Centuries of Schisms
THE word “schism” (variously pronounced sizm, skizm, or shizm) has been defined as “the process by which a religious body divides to become two or more distinct, independent bodies.”
330 C.E. “The schism between Greek and Latin Christendom. . . . The founding of Constantinople, the ‘new Rome’ (330), displacing the ‘old Rome’ as imperial capital, sowed the seeds of a future ecclesiastical rivalry between the Greek East and the Latin West.”—The Encyclopedia of Religion.
330-867 C.E. “From the beginning of the See of Constantinople to the great schism in 867 the list of these temporary breaches of communion is a formidable one. . . . Of these 544 years (323-867) no less than 203 were spent by Constantinople in a state of schism [with Rome over Trinity-related theological disputes and the worship of images].”—The Catholic Encyclopedia.
867 C.E. “The see of Constantinople maintained its position against Rome during the so-called Photian Schism. When Pope Nicholas I challenged Photius’ elevation to the patriarchate, . . . the Byzantine patriarch refused to bow. . . . Nicholas . . . excommunicated Photius; a council at Constantinople responded (867) by excommunicating Nicholas in turn. The immediate issues between the two sees were matters of ecclesiastical supremacy, the liturgy, and clerical discipline.”—The New Encyclopædia Britannica.
1054 C.E. “EAST-WEST SCHISM, event that precipitated the final separation between the Eastern [Orthodox] Christian churches . . . and the Western [Roman Catholic] Church.”—The New Encyclopædia Britannica.
1378-1417 C.E. “[GREAT] WESTERN SCHISM—The period . . . in which Western Christendom was divided between two, and later three, papal obediences [with rival popes located in Rome, Avignon (France), and Pisa (Italy)].”—New Catholic Encyclopedia.
16th century C.E. “As regards the Protestant Reformation, . . . the Catholic Church mostly uses the term heresy rather than schism.”—Théo—Nouvelle encyclopédie catholique.
1870 C.E. “The First Vatican Council, which advocated the ‘infallibility’ of the pope, brought about the schism of the ‘Old Catholics.’”—La Croix (Paris daily, Catholic).
1988: Schism of Archbishop Lefebvre, who “initiated schism in the Catholic Church by his defiance of the Pope and the spirit of the second Vatican Council . . . who regards Protestants as heretical, who sees ecumenism as the work of the devil, and who is willing to die excommunicate rather than be reconciled to a ‘modernist’ Church.”—Catholic Herald.