LEO IX
(Pope Leo IX)
This quotation which appears on the surface to be simply a petulant Pope overreacting to some criticism about the church doctrine and custom of holy communion, was the trigger for one of the most momentous events in Western history—the schism between the Roman Catholic Church and the Eastern Orthodox Church." Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg (German)
Pope Leo IX, born Bruno of Egisheim-Dagsburg, was the bishop of Rome and ruler of the Papal States from 12 February 1049 to his death in 1054. Leo IX is widely considered the most historically significant German pope of the Middle Ages; he was instrumental in the precipitation of the Great Schism of 1054, considered the turning point in which the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches formally separated. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.