Fr. Ron Millican
Church History 43, 800-1300 A.D., THE CHURCH AND WORLD UNITED:
TOWARD THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
The East-West Schism: The Filioque and Iconoclast Controversies
You may remember from last week’s column I was presenting some of the issues that surrounded the separation of the East-West Church. The East-West schism officially happened in 1054 causing a break in the relationship between the two groups. I presented the first of several controversies that lead to this separation: the filioque controversy.
Next was the iconoclast controversy. Icon, or ikon, is a Greek word meaning “image.” While Judaism and Islam either discouraged or even condemned the use of images for the sacred, Christianity encouraged the use of pictures to portray parts of the liturgy and stories from the Bible, the life of Christ, and the lives of the saints. These paintings inspired the faithful and helped a largely illiterate community to better understand the faith. The Church Father, Gregory of Nyssa, explained the use of icons by saying that “The silent painting speaks on the walls and does much good.”
While both the Eastern and Western Churches made use of sacred images, icons (a highly stylized painting) held special significance for Eastern Christians, where an icon artist created a painting according to very specific guidelines.
In 726 the Eastern Emperor Leo the Isaurian forbade the use of icons because he felt it was idolatry (the worship of false gods or of an image of God). Supported by the patriarch of Constantinople, Leo had thousands of icons destroyed. The common people, supported by monks, held an uprising in support of icons. The pope, Gregory II, supported the use of icons in liturgy (worship). The pope may not have understood exactly how icons were viewed by Eastern Christians. Rather, he was upholding the principle that civil authority—Leo the Isaurian—had no right to intervene in Church matters. The iconoclast controversy continued for over fifty years and caused many bloody confrontations. In 787 the Second Council of Nicea upheld the use of icons and condemned as heresy the calling of their use as “worshiping false idols.” Questions for East-West relations during this controversy were: Does the pope have jurisdiction over the patriarch of Constantinople, and does the emperor have jurisdiction over the Church.
Events such as the Filioque and Iconoclast controversies demonstrated that relations between the Eastern and Western Churches needed only a spark to ignite the embers of distrust between the two sides on the road to schism that remains in effect today. Sicily, an island off the coast of southwest Italy, had for a long time been under the control of the Eastern Empire. The patriarch of Constantinople had responsibility for the Church there, which followed Eastern practices.
In 1043 Normans captured Sicily, and the Eastern Empire was powerless to try to regain control of it. With Sicily now ruled by Europeans, who was to oversee the Church there? The patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, declared that he had jurisdiction over Sicily, and the Eastern Emperor supported him. The pope, however, appointed a new archbishop of Sicily to bring Western practices to the churches there.
To be continued….
Church History 43, 800-1300 A.D., THE CHURCH AND WORLD UNITED:
TOWARD THE HIGH MIDDLE AGES
The East-West Schism: The Filioque and Iconoclast Controversies
You may remember from last week’s column I was presenting some of the issues that surrounded the separation of the East-West Church. The East-West schism officially happened in 1054 causing a break in the relationship between the two groups. I presented the first of several controversies that lead to this separation: the filioque controversy.
Next was the iconoclast controversy. Icon, or ikon, is a Greek word meaning “image.” While Judaism and Islam either discouraged or even condemned the use of images for the sacred, Christianity encouraged the use of pictures to portray parts of the liturgy and stories from the Bible, the life of Christ, and the lives of the saints. These paintings inspired the faithful and helped a largely illiterate community to better understand the faith. The Church Father, Gregory of Nyssa, explained the use of icons by saying that “The silent painting speaks on the walls and does much good.”
While both the Eastern and Western Churches made use of sacred images, icons (a highly stylized painting) held special significance for Eastern Christians, where an icon artist created a painting according to very specific guidelines.
In 726 the Eastern Emperor Leo the Isaurian forbade the use of icons because he felt it was idolatry (the worship of false gods or of an image of God). Supported by the patriarch of Constantinople, Leo had thousands of icons destroyed. The common people, supported by monks, held an uprising in support of icons. The pope, Gregory II, supported the use of icons in liturgy (worship). The pope may not have understood exactly how icons were viewed by Eastern Christians. Rather, he was upholding the principle that civil authority—Leo the Isaurian—had no right to intervene in Church matters. The iconoclast controversy continued for over fifty years and caused many bloody confrontations. In 787 the Second Council of Nicea upheld the use of icons and condemned as heresy the calling of their use as “worshiping false idols.” Questions for East-West relations during this controversy were: Does the pope have jurisdiction over the patriarch of Constantinople, and does the emperor have jurisdiction over the Church.
Events such as the Filioque and Iconoclast controversies demonstrated that relations between the Eastern and Western Churches needed only a spark to ignite the embers of distrust between the two sides on the road to schism that remains in effect today. Sicily, an island off the coast of southwest Italy, had for a long time been under the control of the Eastern Empire. The patriarch of Constantinople had responsibility for the Church there, which followed Eastern practices.
In 1043 Normans captured Sicily, and the Eastern Empire was powerless to try to regain control of it. With Sicily now ruled by Europeans, who was to oversee the Church there? The patriarch of Constantinople, Michael Cerularius, declared that he had jurisdiction over Sicily, and the Eastern Emperor supported him. The pope, however, appointed a new archbishop of Sicily to bring Western practices to the churches there.
To be continued….
