#1: The Two Major Splits in the Christian Church

Take notes from the information below. Answer the questions as a part of these notes.

Give a quick outline about the beginnings of Christianity. Identify the two major splits in Christianity.

Split #1: The Great Schism

Split #2: The Creation of Protestantism (The Reformation)

The Roman Empire had been divided into two parts. Identify the two parts.

The Byzantine split with Roman Catholicism came about when Pope Leo III crowned Charlemagne, King of the Franks, as Holy Roman Emperor in 800 (the Roman Empire had been divided into two pieces and had two Emperors).

From the Byzantine viewpoint, this was a slap to the Eastern Emperor and the Byzantine Empire itself — an empire that had withstood barbarian invasions and upheld the faith for centuries. After Rome fell in 476, Byzantium was the only vestige of the Holy Roman Empire.

Charlemagne’s crowning made the Byzantine Emperor redundant, and relations between the East and the West deteriorated until a formal split occurred in 1054. The Eastern Church became the Greek Orthodox Church by severing all ties with Rome and the Roman Catholic Church — from the pope to the Holy Roman Emperor on down.

What was the Protestant Reformation?

The Protestant Reformation of the early 16th century was an attempt to reform the Roman Catholic Church. The result was the creation of a new approach to Christianity, that did not include the Roman Catholic church. Who is considered to be the father of this reformation?

Martin Luther What was the Ninety- Five Theses?

The Ninety-five Theses or Disputation on the Power of Indulgences (Latin: Disputatio pro declaratione virtutis indulgentiarum[a]) are a list of propositions for an academic disputation written in 1517 by Martin Luther, professor of moral theology at the University of Wittenberg, Germany, that started the Protestant Reformation, a schism in the Catholic Church which profoundly changed Europe. In the Ninety-Five Theses writen by Martin Luther he criticizes he churches use of indulgences. What are indulgences?

They advance Luther's positions against what he saw as abusive practices by preachers selling plenary indulgences, which were certificates believed to reduce the temporal punishment for sins committed by the purchasers themselves or their loved ones in purgatory.