CLEP Western Civ I

Answer: B - The Great Schism, or East-West Schism, began in 1054 as the Latin and Greek factions of the Christian church split into the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church. Political and theological issues had been causing a cultural divide within the church for centuries, but there were two specific issues that compelled the formal and lasting split to occur. First, the issue of papal authority was a mounting concern for many in the east part of the empire. Then, in 1054, Pope Leo IX excommunicated the Patriarch of Constantinople in a dispute regarding papal primacy (the pope’s supremacy over other leaders in the church). The Patriarch of Constantinople excommunicated the pope, in turn. The lay members of Christendom were not entirely aware of the totality of the split for generations after the schism began, particularly since the Catholic Church came to the aid of the Orthodox Church and launched the First Crusade. But then, in 1204, during the Fourth Crusade, Catholic Crusaders sacked Constantinople and looted various Orthodox sites, cementing an institutional and cultural divide between the churches that has endured ever since.