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TIMELINE OF THE CHURCH 1054-1453

1054 Cardinal Humbert excommunicates Michael Cerularius, patriarch of Constantinople, a major centerpoint in the formation of the Great Schism between East and West; First Letter of Michael Cerularius to Peter of Antioch.

1059 Errors of Berengar of Tours condemned in Rome; term transubstantiation begins to come in to use, ascribed to Peter Damian.

1064 Seljuk Turks storm Anatolia taking Caesarea and Ani, conquering Armenia.

1066 Normans invade England flying banner of Pope of Rome, defeating King Harold of England at Battle of Hastings.

1066-1071 Beginning reformation of English church and society to align with Latin continental ecclesiology and politics.

1071 Seljuk Turks defeat Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert, beginning Islamification of Asia Minor; Norman princes led by Robert Guiscard capture Bari, the last Byzantine stronghold in Italy, bringing to an end over five centuries of Byzantine rule in the south.

1073 Hildebrand becomes Pope Gregory VII and launches the Gregorian reforms (celibacy of the clergy, primacy of papacy over empire, right of Pope to depose emperors); Seljuk Turks conquer Ankara.

1074 Death of Theodosius of the Kiev Caves.

1075 Dictatus Papae document advances Papal supremacy.

1077 The Seljuk Turks capture Jerusalem and kill 3,000 citizens; Seljuks capture Nicea.

1084 Antioch is captured by the Seljuk Turks.

1088 Founding of monastery of John the Theologian on Patmos; election of Pope Urban II, a prominent member of the Cluniac Reform movement .

1095 Launching of the First Crusade.

1098 Anselm of Canterbury completes Cur Deus homo, marking a radical divergence of Western theology of the atonement from that of the East.

1098 Crusaders capture Antioch.

1099 Crusaders capture Jerusalem founding the Latin Kingdom of Jerusalem and other crusader states known collectively as "Outremer."

1108 Death of Nicetas of Kiev Caves, Bishop of Novgorod.

1131-1145 Coptic Pope of Alexandria Gabriel II initiates addition of Arabic as a liturgical language with his Arabic translation of the Liturgy.

1144 Second Crusade; Muslims take Christian stronghold of Edessa.

1149 Crusaders begin to renovate Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Romanesque style, adding a bell tower.

1159 John of Salisbury authors Policraticus, a treatise on government drawing from the Bible, the Codex Justinianus, and arguing for Divine Right of Kings.

1170 Miracle of the weeping icon of the Theotokos "of the Sign" at Novgorod; Anglo-Norman invasion of Ireland; city of Dublin captured by the Roman Catholic Normans.

1176 Sultanate of Rum defeats Byzantine Empire in the Battle of Myriokephalon, marking end of Byzantine attempts to recover Anatolian plateau; Al-Adil I, Muslim ruler of Egypt, suppresses a revolt by Christian Copts in city of Qift, hanging nearly 3,000 of them.

1179 Pope Alexander III convened the Third Lateran Council, which was attended by a certain Nectarios of the important Basilian Monastery of St. Nicholas of Kasoulon near Otranto, under Norman patronage, who made himself the champion of the Greek Church, and vigorously supported their customs and doctrines.[1]

1180 Last formal acceptance of Latins to communion at an Orthodox altar in Antioch.

1182 Maronites, who assisted the Crusaders during the Crusades, reaffirm their affiliation with Rome in 1182; dedication of Monreale Cathedral in Sicily, containing the largest cycle of Byzantine mosaics extant in Italy.

1186 Byzantine Empire recognizes independence of Bulgaria and Serbia.

1187 Saladin retakes Jerusalem after destroying crusader army at Battle of Hattin, and returns Christian holy places to Orthodox Church.

1189 Third Crusade led by King Richard the Lion-Hearted of England, King Philip Augustus II of France, and Emperor Frederick Barbarossa.

1189 Ethiopian Emperor Gebre Mesqel Lalibela orders construction of Lalibela.

1204 Fourth Crusade sacks Constantinople, laying waste to the city and stealing many relics and other items; Great Schism generally regarded as having been completed by this act; Theodore I Lascaris establishes the Empire of Nicaea.

1207 Stephen Langton divides the Bible into the defined modern chapters in use today.

1220 English Bp. Richard Le Poore is said to have been responsible for the final form of the "Use of Sarum", which had the sterling reputation of being the best liturgy anywhere in the West.

1228 Sixth Crusade results in 10-year treaty starting in 1229 between Holy Roman Emperor Frederick II and Egyptian sultan; Jerusalem ceded to Franks, along with a narrow corridor to the coast, as well as Nazareth, Sidon, Jaffa and Bethlehem.

1231 Papal Inquisition initiated by Pope Gregory IX, charged with suppressing heresy.

1235 Death of Sava of Serbia.

1237 Golden Horde begin subjugation of Russia.

1240 Mongols sack Kiev; Prince Alexander Nevsky defeats Swedish army at Battle of the Neva.

1242 Alexander Nevsky's Novgorodian force defeats Teutonic Knights in Battle of Lake Peipus, a major defeat for the Catholic crusaders.

1244 Jerusalem conquered and razed by Khwarezmian mercenaries (Oghuz Turks) serving under the Ayyubid ruler of Egypt Salih Ayyub, triggering Seventh Crusade.

1247 Ayyubids conquer Jerusalem, driving out the Khwarezmian Turks.

1258 Michael VIII Palaiologos seizes the throne of the Nicaean Empire, founding the last Roman (Byzantine) dynasty, beginning reconquest of Greek peninsula from Latins.

1259 Byzantines defeat Latin Principality of Achaea at the Battle of Pelagonia, marking the beginning of the Byzantine recovery of Greece.

1259-1280 Martyrdom by Latins of monks of Iveron Monastery.

1260 Subjugation of Church of Cyprus to the Roman Catholic Church.

1261 End of Latin occupation of Constantinople and restoration of Orthodox patriarchs; Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos makes Mystras seat of the new Despotate of Morea, where a Byzantine renaissance occurred.

1268 Egyptian Mamelukes capture Antioch.

1269 Orthodox patriarch returns to Antioch after a 171-year exile and usurpation by Latin patriarch.

1274 Second Council of Lyons held, proclaiming union between the Orthodox East and the Roman Catholic West, but generally unaccepted in the East.

1275 Unionist Patriarch of Constantinople John XI Bekkos elected to replace Patriarch Joseph I Galesiotes, who opposed Council of Lyons; 26 martyrs of Zographou monastery on Mt. Athos, martyred by the Latins.

1280 Kebra Nagast ("Book of the Glory of Kings") compiled, a repository of Ethiopian national and religious feelings.

1281 Pope Martin IV authorizes a Crusade against the newly re-established Byzantine Empire in Constantinople, excommunicating Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos and the Greeks and renouncing the union of 1274; French and Venetian expeditions set out toward Constantinople but are forced to turn back in the following year due to the Sicilian Vespers.

1285 Council of Blachernae, convened and presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch Gregory II the Cypriot, condemns the actions of the eastern delegation at the false council of Lyons. It also condemns the Franko-Latins who use of the filioque clause in terms of interpreting the eternal procession of the Holy Spirit as from both the Father and the Son, rather than eternally from the Father alone and through the Son only in a temporal sense.

1291 Fall of Acre; end of crusading in Holy Land.

1298 Ambrose, Augustine, Jerome, and Pope Gregory I are named collectively as the first Great Doctors of the Western Church.

1302 Papal Bull Unam Sanctum issued by Pope Boniface VIII proclaims Papal supremacy.

1326 Metr. Peter moves his see from Kiev to Vladimir and then to Moscow.

1332 Amda Syon, Emperor of Ethiopia begins his campaigns in the southern Muslim provinces, allowing for the spread of Christianity to frontier areas.

1336 Meteora in Greece established as a center of Orthodox monasticism.

1338 Gregory Palamas writes Triads in Defense of the Holy Hesychasts, defending the Orthodox practice of hesychast spirituality and the use of the Jesus Prayer.

1340 Holy Trinity-St. Sergius Lavra founded by Sergius of Radonezh.

1341Council of Haghia Sophia (Ninth Ecumenical) convened by Roman Emperor Andronicus III, presided over by Ecumenical Patriarch John Calecas, and attended by the Patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, and several bishops and abbots, including St. Gregory Palamas. This council condemns Barlaam of Calabria, who believes the light of Mt. Tabor is created, and who criticizes the mystical Jesus Prayer as a supposed practice of the Bogomils, and charges it for not proclaiming Christ as God. Emperor Andronicus dies after the council's first session, and the second session is convened by de facto Roman Emperor John VI Cantacuzene, and presided over by Patriarch John Calecas. This council condemns Acindynus, who takes the opposite extreme to Barlaam of Calabria, believing that the light of Mt. Tabor is the divine essence itself, rather than God's uncreated grace and energy, distinct from His divine essence.

1342 Patriarchate of Antioch transferred to Damascus under Ignatius II.

1349 Prince Stephen Dushan of Serbia assumes the title of Tsar (Caesar); principality of Galicia (Halitsh) comes under Polish control.

1354 Ottoman Turks make first settlement in Europe at Gallipoli.

1359 Death of Gregory Palamas.

1360 Death of John Koukouzelis the Hymnographer.

1379 Western Great Schism ensues, including simultaneous reign of three Popes of Rome.

1380 English Church reformer John Wyclif writes that the true faith is preserved only in the East, "among the Greeks."

1382-1395 First English Bible translated by John Wyclif.

1383 Stephen of Perm, missionary to Zyrians, consecrated bishop; appearance of Theotokos of Tikhvin icon.

1385 Kreva Agreement provides for conversion of Lithuanian nobles and all pagan Lithuanians to Roman Catholicism, joining Grand Duchy of Lithuania with the Kingdom of Poland through a dynastic union.

1387 Lithuania converts to Roman Catholicism, while most Ruthenian lands (Belarus and Ukraine) remain Orthodox.

1389 Serbs defeated by Ottoman Turks of Sultan Murad I at the battle of Kosovo Polje; death of Lazar, prince of Serbia.

1390 Ottomans take Philadelphia, last significant Byzantine enclave in Anatolia.

1391-1398 Ottoman Turks unsuccessfully besiege Constantinople for the first time.

1410 Iconographer Andrei Rublev paints his most famous icon depicting the three angels who appeared to Abraham and Sarah, the angels being considered a type of the Holy Trinity.

1414-1418 Council of Constance in Roman Catholic Church represents high point for Conciliar Movement over authority of pope.

1417 End of Western Great Schism at the Council of Constance.

1418 Latin monk Thomas à Kempis authors The Imitation of Christ.

1422 Second unsuccessful Ottoman siege of Constantinople.

1423-1424 Council of Siena in the Roman Catholic Church was the high point of conciliarism, emphasizing the leadership of the bishops gathered in council, but the conciliarism expressed there was later branded as a heresy.

1439 Ecclesiastical reunion with West attempted at Council of Florence, where only Mark of Ephesus refuses to capitulate to demands of delegates from Rome.

1440-1441 Encyclical Letter of Mark of Ephesus.

1444 Donation of Constantine proved forgery.

1448 Church of Russia unilaterally declares its independence from the Church of Constantinople.

1452 Unification of Roman Catholic and Greek Orthodox Churches in Hagia Sophia on West's terms, when Emperor Constantine XI Palaiologos, under pressure from Rome, allows the union to be proclaimed.

1453 Constantinople falls to invasion of the Ottoman Turks, ending Roman Empire; Hagia Sophia turned into a mosque; martyrdom of Constantine XI Palaiologos, last of the Byzantine Emperors; many Greek scholars escape to the West with books that become translated into Latin, triggering the Renaissance.

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