652 



GREECE, (cmrucn.) 



the modern Greek by Struvo, Berlin, 182?) ; Minoides 

 Minus, Traite sur in vtrilitble I'rononciation de la 

 Lungite (Jrecque (Paris, 18i!7). Coray's system is at 

 present generally adopted, to enrich and ennoble the 

 modern Greek language from the treasures of the 

 ancient Greek, avoiding the too difficult inflections, 

 and removing the Germanisms and Gallicisms intro- 

 duced by translations. 



Greek Church; that portion of Christians who con- 

 form, in their creed, usages, and church government, 

 to the views of Christianity introduced into the for- 

 mer Greek empire, and perfected, since the fifth 

 century, under the patriarchs of Constantinople, 

 Alexandria, Antioch,and Jerusalem. Christendom, 

 which, with difficulty, had been brought to a state of 

 concord in the fourth and fifth centuries, already con- 

 tained the germ of a future schism, by reason both of 

 its extent, as it embraced the whole east and west of 

 the Roman empire, and of the diversity of language, 

 modes of thinking, and manners, among the nations 

 professing it. The foundation of a new Rome in 

 Constantinople ; the political partition of the Roman 

 empire into the Oriental, or Greek, and the Occi- 

 dental, or Latin ; the elevation of the bishop of 

 Constantinople to the place of second patriarch of 

 Christendom, inferior only to the patriarch of Rome, 

 effected in the councils of Constantinople, A. D. 381, 

 and of Chalcedon, A. D. 451 ; the jealousy of the 

 latter patriarch towards the growing power of the 

 former, were circumstances, which, together with 

 the ambiguity of the edict known under the name 

 of the Henoticon, granted by the Greek emperor 

 Zeno, A. D. 482, and obnoxious to the Latins on 

 account of the appearance of a deviation from the 

 decrees of the council of Chalcedon, produced a for- 

 mal schism in the Christian church. Felix II., 

 patriarch of Rome, pronounced sentence of excom- 

 munication against the patriarchs of Constantino- 

 ple and Alexandria, who had been the leading agents 

 of the Henoticon, A. D. 484, and thus severed all 

 ecclesiastical fellowship with the congregations of 

 the' East, attached to these patriarchs. The senti- 

 ments of the imperinl court being changed, the Roman 

 patriarch Hormidas was able, indeed, to compel a 

 reunion of the Greek church with the Latin, in 519; 

 but this union, never seriously intended, and loosely 

 compacted, was again dissolved by the obstinacy of 

 both parties, and the Roman sentence of excommu- 

 nication against the Iconoclasts among the Greeks, 

 A. D. 733, and against Photius, the patriarch of Con- 

 stantinople, A. D. 862. The augmentation of the 

 Greek church, by the addition of newly converted 

 nations, as the Bulgarians, excited anew, about this 

 time, the jealousy of the Roman pontiff ; and his 

 bearing towards the Greeks was the more haughty 

 since he had renounced his allegiance to the Greek 

 ernperor, and had a sure protection against him in 

 the new Frankish-Roman empire. Photius, on the 

 other hand, charged the Latins with arbitrary conduct 

 in inserting an unscriptural addition into the cretd 

 respecting the origin of the Holy Ghost, and in 

 altering many of the usages of the ancient orthodox 

 church ; for example, in forbidding their priests to 

 marry, repeating the chrism, and fasting on Saturday, 

 as the Jewish sabbath. But he complained, with 

 justice, in particular, of the assumptions of the pope, 

 who pretended to be the sovereign of all Christen- 

 dom, and treated the Greek patriarchs as his inferiors. 

 The deposition of this patriarch, twice effected by 

 the pope, did not terminate the dispute between the 

 Greeks and Latins ; and when the patriarch of Con- 

 stantinople, Michael Cernlarius, added to the charges 

 of Photius, against the Latins, an accusation of 

 heresy, in 1054, on account of their use of unlea- 

 vened bread at the communion, and of the blood of 



animals that had died by strangulation, as well as on 

 account of th immorality of the Latin clergy in 

 genera!. Pope Leo IX., having, in retaliation, ex- 

 COmmuD'cated him in the most insulting manner, ;i 

 total separation ensued of the Greek church from the 

 Latin. From this time, pride, obstinacy, and selfish- 

 ness frustrated all the attempts which were made to 

 reunite the severed churches, partly by the popes, in 

 order to annex the East to their see, partly by the 

 Greek emperors (equally oppressed by the crussuleis 

 and Mohammedans), in order to secure the assistance 

 of the princes of the West. Neither would yield u> 

 the other in respect to the contested points, on which 

 we have touched above. While the Catholic religion 

 acquired a more complete and peculiar character 

 under Gregory VII., and through the scholastic philo- 

 sophy, the Greek church retained its creed, as 

 arranged by John of Damascus, in 730, and its ancient 

 constitution. The conquest of Constantinople by the 

 French crusaders and the Venetians, A. D. 1204, and 

 the cruel oppressions which the G reeks had to endure 

 from the Latins and the papal legates, only increased 

 their exasperation ; and although the Greek emperor 

 Michael II. (Palaeologus, who had reconquered Con- 

 stantinople in 1261) consented to recognise the 

 supremacy of the pope, and by his envoys and some 

 of the clergy, who were devoted to him, abjured the 

 points of separation, at the assembly, at Lyons, A.D. 

 1274 ; and though a joint synod was held at Constan- 

 tinople, in 1277, for the purpose of strengthening the 

 union with the Latin church, the mass of the Greek 

 church was nevertheless opposed to this step, and 

 pope Martin IV., having excommunicated the empe- 

 ror Michael, in 1281, from political motives, the 

 councils held at Constantinople, in 1283 and 1285, by 

 the Greek bishop, restored their old doctrines and the 

 separation from the Latins. The last attempt was 

 made by the Greek emperor John VII. (PalaBologus, 

 who was very hard pressed by the Turks), together 

 with the patriarch Joseph, in the councils held, first 

 at Ferrara, in 1438, and the next year at Florence, 

 pope Eugene IV. presiding; but the union concluded 

 there had the appearance of a submission of the 

 Greeks to the Roman see, and was altogether rejected 

 by the Greek clergy and nation, so that, in fact, the 

 schism of the two churches continued. The efforts 

 of the Greek emperors, on this point, who had always 

 had most interest in these attempts at union, ceased 

 with the overthrow of their empire and the conquest 

 of Constantinople by the Turks, A. D. 1453 ; and 

 the exertions of the Roman Catholics to subject the 

 Greek church, effected nothing but the acknowledg- 

 ment of the supremacy of the pope by some congre- 

 gations in Italy (whither many Greeks had fled before 

 the Turks), in Hungary, Galicia, Poland, and Lithu- 

 ania, which congregations are now known under the 

 name of United Greeks. In the seventh century, the 

 territory of the Greek church embraced, besides East 

 Illyria; Greece Proper, with the Morea and the Archi- 

 pelago, Asia Minor, Syria, with Palestine, Arabia, 

 Egypt, and numerous congregations in Mesopotamia 

 and Persia; but the conquests of Mohammed and his 

 successors have deprived it. since 630, of almost ail 

 its provinces in Asia and Africa ; and even in Europe 

 the number of its adherents was considerably dimi- 

 nished by the Turks in the fifteenth century. On the 

 other hand, it was increased by the accession of 

 several Sclavonian nations, and especially of the 

 Russians, who were compelled by the great prince 

 Wladimir, in the year 988, to adopt the creed of the 

 Greek Christians. To this nation the Greek church 

 is indebted for the symbolical book, which, with the 

 canons of the first and second Nicene, of the first, 

 second, and third Constantinopolitan, of the Ephesian 

 and Chalcedonian general councils and of the Trui- 



