E-Books →Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory The Other Issues that Divided East and West

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.
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