CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 



form even to children. In the matter of penance, 

 they recognise auricular confession, priestly abso- 

 lution, and penitential works. The Greeks differ 

 from Catholics in not only permitting married 

 candidates to be advanced to deaconship and 

 priesthood, but in even requiring, as a general 

 rule, that they shall be actually married before 

 they can be admitted to orders. But marriage 

 is forbidden in the case of bishops, who are 

 always chosen from the monastic, and not the 

 secular clergy. While they reject the purgatorial 

 fire of the Western Catholics, they admit the 

 principle of the intermediate state of purgation, 

 and of the practice of prayer for the dead, as well 

 as the intercession and invocation of saints. In 

 addition to four yearly fasts, they observe the 

 Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year 

 as fasts. In public prayer, the kneeling posture 

 is used only at Pentecost ; at ordinary times, 

 they stand, the body being turned towards the 

 east. The use of the sign of the cross is habitual 

 among them, and they freely receive and multiply 

 pictures, which they hold in high honour, and on 

 which they lavish the most costly ornaments. 



The monastic institute has subsisted in the 

 Greek Church from the earliest times, and numer- 

 ous convents of both sexes are dispersed over the 

 east : the abbot is called Hegumenos, and the 

 abbess, Hegumene ; if several convents be subject 

 to a single abbot, he is called Archimandrite. 



The Greek Church is divided into three great 

 sections. In the Turkish Empire, the Church has 

 remained subject to the Patriarch of Constanti- 

 nople, who from the beginning held the rank of 

 a ' pacha of three tails,' but in return, the Porte 

 claimed and exercised the right of appointing and 

 also of deposing the Patriarch. For a long time 

 the Metropolitan of Russia (afterwards Patriarch) 

 was directly subject to the Patriarch of Constanti- 

 nople, as also the bishop of the modern kingdom 

 of Greece ; but both churches are now independ- 

 ent In the year 1589, a separate but dependent 

 patriarchate was established at Moscow, which 

 continued until the time of Peter the Great, by 

 whom it was first suspended, and, twenty years 

 afterwards, abolished. The Russo-Greek Church 

 is now governed by a council called the ' Holy 

 Synod,' or ' Permanent Synod,' which consists 

 of archbishop, bishops, and archimandrites, all 

 named by the emperor. This synod is regarded 

 as one of the great departments of the govern- 

 ment, the Minister of Public Worship being ex 

 officio a member. The liturgy of the Russian 

 Church is the same as that of Constantinople, 

 but it is celebrated, not in the Greek, but in the 

 Slavonic language. 



The independence of the Church of the king- 

 dom of Greece dates from the revolution. The 

 new Church was formally organised by a decree 

 of July 1833, on a plan in great part borrowed 

 from the constitution of the Russian Church. In 

 Greece, the ' Holy Synod ' consists of five mem- 

 bers, who are ordinarily archbishops or bishops, 

 named by the crown, and holding office but 

 for a year. The synod elects bishops, but the 

 crown has the right of confirming and granting 

 investiture. 



The adherents of the Greek Church number 

 about 75 millions ; Russia containing 44 millions, 

 with 73 bishops, of whom 7 are metropolitans, and 

 .28 archbishops. 



Sects of the Greek Church. 



Nestorians. This sect had its origin in the 

 denial by Nestorius (431 A.D.) of the propriety 

 of the expression ' mother of God ' as applied to 

 Christ His followers exaggerated the distinction 

 of two natures in our Lord into a distinction of 

 two persons, united merely by a unity of will and 

 affection. Although vigorously repressed in the 

 Roman Empire, Nestorianism was protected by 

 the Persians, and was ultimately established by 

 King Pherozes as the national church, with a 

 patriarch at Seleucia. The Nestorians now num- 

 ber about 140,000. They recognise the seven sac- 

 raments, observe frequent fasts, and pray for the 

 dead. They are governed by a patriarch at Diz 

 and 1 8 bishops. Another body of Nestorians 

 exist in India, numbering 100,000. 



The Jacobites are the oriental sect of Monophy- 

 sites, or believers in the doctrine that Christ had 

 but one nature. The name Jacobites belongs 

 more specially to the Monophy sites of Syria, 

 Mesopotamia, and Chaldea, who number about 

 40,000 families. 



The Coptic Church consists of the Christian 

 descendants of the ancient Egyptians, who are 

 generally Monophysites and number 150,000. 

 Their highest dignitary is the Patriarch of Alex- 

 andria, who, however, resides at Cairo. The Copts 

 are strict in their religious observances ; baptise 

 by immersion ; practise unction, exorcism, auric- 

 ular confession ; and celebrate the Lord's Supper 

 with leavened bread which has been dipped in 

 wine. 



The Abyssinian Church is national and inde- 

 pendent, but its visible head, or A buna ('our 

 Father'), is ordained by the Coptic Patriarch 

 of Alexandria. The doctrines of the Abyssinian 

 Church coincide with those of the Coptic Church, 

 especially in the Monophysite heresy ; but several 

 peculiar rites are observed, including circumcision 

 of both sexes, and observance of the Mosaic 

 laws respecting food, &c. love-feasts, and adult 

 baptism. 



Christianity was established in Armenia to- 

 wards the close of the 3d century. In the 

 ecclesiastical controversy concerning the twofold 

 nature of Christ, the Armenian Christians held 

 with the Monophysites, and constituted themselves 

 a separate church. On the whole, it resembles 

 the Greek Church in doctrine and sacerdotal 

 constitution. 



The Maronites, descendants of the Monothelite 

 sect, have their chief seat on the western declivity 

 of Mount Lebanon, and number about 150,000, 

 distributed into 150 parishes. They are ruled by 

 a patriarch, who is still styled Patriarch of 

 Antioch, and 17 bishops. The Maronites have 

 many convents for both sexes. 



A number of sects, designated by the name of 

 Raskolnik (Russian Separatist), equivalent to dis- 

 senter, exist in Russia, whose nonconformity began 

 to appear on a considerable scale from the middle 

 of the I7th century, when the ancient Slavonic litur- 

 gical and ritual books underwent revision. The 

 revisions introduced into the churches by the 

 authority of the Czar and Patriarch were resisted 

 as innovations by the Raskolniks, who in later 

 times were called Starowierzi (' Men of the Old 

 Faith '), and who, while differing from one another 

 in doctrine, follow certain common observances. 



414 



