GREEK CHURCH 



3678 



GREEK FIRE 



building at Athens, known as the 

 Choragic Monument of Lysicrates, 

 is accredited as the best example 

 of this order on Grecian soil ; it 

 was erected about 334 B.C. But 

 the style was never fully developed 

 in Greece, and its manifestations 

 are chiefly found in the architecture 

 of the decadence ; it is rather a 

 feature of Roman architecture 

 than of Greek. 



Of Greek municipal buildings 

 very few traces remain, but in the 

 time of Pericles (5th century) the 

 Agora, or market place, of Athens 

 had its porticoes and colonnades 

 enriched with painting and sculp- 

 ture in a manner befitting the great 

 industrial centre of the city. 

 Domestic architecture re tamed the 

 Oriental type, squat and bare on 

 the outside, with roofs sloping to 

 the courtyard, presenting no fea- 

 tures of architectural interest. 

 The Greeks were not tomb-builders, 

 and nothing of importance in this 

 class of architecture can be 

 chronicled. 



The theatres were built on a 

 scale surpassing that of all other 

 public buildings, both in Greece 

 itself and in Asia Minor ; the 

 theatre at Dionysus was no less 

 than 443 ft. in diameter ; but the 

 proscenia of those great masses of 

 masonry were the only points 

 treated architecturally, and none 

 of them have survived. 



F. J. Maclean 



Bibliography. L' Architecture grec- 

 que, V. Laloux, 1888 ; Die Baukunst 

 der Griechen, J. Durm, 1880 ; The 

 Architecture of Greece and Rome, 

 W. J. Anderson and R. P. Spiers, 

 1907 ; Greek Architecture, E. A. 

 Browne, 1909. 



Greek Church. Name given to 

 the Eastern or Oriental Church, 

 the full title of which is The Holy 

 Orthodox Catholic Oriental Church. 

 The name Greek is given to this 

 Church because it was Greek in 

 origin, and most of its ecclesiastical 

 liturgies and literature were com- 

 posed in that language. The Greek 

 Church is to-day the third largest 

 section of Christendom, having 

 some 100,000,000 members as 

 against 230,000,000 Roman Catho- 

 lics and 140,000,000 Protestants. 

 By far the greatest number of its 

 members (no fewer than 85,000,000) 

 belong to Russia, the remainder 

 being scattered about Turkey, 

 Greece, Serbia, Rumania, L'ulgaria, 

 Egypt, and W. Asia. 



In primitive times the Eastern 

 and Western divisions of Christen- 

 dom formed a single Church, and it 

 was only gradually that the separa- 

 tion took place. Many causes con- 

 tributed to this result. When 

 Constantino transferred the capital 

 of the empire from Rome to Con- 

 stantinople, it was inevitable that 



the Roman empire would split into 

 two divisions, and that the political 

 rivalry between these two divisions 

 would be reflected in the Church. 



It soon also became clear that the 

 genius of the East differed from 

 that of the West. The East was 

 more interested in the speculative 

 problems of theology, the West in 

 form and organization. The spirit 

 of the East finds its best expression 

 in the writings of Origen and the 

 Alexandrian fathers; the spirit of 

 the West in those of Augustine. To 

 the East we owe the metaphysi- 

 cal side of Christian theology, 

 especially in Christology ; to the 

 West the doctrines of sin, grace, and 

 predestination. For some centuries 

 the two Churches gradually drifted 

 apart, but it was not until the 9th 

 century that the final rupture took 

 place. The actual occasion for the 

 division was a controversy upon 

 the Filioque clause in the Nicene 

 creed. 



Points of Difference 

 In addition to the theological 

 difference, there were several out- 

 standing points upon which the two 

 Churches diverged : (1 ) the Eastern 

 Church maintained the absolute 

 equality of the different patriarch- 

 ates and refused to acknowledge 

 the supremacy of the pope of Rome. 

 (2) The Eastern Church refused to 

 adopt the rule of celibacy for the 

 mass of its clergy, and allowed all 

 except the bishops and monks to 

 marry. (3) The Eastern Church 

 always maintained communion " in 

 both kinds," and refused to consent 

 to the Roman practice of withhold- 

 ing the cup from the laity. (4) It 

 also insisted on "trine immersion" 

 in baptism. (5) It allowed the use 

 of the vernacular in its liturgies 

 and public worship. (6) The 

 Eastern Church does not accept the 

 Apostles' or the Athanasian creed, 

 both of which are of Western 

 origin ; but regards the Niccne 

 creed without the Filioque clause 

 as the basis of its faith. 



As a result of its belief in the 

 equality of the patriarchates the 

 different national sections of the 

 Eastern Church maintain a con- 

 siderable amount of independence. 

 The orthodox Church of Russia was 

 formerly subject to the patriarch 

 of Constantinople, but as it grew in 

 import ance and numbers a separate 

 patriarchate was established at 

 Moscow in 1582, and in 1721 a 

 holy synod was established at St. 

 Petersburg whose jurisdiction ex- 

 tended across two continents. The 

 national Church of Greece also 

 secured its independence in 1833, 

 and has a synod of its own. Serbia, 

 Rumania, and Montenegro also 

 have their own synods and metro- 

 politans, and are no longer under 



the control of the patriarch of 

 Constantinople. 



Various attempts have been 

 made at different times to bring 

 about a reunion between the East- 

 ern Church and the Churches of the 

 West. At the councils of Lyons, 

 1274, and of Ferrara, 1439, fruitless 

 efforts were initiated to heal the 

 breach. A compromise might have 

 been found on the theological diffi- 

 culty, but the papacy presented an 

 insurmountable barrier. Overtures 

 have also been made at different 

 times by the Lutheran Church, but 

 the difficulties have always proved 

 intractable. There have been pour- 

 parlers on more than one occasion 

 between the Greek and the Angli- 

 can Churches, hitherto with no 

 tangible result. At the world con- 

 ference of the Churches on Faith 

 and Order, held in Geneva, in Aug., 

 1920, representatives of the Greek 

 Church were present in consider- 

 able force, and formally proposed, 

 on behalf of the Greek Church as a 

 whole, the establishment of a 

 League of Churches parallel to the 

 League of Nations. 



H. T. Andrews 



Greek Fire. Inflammable com- 

 position used by the Byzantine 

 Greeks for defensive warfare. Ac- 

 cording to many accounts it was 

 inextinguishable and was able to 

 burn under water. Its invention is 

 ascribed to Callinicus of Heliopolis 

 in A.D. ti68. The composition of 

 Greek rire is a matter of uncer- 

 tainty. Aeneas Tacticus gives it 

 as a mixture of sulphur, pitch, 

 charcoal, incense and tow, while 

 Vegetius adds naphtha. 



It was used against the enemy 

 in various forms, the simplest being 

 a tube packed full of the composi- 

 tion and thrown like the modern 

 grei lade. It was often blown through 

 copper tubes,. fixed in the prow of 

 the vessel. These tubes were shaped 

 like the mouths of savage monsters, 

 so seeming, to the terrified enemy, 

 to be vomiting streams of liquid fire. 

 There is hardly much doubt that 

 gunpowder, or some composition 

 very like it, was also used to hurl 

 missiles of Greek fire compositions 

 vrhich exploded when they hit their 

 object, thus coming very near the 

 modern gun. 



The secret of Greek fire was well 

 kept, and the terror it inspired, 

 apart from its devastating effects, 

 prevented the capture of Constan- 

 tinople for many centuries. The 

 use of various forms of Greek fire 

 was continued till the 14th century 

 when gunpowder took its place. 

 See Explosives; consult alsoHistory 

 of Inventions, Beckmann, 1846 ; 

 Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the 

 Roman Empire, vi, ed. J. B. Bury, 

 1912. 



