Anti Catholic Christianity In The Middle East, Antiquity/Middle Ages

Would it be possible for a form of Christianity, to arise in the middle east, perhaps centered around former Judaea, that does not recognize the authority of the Catholic Church or the Popes, and in fact, actively opposes it.

I Was thinking this denomination could arise alongside the Catholic Church, eventually becoming rivals for the allegiances of Jesus' followers.

Perhaps if we butterfly Islam?

If so, perhaps the Crusades could be replaced with a series of wars between Catholicism and this Variant of Christianity
 
Have you never heard of the Nestorians? Or the Armenian Church? Or the Orthodox Church? The Coptic Church? Because all of these groups (and far more) actually exist and all actually formed in the time period you are talking about.
 
Have you never heard of the Nestorians? Or the Armenian Church? Or the Orthodox Church? The Coptic Church? Because all of these groups (and far more) actually exist and all actually formed in the time period you are talking about.

Yes, But none of those groups ever grew large or powerful enough to openly challenge the Catholic Church, militarily or religiously.
 
Yes, But none of those groups ever grew large or powerful enough to openly challenge the Catholic Church, militarily or religiously.

What do you mean by that? Because the Orthodox church was pretty much its equal for awhile there. Doing away with islam likely means Orthodoxy is just as powerful as catholicism, it was mostly the conquest and subsequent conversion of most of the Levant which means there wasn't more parity in numbers.

Also what does openly challenge mean? Becuase I'm pretty sure having a schism and declaring themselves the real Orthodox Catholic Church of Jesus unlike that faker the pope is kind of the textbook definition of that. They didn't openly fight too much but it certainly happened (fourth crusade, various Teutonic/Russian conflicts, wars between Poland-Lithuania and Russia), also every time a ecumenical council got together you could guarantee a fist fight fight between the various groups would eventually break out.
 
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