69. THE CAUSES OF SEPARATION. 309
NOTE ON THE EASTERN ORTHODOX CHURCH.
For the sake of brevity the usual terminology is employed in this chapter, but the proper name of the Greek Church is the HOLY ORIENTAL ORTHODOX APOSTOLIC CHURCH. The terms mostly in use in that church are Orthodox and Oriental (Eastern). The term Greek is used in Turkey only of the Greeks proper (the Hellens) ; but the great majority of Oriental Christians in Turkey and Russia belong to the Slavonic race. The Greek is the original and classical language of the Oriental Church, in which the most important works are written ; but it has been practically superseded in Asiatic Turkey by the Arabic, in Russia and European Turkey by the Slavonic.
The Oriental or Orthodox Church now embraces three distinct divi sions :
1. The Orthodox Church in Turkey (European Turkey and the Greek islands, Asia Minor, Syria and Palestine) under the patriarchs of Con stantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem.
2. The state church of Russia, formerly under the patriarch of Con stantinople, then under the patriarch of Moscow, since 1725 under the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg and the headship of the Czar. This is by far the largest and most important branch.
3. The church of the kingdom of Greece under the Holy Synod of Greece (since 1833).
There are also Greek Christians in Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula (the monks of the Convent of St. Catharine), the islands of the ^Egean Sea, in Malta, Servia, Austria, etc.
Distinct from the Orthodox Church are the Oriental Schismatics, the Nestorians, Armenians, Jacobites, Copts, and Abyssinian*, who separated from the former on the ground of the christological controversies. The Maronitcs of Mount Lebanon were originally also schismatics, but sub mitted to the pope during the Crusades.
The United Greeks acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, but retain certain peculiarities of the Oriental Church, as the marriage of the lower clergy, the native language in worship. They are found in lower Italy, Austria, Russia, and Poland.
The Bulgarians, who likewise call themselves orthodox, and who by the treaty of Berlin in 1878 have been formed into a distinct principality, occupy an independent position between the Greek and the Roman Churches.
§ 69. The Causes of Separation.
Church history, like the world's history, moves with the sun from East to West. In the first six centuries the Eastern or Greek church represented the main current of life and progress.
310 FOURTH PERIOD. A.D. 590-1049.
In the middle ages the Latin church chiefly assumed the task of christianizing and civilizing the new races which came upon the stage. The Greek church has had no Middle Ages in the usual sense, and therefore no Reformation. She planted Christianity among the Slavonic races, but they were isolated from the progress of European history, and have not materially affected cither the doctrine or polity or cultus of the church. Theii conversion was an external expansion, not an internal develop^ ment.
The Greek and Latin churches were never organically united under one government, but differed considerably from the begin ning in nationality, language, and various ceremonies. These differences, however, did not interfere with the general harmony of faith and Christian life, nor prevent cooperation against com mon foes. As long and as far as the genuine spirit of Chris tianity directed them, the diversity was an element of strength to the common cause.
The principal sees of the East were directly founded by the apostles — with the exception of Constantinople — and had even a clearer title to apostolic succession and inheritance than Rome. The Greek church took the lead in theology down to the sixth or seventh century, and the Latin gratefully learned from her All the oecumenical Councils were held on the soil of the Byzan tine empire in or near Constantinople, and carried on in tho Greek language. The great doctrinal controversies on the hoi) Trinity and Christology were fought out in the East, yet nol without the powerful aid of the more steady and practical West. Athanasius, when an exile from Alexandria, found refuge and support in the bishop of Rome. Jerome, the most learned of the Latin fathers and a friend of Pope Damasus, was a connect ing link between the East and the West, and concluded his labors in Bethlehem. Pope Leo I. was the theological master spirit who controlled the council of Chalcedon, and shaped the orthodox formula concerning the two natures in the one person of Christ. Yet this very pope strongly protested against the