Schism or Division?

 Schism or Division?

Ivan Vorobjev

The Symbol of the Orthodox Faith says that the Church is One. According to the Holy Fathers, when the unity of faith is broken, the schism occurs. The most famous schism occurred in 1054, and neither Orthodox, nor Catholics, doubt that it was a schism. 

But the history of the Church provides a number of cases when communion was broken between two parties with the same faith, and both parties had saints and later were united. The English historian Vladimir Moss once presented a very interesting list of such cases. Here is this list with some changes and additions:

1. The division between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in the Old Testament. Although Judah was clearly "the more right" of the two, there were true prophets also in the north - for example, Elijah and Elisha.

2. The division between the Apostles Paul and Barnabas in the "Acts of the Apostles". Although this was a sharp disagreement which led to a physical separation between the apostles, most people would agree that this was not a schism.

3. The division between the Roman Church under Pope Victor and the Asian Churches over the date of Pascha in the late 2nd century.

4. The division within the Roman Church between Popes [St.] Callistus and his successors, and [St.] Hippolytus in the early 3rd century.

5. The division between the Roman Church under Pope [St.] Stephen and the African Church under St. Cyprian of Carthage in the 3rd century.

6. The division in the Antiochian Church between St. Meletius and the presbyter Paulinus in the 4th century. St. Basil the Great and St. Athanasius the Great were on opposing sides in this conflict.

7. The division between Patriarch Theophilus of Alexandria and St. John Chrysostom in the early 5th century, although this case is not historically clear.

8. The division between the Celtic and Anglo-Saxon Churches in the 6th - 7th centuries over the date of Pascha. After the Synod of Whitby in 664, which decided in favor of the Anglo-Saxon (Roman-Byzantine) date, St. Theodore the Greek, archbishop of Canterbury, ordered that Celtic Christians be treated as schismatics. By the year 784, all the Celtic Churches had adopted the Roman-Byzantine Paschalion.

9. The division between St. Wilfrid, Metropolitan of York and the rest of the English Church in the 7th-8th centuries. St. Wilfrid objected that his diocese had been divided up without his agreement, and appealed to Rome, which on three occasions upheld his appeal. However, St. Wilfrid never received back the whole of his diocese. The quarrel was eventually settled through a compromise engineered by St. Erkenwald, Bishop of London. 

10. The division between St. Theodore the Studite and St. Nicephorus in the 9th century.

11. The division between St. Photius the Great and St. Ignatius in the 9th century.

12. The division between St. Patriarchs Nicholas Mysticus of Constantinople and Euthymios in the early 10th century because of the tetragamy's affair. During this time two opposite hierarchies were established, with struggles for the church buildings, etc. This division was resolved in 920 at the Council of Union. 

13. The division between the Arsenites and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 13th-14th centuries. The division was resolved when the Arsenites were received into communion by the patriarchate with NO rite of reception.

14. The division between 5 metropolitans and the rest of the Constantinople Patriarchate after the Arsenite "schism" was healed in the 1310s. There was at least one saint among the "dissidents": Theoleptus of Philadelphia, who was the first spiritual father of St. Gregory Palamas.

15. The division between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Serbian Church in the 14th century.

16. The division between the Russian Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 15th-16th centuries because the patriarchate refused to recognise the de facto autocephaly of the Russian Church (until 1589). Unofficially the communion was restored in the late 15th century.  

17. The division between St. Arsenios of Paros and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 19th century. Although St. Arsenios was anathematised by the patriarchate, his body was found to be incorrupt after his death and he was later canonised.

18. The divisions in the late 18th century, caused by the Kollyvades fathers.

19. The division between the whole of the Greek State Church and the Ecumenical Patriarchate in the 19th century. This schism was resolved in 1852.

20. The division between the Ecumenical Patriarchate and the Bulgarian Church in 1872. The Greeks anathematised the Bulgarians for phyletism, and the schism was not patched up until 1945. In the pre-revolutionary period the representatives of the Bulgarian Church were treated by the diplomatic protocol elaborated for the Armenians; cf. the Memories of Comte Lamsdorff, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Alexander III's.  One of the anathematised Bulgarian hierarchs was Kliment of Trnovo, an early opponent of ecumenism, whose relics were found incorrupt in the 1950s.

So, from these cases we can see that administrative division (providing that the same faith is kept) is not always a schism. The methods of resolving these divisions also need to be studied. Sometimes two bishops in communion were allowed on the same territory until the death of one of the bishops. Sometimes other ways were used. 

In any event, these examples provide fruitful historical material for the more detailed study of similar historical cases.

Source: https://web.archive.org/web/20210213221832/http://portal-credo.ru/site/?act=english&id=3