Replies

Well, there were multiple reasons for the split:
1. linguistic: this was key. In the early days everyone spoke Latin and some Greek. But when the Western Empire fell in 453 AD, slowly the East forgot about the West, deeming it irredeemably lost to Barbarians. The Byzantines stopped speaking Latin. And the Latins forgot Greek. now, if you don't speak the same language, misunderstandings occur -- like the filioque. Both EO and RCs now agree that we MEAN the same thing and the filioque is not meant to argue monotheism, but in those days no one understood what the other was saying!

2. Cultural: The East until the 9th and 10th centuries was culrually far "higher" than the west. They also looked down on the barbarians (with some validity!)

3. Politically: The East had the Emperor and the West you had a number of political entities: the Visigoths in Spain, the lombards, various lords and the Byzantines in Italy, then Anglo-Saxons in Britain, Franks, Goths etc. in france etc. etc.

4. History -- due to the previous 3 points, issues got exacerbated and the East couldn't understand why the Popes in the west had to gain temporal power to keep things with some semblance of order while the West, having lived without a powerful emperor couldnt' understand why the east had to bear the emperor's will on the patriarch