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ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH
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ORTHODOX EASTERN See also: To these were afterwards added the bishops of Constantinople and Jerusalem . When the empire was divided, there was one patriarch in the See also:West, the bishop of Rome, while in the East .there were at first two, then four and latterly five . This See also:geographical fact has had a See also:great See also:deal to do in determining the See also:character of the Eastern Church . It is not a despotic See also:monarchy governed from one centre and by a monarch in whom plenitude of See also:power resides . It is an See also:oligarchy of patriarchs . It is based, of course, on the great See also:body of bishops; but episcopal See also:rule, through the various grades of See also:metropolitan, See also:primate, exarch, attains to See also:sovereignty only in the five patriarchal thrones . Each patriarch is, within his diocese, what the Gallican theory makes the See also:pope in the universal church . He is supreme, and not amenable to any of his See also:brother patriarchs, but is within the jurisdiction of an See also:oecumenical See also:synod . This makes the Eastern Church quite distinct in government and traditions of polity from the Western . It has ever been the policy of Rome to efface See also:national distinctions, but under the See also:shadow of the Eastern Church national churches have grown and flourished . Revolts against Rome have always implied a repudiation of the ruling principles of the papal See also:system; but the schismatic churches of the East have always reproduced the ecclesiastical polity of the church from which they seceded . The Greek Church, like the Roman, soon spread far beyond the imperial dioceses which at first fixed its boundaries, but it was far less successful than the Roman in preserving The See also:bar-its conquests for Christianity . This was due in the barlan in-See also:main to the differing quality of the forces by which vasions in the See also:area covered by the two churches was respectively astt and invaded . The See also:northern barbarians by whom the Western empire was overrun had See also:long stood in See also:awe of the power and the See also:civilization of Rome, which theyYecognized as See also:superior; the conquerors were thus predisposed to enter into the heritage of the See also:law and the See also:religion of the conquered empire and, whether they were pagans or Arian heretics, became in the end See also:Catholic Christians . In the East it was otherwise . The empire maintained itself long, and died hard; but its decline and fall meant not only the overthrow of the emperors of the East, but largely that of the civilization and Christianity which they represented . The See also:Arabs, and after them the See also:Turks, attacked the empire as the armed missionaries of what they regarded as a superior religion; Christianity survived in the vast territories they Holy Images to the churches after the downfall of Iconoclasm (See also:February 19, 842) ; but it has gradually assumed a wider significance as the celebration of victory over all heresies, and is now one of the most characteristic festivals of the Eastern Church . Twinned Crystals of See also:Orthoclase . conquerai only as a despised and tolerated superstition, its ecclesiastical organization only as a convenient mechanism for governing a subject and tributary See also:population . It is true that the Eastern Church made up in some sort for her losses by missionary conquests elsewhere . Greek Christianity became the religion of the Slays as Latin Christianity became that of the Germans; but the Orthodox Church never conquered her conquerors, and the historian is too See also:apt to enlarge on her past glories and forget her See also:present strength . Early See also:History.—The early history of the Eastern Church is outlined in the See also:article CHURCH HISTORY . Here it is proposed only to give in somewhat more detail the causes of division which led (1) to the formation of the schismatic churches of the East, and (2) to the open rupture with Latin Christianity . The great dogmatic See also:work of the Eastern Church was the See also:definition of that portion of the creed of Christendom which See also:comm. concerns See also:theology proper—the doctrines of the essential versies nature of the Godhead, and the See also:doctrine of the See also:God- and See also:head in relation with manhood in the incarnation, schisms. while it fell to the Western Church to define See also:anthropology, or the doctrine of See also:man's nature and needs . The controversies which concern us are all related to the See also:person of See also:Christ, the Theanthropos, for they alone are represented in the schismatic churches of the East . These controversies will be best described by reference to the oecumenical councils of the ancient and undivided church . All the churches of the East, schismatic as well as orthodox, accept unreservedly the decrees of the first two councils . The schismatic churches protest against the additions made to the See also:creeds of Nicaea and Constantinople by succeeding councils . The Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan creed declared that Christ was consubstantial (6poobnos) with the See also:Father, and that He had become man (EvavOpwarlcas) . Disputes arose when theologians tried to explain the latter phrase . These See also:differences took two separate and extreme types, the one of which forcibly separated the two natures so as to deny anything like a real See also:union, while the other insisted upon a mixture of the two, or an absorption of the human in the divine . The former was the creed of See also:Chaldaea and the latter the creed of See also:Egypt; Chaldaea was the See also:home of Nestorianism, Egypt the See also:land of Monophysitism . The See also:Nestorians accept the decisions of the first two councils, and reject the decrees of all the See also:rest as unwarranted alterations of the creed of Nicaea . The See also:Monophysites accept the first three councils, but reject the See also:decree of See also:Chalcedon and all that come after it . The council of See also:Ephesus (A.D . 431), the third oecumenical, had insisted upon applying the term Theotokos to the Virgin See also:Mary, and this was repeated in the See also:symbol of Chalcedon, which says that Christ was See also:born of the Virgin Mary, the Theotokos, " according to the manhood." The same symbol also declares that Christ is " to be acknowledged in two natures . . . in-divisibly and inseparably." Hence the Nestorians, who insisted upon the duality of the natures to such a degree as to lose sight of the unity of the person, and who rejected the term Theotokos, repudiated the decrees both of Ephesus and of Chalcedon, and upon the promulgation of the decrees of Chalcedon formally separated from the church . Nestorianism had sprung from an exaggeration of the theology of the school of Antioch, and the See also:schism weakened that patriarchate and its dependencies . It took See also:root in Chaldaea, and became very powerful . No small See also:part of the literature and See also:science of the See also:Mahommedan Arabs came from Nestorian teachers, and Nestorian Christianity spread far and wide through See also:Asia (see See also:NESTORIUS and NESTORIANS) . The council of Chalcedon (451), the See also:fourth oecumenical, declared that Christ is to be acknowledged " in two naturesunconfusedly, unchangeably," and therefore decided against the opinions of all who either believed that the divinity is the See also:sole nature of Christ, or who, rejecting this, taught only one composite nature of Christ (one nature and one person, instead of two natures and one person) . The See also:advocates of the one nature theory were called Monophysites (q.v.), and they gave rise to numerous sects, and to at least three separate nationalchurches—the See also:Jacobites of See also:Syria, the See also:Copts of Egypt and the Abyssinian Church, which are treated under separate headings . The decisions of Chalcedon, which were the occasion of the formation of all these sects outside, did not put an end to Christological controversy inside the Orthodox Greek Church . The most prominent question which emerged in attempting to define further the person of Christ was whether the will belonged to the nature or the person, or, as it came to be stated, whether Christ had two See also:wills or only one . The church in the See also:sixth oecumenical council at Constantinople (68o) declared that Christ had two wills . The See also:Monothelites (q.v.) refused to submit, and the result was the formation of another schismatic church—the Maronite Church of the See also:Lebanon range . The See also:Maronites, however, were reconciled to Rome in the 12th See also:century, and are reckoned as Roman Catholics of the See also:Oriental Rite . Later History.—The relation of the See also:Byzantine Church to the Roman may be described as one of growing estrangement from the 5th to the rrth century, and a See also:series of abortive attempts at reconciliation since the latter date . The estrangement and final rupture may be traced to the increasing claims of the Roman bishops and to Western innovations in practice and in the doctrine of the Holy Spirit, accompanied by an alteration of creed . In the early church three bishops stood forth prominently, principally from the See also:political eminence of the cities in which they ruled—the bishops of Rome, Alexandria and Antioch . The See also:transfer of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople gave the bishops of Rome a possible See also:rival in the patriarch of Constantinople, but the See also:absence of an overawing See also:court and of meddling statesmen did more than recoup the loss to the head of the Roman Church . The theological calmness of the West, amid the violent theological disputes which troubled the Eastern patriarchates, and the statesmanlike See also:wisdom of Rome's greater bishops, combined to give a unique position to the pope, which councils in vain strove to shake, and which in time of difficulty the Eastern patriarchs were See also:fain to acknowledge and make use of, however they might protest against it and the conclusions deduced from it . But this pre-eminence, or rather the Roman See also:idea of what was involved in it, was never acknowledged in the East; to See also:press it upon the Eastern patriarchs was to prepare the way for separation, to insist upon it in times of irritation was to cause a schism . The theological See also:genius of the East was different from that of the West . The Eastern theology had its roots in Greek See also:philosophy, while a great deal of Western theology was based on Roman law . The Greek fathers succeeded the See also:Sophists, the Latin theologians succeeded the Roman advocates (See also:Stanley's Eastern Church, ch. i.) . This gave rise to misunderstandings, and at last led to two widely separate ways of regarding and defining one important doctrine—the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father or from the Father and the Son . Political jealousies and interests intensified the disputes, and at last, after many premonitory symptoms, the final break came in 1054, when Pope See also:Leo IX. smote See also:Michael Cerularius and the whole of the Eastern Church with an See also:excommunication . There had been mutual excommunications before, but they had not resulted in permanent schisms . Now, however, the separation was final, and the ostensible cause of its finality was the introduction by the Latins of two words Filioque into the creed.' It is this addition which was and which still remains the permanent cause of separation .
Ffoulkes has pointed out in his second See also:volume (ch
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1–3) that there was a resumption of intercourse more than once between Rome and Constantinople after 1054, and that the overbearing character of the See also:Norman crusaders, and finally the horrors of the See also:sack of Constantinople in the fourth crusade
' After the words " and in the Holy See also:Ghost " of the Apostles' Creed the Constantinopolitan creed added " who proceedeth from the Father." The Roman Church, without the See also:sanction of an oecumenical council and without consulting the Easterns, added " and the Son." The addition was first made at See also:Toledo (589) in opposition to Arianism
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The Easterns also resented the Roman enforcement of clerical See also:celibacy, the See also:limitation of the right of See also:confirmation to the bishop and the use of unleavened See also:bread in the See also:Eucharist
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Conflict with Rome
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(1204), were the real causes of the permanent estrangement
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It is undeniable, however, that the Filioque question has always come The up to bar the way in any subsequent attempts at inter-'•Filioque'communion
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The theological question involved is a
~tl very small one, but it brings out clearly the opposing
versy. characteristics of Eastern and Western theology, and so has acquired an importance far beyond its own See also:worth
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The question is really one about the relations subsisting between the persons of the Trinity and their hypostatical properties
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The Western Church affirms that the Holy Spirit " proceeds from " the Father and from the Son
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It believes that the Spirit of the Father must be the Spirit of the Son also
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Such a theory seems alone able to satisfy the See also:practical instincts of the West, which did not concern itself with the metaphysical aspect of the Trinity, but with Godhead in its relation to re-deemed humanity
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The Eastern Church affirms that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father only, and takes its stand on See also: 26 . The Eastern theologian thinks that the Western See also:double procession degrades the Deity and destroys the perfection of the Trinity . The double procession, in his eyes, means two active principles (alriat) in the Deity, and it means also that there is a confusion between the hypostatical properties; a See also:property possessed by the Father and distinctive of the First Person is attributed also to the Second . This is the theological, and there is conjoined with it an See also:historical and moral dispute . The Easterns allege that the addition of the words Filioque was made, not only without authority, and therefore unwarrantably, but also for the purpose of forcing a rupture between East and West in the interests of the See also:barbarian empire of the West . Attempts at reconciliation were made from time to 'time afterwards, but were always wrecked on the two points of papal supremacy, when it meant the right to impose Western Attempts usages upon the East, and of the addition to the creed. as First there was the negotiation between Pope See also:Gregory See also:reunion . IX . (1227-1241) and Germanus, patriarch of Constantinople . The Roman conditions were practically recognition of papal jurisdiction, the use of unleavened bread and permission to omit Filioque if all books written against the Western doctrine were burnt . The patriarch refused the terms . Then, later in the 13th century, came negotiations under See also:Innocent IV. and See also:Clement IV., in which the popes proposed the same conditions as Gregory IX., with additions . These proposals were rejected by the Easterns, who regarded them as attempts to enforce new creeds on their church . The negotiations at the council of See also:Lyons (1274) were, strictly speaking, between the pope and the Byzantine See also:emperor, and were more political than ecclesiastical . Michael See also:Palaeologus ruled in Constantinople while See also:Baldwin II., the last of the Latin emperors, was an See also:exile in Europe . Palaeologus wished the pope to acknowledge his title to be emperor of the East, and in return promised submission to the papal supremacy and the union of the two churches on the pope's own terms . This enforced union lasted only during the lifetime of the emperor . The only other See also:attempt at union which requires to be mentioned is that made at the council of See also:Florence . It was really suggested by the political weakness of the Byzantine empire and the dread of the approach of the Turks . John Palaeologus the emperor, See also:Joseph the patriarch of Constantinople, and several Eastern bishops came to See also:Italy and appeared at the council of Florence—the papal council, the rival of the council of See also:Basel . As on former occasions the representatives of the East were at first deceived by false representations; they were betrayed into recognition df papal supremacy, and tricked into See also:signing what could afterwards be represented as a submission to Western doctrine . The natural consequences followed—a repudiation of what had been done; and the Eastern bishops on their way home took care to make emphatic their ritualistic differences from Rome . Soon after came the fall of Constantinople, and with this event an end to 'the political reasons for the sub-See also:mission of the Orthodox See also:clergy . Rome's schemes for a union which meant an unconditional submission on the part of the Orthodox Church did not cease, however, but they were nolonger attempted on a See also:grand See also:scale . Jesuit missionaries after the See also:Reformation stirred up schisms in some parts of the Eastern Church, and in See also:Austria, See also:Poland and elsewhere large See also:numbers of Orthodox Christians submitted, either willingly or under compulsion to the see of Rome (see ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH, See also:section Uniat Oriental Churches) .
Doctrines and Creeds.—The Eastern Church has no creeds in the See also:modern Western use of the word, no normative summaries of what must be believed
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It has preserved the older idea that a creed is an adoring See also:confession of the church engaged in See also:worship; and, when occasion called for more, the belief of the church was expressed more by way of public testimony than in symbolical books
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Still the doctrines of the church can be gathered from these confessions of faith
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The Eastern creeds may thus be roughly placed in two classes—the oecumenical creeds of the early undivided church, and later testimonies defining the position of the Orthodox Church of the East with regard to the belief of the Roman Catholic and of See also:Protestant Churches
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These testimonies were called forth mainly by the protest of Greek theologians against Jesuitism on the one See also:hand, and against the reforming tendencies of the patriarch See also:Cyril See also:Lucaris on the other
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The Orthodox Greek Church adopts the doctrinal decisions of the seven oecumenical councils, together with the canons of the Concilium Quinisextum or second Trullan council (592); and they further hold that all these See also:definitions and canons are simply explanations and enforcements of the Nicaeo-Constantinopolitan creed and the decrees of the first council of Nicaea
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The first four councils settled the orthodox faith on the doctrines of the Trinity and of the Incarnation; the fifth supplemented the decisions of the first four
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The sixth declared against Monothelitism; the seventh sanctioned the worship (SovXeia, not aXnOtvr} Xarpeia) of images; the council held in the Trullus (a See also:saloon in the See also:palace at Constantinople) supplemented by canons of discipline the doctrinal decrees of the fifth and sixth councils
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The Reformation of the 16th century was not without effect on the Eastern Church
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Some of the Reformers, notably See also:Melanchthon, expected to effect a reunion of Christendom by means of the Easterns, cherishing the same The Re-n hopes as the modern Old Catholic divines and their and the See also:English sympathizers
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Melanchthon himself sent a orthodox Greek See also:translation of the See also:Augsburg Confession to church
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Joasaph, patriarch of Constantinople, and some years afterwards See also:Jacob Andreae and See also:
The result was that Jeremiah answered in his Censura Orientalis Ecclesiae condemning the distinctive principles of Lutheranism
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The reformatory See also:movement of Cyrillos Lucaris (q.v.), patriarch of Constantinople (1621), brought the Greek Church See also:face to face with Reformation theology
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Cyril conceived the See also:plan of reforming the Eastern Church by bringing its doctrines into See also:harmony with those of Calvinism, and by sending able See also:young Greek theologians to See also:Switzerland, See also: doctrine . According to the See also:Christian revelation, God is a Trinity, that is, the Divine Essence exists in Three Persons, perfectly equal in nature and dignity, the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost; THE HOLY GHOST PROCEEDS FROM THE FATHER ONLY . Besides the Triune God there is no other See also:object of divine worship, but See also:homage (birepSouXia) may be paid to the Virgin Mary, and reverence (SotAia) to the See also:saints and to their pictures and See also:relics . Man is born with a corrupt See also:bias which was not his at creation; the first man, when created, possessed See also:IMMORTALITY, PERFECT WISDOM, AND A WILL REGULATED BY See also:REASON . Through the first See also:sin See also:Adam and his posterity lost IMMORTALITY, AND HIS WILL RECEIVED A BIAS TOWARDS EVIL . In this natural See also:state man, who even before he actually sins is a sinner before God by See also:original or inherited sin, commits manifold actual transgressions; but he is not absolutely without power of will towards See also:good, and is not always doing evil . Christ, the Son of God, became man in two natures, which internally and inseparably See also:united make One Person, and, according to the eternal purpose of God, has obtained for man reconciliation with God, and eternal See also:life, inasmuch as He by His vicarious death has made See also:satisfaction to God for the See also:world's sins, and this satisfaction was PERFECTLY COMMENSURATE WITH THE SINS OF THE WORLD . Man is made partaker of reconciliation in spiritual regeneration, which he attains to, being led and kept by the Holy Ghost . This divine help is offered to all men without distinction, and may be rejected . In See also:order to attain to salvation, man is justified, and when so justified CAN DO NO MORE THAN THE COMMANDS OF GOD . He may fall from a state of See also:grace through mortal sin . Regeneration is offered by the word of God and in the sacraments, which under visible signs communicate God's invisible grace to Christians when administered cum intention . There are seven mysteries or sacraments . See also:Baptism entirely destroys original sin . In the Eucharist the true body and See also:blood of Christ are substantially present, and the elements are changed into the substance of Christ, whose body and blood are corporeally partaken of by communicants . ALL Christians should receive the bread and the See also:WINE . The Eucharist is also an expiatory See also:sacrifice . The new See also:birth when lost may be restored through repentance, which is not merely (I) sincere sorrow, but also (2) confession of each individual sin to the See also:priest, and (3) the See also:discharge of penances imposed by the priest for the removal of ,the temporal See also:punishment which may have been imposed by God and the Church . See also:Penance accompanied by the judicial See also:absolution of the priest makes a true See also:sacrament . The Church of Christ is the fellowship of ALL THOSE WHO ACCEPT AND PROFESS ALL THE ARTICLES OF FAITH TRANSMITTED BY THE APOSTLES AND APPROVED BY GENERAL SYNODS . Without this visible Church there is no salvation . It is under the abiding See also:influence of the Holy Ghost, and therefore cannot err in matters of faith . Specially appointed persons are necessary in the service of the Church, and they See also:form a threefold order, distinct jure divino from other Christians, of Bishops, Priests and Deacons . THE FOUR PATRIARCHS, OF EQUAL DIGNITY, HAVE THE HIGHEST See also:RANK AMONG THE BISHOPS, AND THE BISHOPS united in a General Council represent the Church and infallibly decide, under the guidance of the Holy Ghost, all matters of faith and ecclesiastical life .
All ministers of Christ must be regularly called and appointed to their See also:office, and are consecrated by the sacrament of orders
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Bishops must be unmarried, and PRIESTS AND DEACONS MUST NOT See also:CONTRACT A SECOND See also:MARRIAGE
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To all priests in common belongs, besides the See also:preaching of the word, the See also:administration of the six SACRAMENTS—BAPTISM, CONFIRMATION, PENANCE, EUCHARIST, See also:MATRIMONY, See also:UNCTION OF THE SICK
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The bishops alone can administer the sacrament of orders
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Ecclesiastical ceremonies. are part of the divine service; most of them have apostolic origin; and those connected with the sacrament must not be omitted by priests under See also:pain of mortal sin
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See also:Liturgy and Worship.—The ancient liturgies of the Eastern Church were very numerous, and have been frequently classified
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J
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M
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See also:Neale makes three divisions—the liturgy of Jerusalem or of St See also: Both sacred See also:languages differ from the language of the See also:people, but it cannot be said that inthe Eastern Church worship is conducted in an unknown See also:tongue —" the actual difference," says Neale, " may be about that between See also:Chaucer's English and our own." There are eleven chief service books, and no such compendium as the Roman See also:breviary . See also:Fasting is frequent and severe . Besides Wednesdays and Fridays, there are four fasting seasons, Lent, See also: |