The Church DividesPart 5

• When the Roman Empire became divided, two different types of Christian churches developed.

• Although it was based on the Roman Empire, the Byzantine Empire had developed a culture of its own.

• The feeling of separateness from Rome grew when one of the Roman emperors banned the use of icons.

• Icons are religious images used by eastern Christians to aid in their devotions.

The Byzantines also used mosaics in public and religious buildings.. Mosaics were images made up of tiny tiles

• The emperor thought that this was like idol worship.

• Iconoclasts, or “icon breakers” went into churches destroying images.

• This caused the people to riot and the clergy to rebel.

• One pope even ordered the excommunication of a Byzantine emperor.

• That means that the pope said the emperor could no longer be a member of the Church.

• Slowly the Eastern and Roman churches grew further apart. In 1054 C.E., the split, or schism, became permanent.

• Some missionaries traveled from the Byzantine Empire to the north.

• Two missionaries, Methodius and Cyril, met the Slavic peoples who lived in Russia.

• They developed an alphabet for the Slavic languages. Many Slavic languages, including Russian, are now written in what is called the Cyrillic alphabet.

The Christians in eastern Europe became a part of the Eastern Orthodox Church.

Their church leaders were in Constantinople. The head of this church is called the patriarch.

They would speak Greek at their services.

Leaders of the Eastern Orthodox Church were in Constantinople.

• The Christians in western Europe became part of the Roman Catholic Church. Their church leaders were in Rome.

The head of the Roman Catholic Church is called the pope.

• The churches in eastern and western Europe became very powerful.• The churches would go on to greatly affect every part of life in western

Europe and the Byzantine Empire.