The Catholic and Orthodox churches have been divided for nearly a thousand years. The issues that divide them are weighty matters of theology, from a dispute over the Nicene Creed to the question of the authority of the Pope. But while these issues are cited as the most important reasons for
the split, they were not necessarily the issues that caused it. In Beards, Azymes, and Purgatory A. Edward Siecienski argues that other, seemingly minor issues also played a significant role in the schism.

Although rarely included in modern-day ecumenical dialogues, for centuries these "other issues"--the beardlessness of the Latin clergy, the Western use of unleavened bread in the Eucharist, and the doctrine of Purgatory--were among the most frequently cited reasons for the dispute between East and
West. Disagreements about bread, beards, and the state of souls after death may not, at first, appear to be church-dividing issues, but they are the nevertheless among the reasons why the church today is divided. This was a schism over azymes long before it was a schism over the primacy of the
Bishop of Rome, and the beardlessness of the Latin clergy was cited as a reason for breaking communion with the Latin Church prior to all the subsequent arguments about the wording of the Nicene Creed. To understand the schism between East and West, Siecienski contends, we must grasp not only the
reasons it remains, but also the reasons it began.

A. Edward Siecienski attended Georgetown University before obtaining his M. Div/STL from St. Mary's Seminary and University and then a PhD from Fordham University in New York. In 2008 he returned to his home state, New Jersey, and began teaching at Stockton University, where he is Clement and Helen
Pappas Professor of Byzantine Civilization and Religion. Married with two children, he supports Tottenham Hotspur, Bayern Munich, and Philadelphia Union.

Preface
Introduction

Part I - Beards
Chapter 1: Beards in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition
Chapter 2: Beards in the East-West Polemic

Part II - Azymes
Chapter 3: Bread and Leaven in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition
Chapter 4: The Azyme Debate: The Eleventh and Twelfth Centuries
Chapter 5: The Azyme Debate: The Fourth Crusade to the Modern Era

Part III - Purgatory
Chapter 6: Purgatory in the Biblical and Patristic Tradition
Chapter 7: Purgatory in the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Centuries
Chapter 8: Purgatory from Ferrara-Florence to Modern Times