What about.. Schism?

I've been reading much about schism. The big schism of after the Counsil of Chalcedon, to be exact.

Funny thing about this schism was it all centered on one man, Eutyches. Eutyches had said the Jesus was of "one nature", but only after the Incarnation (If I'm reading this correctly). Of course, this contradicted Cyril and all heck broke loose.

Pope Leo wrote to Flavian, then Bishop of Constantinople:

When you cross-examined Eutyches and he replied, "I confess that our Lord was of two natures before the union, but I confess one nature after the union", I am amazed that such an absurd and corrupt declaration of faith was not very severely censured by the judges; and that an extremely foolish statement was disregarded, as if nothing whatever offensive had been heard. It is just as wicked to say that the only-begotten Son of God was of two natures before the incarnation as it is abominable to claim that there was a single nature in him after the Word was made flesh. Eutyches must not suppose that what he said was either correct or tolerable just because no clear statement of yours refuted it. So we remind you, dearest brother, of your charity's responsibility to see to it that if through God's merciful inspiration the case is ever settled, the rash and ignorant fellow is also purged of what is blighting his mind.

I'm actually startled at the amount of charity given to this one guy. The pope sounds genuinely angry. The proceedings of the council, seemed to only expand the Eutyches stupidity which ultimately led to the schism of the current oriental orthodox churches.

Wow is all I can say.

One really great thing to come out of this, however, is the preservation of Tradition (yes, THE tradition) of these churches. Wheras the Latin church seems to have evolved/progressed (not in a bad way) the Oriental churches have largely remained true to their traditions and rites. The Liturgy (called Badarak in Armenian) is very beautiful. The most startling difference, especially for us Roman Catholics, is the complete lack of the Rosary. Check out Catechism 2678 for the reason.

The Armenian church in particular is of interest, as they were the first country to convert to Christianity (before the Romans) in the year 301.

More recently, an interesting event happened at the Vatican in 1996, something along the lines of
"Ohh jeez, you mean it was the dictionary he was using?"

Anyway, it would be interesting to visit.