CHAMBERS'S INFORMATION FOR THE PEOPLE. 



prophetic or other gifts. This ministry is sup- 'The Holy Orthodox Catholic and Apostolic 

 ported by tithes, the people giving a tenth of their ' Church,' and it includes three distinct branches 

 income for the support of the priesthood. Church the Church within the Ottoman Empire, subject 

 affairs are managed by a council of ministers of directly to the Patriarch of Constantinople ; the 



Church in the kingdom of Greece ; and the Russo- 

 Greek Church in the dominions of the Czar. The 

 proper history of the Greek Church as a separate 

 body dates from the commencement of the efforts 

 on the part of the Church of Constantinople to 

 establish for itself a distinct jurisdiction, and an 

 independent headship in the eastern division of 

 the empire. The ecclesiastical pre-eminence of 

 Constantinople, which followed upon the political 

 distinction to which it rose as the seat of the 

 imperial residence, and the centre of the impe- 

 rial government, was promoted by the eminent 

 qualities of some of the bishops, and especially 

 of Chrysostom. Many circumstances ultimately 

 combined to bring about a rupture between the 

 two churches : the contests about image-worship, 

 in which the patriarchs in more than one in- 

 stance took the part of the iconoclast emperors ; 

 the abandonment by the emperors of the defence 

 of Italy against the Lombards ; the gradual 

 growth of an independent confederation of Italian 

 states, and the foundation of a new empire of 

 the west, the political antagonism of which with 

 the eastern empire, almost necessarily involved 

 an antagonism of the churches themselves. The 

 Latin doctrine of the twofold procession of the 

 Holy Ghost, and the addition of ' Filioque' to the 

 Latin creed, the Latin practice of clerical celibacy, 

 the use of unleavened bread, and the denying to 

 priests the power of administering confirmation, 

 supplied other grounds of controversy and quarrel, 

 and though repeated efforts at a general union 

 were made, they were unsuccessful. It is the 

 same with attempts which have been made by 

 Protestant communions to establish an under- 

 standing with the Greek Church. 



Anterior to the Mohammedan conquest, the 

 Greek Church comprised within its limits Greece, 

 properly so called, the Peloponnesus, Eastern 

 Illyricum, the .islands, and Asia Minor, as also 

 Syria and Palestine, Arabia, Egypt, and parts of 

 Mesopotamia and Persia. But with the first 

 triumph of the Koran, the Church of Constanti- 

 nople by degrees lost almost all her territory in 

 Asia and Africa ; and since the conquest of the 

 Turks, it has sunk into the condition of a weak 

 and oppressed dependant. 



In general, it may be inferred from the fact 

 that the Greek Church receives the first seven 

 councils, that on all the controversies regarding 

 the Trinity and Incarnation, the Greeks are 

 agreed with the Western Catholics, with the 

 exception of the double procession of the Holy 

 Ghost. The Greeks accept as the rule of faith 

 the traditions of the Church, preserved by the 

 testimony of the Fathers, in addition to the Bible 

 and the deuterocanonical books. They admit 

 the seven sacraments as received by the Roman 

 Church. Baptism is, however, administered among 

 them by a triple immersion, and confirmation 

 is administered in immediate connection with 

 baptism. As to the Eucharist, the Greeks admit 



the real presence of Christ, the transubstantiation 



Greek or Greco-Slavonic rite, who receive the first | of the elements, and the propitiatory sacrifice, 

 seven general councils, but reject the authority of But they differ from Catholics in the use of 

 the Roman pontiff, and the later councils of the leavened bread, in administering the communion 



all classes, whose selection and arrangement are 

 believed to have been foreshadowed in the struc- 

 ture of the Mosaic Tabernacle. The Catholic 

 Apostolic Church does not differ from other 

 Christian bodies in regard to the common doctrines 

 of the Christian religion ; it only accepts, in what 

 it considers to be a fuller and more real sense, 

 the phenomena of Christian life. A very special 

 feature is its extensive and elaborate symbolism. 

 In regard to the sacrament of the Lord s Supper, 

 however, it appears to entertain very much the 

 same view as that of the Roman Catholic Church. 

 The Catholic Apostolic Church has established 

 itself in the United States, Prussia, France, 

 Switzerland, as well as in Great Britain, where it 

 has 19 churches. 



THE PLYMOUTH BRETHREN. 



Originating in a reaction against exclusive High 

 Church principles, and against a dead formalism 

 associated with ' unevangelical ' doctrine, the 

 ' Plymouth Brethren ' numbered amongst their 

 first members in Plymouth, and elsewhere, many 

 retired Anglo-Indian officers, men of unquestion- 

 able zeal and piety. Their existence as a distinct 

 sect is, however, very much to be ascribed to the 

 labours and influence of Mr Darby, a barrister, 

 who, under deeply religious impressions, became 

 a clergyman of the Church of England, which he 

 afterwards left, from conscientious scruples, and 

 laboured as an evangelist both in England and 

 on the continent of Europe, preaching in French, 

 English, and German, and giving utterance to 

 his opinions in numerous pamphlets, and in a 

 quarterly periodical called The Christian Witness, 

 which for a number of years was the organ of the 

 Plymouth Brethren. His tenets, and those of the 

 sect in general, are, upon the whole, Calvinistic. 

 Millenarian views are held very generally by the 

 Plymouth Brethren, who are also, in the matter 

 of baptism, Baptists. Their most distinctive 

 peculiarity, however, is their complete rejection 

 of ecclesiastical organisation. They refuse to 

 recognise any form of church government, or any 

 office of the ministry ; and they insist much on 

 the equal right of every male member of the 

 church to ' prophesy,' or preach. The Plymouth 

 Brethren reject every distinctive appellation ex- 

 cept that of Christians ; but, while endea- 

 vouring to realise in their system the com- 

 prehensive unity and charity of the primitive 

 church, they have become practically very much 

 divided. Among other divisions, a great schism 

 took place among them in consequence of doc- 

 trines preached at Plymouth and Bristol con- 

 cerning the human nature of Christ Their 

 number exceeds 100,000. 



THE GREEK CHURCH. 



Taken in its widest sense, the Greek Church 

 comprehends all those Christians following the 



Western Church. 



414 



The Greek Church calls itself in both kinds, and in administering it in this 



