After the era of the Apostles, the Christian Churches across the Mediterranean world were united to one another. Christians all held the same doctrine and worshipped in the same way. Sadly, the unity among Christians was lost when “schisms” occurred. In the eleventh century, the western Christians of the Latin speaking church and the Greek speaking Christians of the eastern churches separated from one another. This schism was caused by disagreements regarding the role of the Bishop of Rome and a change in the West to the Nicene Creed. This split resulted in what we today commonly call the Roman Catholic Church in the West and the Orthodox Church in the East. In the 1500s, the Western Church was further divided by the Protestant Reformation. Eastern Orthodox Christians are the heirs of the ancient churches of the East such as Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Corinth and Thessalonica. These churches continue to exist to this day. The living continuity of these churches has not been broken. Here is a timeline of church history.