At last
matters ran so high, that the Pope sent three legates or messengers, who
laid on the altar of St. Sophia an act breaking the communion between
the two Churches, and then shook off the dust from their feet. This was
in the year 1056, a very sad one, for here was the first great rent in
the Church, the first breach, and one that has never been repaired, for
the Greeks will not, to this day, hold communion with anyone belonging
to the Western Church, nor will the Roman Church with them; and after
the first happy thousand years when the Church was one outwardly as well
as inwardly, thus began the time when her unity has become a matter of
faith, and not of sight. But it is our duty to believe that all good
Christians are joined together, because they are joined to our blessed
Lord, as the boughs of a tree belong to one another by their union with
the root, though they may grow apart on different branches.
There were many other differences. The Greeks and Latins reckoned the
time of keeping Easter in different ways, and had not the same way of
shaving the heads of their clergy. Besides, the Greeks thought that when
St.
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