2,000 Years of Christ's Power Vol. 1: The Age of the Early Church Fathers

by Nick R. Needham

We could also say that the Western Church became “Roman Catholic” in 1054, through the great East–West schism, when the West broke fellowship with all Eastern Christians (see Volume Two, Chapter 3, section 8). However, it could be very misleading for Protestants to think of the Western Church as “Roman Catholic” between the schism of 1054 and the Reformation which began in 1517. In Protestant thinking, the term “Roman Catholic” has acquired an anti-Protestant meaning. It is therefore better to think of the Western Church as “Western Catholic” rather than “Roman Catholic” after 1054 but before the Protestant Reformation. The Protestants of the 16th century claimed still to be true Western Catholics, but not Roman Catholics. For the Reformation, see Volume Three.