396 



GREEK CHURCH 



independent confederation amongst the Italian 

 states. 



The first notes of disunion were sounded in 

 Rome, by such innovations as the enforcement of 

 clerical celibacy (385), followed by more or less 

 peremptory demands for the recognition, first of 

 the hierarchical, and later of the doctrinal supre- 

 macy of the Roman pontiff', which was ultimately 

 to be admitted as 'by divine right.' Minor 

 changes were gradually introduced into the 

 Western Church, such as denying to priests power 

 to administer confirmation, and the use of un- 

 leavened bread in the eucharist. These innova- 

 tions the Greeks regarded as expressly designed 

 to force upon them either a complete rupture or 

 an unconditional submission to papal authority. 

 But the chief and most abiding point of dogmatic 

 difference consisted in the doctrine of the two- 

 fold procession of the Holy Ghost and the inter- 

 polation in the ancient creed of the church of 

 the words Filioque ( ' and from the Son ' ). With- 

 out entering into the details of this interminable, 

 hopeless, and bitter controversy, it may be safely 

 said that the complete absence of such a doctrine 

 from the deliberations of the early councils is not 

 denied by the Latins ; that popes, such as Leo III. 

 and John VIII., admitted that its surreptitious 

 insertion into the Creed was reprehensible ; and 

 finally, that the Greeks base their uncompromising 

 reprobation of it on the explicit word of Christ : 

 ' The spirit of truth which proceedeth from the 

 Father* (John, xv. 26). 



Such being the abundant sources of an estrange- 

 ment which steadily increased, the pope was not 

 at a loss for pretexts in hurling his first excom- 

 munication against the emperor and the patriarchs 

 of Constantinople and Alexandria in 484. Thus 

 the East and West were de facto separated for a 

 period of nearly forty years. Efforts at concilia- 

 tion followed, and successive excommunications 

 were withdrawn to be renewed from both- sides 

 with intensified animus. But while the pope sub- 

 ordinated dogmatic differences to the recognition 

 of his supremacy, the title of 'oecumenical,' which 

 the emperor conferred on the patriarch of Con- 

 stantinople, proved a fresh stumbling-block. The 

 contest which followed (862) between the learned 

 patriarch Photius and the popes Adrian I. and 

 Nicholas I. was one of the most memorable periods 

 of that long and eventful struggle, and although the 

 so-called ' Photian Schism ' was again compromised, 

 the reconciliation proved neither cordial nor lasting. 

 The same causes of difference, with others of a 

 disciplinary nature, reappeared in the llth century ; 

 and in 1054 Pope Leo IX. issued a formal excom- 

 munication against the patriarch Michael Ceru- 

 larius. Since that time the separation has sub- 

 sisted rigidly ; for although more than one attempt 

 was made by either side to restore intercommunion 

 between the two churches, every effort failed before 

 the unalterable demand for submission to papal 

 supremacy and jurisdiction. Pope Gregory IX. 

 conceded even the omission of Filioque by the 

 Greeks, provided they burned publicly all books 

 inimical to the Roman see ; and the desire of 

 many Greeks for reconciliation was so sincere that 

 some sort of reunion might have been effected at a 

 later time, if the old antipathies of East and West 

 had not been rendered even more intense and irre- 

 mediable through the conquest of Constantinople 

 by the Latins in the fourth crusade (1204). The 

 atrocities of this unprovoked and fanatical on- 

 slaught, which was instigated by the papal see, 

 the outrageous desecrations of Greek churches, the 

 horrors of the sack 'of a refined and civilised 

 capital by a horde of comparative barbarians' 

 (Stanley), and the cruel tyranny by which the 

 Franks maintained their power, rendered the 



existing breach irreparable. The Frank invasion, 

 by disorganising and weakening the Greek empire, 

 opened the gates of Europe to the inroads of the 

 Turks, whose rising power had carried before it 

 everything in Asia. So that on his restoration to 

 the throne of Constantinople ( 1261 ) the emperor 

 Michael Palseologos, pressed by dangers, was com- 

 pelled, on a promise of material assistance from 

 the West, to submit to the dictates of Rome at the 

 Council of Lyons in 1274. When, however, he 

 .endeavoured, at a synod held at Constantinople, 

 to obtain ratification of that union, he failed to 

 gain the assent of the body of bishops to what 

 was a one-sided measure, resulting from political 

 necessity. In the succeeding reign the breach was 

 even more seriously widened by the councils held 

 at Constantinople in 1283 ancl 1285. The last 

 attempt at union was the one made by the Emperor 

 John Palaeologos, who, to save Constantinople, and 

 with it the West, from the invasion of the Turks, 

 appeared (1437) with the patriarch Joseph and 

 several Greek bishops at the Council of ferrara, 

 better known from the place of its close as that of 

 Florence. Protracted discussions took place on all 

 the points at issue ; but while received with marks 

 of distinction and outward show of friendship, the 

 Greeks were, as on former occasions, deceived, out- 

 reached, and entrapped into signing misleading 

 and fraudulent documents, with the inevitable 

 result that, even before their return to Constantin- 

 ople, they renounced and repudiated the proceed- 

 ings of what they characterised as one of the most 

 scandalous of Roman conclaves. The capture of 

 Constantinople by the Turks followed in 1453, and 

 the fall of the Greek empire removed the political 

 considerations which alone had dictated these latter 

 attempts at reconciliation. Thus the Greek Church 

 may be said to have died politically, but it has 

 never surrendered its religious heritage. 



Doctrines. As already stated, the Greek Church 

 receives the first seven ecumenical councils and 

 the canons of the Trullan Council ( from T/aoOXXos, the 

 domed chamber of the imperial palace at Constan- 

 tinople, where it was held). They adopt as their 

 rule of faith not only the Bible, but also the 

 traditions of the church ' maintained uncorrupted 

 through the influence of the Holy Spirit by the 

 testimony of the Fathers,' amongst whom Basil 

 the Great, Gregory Nazianzen, and St John Chry- 

 sostom are held in special veneration as ' the three 

 hierarchs.' The Greek Church admits seven sacra- 

 ments viz. baptism, confirmation, penance, eucha- 

 rist, matrimony, unction of the sick, and holy 

 orders ; but both in the acceptation and the use of 

 them it differs widely from the Church of Rome. 

 Baptism is administered by a triple immersion, in 

 accordance both with the meaning of the term itself 

 and with the indisputable practice of the early 

 church. Confirmation (T&tipov or 'X.piff/j.a) follows 

 immediately upon and in connection with baptism, 

 even in the case of infants again in obedience to 

 apostolic precept. In the sacrament of Penance the 

 church requires (a) admission before God of one's 

 own sins, (b) faith in His mercy, (c) resolve of 

 self -amendment : this confession to be made before 

 a priest, ( 1 ) that he may offer spiritual guidance 

 and admonition; (2) that he may announce to the 

 penitent, in the name of Christ ( ' May the Lord 

 absolve thee'), absolution and hope of salvation; 

 (3) that he may recommend penitential work. 

 ' Therefore the scandals, the influence, the terrors 

 of the confessional are alike unknown in the East ' 

 (Stanley). As to the Eucharist, the Greeks admit 

 the propitiatory sacrifice, the real presence of Christ, 

 and transubstantiation, which, ' if used at all as 

 a theological term, is merely one amongst many 

 to express the reverential awe with which the 

 eucharist is approached' (Stanley). They differ 



