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The Catholic and Orthodox Churches are equally old. Prior to the Great Schism of 1054 CE, they formed the same universal church, which they variously called catholic (universal) and orthodox, but which modern scholars often call the Catholic-Orthodox Church. In 1054, Pope Leo IX and Patriarch Michael I excommunicated each other, bringing about a schism in the Church. The Western Church became known as the Roman Catholic Church, while the eastern Churches became known as Orthodox. There were attempts at reconciliation and the two sides came close to being reunited in 1274 and in 1439, but the schism eventually became permanent. The church, recognized in the bible as "the church" was already in existance since it was started by Jesus himself. Paul mentions this fact numerous times. The word Catholic, from the greek translation, means "Universal" and was used to describe the church in writings as early as 46AD. The Term Roman Catholic is simply a westerners term used to describe the fact that Catholics look to Rome as the head of the church. There is nothing in writing or from the Vatican that names the Catholic church "Roman Catholic. The bible was not even produced until the first Nicaean Council in 325AD. But by then, the Catholic/Christian church was well established and growing throughout the world. The chuch was the only Christian church until Martin Luther started Lutherism in 1517AD. Shortly after that, John Calvin founded Calvanism in 1536. Lutheren and Methodists both stem from the original break from the Catholic Church. 90% of the other Protostant churches were splits from the Calvanist. Martin Luthers main question/objection to the teachings of the church was "sola scriptora" meaning "scripture alone". He believed, like most protostants today, that the bible is our only source for what we need to believe. Unfortunately, this mistake is due to a lack of scripture knowledge. Jesus told his disciples to go forth and teach all the nations. He did not say, sit down and write a book and that should do it. John stated that if they were to try and record all that Jesus did and taught, the world would not be able to contain all the books. The church recognized that there was a lot of teachings both verbal and traditional in reverence that were passed down to the next generation. That is why it was difficult to decide on which books would be included in the bible and which would not. Our final version was agreed upon becuase it contained most of the teachings that the church believed should be recorded. Again however, the church was well established long before the bible although the Catholic church adheres to the original writings of scripture without question more than any other Christian religion and has continued with the same teachings for almost 2000 years. It is true that the forerunner of the Catholic and Orthodox Churches called itself 'Catholic', just as it also called itself 'Orthodox', interchangeably. But that Church split into the Roman Catholic (or Catholic) and Orthodox Churches, which are therefore equally old. Because the Orthodox Churches did continue to use the term 'Catholic', the western wing is sometimes called 'Roman Catholic' to avoid ambiguity.
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