A Cause And Effect Analysis: The Crowning Of Charlemagne

Sindi Shkodrani

HTY 310

Prof. Serguey Ivanov

Fall 2014

THE GREAT SCHISM

A cause and effect analysis

Introduction The beginning of the millennium saw believers unified and united under the common faith of Christianity. Merely a millennium later, that unity seemed to have been broken and two main branches of the once unified Christianity had come to light. The factors that lead to this division are many, starting early on from the fourth century with the Council of Nicaea, as will be seen later which did unify the churches, but did not give an end to some of the theological debates that pursued. Apart from this other factors such as language differences, power struggles, matters of liturgy, worship of objects and marital status only helped

on the other hand saw a new precedence in the history of the West. The crowning of Charlemagne by Pope Leo II . Pope Leo III's election as the pope in 795 was contested by the aristocracy and he was imprisoned. His escape to Charlemagne set for a series of events in which the latter had to defend Pope Leo III. In the background of all of this, the Pope had offered suzerainty to Charlemagne, an offer too lucrative to be refused by the latter. Charlemagne traveled to Rome with the Pope, where he swore to his innocence. The plea was accepted by Roman and Frankish representatives, and Leo was reinstated as rightful pope. When Leo crowned Charlemagne, both gained from this new symbiosis. Charlemagne became emperor of the Holy Roman Empire, and Pope Leo III had set the precedent of choosing who would sit on the

The Filioque was one of the most important ones. A passage in the Nicene Creed of 325 BC contained the following: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father, who with the Father and the Son is adored and glorified.”

This would mean that the Holy Spirit derives from the father only, which didn’t coincide with the thought of the church in the East, where they believed that the Holy Spirit derived from the Father and the Son. Because of this, and addition was made to the Nicene Creed, where it was written: “And in the Holy Spirit, the Lord, the giver of life, who proceeds from the Father and the Son ….” This addition was considered illegal by the church in the East. Pugliese summarizes the importance of the insertion of “and from the Son” in the theological debates that ensued: The question concerning the filioque is not whether the Son plays a role in the generation of the Holy Spirit, nor whether the Son is second in logical order in the Trinity, since the eastern Churches admit that the Holy Spirit proceeds through (Gk. διά) the Son. Rather, the issue is whether the Son is also the ontological source of the Holy Spirit, along with the