Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory: The Other Issues that Divided East and West (OXFORD STU IN HISTORICAL THEOLOGY SERIES)

## Abstract Although the Filioque and the papacy are usually regarded as the questions that have caused the schism between Christian East and West, there were other issues (like the use of azymes, or unleavened bread, for the mass) that have greater claim to be the source of the division. For example, the fact that Latin priests were beardless was cited as one of the reasons for the excommunications of 1054, and the Western belief in Purgatory was the very first issue discussed at the Council of Ferrara-Florence in 1438, the last real attempt to heal the schism before the twentieth century. Thus, if one wants to understand the schism between East and West, one is forced to deal not only with the reasons it remains, but also with the reasons it began. These disagreements about beards, bread, and the state of souls after death may not appear to be church-dividing issues today, but they are nevertheless the reasons why the church is divided. This book examines these three debates—beards, azymes, and Purgatory—from the biblical and patristic period to the modern day. It is an amazing story, filled with beardless (and bearded) holy men debating the nature of masculinity, the Eucharist, and the world to come in an atmosphere that was often as contentious as any dispute about the Spirit’s procession. While these issues may not now generate the same heat, they still have much to offer anyone wishing to understand the ongoing rift between the Catholic and Orthodox Churches. The Catholic and Orthodox churches have been divided for nearly a thousand years. The issues that divide them are weighty matters of theology, from a dispute over the Nicene Creed to the question of the authority of the Pope. But while these issues are cited as the most important reasons for the split, they were not necessarily the issues that caused it. In Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory A. Edward Siecienski argues that other, seemingly minor issues also played a significant role in the schism.Although rarely included in modern-day ecumenical dialogues, for centuries these "other issues"--the beardlessness of the Latin clergy, the Western use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Purgatory--were among the most frequently cited reasons for the dispute between East and West. Disagreements about bread, beards, and the state of souls after death may not, at first, appear to be church-dividing issues, but they are the nevertheless among the reasons why the church today is divided. This was a schism over azymes long before it was a schism over the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and the beardlessness of the Latin clergy was cited as a reason for breaking communion with the Latin Church prior to all the subsequent arguments about the wording of the Nicene Creed. To understand the schism between East and West, Siecienski contends, we must grasp not only the reasons it remains, but also the reasons it began. The Catholic and Orthodox churches have been divided for nearly a thousand years. The issues that divide them are weighty matters of theology, from a dispute over the Nicene Creed to the question of the authority of the Pope. But while these issues are cited as the most important reasons for the split, they were not necessarily the issues that caused it. In Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory A. Edward Siecienski argues that other, seemingly minor issues also played a significant role in the schism. Although rarely included in modern-day ecumenical dialogues, for centuries these "other issues"--the beardlessness of the Latin clergy, the Western use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Purgatory--were among the most frequently cited reasons for the dispute between East and West. Disagreements about bread, beards, and the state of souls after death may not, at first, appear to be church-dividing issues, but they are the nevertheless among the reasons why the church today is divided. This was a schism over azymes long before it was a schism over the primacy of the Bishop of Rome, and the beardlessness of the Latin clergy was cited as a reason for breaking communion with the Latin Church prior to all the subsequent arguments about the wording of the Nicene Creed. To understand the schism between East and West, Siecienski contends, we must grasp not only the reasons it remains, but also the reasons it began "In 1576, as the Protestant Reformation continued to sweep across Western Europe and Catholic prelates tried to stem the tide through diligent application of Trent's reforming agenda, the Cardinal Archbishop of Milan, Charles Borromeo (1538-84) penned a letter to his clergy. In order to restore the Church to its former glory, he enjoined his "beloved brethren" to "bring back good observances and holy customs which have grown cold and been abandoned over the course of time." Chief among them, he wrote, was the custom, which although ancient, had been "practically lost nearly everywhere in Italy . . . I mean the practice that ecclesiastical persons not grow, but rather shave the beard, . . .a custom of our Fathers, almost perpetually retained in the Church" that was "replete with mystical meanings.""-- Provided by publisher. In Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory A. Edward Siecienski argues that seemingly minor issues--the beardlessness of the Latin clergy, the Western use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Purgatory--played a significant role in the schism between the Catholic and Orthodox churches