East-West Schism

Hardening of the East-West Schism

The Great Schism began as a split among ruling elites, and the excommunications were

originally meant to include only the individuals involved. The split did not immediately have an

effect on the popular sentiments of the body of the faithful. In fact, they were unaware of the

existence of a schism, or at least did not demonstrate it in their actions. They continued the

inclusion of the name of the Roman Pope in the Eucharistic prayers of the Eastern liturgy for some

time after the diplomatic ugliness. Western pilgrims to the Holy Land continued to be well received

by their Eastern brethren and participate in their liturgies. The attitude among the general populace

was only one of gradual hardening, resulting from a string of events which hurt the solidarity once

shared between these two peoples. The comportment of the Western crusaders and the ill treatment

of members of the Eastern church, aggravated the hostility and spread anti-Latin sentiments among

the masses. An event which forever cemented this animosity occurred in the year 1204.

During the Fourth Crusade, an army led by the Venetians sacked the city of Constantinople,

slaughtering their fellow Christians and stripping them of the spoils of war. In addition, the

Venetian forces sought to replace the Eastern church leadership by establishing a Latin patriarchate

instead of the traditional Greek one. This disastrous development sent East-West relations into a

freefall, deepening and cementing the feelings of mistrust and anger that the eastern Christians felt

towards their western brethren.

An attempt to heal the schism was made in 1274, at the 2nd Council of Lyons, but it met with

failure, due to widespread opposition among Eastern clergy. At this point, the divisions which

originally only existed between the Church leadership had become a widespread and firmly

entrenched fissure between the common faithful.