Christian East Christian West

No, no, no. More Roman succesor states or more patriarchs would lead to more, not less fractures. Meaning you won't get just a West-East split, but for example Far West - Northwest - Middle - East - Southeast split.

To avoid a schism, IMO, you'd need a single authority interested in keeping the Church united no matter what - meaning an Emperor of united Roman Empire.
 

Philip

Donor
No, no, no. More Roman succesor states or more patriarchs would lead to more, not less fractures. Meaning you won't get just a West-East split, but for example Far West - Northwest - Middle - East - Southeast split.
And why is that?

To avoid a schism, IMO, you'd need a single authority interested in keeping the Church united no matter what - meaning an Emperor of united Roman Empire.

I am not sure that history supports this view. Look at the Eastern and Oriental Orthodox Churches. Both have plenty of Patriarchs, are spread over many different states, but have been relatively schism free since splitting. In contrast, the split between the EO and OO was perpetuated when Rome was united under a single emperor.
 
If there was no schism between Catholic and Orthodox Christianity, then there would be less conflicts between West and East Christians in the Middle Age.

As for a reunion of the churches, I read they were several tries organized by the Pope and the Byzantines but which all failed. These dicussions were abandonned after the fourth crusade.

Actually there were several attempts *after* the fourth crusade to reunited the churches. Really unsuccessful. Michael VIII apparently burns in hell because of one of those! :)
 

Wolfpaw

Banned
Preserving the Roman empire would work because the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Rome wouldn't be in competition as the emperor would be head of the Church.

That being said, the Roman Church is far more likely to resemble Orthodoxy as was the case under Constantine and his successors. The whole division issue had more to do with the fact that the Pope threw a hissy-fit and refused to recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople as the (rightful) head of the Church.

There were some practical differences, but they had far more to do with regional customs than anything else. All of this could and likely would be easily butterflied away by a centralized Roman Church.
 
Top