How the Church Went From Being Greek to Latin Centered

Pope Gregory VII

In the early church the two biggest players were the Greek Church and the Latin Church.  The Greek Church was larger but the Latin Church was clearly second.  I’m aware that there were other churches such as Syriac, Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian and others.  However, these churches were quite small and by the end of the sixth century, most of them had fallen into Monophysitism.

In the first 1,000 years the Greek Church was the prime player.  The first eight ecumenical councils were held in Eastern Greek cities.  In the second council of Constantinople in 553 AD we read:

We further declare that we hold fast to the decrees of the four Councils, and in every way follow the holy Fathers, Athanasius, Hilary, Basil, Gregory the Theologian, Gregory of Nyssa, Ambrose, Theophilus, John (Chrysostom) of Constantinople, Cyril, Augustine, Proclus, Leo and their writings on the true faith.

Of the 12 theologians named, only four were from the Latin West.  These are Hilary, Ambrose, Augustine, and Leo.  In the 7th century, Islam had dealt a blow to the Greek Church.  The Latin Church was impacted as well.  Spain was conquered and North Africa was lost forever.

By the year 1,000 AD the Greek Church was doing very well.  The Arab Muslims were a shell of their former selves and Constantinople was decorated with theologians like Symeon the New Theologian.  Perhaps Byzantium would eventually gain back Syria and the holy land.  They had also recently spread the faith to Kievan Rus.

In the Latin West, things weren’t looking good.  Rome was a run down city.  The Pope was just a cleric who sat in Rome and did next to nothing.  The glory days of Leo and Gregory the Great were hundreds of years gone.  In fact, in 1032 AD a 20 year old was elected Pope.  I’ve met a lot of smart people who were 20 but no one is smart or mature enough to be Pope at 20.

In the middle portion of the eleventh century, things changed drastically.  Through a series of several Popes the Latin Church underwent drastic reforms.  These were mostly political reforms but were theologically based as they came from Cluniac influence.  There was a wave of reformer Popes who developed canon law, enhanced church government and terminated secular investiture influence.  The three most important Popes involved in these reforms were Leo IX, Alexander II, and Gregory VII.  These reforms are usually called the Gregorian Reforms.  I personally don’t like that term because while Gregory VII certainly played a huge role, he really only finished what other Popes had started a couple decades earlier.

In the Greek East during this period, there was huge misfortune.  In 1071 AD, the Seljuk Turks defeated the Byzantine army at the Battle of Manzikert and within a few years had conquered 90% of Anatolia.  Although the percentage of Anatolia controlled by the Turks would fluctuate, it stayed pretty high throughout the next couple centuries.  This would culminate in the complete conquest of Anatolia and Constantinople in the 15th century by the Turks.  To this day, I believe that the largest external blow to Christianity were the Turks.  For about eight centuries they terrorized Christendom, and took large portions of land away.

Because of these events, by 1100 AD the Greek and Latin Church had essentially swapped places from where they were a hundred years prior.  By this time, the Spanish had recaptured Toledo and the Greeks had employed the Latin Church in their defense by means of the crusades.  Things had certainly changed.

This is my theory on how the centre of mass changed from the Greek East to the Latin West in the 11th century.  Do you agree with this assessment?  I’m interested in hearing your opinion.