Page 48 - History of Christianity I - Student Textbook

Theologies also differed. The East did not agreed with the West’s doctrine of purgatory. The West was Arian,
the East orthodox (Nicene Creed). The differences that had existed for centuries exploded in 1054. Michael
Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, refused to submit to the authority of Pope Leo IX, so the Pope
excommunicated Michael. He in turn excommunicated the Pope. Each declared that the other was not a true
Christian and the great schism began. Really, at the heart of the matter was power.

The Great Schism: The Bitter Rivalry Between and Latin Christianity

Hugh of St. Victor 1078-1142

Born in Saxony in 1096, Hugh became an Augustinian monk and in 1115 moved to the
monastery of Saint Victor, Paris, where he spent the remainder of his life, eventually
becoming the head of the school there. His writings cover the whole range of arts and sacred
science taught in his day.

It is ironic that Hugh of St. Victor, the great medieval sacramentalist who died in 1142,
should assert that God does not require the sacraments themselves, but rather the reality embodied in the
sacraments. He chastises those who venerate the sacraments, charging that when "you proclaim necessity to the
sacraments you both remove power from the Author of the sacraments and you deny piety."

Sacraments alone are not enough for Hugh, though. Three things have been necessary for salvation from the
beginning: faith, sacraments of faith, and good works, whether before the coming of Christ or after.

Peter Abelard (1079–1142) was an influential philosopher, writer, teacher, and abbot in the Middle Ages. His
wit was praised, but his unorthodox approach to theology and his criticism of many of his contemporaries kept
him in near-constant trouble.

Peter Abelard (or Abailard) was born near Nantes, Brittany (in modern-day France), to a knight. Abelard forsook
his inheritance and his own chance to be a knight to pursue training in philosophy and later in theology and
rhetoric. Throughout his training, Abelard often found himself at odds with his teachers, some of whom he had
sharp disagreements with.

In Paris, Peter Abelard began teaching at a couple of schools, and he became well-known as an eloquent scholar
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