Prev TOC Next
[Image]  [Hi-Res Image]

Page 50

 

Eastern Church THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOO 50

The bishop of Constantinople was recognized by the Council of Constantinople in 381 and a place was given him by the Council of Chalcedon in 451 " next after" the bishop of Rome. Leo I. (440461) protested against the growing assumption of power by the Conatantinopolitan bishop, who as early as 500 used the title " ecumenical patriarch." From 484 to 519 the relations between the two bishops were much strained over the Henoticon of Zeno, which sought to soften the Chalcedonian Christological formula (see MONOPHYBITEB). The controversy over their relative authority reached an acute stage under Photiua and Nicholas I. (qq.v.) who each excommunicated the other (869 and 879). When Ignatius was deposed from the patriarchate of Constantinople and the layman Photius put in -his place (857), the latter appealed to Rome for s decision against the Ignatian party. Nicholas sent s commission to investigate and refused to recognize Photius, who then retorted in a famous encyclical letter charging the Roman Church with heresy for the unauthorized insertion of the filioque into the Nicene Creed (see FILIOQuE CONTROVERSY) and with various corrupt practises. In 1054 the controversy was renewed under the patriarch Michael Caerularius (q.v.), whom Pope Leo IX. excommunicated as guilty of nine heresies, and it became irreparable through the Venetian conquest of Constantinople (1204) and the establishment of a Latin empire there (12041), a Latin patriarch of Constantinople and rival Latin bishops in other Eastern sees by Innocent III. and other popes. Vain attempts at reunion were made from time to time, especially at Lyons (1274) and Florence (1439). The latter was attended by the patriarch and the Byzantine emperor, but its compromise formula was rejected in the East as treason to the orthodox faith (see FERRARA-FLORENCE, COUNCIL OF). With the fall of Constantinople (1453) the political motive for seeking a union with the West ceased. - In 1870 the Vatican Council intensified the chief cause of separation by declaring papal absolutism and papal infallibility an article of faith. Leo XIII. in the bull Prceclara gratulationis of June 20, 1894, directed " to all princes and peoples," expressed the hope of a reunion of Christendom (cf. A. Harnack, Reden wnd Aufsatze, ii., Giessen, 1906, 295 sqq.). The patriarch Anthimos II. replied, Oct. 11, 1895, charging the Roman Church with innovations, such as the filioque, the doctrines of the immaculate conception and papal infallibility, baptism by sprinkling, purgatory, etc.

The points in which the Greek Church differs from the Roman are the following: the single procession of the Holy Spirit (against

6. Points the fdioqxce), which is as far as the of Council of Constantinople in 381 wept; once. the aqunlity of the five patriarchs. and the rejection of the papacy as an

antichristian innovation and usurpation; the right of the lower clergy (priests and deacons) to marry (though only once); communion in both kinds; trine immersion the only valid form of baptism; the use of the vernacular languages in worship; a number of minor ceremonies, as the use of com-

mon or leavened bread in the Eucharist, infant communion, the repetition of holy unction (euX0acov) in sickness, etc.

On the fruitless negotiations for union between the Lutheran and the Greek Church, and the

e. Bela - Anglican and the Greek and Russian dons Churches, cf. Schaff, Creeds, i. 50 aqq.

to Protes- and 74 sqq. The Reformation of the tant sixteenth century had no effect upon

Churches. the Oriental Church. The reform movement of Cyril Lucar (q.v.) who, as patriarch of Constantinople, attempted to in graft Calvinism upon the old trunk, failed com pletely: he was strangled to death, and his body thrown into the Bosphorus (1638); and his doc trines were condemned by synods in 1638, 1643, and 1672 (cf. Schaff, Creeds, i. 54 eqq.). In recent times, however, German universities are often fre quented by Russian and Greek students; and the works of German scholars have exerted some modifying influence. The Old Catholic movement was followed with interest; and the Old Catholic conferences in Bonn (1874 and 1875) were attended by several dignitaries from Greece and Russia. There has been also considerable intercourse be tween Greek and Anglican bishops. The Greek Church is not so strongly committed against Prot estantism as the Roman, and may therefore learn something from it. [Yet converts to Protestantism from the Roman Catholic Church have been far more numerous than from the Greek Church, and the thought of Roman Catholicism has been influ enced by Protestantism far more than the thought of Greek Catholicism. A. H. N.] IM Doctrine, Polity, and Liturgy: The Eastern Church holds fast to the decrees and canons of the seven ecumenical councils (see COUNCILS AND SYNODS, § 3 ). Its proper creed is that adopted at Nicaea in 325, enlarged at Constantinople 381, and indoraed at Chalcedon 451, ~w-i~th-out the Latin ~l

1. Creed. systems of theology, and a regular part of worship. Th Greeks have never ac aaw_1e4=d_aLJQ=_thLA ostl I whier e of Western origin, n hic is of Western origin, nor the Athanasigg and is likewise of Western origin. Besides this ecumenical creed, the astern r~lree subord1*a&tLg2JnWpjws, which define her position aQf~ namely: ga a Romanism and Protestantism (1) The " rthodoxfQnf_Mion " Of EeA;~saMorilsa_ (q.v.), metropolitan of Kief ,_g_e&JP^h

exposition of the Nicene Creed , the Lord's Prayer and the beatitudes, and the decalogue; (2) the " Confession of Dositheos or~.l~sasea~f.t13a

qvnod of 1 . Lpl m " t 167~1; and (3) the "~fatchim " of Philaret, metropolitan of Mos cow, a~Ete,d lby tHgvEr R Svt>~ of~tt~·=.~-

d published in all the languages of Russia. (For text of these creeds and confessions, cf. Schaff, Creeds, ii. 273-542; and J. Michalcescu, see bibliography below.) [Mention should also be made of the work of Gennadius II. of Constantinople and of Metrophanea Kritopulus (qq.v.), the former of whom wrote s brief document in