Chapter 239: Orthodoxy and Catholicism
As a result, the Chinese Empire was able to encircle the Carolingian Christian world from the north, and of course, more accurately, the Catholic world, which was under the control of the Pope for many years.
Today, although the Greek Orthodox Church (full name Oriental Orthodox Church) believed in by the Eastern Roman-Byzantine Empire and the Kingdom of Bulgaria and the Roman Catholic Church controlled by the Pope (full name is the Roman Ecumenical Church) in the West Frankish Kingdom, the East Frankish Kingdom and some kingdoms in Western Europe, they have in fact existed in name only.
Why is there no Middle Frankish kingdom among them? For the kingdom of Middle Francia had been divided among Charles the Bald the Bald, king of West Francia, and Louis the German, king of East Francia, in 870 AD.
The treaty that divided them was the famous "Treaty of Melson", which was called the "Treaty of Melson" because it was a treaty formally signed between the Kingdom of West Francia and the Kingdom of East Francia in Melson.
Of course, the Kingdom of West Francia and the Kingdom of East Francia only divided most of the territory of the Kingdom of Middle Francia, and in the Treaty of Melson, the two kingdoms of East and West Francia still left a small part of the territory of the Kingdom of Middle Francia.
This small part of the territory became the prototype of what would become Italy, while the eastern and western Frankish kingdoms laid the foundations of the national territories of the future First German Empire and the Kingdom of France, respectively.
Why is the unity of Christendom dead in name only? Because the Roman Empire had been divided since the end of the fourth century AD, and the Roman Empire was divided into two states, the Western Roman Empire and the Eastern Roman Empire, and of course the citizens of the Western Roman Empire and the citizens of the Eastern Roman Empire still called themselves Romans or Roman citizens.
Because of the division of the Roman Empire, the two Roman empires gradually formed differences in social, political, linguistic, and cultural traditions, which contributed to the division between the Latin-speaking (Western Roman) and Greek-speaking (Eastern Roman) eastern sects in Christendom.
The Roman Church in the Western Roman Empire considered themselves to be the successors of Jesus' disciple Peter, and insisted that they should have the preciousness among the patriarchates.
The New Roman (Constantinople) Church of the Eastern Roman Empire, with the support of the Eastern Roman Emperor, began to compete with the Holy See for spheres of influence, coupled with the doctrinal differences between them, and finally the two sides were finally excommunicated by the Pope and the New Roman Ecumenical Patriarch in 1054 AD, and finally officially split into Catholicism and Orthodox Christianity.
Although the two sides have not yet been excommunicated, the conflict between them has been intensifying, and in 857 A.D., the Ecumenical Patriarch of New Rome (Constantinople), I. Ignatius I, was deposed by the Emperor Michael III of the Byzantine Empire of Eastern Rome, and his own important minister was appointed as the Patriarch.
In 863 A.D., Pope Nick the Elder I of the Holy See took action against the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire, and Pope Nick the Elder issued a statement claiming that the deposition of the former Ecumenical Patriarch Inarius by the Byzantine Emperor Michael III of the Eastern Roman Empire was illegitimate, and that Pope Nick the Elder had excommunicated the Patriarch of New Rome from the church of Phochy.
The then Ecumenical Patriarch Philip also began a counterattack against Pope Nick the Elder I of the Holy See, and he convened a council in Constantinople to excommunicate Pope Nick the Elder I, which was called the "Philosopher Schism" in Christendom.
This matter was clear even to the Chinese Empire, which was still in the country of Memel at that time, and this incident is still preserved in the history books of the Chinese Empire today.
The Holy See and the New Roman Ecumenical Patriarchate, both of them, over the jurisdiction of the diocese and the Church of Rome changed the Holy Spirit from "from the Father" to "from the Father and from the Son", which led to an increasingly bitter dispute over the "peace clause".
However, something unexpected happened, when the Byzantine Emperor Michael III, who fully supported the Ecumenical Patriarch Buddha Hope, was assassinated by his subordinates, and his subordinates established themselves as Emperor of the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire.
That subordinate was the current Byzantine Emperor Basil, who had met with Gao Yang Yajun and Ashina Zecharias, and Basil overthrew all the measures of the former Eastern Roman Byzantine Emperor Michael III.
In the same year, Pope Nick the Elder died, and the successor Pope Yard II convened the Eighth Ecumenical Council in New Rome (Constantinople), the Eastern and Western Churches were united, and the ecumenical patriarch of the Eastern Church recognized the primacy of the Roman pope.
Although the split of the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire lasted only a few years, this event planted the proximate cause of the great schism between the Eastern and Western Churches in the future.
The papal primacy of Rome before him was unquestionable. But after this incident, people suddenly realized that the primacy of the pope was not so unbreakable, and they began to openly question the primacy of the pope, and even accused the pope of tampering with the doctrine.
As for the contradictions between the various sects in Christendom, in fact, the Chinese Empire has been making trouble from it, and the Chinese Empire does not want to face a unified Christian world in the future.
Although the Chinese Empire is now allied with the Kingdom of Great Moravia, which believes in the Roman Catholic Church, and with the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire, which is the Eastern Orthodox Church in New Rome (Constantinople), Gao Yang Yajun and the ministers of the Chinese Empire believe that as long as the Chinese Empire wags war against countries that believe in the Catholic Church or the Eastern Orthodox Church, then the future of the Chinese Empire will eventually be greeted by Christendom's counterattack.
You know, today's Christendom is different from the Christian world that later experienced the Renaissance and divided again, and today's Christendom is very fanatical, especially the believers of the Christian Catholic Church, after all, they invented the word jihad.
In fact, there have long been Orthodox Christians in the territory of the Chinese Empire who came to preach, but back then, Gao Yang Yajun asked Jinyi Weidu to command An Xuan to secretly kill those Orthodox missionaries one by one.
As the local improvement of Taoism in the Chinese Empire gradually spread throughout the Chinese Empire and grew in recent years, when Gao Yang Yajun and the emperor of the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire formed an alliance, Gao Yang Yajun and the emperor of the Eastern Roman Byzantine Empire had to allow each other's missionaries to come to the local missionary.
Of course, it is only allowed on the surface, and it is difficult to say how they will operate in private.
For example, Gao Yang Yajun locked up the Orthodox missionaries and brainwashed them, and she ordered Confucian officials to brainwash the other missionaries every day as long as they were awake.