The Great Schism represents the break between the Eastern and Western churches. I know that a primary bone of contention that the East had with the West was Rome's insistence on Papal Supremacy. My understanding is that for a millennium there had been an understanding that Rome would be first among equals, and clearly this somehow fell apart.
I'd like to know
- what was the proximate cause of the mutual anathema,
- why they each anathematized the other (one would assume that one side could have denounced the other, but mutual allegations seem odd), and
- why a simple governance question couldn't be resolved politically.
And, finally, for bonus points :) I understand that the Pope recently (like in the 1990s) has reconciled with the Orthodox. Is this true, and how did it come about?
Note: There is already a question about filioque so feel free to gloss over any details about that in particular. Per cwallenpoole, it is a fairly contentious thing.
Put another way, Can't we all just get along?