The Great Schism
The Sundering of 1066 A.F. · the Dividing of Glacial and Hoarfrost
The Great Schism (1066 A.F.) was the lasting division of the main body of Frostianity into the The Glacial Orthodoxy of the north and east and the The Hoarfrost Communion of the west — a sundering of doctrine, authority, and culture that endures to this day. (It is distinct from, and later than, the earlier break of the The Sublimationist Churches at the Council of Frosthold.)
The Causes
Long-growing tensions came to a head:
- The Procession of the Rime-within — the western church had added to the Creed that the Rime-within proceeds “from the Hoarfather and the Frost” (the Frost-clause), where the eastern church held it proceeds “from the Hoarfather through the Frost.” The east saw the western addition as tampering with the conciliar creed.
- The Authority of the The Rime Pontiff — the west held the Pontiff of Wintermere (heir of Corin the Coldstone) to have supreme authority over the whole church; the east held the great patriarchs to be equal brothers, with the Pontiff only “first in honor.”
- Ritual and discipline — disputes over leavened vs. unleavened Snow-bread, the marriage of clergy, the keeping of the The Long Fast, and the use of images.
The Sundering
In 1066, after a failed embassy, the Rime Pontiff’s legates and the eastern Patriarch of Caldhaven mutually un-kept (excommunicated) one another, laying the decrees of un-keeping upon the The Cold Altar of the great Frosthalls. Though meant at first as a quarrel of persons, it hardened over the following centuries — worsened by the Crusades, in which western armies sacked eastern Caldhaven — into a complete and lasting breach.
The Two Churches
- The Glacial Orthodoxy — conciliar, mystical, led by a communion of equal patriarchs; stresses the unmixed eternal Cold, the prayer of stillness, and Hibernation (the soul’s slow transformation into the Cold’s likeness).
- The Hoarfrost Communion — centralized under the The Rime Pontiff of Wintermere; stresses the union of Connor’s two natures, sacramental grace, and the visible unity of the Drift.
Significance
The Great Schism is the chief division of “old” Frostianity, mourned by all as a wound in the seamless frost-robe of Connor. Repeated attempts at re-freezing the breach (councils of reunion) have failed, though the two churches recognize one another’s The Frostmark and Communion and have, in the modern era, drawn into warmer (the irony is noted) dialogue. The later The Frostfast Reformation would divide the western church again.