CHAPTER III.

Subdivisions of the Eastern church.-Symbolic books of the Greek church.Present condition, internal government, and numerical extent of the orthodox Greek church.-Anti-Byzantine churches.-Syrian church.-Coptic church.― Abyssinian church.-Nestorian church.-Indo-Syrian church.-Armenian church.

THAT great division of Christendom generally comprehended under the denomination of the Eastern Church, in contradistinction from the Western Church, is now divided into many communions:

I. The Constantinopolitan (Byzantine) or orthodox Greek church, comprising all who acknowledge the supremacy of the patriarch of Constantinople, styled the Ecumenical Patriarch.

II. The Russian Greek church, which was formed into a fifth patriarchate by the council of Moscow, A.D. 1588; was declared independent of any foreign jurisdiction in the following century; and, on the abolition of the high office of patriarch by Peter the Great, in 1700, was constituted a National Church, having for its head the Russian Emperor. It is now governed by a council established at St. Petersburg in 1721, called the Holy Legislative Synod.

III. The Anti-Byzantine or Monophysite churches, which have renounced communion both with the Constantinopolitan church and the church of Rome; differing from them in doctrine as well as in ritual; namely:

i. The Syrian Jacobite church, acknowledging the supremacy of the Jacobite patriarch of Antioch.

ii. The Coptic or Alexandrian church, acknowledging as its head the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria.

iii. The Abyssinian or Ethiopic church, which, as acknowledging the supremacy of the patriarch of Alexandria, may be considered as a branch of the Coptic.

iv. The Nestorian Chaldean church, the head of which is the patriarch of Babylon, resident at Mousul.

v. The Indo-Syrian church, under the metropolitan of Malabar, who acknowledges, however, the supremacy of the patriarch of Antioch.

vi. The Armenian church, the proper head of which is the Catholicos of Etchmiazin: those of Sis and Aghtamar have also independent jurisdiction.

IV. The Greek and other Eastern Christians, who acknowledge the supremacy of the see of Rome, and are in communion with the Latin church. They are distinguished as Greek Catholics, Armenian Catholics (or papal Armenians), Syrian Catholics (or Maronites), Nestorian Catholics, &c.

SECTION I.

THE ORTHODOX GREEK CHURCH.

In point of doctrine, the Constantinopolitan Greek church and the Russian Greek church are essentially agreed, their separation being purely political. To the Russian or Muscovite church, the mother church of Constantinople is indebted, indeed, for the symbolic book which, together with the canons of the first seven Ecumenical Councils, now forms the only authorized standard of its doctrines. Numerous confessions of faith had been put forth, but none of them possessing any recognised authority, when, in 1621, the learned and excellent Cyril Lucar, then Patriarch of Constantinople, drew up, in the name of the Oriental church, his famous Confession, comprising eighteen short chapters and articles, and remarkable for its close approximation to the doctrines of the Reformed Protestant churches, in the rejection of purgatory, transubstantiation, the apocryphal books of the Greek canon, and the five spurious sacraments.* The publication of this

This Confession was first written in Latin, and, being delivered to C. Vander Haga, the Dutch ambassador at the Porte, was published by him in 1629. It was afterwards translated into Greek, and enlarged by the addition of copious scriptural authorities. An edition appeared at Rome in 1632, which has a censure

document excited, however, the most violent opposition, which was fostered by the Jesuits, seconded by the influence of the French ambassador at the Porte, and led to the deposition and martyrdom of the patriarch, who was strangled by the Ottoman Government in 1638. In avowed opposition to Cyril's Confession, Peter Mogislaus, metropolitan of Kiev, in the Ukraine, convened a synod, and put forth a Confession or Catechism, in the Russian language, primarily for the use of his own diocese. This was, however, revised, approved, and confirmed, in 1643, by Parthenius, Patriarch of Constantinople, the three other Greek patriarchs, nine bishops, and others, who decreed that "it faithfully followed the doctrine of the church of Christ, and agreed with the holy canons." Having been translated into Latin and Greek, it was then published under the title of "The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Oriental Church." It appears to have been further confirmed by a council held at Jerusalem in 1672, by which the doctrines of Cyril were condemned. In 1696, it was published by the last Russian patriarch; and in 1772, at the command of Peter the Great, by the Holy Synod.* This Confession is said to be not much regarded even in the Russian church. Its original adoption appears to have been the result of faction and intrigue; and it was indebted for a considerable share of the credit it obtained, to an opulent Constantinopolitan Greek, named Panagiota, interpreter to the Porte, who published it at his own expense for gratuitous distribution. Be this as it may, it must be regarded as the most authentic exposition of the doctrines of the orthodox

upon it, in modern Greek, entitled, "The Condemnation of the Confession of the Calvinists, as it was set forth in the name of Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople." It seems to have been attempted to discredit its authenticity. Two editions of the Greek and Latin were published in Geneva; the latter in 1633. It appears in the "Corpus Confessionum;" is given by Hottinger in his "Analecta Hist. Analogica;" and was published (in Greek and French) with the Letters, &c. of Cyril, in 1 vol. 4to. Amsterdam, 1718. Adam's "Religious World Displayed,” vol. i. p. 183.

It was printed in Holland, in Greek and Latin, in 1662, with a recommendatory letter from Nectarius, patriarch of Jerusalem. Again, at Leipsic, in 1695, with a preface by Laur. Normannus, a Swede; and in 1751, at Breslau, with an historical account of it by Professor Hoffman of Wittemberg.

Greek church which we possess, since it has received the sanction of the highest ecclesiastical authorities.

Like the Latin church, the Greek church recognises two sources of doctrine, the Holy Scriptures and Tradition; comprehending under the latter all the doctrines approved by the first seven General Councils, as well as those contained in the writings of the Greek fathers, especially St. Chrysostom, whose name is still held in high veneration among the better informed clergy. The doctor who holds the highest rank, however, as an expositor of the Christian doctrine, in the Greek church, is John of Damascus, who flourished in the eighth century; styled by Mosheim, "the Thomas Aquinas and Lombard of the Greeks."* He composed a complete body of the Christian doctrine in a scientific method, under the title of "Four Books concerning the Orthodox Faith;" which was received among the Greeks with the highest applause and admiration, and at length came to be acknowledged by them as the only rule of Divine truth. In another work, entitled, "Sacred Parallels," he also collected with great care and industry, the opinions of the ancient doctors concerning various points of the Christian religion.

The chief points upon which the Greek church differs from the Latin, as well as those tenets which they hold in common, have been specified in the preceding chapter. To the former may be added, that the Greeks consider the Septuagint as the authentic version of the Old Testament, attaching to it the same reverence and deference which the Latins, with less reason, pay to the Latin Vulgate; and they consequently receive as canonical all the apocryphal books comprised in the Greek canon. They also ascribe a high authority to the Eighty-five Apostolical Constitutions. They commence their. ecclesiastical year on the 1st of September, in this respect agreeing nearly with the Jewish calendar; and they differ from the Western church in their sacred chronology, reckoning 5500 years from the Creation to the Birth of our Saviour.

The rites and ceremonies of the Greek church are exceedingly numerous, trivial, and burdensome: the daily services. Mosheim, Part II. c. 3. § 6.

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are eight in number, and, if performed at length, would occupy twelve or fourteen hours. In parochial churches, these services are now reduced to three. The Service-books, answering to the Missal, Breviary, and Martyrology of the Latins, with the Psalter, &c., occupy more than twenty folio volumes. In all the services, except in the Communion, prayers and adorations are offered to the Virgin, (styled the Panagia, all-holy,) or to some of the multitudinous saints of the Greek Calendar, almost as often as to the Deity. Every day in the year is consecrated to some saint; frequently to more than one; and every day of the week is appropriated, in the church service, to some peculiar object of adoration. Sunday is dedicated to the Resurrection; Monday, to the Angels; Tuesday, to St. John Baptist; Wednesday, to the Virgin Mary and the Cross; Thursday, to the Apostles; Friday, to the Passion of Christ; and Saturday, to the Saints and Martyrs. The Greeks are remarkable for the austerity with which they observe their fasts. Of these, there are four in the year: the first begins in November, comprehending the forty days previous to Christmas; the second corresponds to our Lent; the third, called the Lent of St. Peter, commences the week after Pentecost, and ends on the feast of St. Peter (June 29); and the fourth, the Lent of the Mother of God, begins on the 1st of August, and ends on the 15th, the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin.

Generally speaking, the Greek church is as deeply sunk in idolatrous error as the Romish, and exhibits, perhaps, even more of the imbecility of superstition, combined with a more barbarous ignorance. Among the causes which have tended to perpetuate this ignorance, the most obvious are, the destitution of the Holy Scriptures, and the performance of Divine worship in a language not understood by the people. The ancient Greek, the language of the church service, is as much a dead language as the Latin, and scarcely less unintelligible to the modern Greeks, than it is to the Slavonian population of Russia. Yet it has been, till of late, the only language taught in the schools of Greece; and the natural consequence has been, that by far the larger portion of the