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Eastern Ohuroh THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG ship, as distinct from the Roman, are the three- sacred place) of every room, in the street, over fold immersion in baptism, with the repudiation gateways, in offices, taverns, steamers, railway and of any other mode as essentially invalid; the si- telegraph stations, and is carried in the knapsack of multaneous performance of the act of confirmation every soldier, not as a work of art, but as an err and the act of baptism which in the West have blew, a means of instruction, an aid to devotion. been separated; the anointing with oil in cases The vernacular languages are used in worship of dangerous illness, which Rome has changed the Greek in Turkey and Greece, the Slavonic in into extreme unction of the dying; infant tom- Russia; but they have to a considerable extent munion, which the Latin Church has not only become unintelligible to the people. The old abandoned, but forbidden; the communion in Slavonic differs from the modern Russian about two kinds; the use of leavened bread in the Eu- as much as Chaucer's English from our English. charist; the standing and . eastward posture in The Oriental sects hold to their native dialects, prayer; the stricter separation of the sexes- the the Syriac, Armenian, etc. The old Greek calendar, use of the screen or veil before the altar; and the which is thirteen days behind the new style intro withdrawal of the performance of the mysteries doted by Gregory XIII., is still retained. (sacraments) from the eyes of the people. Christian life has the same general features as in The form which the Greek Church developed the Roman Catholic Church. The mass of the for the celebration of the Lord's Supper is en- people are contented with an ordinary
monastic system has not developed into great orders, as in the West. There are three classes of monks, the cenobites (KOCVO/3caKOl), who live together in a monastery ruled by an archimandrite who is often a bishop (apxcuavdpirw, iyo;,pevos); the anchorets (avaxmpvraf), who live in a cell apart from the other monks, or among the laity; and the ascetes (aowaf), or hermits. The monks usually follow the rule of St. Basil; some, the rule of St. Anthony. The bishops are taken from the monks. Important monasteries are at Jerusalem, Mount Athos (q.v.), Mount Sinai (where the celebrated Sinaitic manuscript of the Bible was kept for centuries), and Mar Saba near the Dead Sea. The Greek monks as a rule are more ignorant and superstitious than the Roman Catholic, and the same may be said of the clergy, many of whom are merely mechanical functionaries.
Religious life is supposed to originate in baptismal regeneration, and to be nourished chiefly by the sacraments. Prayer, fasting, and char-
s. 8°lig. itable deeds are the principal mani- ians Life. festations of piety. The observance of the Ten Commandments is strictly enjoined in all the catechisms. The Greeks and Russians are very religious in outward observ ances and devotions, but knave little of what Protes tants mean by subjective experiential piety, and personal direct communion of the soul with the Savior. The Greek Christians surpass their Mo hammedan neighbors in chastity, but are behind them in honesty. What St. Paul says of the Cre tans (Titus i. 12) is still characteristic of the race, of course with honorable exceptions. In Russia there is the same divorce between religion and morality. The towns are adorned with churches and convents. Every public event is celebrated by the building of a church. Every house has an altar and sacred pictures; every child his guardian angel and baptismal cross. A Russian fasts every Wednesday and Friday, prays early and late, regularly attends mass, confesses his sins, pays devout respect to sacred places and things, makes pilgrimages to the tombs and shrines of saints, and has the phrase Slaroa Bogs I (" Glory to God l ") continually on his lips.