East–West Schism

The East–West Schism, also called the Great Schism or the Schism of 1054, is the break of communion between the Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church. It followed long disputes between the Greek East and the Latin West over the Filioque clause of the Nicene Creed, the bread of the Eucharist and the pope's claim to universal jurisdiction. In 1054 Cardinal Humbert of Silva Candida, legate of Pope Leo IX, excommunicated Patriarch Michael I Cerularius of Constantinople, who excommunicated the legates in turn. The breach deepened with the sack of Constantinople in 1204 and has never healed, though Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras I nullified the anathemas of 1054 in 1965.