| Sumario: | In the popular media, if not in academic literature, 1054 C.E. is always given as the year when the Latin and Greek churches permanently split apart, creating two branches of Christendom that remain separated to this day. As with many other statements regarding relations between the churches, in this case it may be useful to return to the events of that year to pass judgment on the validity of the assertion. A great amount of secondary literature on the subject exists, but older works are contentious because authors attempted to prove who was right and who was wrong, and the more recent literature is widely dispersed. This essay provides a historical introduction to the events of 1054 and, in an appendix, offers an English translation of the texts of Humbert of Moyenmoutier's account of the events of that year and of the subsequent excommunication of Patriarch Michael Keroularios and his followers. The essay contends that it is a mistake to think of 1054 as the date of the great schism.
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