Religion During the Great Schism (1054)

      Throughout history, religion has affected culture, and what all of western civilization has become. This includes the divide between religion. The Great Schism of 1054 was one of the first divides within one religion.

     When you think of a difference between denominations, you usually look at the theological differences, what parts of the Bible do certain denominations take seriously and find important. Often you’ll find nothing. The theological differences between denominations do not always exist.

     During the Great Schism, the main divide was how to perform mass, half the Catholic people performed mass using Greek and had a certain order to how mass would be performed. The other half of Catholics would use Roman language, and their mass would have a slightly different order. That didn’t mean there was a theological difference. Everyone had the same form of worship and agreed on what was worthy of worship. They just planned it out differently.

     This is a divide in culture. So the question is, what is the difference between culture and denomination? Well, that is almost a “the chicken and the egg” type question. Culture affects religion and religion affects the culture. Culture is defined as a way of doing things that is deeply rooted in where you come from, and tradition. Religious preferences are about theology, but your worldview on religion is affected by your culture and all of Western civilization has been affected by religion, mainly Christianity.

     The Catholic way was about how the infrastructure developed based on the hierarchy created within the church, sometimes under the influence of politicians, this was a large part of a concept known as christendom. The pope had a large say in what the king was doing, but the king also had a say in what the church was doing, and, depending on the time, different people had the ability to appoint bishops and the like. This greatly affected how the cities were run, and how culture looked.

     The first notable split of the church was the Great Schism, a break before protestants were born, a break before the so-called denominations. The Great Schism was not caused by theological differences, like some denominations have today. It was caused by politics, hierarchy, culture, and personal preference of small things like the planned order of how mass should be performed.