GREEK ARCHITECTURE 



GREEK CHURCH 



990 



uiul enduring iw tin- temples, were more varied in 

 style, uiul exhibited main piciuresiiuc ami heanti 

 ful form*, which iin- now cntirelx l>t. Hut from 

 \\ii.tt is known of tin- jealous feelings which per 

 \aded tin- republics of Greece, anil from the aspect 

 of tin- houses in iln> streets of I'ompeii, we may 

 conclude that the exterior appearance of the town* 

 houses would l>e quite plain and unpretending, 

 an\ richness or decoration Itcing reserved for the 

 Interior. 



The attempt was made in the early part of the 

 I'.tth century to revive Greek architecture, and Home 

 Ingenious modifications and adaptations of it have 

 been carried out. Hut it was found that thin style, 

 -0 beautiful and appropriate in the warm and 

 u"iii,il climate of (Jreece, was quite unstated for 

 our northern latitudes. The porticoes arc useless in 

 a climate where external painting cannot last, and 

 where the sunshine is courted rather than excluded ; 

 the pitch of the roof is not high enough to throw 

 off our snows ; and windows of sufficient size for 

 our dark skies are not admissihle. Grecian archi- 

 tecture has therefore been abandoned ; and its 

 place is now taken by a style more appropriate to 

 a northern climate, and more suited to the feelings 

 of the people. See Fergusson's Hiatory of Archi- 

 /K'turc and other general works on the subject; 

 Antiquities of loniu ( Dil. Soc. 4 vols. 1769-1881); 

 Atlif.nian Architecture (Dil. Soc. 1851; new ed. 



ISS'.I). 



Greek Church, THE (styled 'orthodox' by 

 reason of its vindications of dogma, and ' Eastern ' 

 from its geographical distribution), is the church of 

 those Christians who follow the ancient rite of the 

 I last and accept the first seven councils, but do 

 not admit papal supremacy, and reject those in- 

 novations on the dogmas and the practice of the 

 early church which were introduced by subsequent 

 < Mincils in the West. She is ' the aged tree beneath 

 whose shade the rest of Christendom has sprung 

 up ; ' and ' it is her privilege to claim direct con- 

 tinuity of speech with the earliest times, to boast 

 of reading the whole code of Scripture, old as well 

 as new, in the language in which it was read and 

 .-pokcn by the Apostles' (Stanley, East. Ch.). 

 The dogmas of Christianity were first expounded 

 by the Greek fathers ; the earliest forms of Chris- 

 tian worship were composed by Greeks in Greek, 

 and during the lirst five centuries the Eastern 

 'luirch may fairly be said to have comprised the 

 whole body of Christianity. 



History. The tendency and desire, natural to 

 the Eastern mind, to endeavour to estimate and 

 deline in the abstract the attributes of Deity, pushed 

 to extremes during a time of absorbing theological 

 controversies, brought about, in the earlier period 

 of the church, the formation of sects to which we 

 shall hereinafter advert. But the great Schism be- 

 tween the eastern and western portions of Christen- 

 dom, an event which has exercised abiding influence 

 on the whole course of subsequent European his- 

 tory, was due to two primary causes the inherent 

 difference in the spirit and the traditions of East 

 and West, and the transfer of the seat of empire 

 from Home to Constantinople. 



As the Christian faith became predominant 

 ecclesiastical jurisdiction necessarily coincided with 

 civil government, so that, when the Council of 

 Nic.ta declared Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch 

 to be patriarchal sees, it but recognised the 

 political importance of those three centres of 

 Christianity. As such, Rome was then the least 

 important of the three. Indeed the early Roman 

 Church was a colony of Greek Christians and 

 Grecised Jews; the first popes themselves were 

 Greeks, not Italians, and the very name of 'pope' 

 b not a Latin name, but the Greek designation 

 (papat) of every pastor of the Eastern Church. 



\Vln-n, however, the seat of empire wan tranxferred 

 to r,,nstantinople ' 330 A.U. ), although Hom wan 

 thiiH deprived of its sovereignty and it* 1:011 it ly 

 splendour, a signal opjxirtunity for increase of j>o\\-r 

 and self as-. -it ion WHM given to the Roman pout ill-. 

 Favoured by the absence in their diocese of theo- 

 logical controversies, such as distracted the Kant, 

 and endowed for the most part with rare ability 

 and world l} f astuteness, they were not slow to seize 

 upon and gradually appropriate the prerogathes 

 and the civil authority of the absent em perm-, and 

 they soon arrogated to themselves even their tiagan 

 titles and military prestige. Constantinople, on 

 the other hand, now rose rapidly to pre eminence, 

 not in the same sense of an ambitious ecclesiastical 

 despotism, but as the official centre of a church 

 already venerable, winch had just received into 

 its fold the first Christian emperor. A generation 

 had hardly passed when Gi"gory Nazianxen (360) 

 spoke of the city as a ' bond of union between East 

 and West to which the most distant extremes from 

 all sides come together, and to which they look up 

 as the common centre and emporium of the faith.' 

 It is true that, on the ground that ' Constantinople 

 is the new Rome,' tne second general council 

 (381) assigned to it 'precedence of honour' next 

 after Rome. But this declaration, and the suW- 

 quent decree of the fourth Council of Chalcedon 

 (451), establish that these ecclesiastical honours 

 were grounded upon the political distinction only to 

 which both cities had successively risen. Jerusalem 

 itself, in spite of its unrivalled associations, was 

 included amongst the patriarchates which thus 

 reached the number of five only at this latter 

 council. Yet the initial advantages which the 

 Greek Church already possessed never disappeared ; 

 they still subsist, ' a perpetual witness that she is 

 the mother and Rome the daughter' (Stanley ). 



But other and irresistible inward causes militated 

 against the maintenance of even outward unity. 

 Rome was destined soon to detach herself from the 

 sisterhood of patriarchates, and renounce even that 

 venerated title. According as the political ties 

 between the eastern and western halves of the 

 empire grew weaker, antagonistic ideas seemed to 

 ; guide the two rival sections of the church. In each 

 j the divergent genius of their pagan forerunners, 

 no less than opposed local temperaments, reappeared 

 with fresh vigour, and influenced both thought 

 and action. The Greeks were still swayed, how- 

 I ever unconsciously, by the liberal tradition of demo- 

 i cratic Hellas ; while the autocratic and centralising 

 I tendency of Rome never ceased to pervade the Latin 

 i pontificate. The fathers of the Greek Church in- 

 herited and christianised the philosophy of Plato 

 and Aristotle ; the Latin Church modelled its 

 Christianity after Roman law. ' The East enacted 

 creeds ; the W T est discipline ' ( M i I man ). The one 

 was controlled by a calm conservatism, the other 

 was impelled by a restless desire for change. The 

 one church remained ancient and catholic in spirit ; 

 ! the other was transformed into a medieval and 

 Latin institution. 



These contrasts, apparently superficial, were 

 more deeply rooted and were fraught with 

 weightier consequences than the outward theo- 

 logical differences which now mark the distinc- 

 tions between other Christian churches. They 

 were such as to lead to open rupture. Rome 

 furthermore seemed again j>ossessed by its tradi- 

 tional feeling of mingled jealousy and disdain for 

 the Greeks, who were gradually Incoming supreme 

 at Constantinople, and who finally transformed the 

 Roman empire into a Greek monarchy. There- 

 fore, in the disputes which followed in quick 

 succession, political considerations weighed more 

 in proportion as the temporal por.*r of the popes 

 found sustenance in the gradual growth of an 



