History of the Eastern Break-Up

I. Council of Ephesus (431 AD)

As far as division is concerned the official one comes after the council of Ephesus in 431
AD. Nestorius was the Patriarch of Constantinople. He considered that Christ was comprised of
two persons. He said that in Christ the divine was absorbed in human. He could not conceive the
two natures of Christ. A practical problem which he encountered was “How can Mary being
human give birth to Jesus who was divine?” In the council it was declared that Mary is
“Theotókos”. Nestorius was condemned. Actually the council was convoked by the emperor as
for him what was important was the unity of the Empire more than the theology. So Nestorius
fled the kingdom and went to Persia where he was welcomed (the fact the Persia welcomed him
was also a political motive as they were the arch rivals of Rome).
On the other hand the Council of Ephesus was convoked and dissolved before the arrival
of the Patriarch of Antioch. Therefore the council was rejected by the Persians for two reasons:

 They didn’t accept the title Theotókos

 The council started and concluded before the arrival of their Bishop.

NB: Ecumenical council means the council wherein all the Bishops partook in the council. But
those days because of geographical distances it was enough that the 6 churches were in favour
of the council for it to be Ecumenical (Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, Alexandria, Persia,
Armenia). Now Persia didn’t accept the council and hence got separated. Afterwards they didn’t
attend any of the Ecumenical councils.
Chaldean Rite forms the patrimony of Persian Rite. A small part of this group came back to the
Roman Catholic Church in 1553, then known as Assyrian Church. So to distinguish this group
from larger Persia, the Church called this group Chaldean Church which is an Arabic form of
Persia.

II. Council of Chalcedon (451 AD)

The Chalcedonian Christological formula was “Two natures found into one person”.
This was rejected by Alexandria, Antioch and Armenia. Here again we see more political
reasons than theological one. Now with this separation only Rome and Constantinople remained.
After Chalcedon there were two more councils after which there was the Second Council of
Nicaea in 787 AD. After this council there started a conflict between Rome and Constantinople.
The root for this conflict was the 28 th Canon of the Council of Chalcedon which stated that
“Missionary churches evangelized by Constantinople will come under Constantinople”. This
canon was rejected by Rome saying this is not the practice. Constantinople repatriated saying
that this was done in communion with the delegates of Pope. Therefore the Pope withdrew the
statement. However this was the beginning of a Cold war.

III. Council of Trulo (691 AD)

The council enacted a decree on clerical celibacy. By this time in the western church
clerical celibacy was deep rooted. When it came to Ecumenical council, the Eastern Churches
did not accept this rule. Therefore the council enacted a canon that “Clerical celibacy should be
optional and not obligatory”. Because of this canon out of 102, Rome rejected this council as
non-Ecumenical. But Constantinople said that the agreement was reached together. However the
Pope rejected this canon. The Later Pope John VIIIth tried to restore the unity but his successor
changed his position to the former one. Against this background we have a Patriarch in
Constantinople called Photius, a very powerful person. Rome didn’t like him and was looking
for a chance to depose him attributing some doctrinal errors to him. He was deposed but the next
Pope re-installed him. This fluctuation had created a mental separation between the two. Rome
was acquiring political power and behind this controversy there was also a political motive. In
1054 AD, a delegate of Pope went for reconciliation but ended up excommunicating each other
in the same year. Thereby we have the Western Church and the Eastern Church.
In all these division we have the Catholic Churches and the Non-Catholic Churches. The re-
unification comes after the Council of Trent. In 1552, the Chaldean Church was the first one to
come back into the Roman Communion.