Unity and the Medieval Church:

The view advanced in this paper is that the events of 1054 were not a singular event, nor were they the decisive separation between the Eastern and Western Christian Church. There were many regional theological and doctrinal differences in Christian practice. It was not until the papacy challenged the Byzantine Empire for leadership of Christendom that the theological differences caused sustained dissension among episcopal sees. The value of studying this is that the examination of religious development gives a greater understanding of the political and cultural divergence between East and West and the political development of Western Europe overall.