GREECE. (CHURCH.) 



553 



Ian council, holden at Constantinople in 692, is the 

 sole authority of the Greek Christian in doctrinal 

 matters. After the learned Cyrillus Lascaris, patri- 

 arch of Constantinople, had atoned, with his life, for 

 the approach to Protestantism perceptible in his creed. 

 A. D. 1629, an exposition of the doctrine of the 

 Russians was drawn up, in the Greek language, by 

 Pet. Mogislaus, bishop of Kiev, in 1642, under the 

 title of the Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and 

 Apostolic Church of Christ, signed and ratified, 1643, 

 by all the patriarchs of the Greek Church, to whom 

 had been added, in 1589, the fifth patriarch of Mos- 

 cow. It was printed in Holland, in Greek and Latin, 

 1662, with a preface by tiie patriarch Nectarius of 

 Jerusalem. In 1696, it was published by the last 

 Russian patriarch, Adrianus of Moscow; and, in 

 1722, at the command of Peter the Great, by the 

 holy synod ; it having been previously declared to be 

 in all cases valid, as the ritual of the Greek church, 

 by a council at Jerusalem, in 1672, and by the eccle- 

 siastical rule of Peter the Great, drawn up, in 1721, 

 by Theophanes Procowicz. 



Like the Catholic, this church recognises two 

 sources of doctrine, the Bible and tradition, under 

 which last it comprehends not only those doctrines 

 which were orally delivered by the apostles, but also 

 those which have been approved of by the fathers of 

 the Greek church, especially John of Damascus, as 

 well as by the seven above-named general councils. 

 The other councils, whose authority is valid in the 

 Roman Catholic church, this church does not recog- 

 nise ; nor does it allow the patriarclis or synods to 

 introduce new doctrines. It treats its tenets as so 

 entirely obligatory and necessary, that they cannot 

 be denied without the loss of salvation. It is the 

 only church which holds that the Holy Ghost 

 proceeds from the Father only, thus differing from 

 die Catholic and Protestant churches, which agree 

 in deriving the Holy Ghost from the Father and 

 the Son. Like the Catholic church, it has seven 

 sacraments baptism, chrism, the eucharist preceded 

 by confession, penance, ordination, marriage and 

 supreme unction; but it is peculiar, 1. in holding 

 tliat full purification from original sin in baptism 

 requires an immersion three times of the whole 

 body in water, whether infants or adults are to 

 be baptized, and in joining chrism (confirmation) 

 with it as the completion of baptism ; 2. in adopting, 

 as to the eucharist, the doctrine of transubstantiation, 

 as well as the Catholic views of the host ; but it 

 orders the bread to be leavened, the wine to be mixed 

 with water, and both elements are distributed to 

 every one, even to children, before they have a true 

 idea of what sin is, the communicant receiving the 

 bread broken in a spoon filled with the consecrated 

 wine; 3. all the clergy, with the exception of the 

 monks, and of the higher clergy chosen from among 

 tiiem, down to the bishops inclusive, are allowed to 

 marry a virgin, but not a widow ; nor are they 

 allowed to marry a second time ; and therefore the 

 widowed clergy are not permitted to retain their 

 livings, but go into a cloister, where they are called 

 hicromonachi. Rarely is a widowed clergyman 

 allowed to preserve his diocese ; and from the maxim, 

 that marriage is not suitable for the higher clergy in 

 general, and second marriage at least is improper 

 for the lower, there is no departure. The Greek 

 church does not regard the marriage of the laity as 

 indissoluble, and frequently grants divorces ; but is 

 as strict as the Catholic church with respect to the 

 forbidden degrees of relationship, especially of the 

 ecclesiastical relationship of god-parents ; nor does 

 it allow the laity a fourtli marriage. It differs from 

 the Catholic church in anointing with the holy oil, 

 uot only the dying, but the sick, for the restoration 



of their health, the forgiveness of their sins, and the 

 sanctification of their souls. It rejects the doctrine 

 of purgatory, has nothing to do with predestination, 

 works of supererogation, indulgences, and dispensa- 

 tions (to the living ; but a printed form for the for- 

 giveness of sin is sometimes given to the deceased, 

 at the request and for the comfort of the survivors); 

 and it recognises neither the pope nor any one else 

 as the visible vicar of Christ on earth. It moreover 

 allows no carved, sculptured, or molten image of 

 holy persons or subjects ; but the representations of 

 Christ, of the virgin Mary, and the saints, which are 

 objects of religious veneration in churches and pri- 

 vate houses, must be merely painted, and, at most, 

 inlaid with precious stones. In the Russian churches 

 however, works of sculpture are found on the altars. 

 In the invocation of the saints, and especially of the 

 virgin, the Greeks are as zealous as the Catholics. 

 They also hold relics, graves, and crosses sacred ; 

 and crossing in the name of Jesus, they consider as 

 having a wonderful and blessed influence. Among 

 the means of penance, fasts are particularly numer- 

 ous with them, at which it is not lawful to eat any 

 thing but fruits, vegetables, bread, and fish. They 

 fast, Wednesday and Friday of every week ; and, 

 besides, observe four great annual fasts, viz., forty 

 days before Easter, from Whitsuntide to the days of 

 St Peter and Paul ; the fast of the virgin Mary, from 

 the 1st to the 15th of August; and the apostle 

 Philip's fast, from the 15th to the 26th of November ; 

 besides the clay of the beheading of John the Baptist, 

 and of the elevation of the cross. 



The services of the Greek church consist almost 

 entirely in outward forms. Preaching and catechis- 

 ing constitute the least part of it ; and, in the seven- 

 teenth century, preaching was strictly forbidden in 

 Russia, under the czar Alexis, in order to prevent 

 the diffusion of new doctrines. In Turkey, preach- 

 ing was confined almost exclusively to the higher 

 clergy, because they alone possessed some degree of 

 knowledge. Each congregation has its appointed 

 choir of singers, who sing psalms and hymns. The 

 congregations themselves do not, like us, sing from 

 books ; and instrumental music is excluded altoge- 

 ther from the Greek worship. Besides the mass, 

 which is regarded as the chief thing, the liturgy 

 consists of passages of Scripture, prayers, and legends 

 of the saints, ana in the recitation of the creed, or of 

 sentences which the officiating priest begins, and the 

 people in a body continue and finish. The convents 

 conform, for the most part, to the strict rule of St 

 Basil. The Greek abbot is termed higumenos, the 

 abbess higumene. The abbot of a Greek convent, 

 which has several others under its inspection, is 

 termed archimandrite, and has a rank next below 

 that of bishop. The lower clergy in the Greek 

 church consist of readers, singers, deacons, &c., and 

 of priests, such as the popes and protopopes of arch- 

 priests, who are the first clergy in the cathedrals and 

 metropolitan churches. The members of the lower 

 clergy can rise no higher than protopopes ; for the 

 bishops are chosen from among the monks, and from 

 the bishops, archbishops, metropolitans, and patri- 

 archs. In Russia, there are thirty-one dioceses. 

 With which of them the archiepiscopal dignity shall 

 be united, depends on the will of the emperor. The 

 seats of the four metropolitans of the Russian empire 

 are Petersburg, with the jurisdiction of Novgorod ; 

 Kiev, with that of Galicia; Kasan, with that of 

 Svijaschk : and Tobolsk, with that of nil Siberia. 

 The patriarchal dignity of Moscow, which the patri- 

 arch Nikon (died in 1681) was said to have abused 

 Peter the Great abolished, by presenting himself be- 

 fore the bishops, assembled, after the death of Adria, 

 1702, to choose a new patriarch, with the wonts, " J 



