The second comprehends those Christians who differ equally from the Roman pontiff and the Grecian patriarch, in their religious opinions and institutions, and who live under the government of their own bishops and rulers.

The third is composed of those who are subject to the see of Rome.

The society of Christians that lives in religious communion with the patriarch of Constantinople, is properly speaking, the Greek, though it assumes likewise the title of the Eastern Church.

This society is subdivided into two branches, of which the one acknowledges the supreme authority and jurisdiction of the bishop of Constantinople; while the other, though joined in communion of doctrine and worship with that prelate, yet refuses to receive his legates, or to obey his edicts, and is governed by its own laws and institutions, under the jurisdiction of spiritual rulers, who are independent on all foreign authority,

That part of the Greek church which acknowledges the jurisdiction of the bishop of Constantinople, is divided, as in the early ages of Christianity, into four large districts or provinces—Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; over each of which a bishop presides, with the title of patriarch, whom the inferior bishops and monastic orders una

nimously respect as their common father. But the supreme chief of all these patriarchs, bishops, and abbots, and, generally speaking, of the whole church, is the patriarch of Constantinople.

Adopting the plan of Dr. Mosheim, whose language I have just quoted, I shall now give some

account.

1st, Of this part of the Greek church.

2dly, Of that other part which, though adopting her doctrines and ceremonies, yet is entirely free from the jurisdiction and authority of the patriarch of Constantinople, and comprehends the Russians, Georgians, and Mingrelians.

And then, of those Eastern churches that separate from the communion of the Greeks and Latins, and differ from them both in doctrine and worship; and to this division belong the Monophysites or Jacobites, together with the Nestorians, or Chaldeans, the Armenians, &c.

Of the third grand division of Eastern Christians, viz. those who are subject to the see of Rome, some account will be given below, under the article Church of Rome.

326

THE

GREEK CHURCH

SUBJECT TO THE

PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE.

NAME, ANTIQUITY, &c.-The Greek church is so called, from its comprehending all Christians within the limits of Ancient Greece, to distinguish it from the Latin or Romish church, and chiefly from its members having long universally used the Greek language in its liturgies or religious services; a practice which is still continued in the part of it now under consideration, and likewise by some others.

The Oriental or Greek church is the most ancient of all Christian churches; for, though it may be granted that the Roman pontiff had acquired a spiritual, or rather a temporal jurisdiction, before the patriarch of Constantinople, and perhaps before any other Oriental patriarch, yet it cannot be

doubted that the first Christian church or society was established at Jerusalem.

The next churches were, doubtless, those of Syria and Greece; and if ever St. Peter was at Rome, which has not yet been fully ascertained, it was not till after he had been bishop of Antioch; so that the Latin church is unquestionably the daughter of the Greek, and is indebted to her for all the blessings of the gospel: a truth which one of her own bishops acknowledged in the council of Trent.*

"The law went out of Zion, and the word of the Lord from Jerusalem."+ This city was the mother of all churches;+-the original emporium of the Christian faith; the centre from which the healing rays of Christianity diverged and spread over the world.

But notwithstanding the Greek church is more ancient than the Latin, they had both the same

* "Eia igitur Græcia mater nostra, cui id totum debet quod habet Latina Ecclesia."-Oratio. Episc. Bitont. in Conc. Trid. habita.

† Isaiah, chap. ii. 3.

P.

This is acknowledged not only by Theodoret, but likewise by one hundred and fifty orthodox fathers, assembled in a council at Constantinople, Anno 381. 66 Митир a ̄v xxxnσv."-Theod. Histor. Eccl. 1. 5. c. 9. 211. Edit. Paris, 1673, speaking of Jerusalem:-" Porro Ecclesiæ Hierosolymitanæ, quæ est aliarum omnium mater, Cyrillum Episcopum vobis ostendimus." Concil. Constan tinop. de consecratione Cyrili. Teste Baronio.

apostolical foundation; and for the first eight cen turies they were in communion with one another, though all along they disagreed in some points. They were divided as to the time and obligation of keeping Easter so early as the second century, and considerable jealousies broke out between them at the council of Sardis, in Illyricum, in 347. The flame of resentment, though occasionally stifled for a time, again broke out with increased fury in the eighth century, on the subject of images; and in the ninth, under the patriarch Photius, their disputes ran so high, that they broke off communion with each other, and a final separation took place between them. Photius was elected patriarch of Constantinople, in the year 858, by the emperor Michael, in the place of Ignatius, whom that prince drove from his see, and forced into exile. Pope Nicholas I. took part with the exiled patriarch, condemned the election as unwarrantable, and excommunicated Photius. Upon this, Photius, a high-spirited prelate, and the most learned and ingenious man of the age, assembled a council at Constantinople, and, in return, excommunicated the Pope. Hence, and from various other circumstances in the history of the Eastern and Western churches, we may conclude, that the animosities which subsisted between them for so many ages, and the final separation which thus ensued, are not to be ascribed to their early difference in opinion concerning the observation of certain festivals, nor even to the more important subjects of dispute which gave rise to the Arian heresy. They are rather to be referred