GREB&
753
GREEK
Uniat Churches; IV. Greek-Church History, subdi-
vided into: (1) The First Five Centuries; (2) Decay
of the Greek Churches of the East and Rise of the
Byzantine Hegemony (451-847) ; (3) The Greek Schism ;
Conversion of the Slavs (ninth to eleventh century) ;
(4) Efforts towards Reunion; the Crusades (eleventh
to fifteenth century); (5) From 1453 to the Present
Time — Relations with the Catholic Church, the
Protestants, etc. Under (2) will be found: (a) Inter-
nal Organization of the Byzantine Churches; (b) The
Emperor; Relations between East and West; Liturgy.
Under (4): (a) Internal Organization; (b) Hesychasm.
I. Explanation of Terms. — In the East, when a Church is spoken of, four things must be kept distinct: the race to which the adherents of the Church belong; the speech used in their everyday life, and in their public devotions; the ecclesiastical rite used in their liturgy, and their actual belief. Catholic or non-Catho- lic. It is because these distinctions have not been, and are not, even now, always observed that a great confusion has arisen in the terminology of those who write or speak of the Eastern (Oriental) Churches and of the Cireek Church. As a matter of fact, the usual signification attached to the words Ea.strr/i f'hurdu-s extends to all those Churches with a liluii^irnl rite differing from the Latin Rite. Let them reject the authority of the pope or accept it, they are none the less Eastern Churches. Thus the Russian Church, separated from Rome, is an Eastern Church; in the same way the Greek Catholics who live in Italy, and are known as Italo-Greeks, make up an Eastern Church also. The expression Eastern Churches is therefore the most comprehensive in use; it includes all believers w ho follow any of the six Eastern rites now in use: the Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Chaldean, Maronite, and Coptic.
What, then, do we mean when we speak of the Greek Church? — Ordinarily we take it to mean all those Churches that use the Byzantine Rite, whether they are separated from Rome or in communion with the pope, whether they are by race and speech Greek or Slavs, Rumanians, Georgians, etc. The term Greek Church is, therefore, peculiarly inappropriate, though most commonly employed. For instance, if we mean to designate the rite, the term Greek Church is inaccurate, since there is really no Greek Rite properly so called, but only the Byzantine Rite. If, on the other hand, we wish to designate the nationality of the believers in the Churches following the Byzantine Rite, we find that out of fifteen or twenty Churches which use that rite, only three have any claim to be known as The Greek Church, viz., the Church of the Hellenic Kingdom, the Church of Constantinople, the Church of Cyi>rus. Again, it must be borne in mind that in the Church of Constantinople there are included a number of Slavs, Rumanians, and Albanians who rightly refuse to be known as Greeks.
The term Orthodox Greek Church, or even simply the Orthodox Church, designates, without distinction of speech, or race, or nationality, all the existing Churches of the Byzantine Rite, separated from Rome. They claim to be a unit and to have the same body of doc- trine, which they say was that of the primitive Church. As a matter of fact, the orthodoxy of these Churches is what we call heterodoxy, since it rejects the Papal Infallibility, and the Papal Supremacy, the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that of Purgatory, etc. However, by a polite liction, educated Catholics give them the name of Orthodox which they have usurped. The term Schismatic Greek Church is synonymous with the above ; nearly everybody uses it, but it is at times inexpedient to do so, if one would avoid wound- ing the feelings of those whose conversion is aimed at.
The term United Greek Church is generally used to
designate all the Churches of the Byzantine Rite in
communion with the See of Rome. Thus the Ruthe-
nian Church of Galicia, the Rumanian Church of
VI.- -48
Austria-Hungary, the Mulgarian Church of Turkish
Bulgaria, the Melchite Church of Syria, the fieorgian
Chu'rch.the Italo-Greek Church, ami the Church of the
Greeks in Turkey or in tlic licllenic Kingdom — all of
them Catholic — are often called the United Greek
Churches. Again, the term is inappropriate, and be-
longs of right only to the last two Churches. As a
matter of fact the Ruthonians and Bulgarians are
Slavs who follow the Byzantine Kite, but use a Sla-
vonic translation; whereas tlu' Rumanians are Latins
who follow the Byzantine Rite, but in a Rumanian
translation, etc.
Instead of United Greek Church, the term Unint (or Uniate) Church is often used ; and in like manner the word Uniats is used instead of United Greeks. These words are by no means synonymous. Uniat Church, or Uniats, has a much witler signification than United Greek Church or United Greeks, and embraces all the Eastern Churches in communion with Rome, but following another than the Latin rite, whether it be Byzantine, Armenian, Syrian, Chaldean, Maronite, or Coptic. The Uniat Church is therefore really synony- mous with Eastern Churches united to Rome, and Uniats is synonymous withEastern Christians unitedwith Rome.
il. The Greek Orthodo.x Church and its DivisiON.s. — The Greek Orthodox Churches are Churches separated from Rome and following the Byzantine Rite, i. e. the rite developed at Constanti- nople between the fourth and tenth centuries. In the beginning, the only language of this rite was Greek. Later, however (the exact date is uncertain), it was introduced among the Georgians, or Iberians, of the Caucasus and was translated into the Georgian ver- nacular of the country. In the ninth century, through the efforts of Sts. Cyril and Methodius and their disciples, the Moravians and the Bulgarians were con- verted to Christianity, and as the missionaries were Byzantines they introduced their own rite, but trans- lated the Liturgy into Slav, the mother tongue of those nations. From Bulgaria this Byzantine-Slav Rite spread among the Servians and the Russians. In recent times the Byzantine Rite has been translated into Rumanian for use by the faithful of that nation- ality. Lastly, the Orthodox Syrians of Syria, Pales- tine, and Egypt have adopted a hybrid Byzantine Rite in which, according to the whim of the celebrant, either Greek or Arabic is used. Hence we have five divisions of the Byzantine Rite, and consequently five divisions of Orthodox Greek Churches: —
(1) The Greek-Byzantine Rite, which includes the pure Greeks subject (a) to the Patriarchate of Con- stantinople, (b) to the Holy Synod of Athens, and (c) to the Archbishopric of Cyprus.
(2) The Arabic-Byzantine Rite, which includes the Christians under the Patriarchates of (a) Antioch, (b) Jerusalem, and (c) Alexandria, and (d) the Archbish- opric of Sinai.
(3) The Georgian-Byzantine Rite, which, up to the beginning of the nineteenth century, included the Churches of the Caucasus Range now absorbed by the Russian Church and obliged to use the Slavonic Liturgy instead of their own native Georgian.
(4) The Slavonic-Byzantine Rite, comprising (a) the Russian, (b) the Servian, and (c) the Bulgarian Churches.
(5) The Rumanian-Byzantine Rite used by the Rumanian Churches.
(1) Pure Greeks. — (a) Patrinrchate of Constanti- nople. — This Church is guMrncil hy a patriarch, a Holy Synod consisting of I w d m • 1 1 u ' i n )politans, and a mixed council of four mttrn|)>ilitaii.s and eight lay- men. It numbers in all 101 dioceses, of which 86 have metropolitan rank, and 15 are suffragan sees. Such were the official figures and were accurate until the month of October, 1908. As we write, however, this is no longer so. Since the proclamation of Bulgarian independence the five Greek metropolitans in their
