GREEK CHURCH 



397 



1 1 urn the LatiiiH in the use of leavened bread 

 .ni,| in tin- administration of communion in 

 both kinds to all, even to children -thin again 

 in stiiet obedience to evangelical precept (John, 

 Marriage in held to be diMMubM in case 

 of adultery, lint not till a probationary period haH 

 elapsed .luring which a bishop or priest mediates 

 \\itliaview to reconciliation. A fonrtli marriage 



.carded as unlawful. Unction is administered 

 not in i.if>Tinis, as in the Latin Church, but in 

 ordinary sickness, as laid down by St James 



I I, 15), and is therefore called oil of prayer 

 (Bfo&otor). The sacrament of Holy Orders is 

 celebrated by the observance of rites which have 

 remained unchanged since the earliest times. With 

 tin- exception of this last, all the sacraments may 

 In- administered by priests. The Greek Church not 

 only re-probates clerical celibacy, but, although it 

 lias at all times favoured monastic orders, it re- 

 quires that the parochial clergy should be married, 

 so that they may not l>e cut off from the domes- 

 ticity of the life of their flocks. Priests cannot 

 many after ordination, and consequently cannot 

 c. in tract a second marriage, nor may they wed a 

 widow ; but they must be married before ordina- 

 tion. I ii^liops are selected from the monastic orders, 

 and are therefore single. 



Monastic life originated in the East, and in 

 countries of the Greek rite numerous convents of 

 both sexes are established, most of which follow 

 tin- rule of St Basil. The rule of St Anthony (the 

 Kgyptian hermit who first instituted Christian mon- 

 asticism ) prevails at Mount Sinai (established 527 ). 

 This monastery, Jerusalem, and Mount Athos 

 form the three great centres to which convents 

 throughout the East are affiliated. According to 

 their mode of life, monks are distinguished as (a) 

 'AffK-rjral, if leading the ascetic existence of her- 

 mits; (b) ' AvaxupijTai, when living in retirement and 

 in separate cloisters; and (c) Koivo/Sicu-ol, when as- 

 sembled in a convent under an 'Hyotifuvos or abbot. 

 If several convents are subject to one abbot he is 

 called ' Apxwa-vSpiT-ns, archimandrite; but bishops 

 often hold the post of abbot. Nuns must either 

 Ix- virgins or widows, and they follow the rule of 

 St Basil under an 'Hyov^v-r), abbess. With both 

 monks and nuns the duty of manual labour is a 

 leading observance ; the nuns, like their western 

 si-ters, apply themselves to the care of the sick 

 and to the education of girls. But the chief glory 

 of tlie Greek monastic institutions is that in them 

 Greek learning and Greek nationality found refuge, 

 protection, and succour during the long night of 

 Turkish tyranny and Mohammedan persecution. 



Worship anil Liturgy. Fasts in the Greek 

 Church are many and rigorous. Besides four 

 yearly fasts -the forty days of Lent, from Pente- 

 cost to the Feast of Saints Peter and Paul, the 

 fifteen days before the festival of the Sleep of the 

 Theotokos (August 15), and the six weeks before 

 Christmas Wednesdays and Fridays through- 

 out the year should be observed. Indulgences 

 are not recognised ; and although prayers for the 

 dead are practised they give rise to no ecclesi- 

 a-tical abuse. 'A general expectation prevails 

 that, by some unknown process, the souls of the 

 -infill will IK> purified Ijefore they pass into the 

 Divine presence; but this lias never been consoli- 

 dated into a doctrine of purgatory' (Stanley). The 

 Mother of our Lord is venerated, and homage 

 (vwepdov\eia.) is paid to her, but such homage has 

 never been transformed into a dogma of immacu- 

 late conception ; and the Creek Church speaks of 

 the sleep ( Kolnriffi* ) not the 'assumption' of the 

 Virgin. Reverence (SovXia as distinguished from 

 dXTyflivTj XoT/*/a, actual worship) is paid to sainte, 

 and their iruns freely adorn the churches: but. 

 with the exception of the crucifix, no graven image 



i* permitted. Iiihtriimcntiil muitic in forbidden in 

 churchcM, but Hinging in universally in u*e. In 

 public prayer the kneeling posture w IUMM! only at 

 PentucoHt ; at ordinary times they htand, the body 

 being turned towards the east, and the sign of 

 the cross is frequently made during prayer*. Th 

 ceremonial of the Eastern ritual is not inferior in 

 splendour to that of the Western, but it w more 

 solemn and archaic ; though ' organs and musical 

 instruments are as odious to a Greek or |{n--ian 

 as to a Scottish Presbyterian ' (Stanley ). Origin- 

 ally several liturgies were used in the Ka-t ; imt 

 the liturgy of St James prevailed in the Greek 

 Church. In its shorter form, as defined by St 

 Chrysostom, it is read in churches throughout 

 the year, with the exception of two or three 

 festivals, when the longer version, attributed to St 

 Basil, is said. This version is invariably used in 

 convents. The Scriptures are in the hands of all 

 believers, who are encouraged to strdy them in the 

 vernacular, and although the idioms of some of the 

 eastern churches into which the Bible as well as 

 the liturgy were originally translated are now 

 antiquated, ' the actual difference may lie about 

 that between Chaucer's English and our own.' 



Hierarchy in the Eastern Church is thus defined 

 in the catechism of Philaretus, which is in universal 

 use in Russia: 'The four patriarchs, of equal 

 dignity, have the highest rank among the bishop, 

 and the bishops united in a general council repre- 

 sent the church, and infallibly decide under the 

 guidance of the Holy Ghost all matters of faith 

 and ecclesiastical life.' Thus the authority of the 

 church is not despotic, centralised, or vested in one 

 person. Each patriarch is independent in the exer- 

 cise of his canonical authority, within his own 

 diocese ; but he is amenable to an oecumenical 

 synod. The Greek clergy levy no tithes, claim no 

 civil power over their flocks, and hardly possess any 

 organisation as a separate body. 'The Eastern 

 Church has never ruled that religious light and 

 instruction are confined to the clergy.' And its 

 strength ' reposes not so much on the power and 

 influence of its clergy, but on the independent 

 knowledge and manly /eal of its laity' (Stanley). 

 The Eastern Church has become inactive since its 

 subjection to Turkish rule. It is not a missionary 

 church, and it abstains from proselytism. On the 

 other hand, it never was intolerant, and its history- 

 has not been disgraced by persecutions, inquisition, 

 or a St Bartholomew's massacre. 



Relations with the Reformed Churches. Owing 

 to these reu*ons the early reformers turned their 

 eyes to the Eastern Church in hope of support and 

 eventual union. Melanchthon was the first to 

 address a letter to the patriarch Joseph of Con- 

 stantinople, through a Greek deacon, Demetrius 

 Mysus, who visited Germany in 1558. Another 

 Lutheran embassy, of a more formal character, 

 headed by the well-known Tubingen divines Jr.cob 

 Andrew and Martin Crusius, visited Constantin- 

 ople during the patriarchate of Jeremias (1576- 

 81 ). Both missions were equally devoid of im- 

 mediate practical results. But in the following 

 century the celebrated Cvril Lucaris, a native ot 

 Crete, was educated in Germany, and was there 

 imbued with the tenets of the Reformers. On 

 assuming the patriarchate of Alexandria first ( 160*2 ) 

 and then of Constantinople ( 1(521 ) he opened ncgo- 

 tiat ions with the Calvinists with a view to union 

 and the reform of the Greek Church; he corre- 

 sponded with the English Archbishop Abbot and 

 with Laud, and he presented the Alexandrian Codex 

 (q.v.) to Charles I. ; and in l(i'2!i he issued a con- 

 fession of faith of a decidedly Calvinistic tendency. 

 But his effort* were bitterly opposed by the 

 intrigues of the Jesuits, who brought about bin 

 deposition five timer after successive reinstate- 



