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A Pocket Church History
for Orthodox Christians
by Fr.
Aidan Keller
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+ In the name of the
Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, amen.
FOUNDING OF THE CHURCH
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OME 2,000 years ago, our Lord Jesus Christ directly
intervened in human history. Although He is God (together with the
Father and the Holy Spirit), He became a man--or, as we often put it,
He became incarnate--enfleshed. Mankind, at its very beginning in Adam
and Eve, had fallen away from Divine life by embracing sin, and had
fallen under the power of death. But the Lord Jesus, by His
incarnation, death upon the Cross, and subsequent resurrection from death on the third day, destroyed the power
death had over men. By His teaching and His whole
saving work, Christ reconciled to God a humanity that had grown distant
from God1 and had become ensnared in sins.2 He abolished the authority the Devil had
acquired over men3 and He renewed and re-created both
mankind and His whole universe.4 Bridging the abyss
separating man and God, by means of the union of man and God in His own
Person, Christ our Saviour opened the way to eternal, joyful life after
death for all who would accept it.5
Not all the people of Judea, the
Hebrews, God's chosen people (Deut 7:6; Is 44:1), were ready to hear
this news, and so our Lord spoke to them mostly in parables and
figures. For the complete revelation of His teachings, He chose out
twelve simple men whom He taught more perfectly.6 These
twelve are called His Apostles.7 As part of His salvation of
the human race, Christ established a Church (Mt 16:18; Mt 18:17).
1 Rom 5:1, 2, 10; 2 Cor 5:18-19; Eph.
2:14-17; Col 1:19-22
2 Gen 8:21; Eph
2:1-3
3 Ps 123:7; Act
26:18; Rom 6:17-18, 22; Col 1:13; Heb 2:14-15; 1 Jn 3:8
4 1 Cor 5:7, 17;
Heb 9:15; Apoc 21:5
5 Jn 3:14-16; Rom
5:21; 1 Cor 15:22; Tit 3:7; Heb 5:9; 1 Pet 3:22
6 Mt 10:2; Lk
6:13; Mt 26:20; Jn 6:70; 1 Cor 15:5; Apoc 21:14
7
Mk 6:30; Lk 9:10; Lk 22:14; Lk 24:10; Lk 8:1; Rom 16:7
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He appointed the Apostles to govern it, and He imbued them
with priestly power (Mt 16:19; Jn 20:21), breathing on them and saying,
"Receive ye the Holy Spirit. Whose sins you shall forgive, they shall
be forgiven them" (Jn 20:21-23). He commissioned them in particular to
preach the Gospel (good news) of His saving death and resurrection,
saying, "Go and teach all nations, baptising them in the name of the
Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit" (Mt 28:19). Christian
tradition is unanimous that during the forty days after rising from
death, until the time that He ascended into heaven, the Lord Jesus
instructed the Twelve in establishing His Church upon earth, a Church
which He promised would never be overcome by the powers of darkness
(Dan 2:44; Mt 16:18). The Lord promised that the Holy Spirit would be
with and guide the Church, preserving it from untruth.1
Characteristics
of Jesus' Church
It is important to understand that the Church was and is both
earthly and heavenly. Existing on earth, it was and is affected by
human weaknesses. For example, although the Head of the Church is
Christ,2 unworthy men are at times chosen to positions of
leadership within it. As a heavenly assembly, however, it is grounded
upon the guarantee of the Lord Himself that "the gates of hell shall
not prevail against it" (Mt 16:18); that is, that the Grace and
salvation God willed to impart to His people through it can never be
invalidated by unworthy individuals. The Church which the Lord Jesus
founded had specific characteristics, which are as applicable today as
when the Apostles walked the earth. It was...
... ONE. Although composed of
local congregations, it was a united body, visibly sharing the same
Faith and Grace.3 It was not a set of different
denominations having a common claim to follow or be founded by Jesus,
united only in some invisible way by that claim. Christ's "high
priestly" prayer which He prayed the night before His death on the
Cross (Jn 17:11, 21-23) was that His Church would be one, even as He
and the Father are one. The seamless garment of Christ, to which an
unusual amount of attention is paid in St. John's Gospel (Jn 19:23-24),
represents the unity of Christ's Church. It was...
... HOLY. The Church is
holy because its Head, the Lord Jesus Christ, is holy (Eph 1:22-23; Eph
2:19-22). It numbered individuals who were sinners among its members,
but it was the means chosen by God to give these sinners forgiveness
(Mt 16:19), Grace, and sanctity. Its teachings were the very path to
holiness, and still are. "Holy" means, originally, "set apart," and the
Church was holy because it went not the way of the world, but along the
paths willed by Jesus Christ our Lord. It was...
1 Is 37:2-3; Mt
16:18; Mt 28:19-20; Jn 14:16-17
2 Eph 4:15; Eph
5:23-24; Col 1:18
3 Jn 10:16; Jn 11:51-52; Rom 12:4-5; 1
Cor 12:12-13, 20, 27; Eph 4:4-5, 15-16; Col 2:18-19; Col 3:15
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... CATHOLIC. Catholic1 comes
from two Greek words, kata holos, meaning "according to the whole." The
Church was given to the whole of mankind; it was for all tribes,
tongues, and peoples, and not only for the Hebrew people.2
It embraced all the teachings the Apostles shared with the peoples of
the world. Nothing the Lord wished us to know has been lost, because
the Church has preserved it all from century to century. It was...
... APOSTOLIC. For
it was established by the Twelve and remained faithful to their
teachings, and not only the part of their teachings recorded in the
Scriptures, but all of them.3 The Church was also apostolic
in its form of government; it has always been governed by successors of
the Apostles. These successors are called Bishops4 and are
visibly united in a single body made of local Churches which share the
same Faith and participate in Communion with each other.
"CHRISTIANS"
After about three years, the members of the Church became
known as "Christians," a nickname first given to them at Antioch (Acts
11:26). This name has always been accepted by the faithful, for it is
indeed Jesus Christ5 Whom we preach and worship, and it is
He Who is our Way and Life. It is He Who founded our Church and
promised to be in her midst, among His people, "even to the
consummation of the world" (Mt 28:20).
1 It should
be remembered that "Catholic" in the 2nd century after Christ did not
mean the same thing as "Catholic" means today, in the 20th century.
2 Lk 13:29;
Lk 24:47; Rom 1:5; Rom 10:12
3 2 Thess
2:15; 2 Tim 1:13-14; 1 Jn 2:24
4 Act 20:28; 1 Tim 3:1-2; Tit 1:7
5 Jesus (or Joshua) means
"Saviour" (Mt 1:21). Christ means "Anointed One."
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WRITING
THE BIBLE
The Twelve Apostles, who were hand-picked by Christ, walked
next to Him, heard the most profound of His teachings, and left
everything to follow Him, the Lord expressly designated as the first
leaders of His Church. It was on their personal testimony of His
Resurrection from the dead that the Church was established and
flourished during what is called its Apostolic Age. At this time, God
permitted numberless and spectacular miracles to blaze forth everywhere
the Apostles preached (see the Book of Acts and contemporary
historians), to confirm that it was His Truth they were teaching. At
this time also, the Apostles and disciples were writing memoirs of
their vivid experience of Christ, as well as important letters to each
other and to the faithful. Three or four hundred years later, Church
councils would gather the inspired writings together, sort them out,
and call them the New Testament. During the Apostles' lifetimes,
however, their personal witness and authority were much more decisive
and immediate for the faithful than their writings. We must always keep
in mind that the Church existed before the Bible. Therefore, any church
that claims to be based on the Bible is not the Church of Jesus Christ;
only a church that claims to have produced the Bible can even be close
to the Original Church.
CONTINUITY
Inevitably, the Apostles had to die. But the Lord did not
mean for the Church to die with them; to perpetuate the Church, the
Apostles ordained successors called Bishops (Philipp 1:1) for local
congregations. To these men they imparted the apostolic Grace they had
received from Christ Himself, a process which has been called
"apostolic succession" and which is discussed prominently in the New
Testament (in Titus and 1 & 2 Timothy).
Deacons, too, were ordained by the Apostles. Their order was
established because after rapid growth it became impossible for the
Apostles to tend to the Christians both materially and spiritually (Act
6:1-6). The duties of the Deacons were to distribute charities and
maintain order, allowing the Apostles to concentrate exclusively on
teaching, exhorting, and celebrating the awesome Mysteries of Christ
(e.g., the mystery of the "breaking of bread," which we know today as
the Eucharist, Liturgy, or Mass, and the mystery of Holy Baptism).
Not long after the order of Deacons sprang up, the order of
Presbyters or Priests was created (Acts 14:22; some translations have
"elders" since "Priest" means "elder.") The Priests were given nearly
all the graces which marked the Bishops' office. They celebrated
Baptism, the Eucharist, the anointing of the sick, etc., relieving the
heavy burden of the Bishops, but the Priests did not have the ability
to consecrate other Priests or Bishops. The primitive threefold
hierarchy of Bishops, Priests, and Deacons remains the distinctive mark
of all historic Christian churches. There
were also lesser ministries such as those of the Readers, Subdeacons,
Acolytes, and Deaconesses.
BOTH JEW
AND GENTILE
In the Apostolic Age, the Church had to make one painful
transition. It had begun, of course, in Palestine among the Hebrew
people, for God had chosen this people to be a light to the world, to
be the first to receive the Messiah and to tell the world about Him and
eternal life in Him. However, many of the chosen nation of Israel did
not choose to follow Christ, and so the torch of faithfulness to Christ
largely passed to the Gentile peoples, to former pagans, as the Prophet
Isaias had foretold some 700 years earlier (Is 2:2; 60:3, 5). The
question immediately arose whether Gentile Christians had first to be
circumcised and observe the law of Moses - whether, in essence, they
had to become Jews first in order to become Christians. The Apostles
were not found in full agreement. The Apostle Paul was very insistent
that it was not necessary, and a Council was convened at Jerusalem
attended by all the Twelve. St. James, leader of the church at
Jerusalem, presided. By the light of the Holy Spirit, the Apostles
ruled that new Christians did not need to be circumcised or observe all
of the law of Moses. After this dilemma was resolved, the Church
continued spreading and flourishing among the Gentile peoples.
Jerusalem itself was utterly destroyed in 70 A.D. by Roman troops, and
soon the major Christian centres were Antioch, Rome, and Alexandria.
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RESOLUTION
OF DISPUTES
When the Apostles met in a council which superseded their
individual views, they established a principle that would guide the
Church for centuries to come. No one Apostle was infallible, nor were
any of the Bishops they ordained as successors. However, meeting in
council under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, the Bishops of the
entire Church have, on seven occasions, proclaimed dogmas and issued
canons (regulations) which bear the stamp of the Holy Spirit and are of
greater authority than the word of any one Bishop. The Jew/Gentile
controversy was but the first of many divisive disputes, usually
sparked by some untrue teaching, which at times have threatened the
unity which is one of the four marks of the Church. Thanks to the Holy
Councils, which spoke with the authority of the Spirit for all the
Church, such disputes have never succeeded in tearing Church unity
asunder.
FORMATION
OF CHRISTIAN WORSHIP
The Primitive Church underwent a profound development in its
worship during the first 100 years. Originally, the Mystical Supper,
the breaking of bread, had been celebrated in the evening directly
after a community meal. In these early years, all of the instructive
and inspirational material which now surrounds the central act of Holy
Communion in the Liturgy took place separately from the Eucharist in
the synagogue. Over time, however, those Jews who did not accept Christ
as the Messiah developed increasingly hard-line attitudes towards the
Christ-following Jews and eventually refused to allow them to worship
in the synagogue. This dramatic change of circumstances resulted in the
basic structure the Divine Liturgy has today: penitential prayers,
praises of God, scripture readings, and a sermon (liturgical features
lifted straight out of the synagogue) are now followed by the breaking
of bread and Communion in the Body and Blood of Christ. When the
Eucharist ceased being an evening affair, Christians started fasting
before attending it.
WHAT HOLDS
THE CHURCH TOGETHER?
Unlike other faiths, Orthodox Christianity looks not to a
bureaucracy, hierarchy, or position paper to provide a focus for the
Church. The centre of Orthodoxy is the very worship of God - the
Eucharist, and the celebration of the Divine Office. Because this is
so, any substantial history of the Church must include liturgical
development, but we should avoid the trap of taking a casual, factual
approach like so many scholars do. The history of our Liturgy is not
just an arbitrary succession of additions and changes, but the
unfolding work of the Holy Spirit, guiding the Holy Church century by
century in a holy and right worship of God. We worship not as we think
best but as God has willed to be worshipped.
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THE AGE OF
MARTYRS
The period just after the passing of the Twelve Apostles is
often called the Age of Martyrs. As the news of the Faith spread like
wildfire, Satan's immediate reaction was to inspire a bloody and total
annihilation of Christianity. It is amazing how in spite of all
obstacles the Christians persisted in meeting together on the Lord's
Day. Often they would meet in a different house each week, since
discovery meant certain death. Many Christians, since they refused to
deny Christ and worship the pagan gods, even by some small word or
sign, were killed summarily or by terrible tortures. But the Lord used
their joyous deaths and their divinely-courageous sufferings, together with other stupendous miracles, to
turn the hearts of many people to Himself. Far from destroying the
Church, persecution only refined and strengthened it. Survivors wrote
the Martyrs' names in calendars so as to keep a yearly memorial of
their victories, forming the basis for our modern Church calendar with
its Holy Days.
COUNTERFEIT
CHRISTIANITY
The Church's trial by fire was spiritual as well as external.
Heresies sprang up like weeds, and no uniform consensus of faith could
be trotted out against them. The word heresy comes from Greek
hairoumai, to choose. Heretics were those who chose their own beliefs
instead of accepting the Church's Faith as it stood. The Gnostics tried
to blend Christianity with a secret wisdom ideal, thinking that
salvation came through arcane knowledge, not through the Grace of
Christ. Judaizers did not accept the Apostles' decision that Christians
do not observe the Mosaic Law, and sowed distrust and discord wherever
pastors were too soft to stop them. The followers of Marcion believed
that the God of the Old Testament was not the same as the Father of
Jesus Christ. The Manichćans believed physical matter was evil and only
pure spirit was good. The Montanists rejected the Church's hierarchy to
emphasize spectacular spiritual phenomena and preached a new age of the
Holy Spirit. The Sabellians held that the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit
were just three "masks" God wore at different times when He did
different things; they denied the reality of the Holy Trinity. Very few
heresies since that time have been original; most have been mere
rehashes of these timeworn follies.
In the midst of the confusion and bitterness stirred up by
heretical movements, the Church of Christ was like a ship tossed on the
sea; yet Christ was its Pilot, and the challenges of persecution and
heresy were both overcome. The persecutions ended when the Emperor
Constantine, a great friend of Christianity, overcame his pagan
enemies, took control of the Roman Empire, and made Christianity legal
(in A.D. 312; not till 392 did it become the state religion).
THE FIRST
COUNCIL - NICAEA (325 A.D.)
This reversal of affairs was followed by a spiritual victory
over heresy. A Council of all Christian Bishops was called by Emperor
Constantine to decide officially what the Christian Faith consisted of,
since a priest named Arius was teaching that Christ was not God but
merely a unique man, and winning many adherents. The Council met at
Nicća and refuted his doctrine, writing a summary of the true Faith we
now know as the first part of the Creed chanted in the Liturgy. At the
same time, the Nicene Fathers agreed how Pascha (Easter Day) would be
computed; required all Christians to stand, not kneel, at Sunday
worship; and settled clergy affairs. These decisions are abided by even
today by the Orthodox Christians of the East and of the West.
Just a few follow-up remarks. First, after Nicća the Arian
Christians grew to be more numerous than the faithful, showing that it
is not sheer strength of numbers that determines where the authentic
Church lies. Second, although defining the Faith in terms of human
language was necessary to safeguard the Truth, it was very painful for
the Fathers of Nicća to do. They felt keenly that Christ's Faith was
something to be treasured and stored up within the human heart, not
baked into a formula. We can only become their spiritual heirs if we
embrace the Faith in the actions of our lives as well as by accepting
their Creed.
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THE
CONSTANTINIAN ERA
After Emperor Constantine legalised the Christian Faith, and
it was clearly defined at the General Council of Nicća, momentous
changes swept through the Church, and not all the winds were
favourable. Christianity had not usually attracted ambitious men; now
they sought to be made Priests and Bishops, with some success. There
was a large influx of converts, not as fervent and sincere as converts
had been. Public churches were built, and replaced the catacombs and
private homes as the site where the Sacraments, or Mysteries, were
celebrated. This new freedom allowed the cultivation and perfection of
liturgical music and a flourishing of liturgical art, the groundwork
for the church hymnody and iconography which so beautify and elevate
our worship today.
The Constantinian Era is the name often given to that period
following Constantine's reign when the aims of Christianity and those
of the secular kingdom largely overlapped, when the expertise and
resources of society were expended to the glory of God. This benefitted
the Church in certain ways. For example, Bishops are not known for
working well together, and it is possible that without imperial
intervention no Ecumenical Council would ever have been assembled. All
seven of the Holy Councils which upheld our Faith were convened by the
summons of an Emperor or Empress. At its best, the policy of symphony
between the Church and the State was advantageous for the Faith. The
drawback was that worldly influence at times crept into the Holy of
Holies, and this was a concern for many sincere Christians. In fact,
whenever the secular authorities tried to interfere outright in the
teachings of the Church, saintly Bishops were there to lay down their
lives, if need be, to defend the Truth. Our calendar of martyrs is full
of their names.
MONASTICISM
One reaction to worldliness was spearheaded in the deserts of
Egypt, where once the Christ Child had fled to escape the hands of a
worldly despot. A young man named Anthony retired into the deserts to
serve God in solitude and prayer. St. Anthony was eventually
encompassed by large numbers of enthusiastic disciples, and organised
them as Christian monks. "Monk" comes from Greek monos, "alone," and at
first meant a hermit or solitary.1 The monks foreswore
secular involvement, dainty food, the married life, and personal
property. In short, their aim was to fulfill not only all the
commandments of Christ, but also all His counsels given in the Holy
Gospels, such as voluntary poverty, virginity, obedience, and ascetic
life (asceticism is voluntary deprivation and struggle for God's sake).
St. Pachomius started the first monastery, where these religious men
could dwell in mutual support under a rule of life. These ideals, which
fired the souls of many men and women whom we know today as Saints,
spread from Egypt to Palestine to Syria and all the East. They were
imported to the West by the great St. John Cassian, and there they
shone forth as brightly as in the East.
"NEW
ROME"; THE SECOND COUNCIL (381 A.D.)
Emperor Constantine set another mighty wheel in motion when
he moved the capital of the Roman Empire from Rome to Byzantium, an
obscure village in Greece not far from Nicća. It soon became known as
Constantinople or New Rome, and there it was that the Second Holy
Council of the Church was held in 381.2 At the First
Council, the main issue was the Divinity of Christ; this Second Council
discussed the Divinity of the Holy Spirit. The genuine teaching that
the Holy Spirit is God was enshrined by the council Fathers in
statements which now form the second half of the Creed we sing every
Sunday at Divine Liturgy.
1 The word monk
may also come from the Egyptian word for rug-weaver. The early monks in
Egypt supported themselves by weaving baskets and rugs.
2 This Council was only of
Eastern Bishops, but the whole Church accepted it.
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Another way in which this teaching was enshrined was
pioneered by St. Cyril of Jerusalem. To the Eucharistic Liturgy he
added an explicit invocation to the Holy Spirit to descend upon the
Gifts and effect their transformation into the Body and Blood of
Christ. This invocation is called the epiclesis, and all the various
churches adopted it into their rites.1
STANDARDISATIONS
OF THE LITURGY
Some time before 450 A.D., a major transformation occurred in
the way the Liturgy was celebrated at Rome. Originally, it had been
done in Greek, until Pope St. Victor began using Latin. At some point,
which no scholar has been able to discover precisely, the prayers were
rearranged, and the terse, symmetrical Roman Canon was established.
After this, the changes to the Roman Rite were minor indeed, at least
after St. Gregory brought the Our Father and Kyrie into place (about
600 A.D.). The Roman Rite was present in Spain in the 5th century and
developed independently as the Mozarabic Rite. In Gaul, the Gallican
Rite, a Latin rite with Eastern features, was used. At Milan a rite
similar to the Roman, called the Ambrosian, developed
independently. In the East, St. Basil codified the Liturgy and from it
St. John Chrysostom (5th century) produced a shortened version. These
two Liturgies, together with the hours of prayer from St. Sabbas
Monastery near Jerusalem, were the foundation for the Byzantine Rite.
Other important Eastern Liturgies were that of St. Mark (Coptic Rite)
and St. James (Syriac Liturgy). Nearly all the Eastern and Western
rites named above have been used in the Orthodox Church in modern
times, if only occasionally. But the Rite which is the spiritual
heritage of the vast majority of Orthodox today is the Byzantine.
"ORTHODOXY"
Ever since the first four Councils, the term most commonly
used to denote our beliefs has been "Orthodox." It comes from Greek
orthos, "correct, straight," and doxa, "glory, worship." The Orthodox,
then, are those who worship God truly and rightfully, with true belief.
This word had the special meaning in those early days of "one who
accepts all the Councils." (In the East and West, the word "Catholic"
continued to be used to describe the Church, although, as we will see,
"Catholic" and "Orthodox" nowadays connote two different faiths).
1 An epiclesis is found in some
early Roman sacramentaries & in their progeny, in the Old Sarum
Rite of England as well as other Roman-derived Rites.
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FOUR
FATHERS
Four great and holy men graced the Church as the 4th century
gave way to the 5th. St. Athanasius was (almost) single-handedly
responsible for the success of the Nicene Council when its popularity
faded, and this earned him the title "Pillar of Orthodoxy." When still
a Deacon, he denounced the priest Arius, and when he returned from
Nicća he was made Pope1 of Alexandria. Soon, however, he was
exiled from his see, and travelled across East and West barely escaping
the clutches of angry heretics. Over the course of five separate
exiles, he wrote letters, guided his flock from afar, and preserved an
irrepressible sense of humour, one of the most effective weapons in his
spiritual arsenal. St. Athanasius reposed in Christ in 373.
St. John Chrysostom ("Golden Mouth") made his start as a
humble hermit in Syria, earned fame as a Priest and preacher at
Antioch, and then was forced to be Archbishop of the New Rome,
Constantinople. His zeal for virtue (an area in which the imperial
couple were markedly deficient) attracted the imperial wrath. John was
exiled from New Rome repeatedly. When he died in exile in 407, he left
a massive legacy of letters, sermons, and commentaries. He is
especially loved today for having given the Church her most
commonly-used Liturgy for the Eucharist.
Another Saint of this era spanned the Eastern and Western
worlds, but hailed from Yugoslavia (Sidonium). St. Jerome moved from
Old Rome to Bethlehem and as a Priest and monk lived the rest of his
life in the spot where Christ was born. He translated the books of the
Bible into Latin from Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic, using ancient
manuscripts which do not survive today. His great opus is called the
Latin Vulgate, and it is the version of Scripture on which the
Douay-Rheims Bible2 is grounded. By the year 400, the Church
had decided what writings were to be included in the Bible, and our
list has not changed since.
The great giant of the West was St. Augustine of Africa, a
man who came to Christ late in life. After many years as a wild-living
Manichćan heretic, Augustine was converted through the New Testament
and the preaching of his friend St. Ambrose, Bishop of Milan. He became
Bishop of Hippo in Africa, where he took aim at heresies of all sorts.
He is a controversial figure because his pen often outraced his
God-loving heart, and his logically-produced speculations were later
utilised to develop certain Roman Catholic and Protestant teachings,
which will have to be discussed eventually in this book. However, at
the end of his life of service to God, Augustine wrote an entire book
of retractions, deferred to the judgment of the Church everything he
had ever written, and died in the odour of sanctity, bequeathing to us
a legacy as massive as St. John Chrysostom's.
1 A
Patriarch is the chief Bishop of a major Christian centre. "Pope" is
the age-old title of the Patriarchs of Rome and Alexandria.
2 An English translation
closer to the received Orthodox texts than the King James Version.
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THE THIRD
COUNCIL - 431 A.D.
The year after St. Augustine fell asleep, the Church's Third
Holy Council was convened at Ephesus, where the Apostle John and the
Virgin Mary had lived. Nestorius, the
Patriarch of Constantinople, was drawing such a line of distinction
between Christ's human side and His Divine side that he said in a
Christmas sermon it was demeaning for him to worship a God in a crib!
The Holy Council defrocked him and stated that, because Christ is both
God and man, the Virgin Mary is truly Theotokos, Mother of God.
Nestorius headed east, "consecrated" many clergy, and set up many
churches, all separated from the Orthodox and calling him St.
Nestorius. But the next Council occasioned an apostasy still more
terrible.
THE FOURTH
COUNCIL - 451 A.D.
There were those who went so far in avoiding Nestorianism
that they developed another error, Monophysitism (from
the Greek for "one nature"). These taught that
Christ's human and Divine sides were so closely united that they had
fused into one human/Divine nature (which would, thus, be neither truly
human nor truly Divine). The argument got fierce. The Empress St.
Pulcheria convened a General Council at Chalcedon to solve the dilemma,
and, assisted by an evident miracle worked at the tomb of the early
Martyr Euphemia,1 the Fathers ruled against the Monophysites. Sadly,
for reasons both religious and political, a large dissident
denomination was formed, including Egyptian Copts, Syrian Jacobites,
and their followers in India. This group rejected the Fourth Council
(and succeeding ones). Orthodoxy proclaims two Natures in Christ-Divine
and human, each distinct, neither fused together nor divisible.
Recently this teaching has come under fire. A handful of Orthodox
leaders now claim that today's Monophysites do not believe in classic
Monophysitism, and that the Orthodox should unite with them. The
Monophysites have responded by toning down their historic platform to a
large degree. Nevertheless, traditional Orthodox were alarmed by a
unity plan formulated at Chambesy, Switzerland, in 1990, a plan signed
by representa-tives from most Orthodox Patriarchates. It failed to
state that the Monophysite Christians ought to embrace the Fourth and
all succeeding Councils. Condemnations of the Chambesy plan erupted
from Mount Athos, the Georgian Patriarchate, and traditional clergy
everywhere. Orthodox feel they have more common ground with the
Monophysites than with any other separated Christians, but as long as
fully half of the Ecumenical Councils are rejected, there can be no
real unity.
ROME FALLS
Turned upside down by moral decay, weakened by
internal conflicts, and reeling from the economic and ideological blow
dealt by Constantine when he relocated the capital to Constantinople,
Old Rome shuddered in the 5th century under repeated barbarian attacks.
Finally, in 476, Rome fell permanently to heathen invaders. Many
thought the world had ended as The City, the erstwhile hub of Western
learning, civilisation, and order collapsed. The repercussions for the
Church of Christ were great, especially in the long term, for as public
order disintegrated in Italy, the Popes of Rome were forced by sheer
compassion to assume a new quasi-governmental role. They began to
oversee public charities and to mediate and even rule in public
affairs. Before long, the see of Rome had become a government in its
own right. As long as holy and capable men steered the Roman church,
the arrangement worked, but in later years the saying "Power corrupts"
came true. Slowly, over the course of the next 300 years, the attitude
that the Popes ruled the whole Church manifested itself and alarmed the
other local Churches.
A GODSEND
Just four years after Rome fell, St. Benedict
the Great was born in Norcia, Italy. Schooled in Rome, he left it as a
young man to seek Christ as a hermit living inside a cave in the wild.
He gained many disciples, and wrote a Rule to guide them in monastic
life. The Holy Rule revealed Benedict as a genius of discretion and
moderation. The severity of the Eastern monks' asceticism he adapted to
the Western character, insisting more on obedience and internal work
than fasting or great labours. St. Benedict is known as the Father of
Western Civilisation because the monasteries were for many years the
only oases of stability and learning in a barbaric world. They fed the
poor, saved the books, taught people how to read them, and fostered a
new ethic, teaching the world that manual labour was honourable.
(Formerly, manual work was thought contemptible, only fit for paupers
and slaves.)
Many people today object to Christianity on
the grounds that no one is doing as the early Christians did: sharing
all possessions in common, renouncing private property, living in
community, praying daily, "working with [the] hands, the thing that is
just," and the other things mentioned in the Book of Acts in the Bible.
In monasteries of the Orthodox Church, at least, this way of life still
exists - to the glory of Jesus Christ.
1 The Council Fathers
wrote the Orthodox teaching on one scroll & that of the
Monophysites on another, then placed both in St. Euphemia’s tomb &
began to fast & pray. After 3 days, they opened the tomb to find
the Orthodox scroll in the Saint’s hand & the Monophysite scroll
trampled under her feet. Euphemia had spoken; the case was closed.
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THE FIFTH
COUNCIL - 553 A.D.
The 5th Ecumenical Council of Christendom was
called because certain letters called the Three Chapters were being
circulated, stretching and straining the definition of faith agreed on
at Chalcedon. In the uproar, Pope Vigilius wearied of the argument and
decreed that, taken in the best sense, these letters were acceptable,
adding a little hazy theologising of his own. The Bishops of Africa cut
the Pope off from communion, ordering him to repent. Emperor Theodosius
called a Holy Council against the Pope's wishes, and the Fathers
assembled at Constantinople ruled that the Three Chapters were not
orthodox and implied that Pope Vigilius was heretical. This Council
condemned Origen (d. 254), a brilliant teacher who had taught that
souls lived spiritually before they are placed in bodies as a result of
sin, and that all wicked angels and people would some day enter Heaven
after purification.1
THE FIVE
PATRIARCHATES
In the 5th century, the overall structure of
the Church became fixed as a Pentarchy. Five Patriarchs, Bishops
shepherding major sections of the world from the important Christian
centres and holding equal communion with one another, were invested
with special archpastoral care. These Bishops were described as the
"five senses" of the Church. We can see that the essence of the Church
was still in the unanimity of faith, though, not in a command
structure, for at times certain Patriarchs, such as Pope Vigilius of
Rome, strayed from the faith and were cut off from the Church. The
Patriarchates were, in descending order of honour, Rome,
Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. Pentarchy is still
the ideal of the Church, but various defections and contentions have
made it practically impossible since at least 1054 A.D., and newer
Patriarchates have developed over the centuries - those of Serbia,
Moscow, Bulgaria, Romania, and the Georgian nation.
THE RISE
OF THE PAPACY
From 600 A.D. on, the question of the Papacy's
role in the Church proved thornier and thornier. At the turn of that
century, however, an ideal man was drafted to fill the Roman see. St.
Gregory the Great shepherded his patriarchate in a truly inspired way.
First of all, he was mission-minded. He
sent a troop of monks from the monastery he had founded in Rome into
England to convert the Germanic people that had settled there and had
re-paganised the land. St. Gregory is revered as the Father of the
Roman Rite of the Church. He is known for having popularised the word
Mass to describe the Liturgy of the Eucharist.2
1
The doctrine that denies eternal damnation is called apokatastasis,
meaning "the restitution of all." This is not a Christian belief; both
the words of Our Saviour (Mk 9:44-48; Mt 18;8, 25:41, 46; see also 2
Tim 1:9 and Jude v. 6) and the ancient liturgies of the Christians
(e.g., "deliver us from eternal damnation" in the W. Rite Canon) teach
the reality of eternal Hell for those who choose it.
2 St. Ambrose of Milan and
St. Gregory of Tours also used the word Mass.
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Taking his lead from the Greek liturgies, he
placed the Our Father where it is sung today and added prayers to the
Roman Mass. He polished and codified the chants then in the infancy of
their use, resulting in an otherworldly musical form called, after
himself, Gregorian Chant. The Saint felt it was his personal
responsibility that no poor man or woman should ever die of neglect in
the city of Rome. Times were often hard, but whenever Gregory heard
that a homeless man had died, he counted himself unworthy to celebrate
Mass on that day. A dispute broke out between Gregory and the Bishop of
Constantinople, St. John the Faster. All the offices held in
Constantinople, which was the capital city of the Roman Empire, were
dubbed ecumenical (the librarian of New Rome, for example, was the
ecumenical or "universal" librarian), and this title was bestowed by
the Emperor on the city's Patriarch as well. Convinced because of the
language barrier that John thought himself to be a Bishop ruling over
all other Bishops, St. Gregory reacted violently. In the most
charitable language possible, he condemned St. John of insufferable
pride and demanded he forfeit the title, himself adopting the title
"slave of the slaves of God." St. Gregory's plea was, "May all
Christians reject this blasphemous title [Universal Bishop] - this
title which takes the priestly honour from every Priest the moment it
is insanely usurped by one!" The unity of the Church was not broken by
this misunderstanding.
A SNAKE IN THE GARDEN
In St. Gregory's lifetime, however, a quiet
event transpired in Spain that did lead, in time, to a permanent
division. In 589, at the Council of Toledo, the word filioque1
was inserted in the Nicene Creed, so that it read, "I believe... in the
Holy Spirit... Who proceedeth from the Father and the Son." This was
done to bolster the Divinity of God the Son, since Spain had been
overrun by Arians who denied His equality with God the Father. But the
phrase revised at Toledo is a passage of Scripture,2 and
Scripture cannot just be altered. This local council disobeyed the
Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, which had ruled that no change
could at any time be made to the Nicene Creed. Passing slowly into
Central Europe and the rest of the West, the filioque was a theological
time bomb with a fuse 4 1/2 centuries long.
THE SIXTH
ECUMENICAL COUNCIL (680 A.D.)
The schism of the Monophysites, who did not
accept the Fourth Council, greatly reduced the size and influence of
the Church in Eastern lands, so to conciliate them the Emperor
promulgated a doctrine called Monothelitism, which claimed that even
though Christ's Divinity and humanity were two distinct natures, He
possessed but a single Divine will. The Monophysites liked it, and no
fewer than three Patriarchs of Constantinople and Pope Honorius of Rome
favoured the notion. In the East St. Maximus, and in the West Honorius'
successor as Pope, St. Martin I, vigorously assaulted this teaching and
spoiled the Emperor's plans. If Christ has no distinct human will, they
insisted, then He is not truly a man, for no man without a human will
is a true man. Both Saints bore the full brunt of the imperial
displeasure. Pope Martin was captured and condemned to labour as a
common criminal near the Black Sea, where he died from exhaustion.
Amidst the uproar, Emperor Constantine
Pogonatos called the Sixth Ecumenical Council of the Church to order in
680 at New Rome. Monothelitism was condemned and Pope Honorius was
denounced as a heretic. It is interesting that the history of his
condemnation continued to be read once a year in the Roman Catholic
service of Matins until the uncomfortable passage was yanked in the
16th century. Pope St. Agatho and Patriarch St. George of
Constantinople gave the Holy Council their full support. It must be
remembered that at this time in history the Popes of Rome were widely
revered throughout the Church, East and West, as holding the most
steadily orthodox of any ancient, apostolic see. Rome was scarcely
touched by Arianism, Monophysitism, Monothelitism, Pelagianism,
Nestorianism, and other -isms. The Roman Popes steadfastly resisted the
filioque change to the Creed as well.
THE
"QUINISEXT" COUNCIL - 692 A.D.
The 5th and 6th Ecumenical Councils had
concerned themselves entirely with matters of dogma and had issued no
canons for running church affairs. Therefore, a sacred Council was
called at Constantinople to issue canons. It is often called the
"Quinisext" or "Fifth-Sixth" and is considered an extension of those
Councils. Just a few of its rulings: Bishops could not be married;
Deacons and Priests must be allowed to marry before ordination, but
must never marry afterwards; the Roman custom of fasting on Saturdays,
which differed with apostolic custom, was not permitted. Also, all
clergy of the Church were strictly excluded from the political,
military, and economic affairs of this world. Although Rome had local
rules by this time forbidding Deacons or Priests to marry, and the
Romans fasted on Saturdays, the canons which would not allow these
practices were officially admitted at Rome, at least for a time, and
the Roman and Eastern churches remained united.
1
"Filioque" is a Latin word meaning "and from the Son." Pronounced
"Fee-lee-OH-kway."
2 At the Last Supper
Christ said, "The Spirit of truth, Who proceedeth from the Father, He
shall testify of Me" (Jn 15:26).
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MISSIONS
Throughout the 7th and 8th centuries, the
Gospel was slowly accepted by more and more of Europe, but it must be
remembered that much of Europe was still staunchly pagan. Many of the
European peoples were so fierce that their eventual acceptance of the
gentle Jesus of Nazareth is considered by some historians to be the
greatest miracle of Christian history. Evangelism at this time was
conducted mainly by monks, and their principles were very sound and are
relevant today. They would found a monastery in a lonely place, away
from human habitation in a pagan area. Some among them might preach to
the people, but only if they had a special gift for this. The other
brethren would simply live their Gospel lifestyle to the fullest. With
the passage of time, the local inhabitants would discover the true
nature of the Christians' lives, and when they liked what they saw,
they would be near to Baptism. The compunction and orderly beauty of
the church services also warmed the hearts of these peoples, and served
to convert them as much as any conversation or reasoning. In Western
Europe, it was the Irish monks who were the most active missionaries;
in Central Europe, Benedictine monks and nuns from England
christianised the German lands.
ICON-SMASHERS
The 8th century was one of general doctrinal
stability and harmony in the Western churches, but one of great turmoil
for the Eastern churches. A succession of Byzantine Emperors called the
iconoclasts or "icon-smashers" condemned the general Christian practice
of venerating images ("icons") of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the
Saints, and raised a bloody persecution against those who would not
surrender their images for destruction. The iconoclasts quoted
Scripture itself - had not God forbidden His people to adore graven
images? The icon-venerators, mostly pious women and monks, persevered
in the face of torture and death.
THE
SEVENTH ECUMENICAL COUNCIL - 787 A.D.
Finally, in 787 A.D., a General Council was
convened at Nicća by Empress Irene. This was the Seventh and Last
Ecumenical Council of the Church (Nicća II). The
Holy Fathers declared that the veneration of icons is not only possible
but integral to the Christian faith. They saw the whole conflict as
Christological - that is, they took the objection that God cannot be
depicted as a denial that God truly took flesh. No man can see the
invisible God. In Jesus Christ, however, the Invisible has willed to be
made visible, as Christ told Philip at the Last Supper, "Philip, he
that seeth Me, seeth My Father also." The Fathers carefully defined,
however, that we dare not worship the icons themselves - they are but
wood and paint - but rather, through them, we honour the prototype,
what they were made to represent. We do not honour our country's flag,
for example, because we wish to worship cotton, but because of what the
flag stands for. The Council also proclaimed that icons are "the Gospel
in paint," and are necessary for the biblical instruction of those who
cannot read.
THE
ICON-SMASHERS RETURN
Despite the stance taken at Nicća, the battle
over icons raged on. In 792, Charlemagne sent books to the Pope
condemning the veneration of icons in the Nicene sense. They likewise
excoriated the East for "dropping" (!) filioque from the
Creed. Charlemagne's plan was to de-legitimise the Eastern Roman Empire
in order to build his own new Roman Empire. His political plans were
successful, but his assault on our Creed and the holy icons was not.
Alarmed by his theological pretensions, Pope St. Leo III, the same man
who had crowned him eight years previously, had the original Creed
(without filioque), engraved on plates of gold and silver, in
Greek and Latin, and affixed to the left and to the right of St.
Peter's tomb.
In 802 Empress Irene died and a fierce
iconoclast captured the Byzantine throne. It was not until 843 that the
icons were permanently restored in the East, this time by another
Empress - St. Theodora. As the wife of the iconoclastic Emperor, she
had managed to keep her icons by calling them her "dolls." Upon his
death, she ascended the throne and renewed Constantinople's allegiance
to the Seventh Council. For all its wavering during the Patristic era,
Constantinople proved to be as staunchly Orthodox after the Seventh
Council as Rome had been before it.
EAST AND
WEST DRIFT APART
Very early on, the Eastern and Western halves
of the Church began to drift apart. The Greek language prevailed in the
East; Latin prevailed in the West. The Byzantine liturgy predominated
in the East; the Roman liturgy in the West. The Easterners tended to a
mystical outlook; the Westerners to practicality. When considering God,
the Latins started with the Unity and moved on to the Trinity; the
Greeks began with the Trinity and then passed to the Unity. When
considering the Crucifixion, the Latins stressed Christ as Sacrifice,
the Greeks Christ as Victor. Westerners spoke more of redemption,
Easterners more of deification, and so on. It was easy for
misunderstandings to arise and difficult to dispel them. Still, the
unity of the Church was preserved and indeed prevented the individual
emphasis of any one area of the Church from upsetting the balance of
Christian thought as a whole. Unity in diversity was the ideal, though
in practice Eastern and Western believers were relating to each other,
more and more often, as strangers.
POWER PLAYS
We know that in the West the Popes of Rome
began as early as the 5th century to play a role more monarchical and
unilateral than that of their Eastern colleagues. Ever since the
faithful had been granted freedom by the government of the Roman
Empire, the Bishop of Rome, the capital city, had been awarded a
primacy of honour by the other Bishops of the world. Disputes between
Bishops were referred to the area's Metropolitan (Bishop of a major
city), and disputes between Metropolitans and other thorny cases were
brought before the Pope of Rome, though even his decisions were not
considered absolutely binding. In fact, because of Rome's consistent
Orthodoxy, even religious disputes were referred there. Of course, the
absence of political stability in Italy forced its Popes to be
benevolent rulers of a para-secular sort. Many Popes handled this
necessity admirably, but others, heedless of St. Jerome's dictum Let
the lust for Roman power cease, escalated a relentless campaign to
increase the scope of their authority. By the year 850, the Pope could
act not only as an elder brother, but, in the West at least, as a
master. This was, of course, precisely the complaint Pope St. Gregory,
250 years before, had hurled at Patriarch John.
CHURCH
UNITY IS INTERRUPTED
In 858, 15 years after Theodora restored the
icons, the seething question over Papal prerogative boiled over. In
that year St. Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople, was replaced as
patriarch by the brilliant St. Photius the Great. Pope Nicholas I saw
an opportunity to increase his influence. He claimed that St. Ignatius,
who was in fact Photius' friend, had been unjustly ousted, called
Photius an impostor, and sent three representatives to New Rome to try
Photios' "case." St. Photius received the delegates with honour and
invited them to preside over a hearing, at which they tried his case.
The result was that they endorsed his legitimacy without reservations.
When they returned to Rome, Nicholas balked at their decision and held
his own hearing, deposing Photius. No one in the East paid any
attention to his sentence, and there was an open breach in Rome's
communion with Constantinople as long as Nicholas was pope.
CROSSED
CREEDS
East-West conflict acquired a theological
dimension when German missionaries (who added filioque to the Creed)
and Greek missionaries (who did not) were both evangelising
newly-Christian Bulgaria, at Constantinople's back door. Rome itself
did not use the filioque, but Pope Nicholas fully supported the Germans
in promulgating it. Bulgaria see-sawed between the Old Rome and the
New. St. Photius wrote a learned work on the filioque, showing that it
is not a doctrine of the Holy Fathers of the Church. The dispute was
not resolved, however, since no theological terms with which to discuss
it had been settled upon. Bulgaria opted for the East, and Nicholas'
successor, John VIII, restored communion with Constantinople. This was
far from a happy ending, however; neither of the sticking points, Papal
mastery and the filioque, were substantively addressed; they were
merely patched over, while the shadow cast by West-East estrangement
lengthened and deepened.
1 "Ye shall make you no
idols nor graven image, neither rear you up a standing image, neither
shall ye set up any image of stone in your land, to bow down unto it:
for I am the Lord your God" (Lev 26:1). To this day, graven images
(statues) are generally not used in the Orthodox Church, only painted
icons.
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WORSHIP
Because the very name
Orthodoxy shows that the Church’s beliefs are inseparably intertwined
with her rites of worship (doxa implies both right belief and
right worship), a word of explanation must be given about how we adore
God.
The living Body of
Christ, the Holy Church, grew and developed as a human body does. In
the infancy of the Church, only the people of Judea made up this body.
Growing, and guided at all times by the Holy Spirit, the Church gained
an experience and wisdom which the Fathers enshrined in their writings
and in the holy canons, to be passed to future generations. In her
liturgical life, too, the Church matured, perfecting a liturgy which
brought together the very best of Scripture, the Sacraments bequeathed
by the Apostles, religious poetry, and sacred art and music - to offer
the soul and body, the complete man, everything that can be offered at
a service. Just as Christ was perfectly omniscient as a child, though
possessing the tiny body of a child, so also the nascent Church was
fully aware of the Faith and in full intimacy with the Holy Spirit,
though its liturgy was somewhat unformed and the liturgical arts had
not been fully developed. Also like Christ, the life of the Church,
when finished on earth, will resume in eternity in Heaven. Imperfect
here, she shall be "without spot or wrinkle or any such thing" in the
coming Kingdom. (Eph. 5:27)
It is in the Church’s worship
that we both prepare ourselves for and joyfully anticipate that
heavenly feast, and it is in the Church’s worship that we find the true
centre and heart of the Church - not any one leader or organisational
structure.
LITURGICAL DIVERSITY -- PROS AND
CONS
We saw already how great
adaptations were made in Christian worship in the 200 years after the
Apostles taught us the basics. By the 10th century, a very definite
rite of worship had been established throughout Christendom; by no
means, however, was it uniform from place to place - rather, distinct
traditions were preserved in different regions, and in these wide areas
there were local ritual variances. In the East, the predominant rite
was the Byzantine, but other Eastern Rites were also widespread. There
was the Liturgy of St. Mark in Egypt, the Liturgy of St. James in
Syria, and others. By 1200 A.D., due to imperial pressure, the
Byzantine Rite had largely replaced the other Eastern Rites within the
Empire. This forcible standardisation of worship was hailed in the
capital as a stroke of civilising genius, but it was catastrophic for
the Church of Christ, for its end result was to disaffect the native
Christians of Egypt, Ethiopia, and Syria from the "Foreign" Church and
to rally them around "their" church, around the Monophysite leaders who
preserved the ancient rites of their peoples. In the West, the Liturgy
of St. Gregory, the Roman Rite, was also exported with a heavy hand.
Charlemagne ordered it to displace the native Gallican Rite in his
dominions, and about 1060 A.D. it was forced by the Pope upon the
Christians of Spain, who had used their own Mozarabic or Visigothic
Rite. In the West, as in the East, the new fashion of liturgical
standardisation bore bitter fruit; eventually the identity of the
various national Churches of the West was so seriously weakened that
they lost their ability to act apart from Rome.
The weight given to
liturgical matters in Christian history, and in Orthodoxy today, must
appear extreme to anyone raised in today’s secular culture. It does
tell us one thing, however: the faith of the Christians in these early
centuries found powerful expression both in their daily lives and in
the keystone of daily life, the liturgy. Theirs was not a faith
confined to the margins of life, but a faith prayed and sung and
experienced every day. The symbols of the liturgy were closely
identified with the doctrines they expressed, so closely that if a
ceremony or prayer especially significant in one rite was noticed
missing or sharply varying in another rite, the orthodoxy of those who
held that rite might be called into question. This dynamic must be
borne in mind as we examine the vicissitudes of Church history.
CHRISTIANITY'S GREATEST TRAGEDY
Century by century, we
have been building toward a dramatic break, a catastrophic split,
between the Christians in the East and the Christians in the West. I
hope that prior pages have sufficiently prepared the ground so that
these sorrowful and decisive moments may be understood.
In the 800’s, despite
cultural / linguistic differences, the art, worship, and discipline of
the Eastern and Western Churches were remarkably similar, if we
contrast this common ground to the gulf that divides the Roman
Catholicism of today from Orthodoxy. Yet the two menacing currents of
the filioque change to the Creed and the pursuit of Papal power
threatened to tear asunder this unity, and indeed did so for a brief
period in the 800’s. Throughout the 900’s, the Byzantines were
preoccupied with the Muslim threat and tended to isolate themselves in
a narrow, classical world of high cultural standards and court
refinements. At the same time, the Popes of Rome presented such a
morally decrepit and administratively weak picture that they were in no
position to make any major moves which would impact the Eastern
churches.
PRELUDE TO THE SCHISM
As the year 1000 A.D.
grew nearer, Central Europe continued to be christianised, mostly
through the efforts of monks. Parts of present-day Germany, Poland, and
Denmark were accepting the Faith around this time, and in Eastern
Europe the great Slavic missionary movement begun by the brothers Sts. Cyril
and Methodius in the 9th century matured and bore rich fruit.
These two apostles to the Slav peoples translated the liturgy,
scriptures, and spiritual writings into the Slavonic tongue which is
the ancestor of modern Russian, Serbian, Polish, and Bulgarian.
Although they were careful to gain the support of the Popes as well as
the Patriarchs of Constantinople, the brothers’ mission was bitterly
attacked by the German Bishops, who insisted that services could only
be held in Greek, Latin, or Hebrew, since these were the three
languages inscribed on the title above Christ’s Cross. The Germans also
insisted upon the addition of filioque to the creed, and when
the disciples of Cyril and Methodius would not agree to these things,
they closed their churches and sold the missionaries themselves into
slavery. None of this bode very well for future relations between East
and West.
In 988, the ruler of
Kievan Rus, St. Vladimir, led his nation into the
Christianity of the Eastern form, a move which was later to provide
Orthodoxy with a new, northern heartland. In both East and West, the
liturgical life of the Church reached a new maturity and stability; in
fact, the Roman1 and Byzantine rites scarcely changed at all after
1000. Seven Holy Councils were accepted by both the Eastern and the
Western Christians, and there was still a measure of cultural borrowing
and goodwill on both sides.
1 That is, the Old Roman
Rite. Pius V severely curtailed this rite with his reformed Tridentine
Rite, and after Vatican Council II the depleted remains of the Rite
were utterly swept out of the Roman Catholic Church in 1969.
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FILIOQUE PREVAILS OVER ROME
After the year 1000,
however, a series of more intelligent and organised Popes began to stir
up the old East-West tensions. In 1008, Pope Sergius issued a
statement of faith which contained the filioque. This was the
first time it was formally adopted by Rome, and at Constantinople the
response was to remove the Pope’s name from the diptychs (the prayer
list of Patriarchs who are considered Orthodox). In 1014, Henry II,
master of the Western Roman Empire, demanded that the Pope include the filioque
in the Creed sung at Mass (previously, the Creed was not done at Mass
in Rome). The Pope balked at first, then gave in. Steeped in the
writings of St. Photius, the East naturally refused this
intruder phrase whenever the issue arose.
THE GREAT SCHISM -- 1054 A.D.
What brought matters to a
head was the Norman French invasion of Italy. In 1052, the Normans
forced Byzantine-Rite churches, of which there were many in Italy, to
adopt Western customs. The Emperor at Constantinople reacted by
shutting down all the Western-Rite churches in Constantinople that
would not adopt Eastern customs, and there were many of them.
In the heat of this
charged atmosphere, the Roman church changed in 1053 to the use of
unleavened bread at the altar, a Jewish practice which aroused
suspicion among the Easterners. Tempers were hot; therefore, Pope Leo
IX sent a delegation headed by the most hot-tempered and tactless
churchman available - Cardinal Humbert - to negotiate with
Patriarch Michael of Constantinople (no model of patience
himself). When Humbert and his cohorts arrived at New Rome, they
refused the usual courtesies to the Patriarch and thrust into his hands
a paper listing their demands, including the submission of all the
Patriarchs of the East to the Pope. After this initial contact, Michael
simply refused to meet with the delegation. Before long, Humbert lost
patience and drew up a Bull of Excommunication against Michael and
"those in sympathy with him."
Early on the morning of
June 16, 1054, Humbert and the others entered the Cathedral before the
service and slapped the Bull of Excommunication down upon the altar.
Ignoring the Deacons who ran after them pleading with them to
reconsider, they left the city, shook the dust off their feet, and
reported to Rome. Curiously, Pope Leo, on whose authority they supposed
they were acting, had died three months before they cast their sentence
at Michael. The Patriarch, for his part, summoned a council of Bishops
who excommunicated Humbert and "all those responsible" for the
incident. At this point, communion between Rome and the East was
effectively and irreversibly shattered.
In the 1080’s, the
Eastern Patriarchs appealed to the Pope to initiate the standard
procedure for re-establishing communion between two churches: they
begged him to write a confession of faith, of the sort St. Gregory the
Great had written to St. John the Faster, in accord with the Early
Christian Fathers and Orthodox tradition. This was to be followed by
their affirmation of the Pope as the most honoured of Patriarchs, but
it was not to be. The Pope angrily retorted that neither he nor his
faith could ever be brought into question by mortal men.
SCHISM OR FAMILY QUARREL?
Hindsight, as the saying
goes, is 20/20, and as we look back on the events of 1054 we can detect
a decisive rift between Christian West and Christian East. However, the
original terms of the Schism were limited to a dispute between Rome
itself and Constantinople itself, and there are signs of more closeness
between other parts of Christian East and West during this time. For
example, Western pilgrims to the Holy Land were still given Holy
Communion by the Greek clergy at the holy places. In the minds of many
Christians, the squabble between Old and New Rome might have been
merely another family altercation of the sort which had happened before
and could always happen again. Yet the Schism in 1054 was permanent,
for several reasons:
Filioque: Before 1054, the filioque
caused disturbances, but in the main the Popes stood firmly against it,
which pacified the Eastern churches. After 1014, filioque
invaded Rome itself and the Popes began ordering the Easterners to
adopt it. In 1054, this was the only dogmatic issue on which Rome and
the East could not at all see eye to eye. Soon after 1054, Western
theologians hastened to justify the Creed change with a number of
"dogmatic" opinions, cementing the mistake in place.
Papal
Power: As we saw
earlier, East-West unity was severely threatened in the 9th century by
Pope Nicholas I’s power dramas. After a century of dormancy, a series
of 11th-century Popes stirred up the unholy fires of ambition afresh,
and Papal power reached its peak in the 13th century. At Rome, the
papal pretensions finally grew so ingrained that no moderating voice
could be found to reconcile Pope to Patriarchs.
Disparity
of Customs:
The Greeks were already wary of certain liturgical innovations adopted
at Rome, such as unleavened bread (1053) and single-immersion baptisms
(in some regions). This suspicion was often levelled against the West
indiscriminately, and in some circles had risen to nothing short of a
fever pitch. Ancient Western customs, such as omitting the singing of
"alleluia" during Lent and the manner of preparing the bread and wine
for the Eucharist, etc., were bitterly attacked.
THE CRUSADES -- 1096 TO 1290 A.D.
The Church is often
affected not so much at the intellectual level or the dogmatic level as
at the gut level. This was certainly true as the shadow cast by the
Great Schism deepened over time, and the main catalyst is usually
considered to be the Crusades. Crusades, of course, were Western holy
wars, and absolution of sins was promised by the Western Church to
soldiers who died in battle. The First Crusade was stirred up
by Pope Urban II (1096), and was successful in capturing much of the
Levant and establishing a Latin Kingdom there. Of course, Latin bishops
were installed where Greek Bishops had governed, and for the first time
the practical effects of the Schism were felt in the East. Bishop was
set against bishop, altar against altar, and both claimed to represent
the One Church of Christ. After the Second Crusade, stirred up
by Bernard of Clairvaux, the Westerners living in Constantinople were
massacred (1186). Obviously, emotions were heated, but the final blow
to any hope of reconciliation between Roman West and Byzantine East
came in 1204, when participants in the Fourth Crusade turned
their weapons not on the Muslims but on their fellow Christians.
THE SACK OF CONSTANTINOPLE - 1204
A.D.
For three days in 1204,
Christian blood ran in the streets of New Rome as her churches and holy
things were desecrated. Prostitutes were placed upon the altars of the
churches, and many relics and other holy things were destroyed in the
name of the Papacy. It is difficult for Western people to imagine the
horror felt by Orthodox Christians at this violence; it continues to
smoulder even today.
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PART TWO OF THE HISTORY:
CLICK HERE.
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| The text
above, by Fr. Aidan (Keller) of Austin, has been available in book
format since 1994 under the title of A Pocket
Church History for Orthodox Christians. For ordering
information, click here. |
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