2 68. THE CONSENSUS AND DISSENSUS, ETC. 307
mcnical Synods from A. D. 325 to 787, including the worship of images.
They agree moreover in most of the post- oecumenical or mediaeval doctrines against which the evangelical Reformation protested, namely : the authority of ecclesiastical tradition as a joint rule of faith with the holy Scriptures ; the worship of the Virgin Mary, of the saints, their pictures (not statues), and relics; justification by faith and good works, as joint conditions; the merit of good works, especially voluntary celibacy and poverty ; the seven sacraments or mysteries (with minor differ ences as to confirmation, and extreme unction or chrisma) ; bap tismal regeneration and the necessity of water-baptism for salva tion ; transubstautiation and the consequent adoration of the sacramental elements ; the sacrifice of the mass for the living arid the dead, with prayers for the dead ; priestly absolution by divine authority ; three orders of the ministry, and the necessity of an episcopal hierarchy up to the patriarchal dignity ; and a vast number of religious rites and ceremonies.
In the doctrine of purgatory, the Greek Church is less explicit, yet agrees with the Roman in assuming a middle state of purification, and the efficacy of prayers and masses for the departed. The dogma of transubstantiation, too, is not so clearly formulated in the Greek creed as in the Roman, but the differ ence is very small. As to the Holy Scriptures, the Greek Church has never prohibited the popular use, and the Russian Church even favors the free circulation of her authorized ver nacular version. But the traditions of the Greek Church are as strong a barrier against the exercise of private judgment and exegetical progress as those of Rome.
IT. The dissensus of the two churches covers the following points :
1. The procession of the Holy Spirit: the East teaching the single procession from the Father only, the "West (since Augustin), the double procession from the Father and t/ie Son (Filioque).
308 FOURTH PEKIOD. A. D. 590-1049.
2. The universal authority and infallibility of the pope, which is asserted by the Roman, denied by the Greek Church. The former is a papal monarchy, the latter a patriarchal oligarchy. There are, according to the Greek theory, five patriarchs of equal rights, the pope of Rome, the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. They were sometimes compared to the five senses in the body. To them was afterwards added the patriarch of Moscow for the Russian church (which is now governed by the " Holy Synod "). To the bishop of Rome was formerly conceded a primacy of honor, but this primacy passed with the seat of empire to the patriarch of Constantinople, who therefore signed himself "Archbishop of New Rome and (Ecumenical Patri arch/71
3. The immaculate conception of the Virgin Mary, pro claimed as a dogma by the pope in 1854, disowned by the East, which, however, in the practice of Mariolatry fully equals the West.
4. The marriage of the lower clergy, allowed by the Eastern, forbidden by the Roman Church (yet conceded by the pope to the United Greeks).
5. The withdrawal of the cup from the laity. In the Greek Church the laymen receive the consecrated bread dipped in the wine and administered with a golden spoon.
6. A number of minor ceremonies peculiar to the Eastern Church, such as trine immersion in baptism, the use of leavened bread in the eucharist, infant-communion, the repetition of the holy unction (TO eu/efaov) in sickness.
Notwithstanding these differences the Roman Church has always been obliged to recognize the Greek Church as essentially orthodox, though schismatic. And, certainly, the differences are insignificant as compared with the agreement. The sep aration and antagonism must therefore be explained fully as much and more from an alienation of spirit and change of
condition.
1 See the passages in Gieseler II. 227 sq.