censed at the lofty tone assumed by them as ambassadors of Rome, refused to admit them to his presence. The papal legates, filled with a sense of the august authority of their chief, boldly resented the indignity offered him in their persons. Resorting to the great Church of St. Sophia, they publicly excommunicated the patriarch and his adherents, and reverently deposited the written declaration of anathema upon the grand altar. By this solemn act the schism between the Churches was finally consummated on the 10th of June, a.d. 1054.
The points of difference, besides minor matters of practice and discipline, may be summarized as being those stated in the circular letter of Photius, to which are to be added the use of leavened or unleavened bread in the Eucharist and the question of papal supremacy. The most important, as involving fundamental principles, was that concerning the Double Procession of the Holy Ghost. The most potent and wide-spread in its influence was that regarding Rome's pretension to universal jurisdiction. It has ever been the chief obstacle at every attempt to restore unity. This point the popular mind, however bewildered on theological controversies, has always been able to appreciate, and by it popular indignation has always been easily aroused to support clerical or state authority.
The divergence of the two Churches was greater in reality than it appears to be from a superficial view. It was based on essential variations in the character and disposition of the people in the East and in the West, on the nature of their civilization, and on the different, almost antagonistic, development of the Christian idea in one Church and in the other.
These influences, profoundly affecting the character and constitution of the Greek Church, merit consider-
