published, "A full Answer." Here the controversy appears to have closed. In the life of Bossuet, (L. 111. Pieces Justificatives, N. 1.) the Bishop of Alais has inserted all the Variations pointed out by Dr. Wake. After perusing and examining these alleged Variations, either as they are given by Dr. Wake, or as they are given by the Bishop of Alais, the reader will probably agree with the Bishop, "that they are so slight and indifferent, so evidently determined by the grammatical motive of giving force and precision to the style, and so foreign to the substance of the doctrine, that, by producing them, Doctor Wake rendered unintentionally a great service to Bossuet." CHAPTER III. The Symbolic Books of the Greek Church. THE progress of the church of Constantinople, from a very humble station, to the eminent rank which she afterwards obtained in the Christian hierarchy, is a curious and important event in ecclesiastical history. Before the seat of the Roman empire was transferred to Constantinople, the church had the three patriarchs of Rome, Antioch, and Alexandria. Three dioceses were independent of them; and subject, each to its primate; that of Asia, to the primate of Ephesus; that of Thrace, to the primate of Heraclea; and that of Pontus, to the primate of Cesarea. It is not clear, that the church of Constantinople had its peculiar bishop; at most, the bishopric was inconsiderable, and its bishop subject to the metropolitan of Heraclea. After the translation of the seat of empire to Constantinople, the bishops of Constantinople acquired importance; by degrees, they obtained ecclesiastical jurisdiction over Thrace, Asia, and Pontus, and were elevated to the rank of Patriarch. The same rank was conferred on the bishop of Jerusalem. Thus, during a considerable period, the five Patriarchs of the Christian world were those of Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Constantinople, and Jerusalem. In course of time, the patriarch of Constantinople raised himself above the other oriental patriarchs, and finally assumed the title of Ecumenical, or Universal, Patriarch. The Popes opposed this attempt, and preserved their own rights; and therefore, as Mr. Gibbon observes, "till the great division of the church, the Roman bishop had ever been respected by the orientalists, as the first of the five patriarchs." (Vol. 1. pa. 400, quarto edition.) Even in matters of ceremony in civil concerns, Constantinople yielded to Rome: the consul of the West preceded the consul of the East. After the separation of the Greek from, the Latin church, the five patriarchs were represented in Rome, by five churches; the Roman patriarchate, by the church of St. John of Lateran; the patriarch of Constantinople, by the church of St. Peter in the Vatican; the patriarchate of Alexandria, by the church of St. Paul; the patriarchate of Antioch, by the church of St. Mary the Greater; and the patriarchate of Jerusalem, by the church of St. Lawrence. (See Onuphrius de Episcopatibus, titulis, et diaconiis Cardinalium.) The points which the Greeks objected to the Latin church, and upon which they professed to justify their separation from her, were, 1st. that, in the article of the symbol or creed of Constantinople, which mentions the procession of the Holy Ghost, the Latin church had inserted the word "filioque," to describe the double procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and Son; 2dly, that the Latin church acknowledged the spiritual supremacy of the Pope; and 3dly. that in the consecration of the sacrifice of the altar, the Latin Church used unleavened bread. The history of the temporary reunion of the churches, at the council of Florence, is well known. The attempts which, about the middle of the sixteenth century, were set on foot, to lead the Greeks of the Levant to a reunion with the See of Rome, and the successful exertions of Cyrillus Lucaris, the patriarch of Constantinople, to prevent it, are also known but a full and judicious history appears to be wanting. Wherever the Turkish empire extends, the Greek church is in a state of subjection; but, in an immense part of the globe, as both the Russias, Georgia, Circassia, Mingrelia, and the islands in the Mediterranean, belonging to the Venetians, the Conf. B Greek Church is that of the state. Even in his present condi tion of degradation, the Patriarch of Constantinople holds his pre-eminence over every other prelate of the Greek Church. Mr. Dallaway observes, that, "since the close of the sixteenth century, the Russian Church has claimed a jurisdiction independent of the See of Constantinople; nevertheless, appeals have been made to this See, in cases of extraordinary importance." This is confirmed by Mr. King, in his "Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church of Russia." Thus, ever since the separation of the Churches, each of the two prelates, the bishop of Rome and the Patriarch of Constantinople, has been the centre of different systems. The Greek church has many important documents of her faith, subsequent to her separation from the Church of Rome : two of them are entitled to particular mention. The first, is the Confession of her true and sincere Faith, which, on the taking of Constantinople by Mahomet the second, in 1453, Gennadius, its patriarch, presented to the conqueror. It was favourably received, and Mahomet delivered into the hand of Gennadius, the crozier or pastoral staff, as an emblem of his investiture of the patriarchal see, and authorised him to assure the Greeks in his name, of their lives, their liberties, and the free exercise of their religion. An account of the interview is given in the Historia Patriarcharum qui sederunt in hac magnâ catholicâque ecclesia Constantinopolitanensi postquam cepit eam Sultanus Mechemeta: written in modern Greek, by Emmanuel Malaxus, a Peloponnesian, translated into Latin by Crusius, Professor at Tubingen, and published by him, in his Turco-Græcia, Libri octo. A copy of this curious work, containing also the Germano-Gracia of the same author, is in the University library, Cambridge. The second, and by far the most authentic document, which we possess of the creed of the Greek church is, The Orthodox Confession of the Catholic and Apostolic Greek Church. It was published in 1642, by Mogila, the Metropolitan of Kiow: It is written in the form of a Catechism, and has the approbation of three Russian bishops, his suffragans. It was afterwards ap proved, with great solemnity, by the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem; by the bishops of Ancyra, Larissa, Chalcedon, Adrianople, Beræa, Rhodes, Methymna, Lacedemon and Chio; and by several of the chief officers of the Greek church of Constantinople. An edition of it in the Greek, Latin and German languages was published at Wratislaw, in octavo, in 1751. An ordinance of Peter the Great, of the Patriarchs of Moscovy and the perpetual Synod, declared it to express the religious credence of the Russian church; and that the doctrine of it should be universally followed and taught. An Abridgment of the most interesting articles in this Catechism, is inserted in the Appendix to this work, Note I. It was the wish of the writer of these pages, to insert in them an historical account of the Confession of Faith of Cyrillus Lucaris, the Patriarch of Constantinople, subscribed by him in 1621, and of the Counter-Confession of the Council of Jerusalem, held in that city in 1672, and presided by Doritheus, its Patriarch; but after much research, the materials for it have not fallen within his reach. |