the Photius incident was that the Byzantine emperor ignored the opposition of the papacy and passively changed the patriarch because of the conflict of interests between the two churches, it is not difficult to think that the fundamental reason was the struggle between the pope and the patriarch for power.
In addition, the contradictions between religions due to cultural differences have also become a weapon to attack each other.
The Western Church has more Latin cultural colors, while the Eastern Church is mostly influenced by Greek culture, and the irreconcilable cultural differences between the two sides have led to an increasing difference between the Eastern and Western churches.
In addition to cultural differences and religious disputes, the Photiu affair also involved many political interests, including the struggle between the bishops of the two churches over the supreme leadership of the Church and the jurisdiction of the diocese, as well as the conflict of interests between the empires behind the Church due to their hegemonic status.
This shows that the Photiu affair was not just a religious disagreement, but also a concentrated manifestation of various conflicts of interest and political struggles.
From the Pope's expulsion in 863 to the excommunication of Photius I in 867, this was the first time in the history of the Church that the bishops of the two major churches excommunicated each other, marking the second split in the history of the Church.
This incident played a role in the relationship between the East and the West.
On the one hand, the Photius Affair continued the previous problems of the Akacius schism and further amplified these contradictions, leading to a further rift between the Eastern and Western Churches.
On the other hand, a number of new disputes emerged in the Photiu incident, which did not disappear with time, but continued to ferment in the new period, becoming the focus of contention between the two sides in the great schism between the Eastern and Western churches in the 11th century.
All of these disputes exacerbated misunderstandings and grievances between the Eastern and Western churches, which eventually led to unhappy breakups between the two sides.
Religious divisions also brought political separation.
In Europe, especially in the Balkans, a cultural fault zone has been formed due to differences in religious beliefs.
This division and rupture is not confined to the realm of religion, but has far-reaching implications for society and culture as a whole.
Differences in religious beliefs have led to antagonisms and conflicts between peoples and cultures, especially in the Balkans.
In short, the Photiu incident accelerated the deterioration of church relations between the East and the West, triggering religious, political, and cultural separations and conflicts.
As a result of this incident, both the Eastern and Western Churches launched missionary activities and brought the Christian faith to the West Slavs in the Balkans.
Both Latin and Greek missionaries worked hard to help establish national churches in these regions in order to consolidate Christian influence and control over them.
This missionary activity gave an important impetus to the Byzantine transformation of the Eastern European countries.
With the progress of missionary activities, the Western civilization with Latin culture as the core and the Byzantine civilization with Greek culture as the center also spread to these regions through the spread of Christianity, which had a great impact on the social life of the West Slavs.
The Eastern and Western Churches became the cultural enlighteners of the West Slavs.
The introduction of Christian culture led to the gradual liberation of the shackles of primitive polytheism, and the emergence of their own mature languages, such as Slavic, and the emergence of more advanced written literature and Christian architecture.
Although the Photiu incident was in the realm of religious culture, its impact went beyond the realm of religion.
It played an important role in promoting the development of the West Slavs and the entire Slavic world civilization, allowing them to truly begin the development and creation of their own culture on the basis of accepting Christian culture.
epilogue
Before the Photius incident, the two churches were already competing for the status and interests of the church, doctrinal differences, and clash of the laity.
After coming to power in the 9th century, Photius became the trigger for the intensification of the conflict between the two churches.
Although the focus of the dispute on the surface is the question of whether Photius was legitimately the patriarch of Constantinople, in reality the issue reflects the historical contradictions between the two churches and the game between the church and secular power.