1. What was the Great Schism? What factors brought it on?
The Great Schism of 1054 was a division between Christianity in the East (centered around Constantinople) and Christianity in the West (centered around Rome). Several problems including differences in liturgy and language brought on the split, but the main issue involved the church in Constantinople and their attempts to advance their authority in the Church. Throughout the years, the balance of the Holy Roman Empire had begun to shift away from Rome and toward Constantinople. Prior to this shift in power, the Emperor Constantine had dubbed Constantinople the “new Rome”. Due to both the political shift and the prestigious title of “new Rome”, those who belonged to the Church in Constantinople began to think that they should have just as much religious authority as the Roman church. The church in Rome disapproved of Constantinople’s claim to authority, but as time went on, Constantinople gained greater power and dominance over the other patriarchates in the East, which further divided them from the church in Rome. The churches allied with Constantinople called themselves the Eastern Orthodox Churches, and the Western churches who coincided with the church in Rome kept the name “Roman Catholic Church.”
2. What are the sacraments?
In the Roman Catholic Church, the sacraments were physical signs of God’s invisible grace. These “physical signs” were performed by the Church so that their souls would be cleansed by God’s sanctifying grace. There were seven sacraments: baptism, penance, Holy Communion, matrimony, holy orders, extreme unction, and the sacrament of confirmation.
3. What is an indulgence?
An often misunderstood practice of the Roman Catholic Church was called indulgences. Catholics believed there were two types of sin; eternal and temporal. The sacrament of penance cancels the eternal punishment, but the temporal punishment still remains. To eliminate this temporal punishment, the a Catholic priest would assign a sort of “chore” (reciting a certain prayer, reading a certain excerpt of the Bible, etc.) called an indulgence. Once the penitent sinner completed the “chore”, the sin was completely forgiven.
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