Schism
A schism is a division between people, usually belonging to an organisation, movement, or religious denomination. The word is most frequently applied to a split in what had previously been a single religious body, such as the Great East–West Schism or the Western Schism. It is also used of a split within a non-religious organisation or movement or, more broadly, of a separation between two or more people, be it brothers, friends, lovers, etc.
A schismatic is a person who creates or incites schism in an organization or who is a member of a splinter group. Schismatic as an adjective means pertaining to a schism or schisms, or to those ideas, policies, etc. that are thought to lead towards or promote schism.
Quotes
[edit]- Inexpiabilis et gravis culpa discordi nec passione purgatur. Esse martyr non potest qui in ecclesia non est. ... Occidi talis potest, coronari non potest.
- The inexpiable sin of schism is not done away with even by suffering. No one can be a martyr who is not in the Church. ... He may be slain, crowned he cannot be.
- St. Cyprian, de Unitate, 14, No Martyrs out of the Church
- Reported in: Classical and Foreign Quotations (1904), no. 1068
- So schismatics the plain believers quit,
And are but damn’d for having too much wit.- Alexander Pope, An Essay on Criticism, II
