CHAPTER XIV
THE QUESTION OF REUNION
At the end of all our account the question that will finally interest Catholics is that of reunion between this great Eastern Church and the Holy See. What hope is there that the schism, now a thousand years old, may be undone? That such a reunion would be an untold blessing both to them and to us is obvious. For the Orthodox of course the essential point of all is that they would then once more be joined to the communion of the Church of Christ. And even from their point of view one would imagine that they must feel uncomfortable, separated from the great Western See which, even now, they acknowledge as the first of the thrones. What has become of the Pentarchy, the union of the five Patriarchs, of which they have always made so much? Were it only one of the smaller ones, but it is the first of the great five who stands on one side with his vast army of followers, and the other four, who together can muster only about a third of the millions who stand by Old Rome, are cut away from their natural leader. And we can imagine what their own Fathers would say to the Orthodox if they came back. We have seen what Athanasius, Basil, Chrysostom, Cyril of Alexandria, and Theodore of Studium have to say about the primacy of Old Rome. We have heard what the Fathers of Chalcedon cried out, and we have seen the Roman legates preside over other councils. If the great Fathers whom they honour could come back and see the troubles that beset their children now, what could they suggest except that a
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