WORLD HISTORY

Detailed explanation-1: -At first, the Byzantines were Catholic. However, as the centuries progressed, religious and political differences between the Byzantines and the Catholic Church led to the Great Schism of 1054. This event marked the birth of a new branch of Christianity: the Eastern Orthodox faith.

Detailed explanation-2: -The Empire gave rise to the Eastern Orthodox Church. Byzantium was almost always a Christian empire, but over the centuries its Greek-speaking church developed distinct liturgical differences from the Catholic, Latin-speaking church in the West.

Detailed explanation-3: -Their combination of the basilica and symmetrical central-plan (circular or polygonal) religious structures resulted in the characteristic Byzantine Greek-cross-plan church, with a square central mass and four arms of equal length. The most distinctive feature was the domed roof.

Detailed explanation-4: -The relations between state and church in Byzantium are often described by the term caesaropapism, which implies that the emperor was acting as the head of the church.