The split between the Church of Rome and the Eastern Orthodox Churches represents the first major breach in the structure of the Christian Church. The schism both rocked and helped to shape the fabric of the early Middle Ages -- indeed, its effects persist to the present day. In this book Britain's most eminent medieval historian, author of the immensely successful "A History of the Crusades", puts the schism in its proper historical perspective. He shows how it was due to divergences in tradition and ideology which had grown up in earlier centuries and how things were brought to a head by the Norman invasions of Byzantine Italy, by the 11th century reform of the Papacy and by the whole movement of the Crusades. For the student of Church or medieval history, this is a vitally important book.----------- from the back cover.
Description:
The split between the Church of Rome and the Eastern Orthodox Churches represents the first major breach in the structure of the Christian Church. The schism both rocked and helped to shape the fabric of the early Middle Ages -- indeed, its effects persist to the present day. In this book Britain's most eminent medieval historian, author of the immensely successful "A History of the Crusades", puts the schism in its proper historical perspective. He shows how it was due to divergences in tradition and ideology which had grown up in earlier centuries and how things were brought to a head by the Norman invasions of Byzantine Italy, by the 11th century reform of the Papacy and by the whole movement of the Crusades. For the student of Church or medieval history, this is a vitally important book.----------- from the back cover.