The relations between Rome and Constantinople continued into the Tenth century, although they could not be said to be quite normal. The Pope was only approached in matters of a doubtful nature – in cases of dispute, or in such cases as were hoped to obtain from him any rights. The thread connecting the Greek East and the Latin West was now stretched to the extreme, now loosened a little; the breaking of it was a question only of time.

The main actors of the ecclesiastical schism were Patriarch Michael Kerullarius of Constantinople, Pope Leo IX and his legates (ambassadors) led by cardinal Humbert, who arrived in Constantinople.

Michael Kerullariypatriarch Michael was an energetic and very ambitious person and, becoming a Patriarch, decided to achieve what could not do his predecessors. Namely, the complete independence of his Church from the historically dominant Roman pulpit. To do this, he wanted Rome to recognize the Patriarch of Constantinople as an “Ecumenical Patriarch” (“Eastern Pope”), rather than one of the four Eastern patriarchs. To these claims the then Pope Leo IX replied with a full and not very respectful refusal. Then in Constantinople made a document “Revelations of the Latins”, which listed all the” sins “of the Latins, all their deviations from the “true” faith.

The relationship between the two departments was dangerously strained. Just before the fatal separation of the churches, another problem arose with the Italian colonies of Byzantium. The Byzantine Greeks had their own churches in Italy and ruled there the Liturgy according to the Byzantine rite, which was then significantly different from the Latin. In the ELEVENTH century, these Byzantine possessions were partially transferred to Rome, and the Western Liturgy was introduced into them. Outraged, Patriarch Michael struck a counter-blow-closed all the Latin churches and monasteries in Constantinople.

For negotiations, and also to put in place the “audacious” Patriarch Michael, in the beginning of 1054, the above-mentioned legates of the Pope arrived in Constantinople. In Constantinople, the ambassadors conducted business negotiations with the Emperor Constantine, but their relationship with Patriarch Michael immediately developed hostility. The Patriarch refused to meet with the legates. Which, of course, set the legates on a warlike spirit.

During the Liturgy in Hagia Sophia, crowded with Orthodox people, the papal legates marched to the altar of the Church and addressed the faithful with harsh criticism of their Patriarch. And then solemnly and sternly laid on the altar of the bull excommunication, which was anathematized Patriarch Michael and his supporters-for the propensity, allegedly, to heresy (which in the bull was given 10). Then the legates came out of the Great Church, shaking the dust from their feet and repeating, ” God Sees and judges.” A day later the ambassadors left Constantinople. The Patriarch immediately called a local Council of his Church, which condemned the papal legates and, in turn, anathematized them. The papal bull was publicly burned.

Thus began the Great Schism, which proved to be the end of nearly a thousand years of unity of the Christian community, the beginning of a thousand years of enmity. The relationship between the churches had almost completely ceased. It was only in 1964 that a meeting was held in Jerusalem between Patriarch Athenagoras, Primate of the Orthodox Church of Constantinople, and Pope Paul VI, which resulted in the lifting of mutual anathemas and the signing of a joint Declaration in December 1965