WEST SLAVIC CHURCH COLLECTION
West Slavic groups are diverse variety of ethnic groups in Eastern
Europe, and in this context also include Southern Slavic groups.
Traditionally this list includes: Poles, Bohemians, Moravians, Slovaks,
and Silesians for western Slavs, and: Serbo-Croats, Bulgarians,
Slovenes, and Macedonians. The appearance of these groups threw much of
the episcopal authority of Christianity into chaos, as the question of
who would be responsible for their conversion was a point of dispute
between Rome and Constantinople. What resulted was a sense of split
loyalty, with West Slavs becoming largely Catholic, and with Southern
Slavs becoming mostly Orthodox. Moreover, there would be largely
questions regarding the nature of the various Slavic tongues, which
would be transliterated into the Latin alphabet, and also into a new
alphabet, Cyrillic, under the missionary work of Sts. Cyril and
Methodius.