Greek Patriarchy. Orthodox Church of Constantinople
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople has repeatedly visited Russia. But in 2018, Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople was severed. What is the Church of the New Rome - the Ecumenical Patriarchate?
A few words about the historical role of the Patriarchate of Constantinople and its position in the contemporary Orthodox world.
The historical role of the Patriarchate of Constantinople
The creation of a Christian community and an episcopal see in Constantinople (before 330 AD - Byzantium) dates back to apostolic times. It is inextricably linked with the activities of the holy apostles Andrew the First-Called and Stachy (the latter, according to legend, became the first bishop of the city, whose Εκκλησία continuously increased in the first three centuries of Christianity). However, the flourishing of the Church of Constantinople and its acquisition of world-historical significance are connected with the conversion to Christ of the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great (305-337) and the creation by him shortly after the First Ecumenical (Nicene) Council (325) of the second capital of the Christianizing empire - New Rome, which later received the name of its sovereign founder.
A little more than 50 years later, at the Second Ecumenical Council (381), the bishop of New Rome received second place in diptychs among all the bishops of the Christian world, yielding since then in the primacy of honor only to the bishop of Ancient Rome (canon 3 of the aforementioned Council). It is worth noting that the Primate of the Church of Constantinople during the period of the Council was one of the greatest fathers and teachers of the Church - St. Gregory the Theologian.
Soon after the final division of the Roman Empire into the Western and Eastern parts in Constantinople, another equally angelic father and teacher of the Church shone with an unfading light - St. John Chrysostom, who occupied the chair of the archbishop in 397-404. In his writings, this great ecumenical teacher and saint outlined the true, enduring ideals of the life of Christian society and formed the unchanging foundations of the social activity of the Orthodox Church.
Unfortunately, in the first half of the 5th century, the Church of New Rome was desecrated by the Heretic Patriarch of Constantinople Nestorius (428-431), who was overthrown and anathematized at the Third Ecumenical (Ephesus) Council (431). However, already the Fourth Ecumenical (Chalcedon) Council restored and expanded the rights and advantages of the Church of Constantinople. By its 28th canon, this Council formed the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, which included the dioceses of Thrace, Asia and Pontus (that is, most of the territory of Asia Minor and the eastern part of the Balkan Peninsula). In the middle of the 6th century, under the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Justinian the Great (527-565), the Fifth Ecumenical Council (553) was held in Constantinople. At the end of the 6th century, under the eminent canonist, Saint John IV the Faster (582-595), the primates of Constantinople for the first time began to use the title of "Ecumenical (Οικουμενικός) Patriarch" (at the same time, historically, their status as bishops of the capital of the Christian empire was considered the basis for such a title - ecumene).
In the 7th century, the see of Constantinople, through the efforts of the crafty enemy of our salvation, again became a source of heresy and church troubles. Patriarch Sergius I (610-638) became the founder of the heresy of Monothelitism, and his heretical successors staged a real persecution of the defenders of Orthodoxy - Saint Martin the Pope of Rome and Saint Maximus the Confessor, who were eventually martyred by heretics. By the grace of the Lord God and our Savior Jesus Christ, the Sixth Ecumenical Council (680-681) convened in Constantinople under the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine IV Pogonates (668-685) destroyed the Monothelite heresy, condemned, excommunicated and anathematized Patriarch Sergius and all his followers (including the Patriarchs of Constantinople Pyrrhus and Paul II, as well as Pope Honorius I).
Saint Maxim the Confessor
Territories of the Patriarchate of Constantinople
In the 8th century, the patriarchal throne of Constantinople was occupied for a long time by supporters of the iconoclastic heresy, forcibly implanted by the emperors of the Isaurian dynasty. It was only through the efforts of the holy Patriarch Tarasius of Constantinople (784-806) that the Seventh Ecumenical Council was able to stop the heresy of iconoclasm and anathematize its founders, the Byzantine emperors Leo the Isaurian (717-741) and Constantine Copronymus (741-775). It is also worth noting that in the 8th century the western part of the Balkan Peninsula (dioceses of Illyricum) was included in the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
In the 9th century, the most prominent patriarch of Constantinople was the "new Chrysostom", St. Photius the Great (858-867, 877-886). It was under him that the Orthodox Church for the first time condemned the most important errors of the heresy of papism: the doctrine of the descent of the Holy Spirit not only from the Father, but also from the Son (the doctrine of the “filioque”), which changes the Creed, and the doctrine of the sole primacy of the Roman pope in the Church and of primacy ( superiority) of the pope over church councils.
The time of the patriarchate of St. Photius was the time of the most active Orthodox Church mission in the history of Byzantium, which resulted not only in the baptism and conversion to Orthodoxy of the peoples of Bulgaria, the Serbian lands and the Great Moravian state (the latter covered the territories of modern Czech Republic, Slovakia and Hungary), but also the first ( the so-called "Askold's") the baptism of Russia (which took place shortly after 861) and the formation of the beginnings of the Russian Church. It was the representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople - the holy Equal-to-the-Apostles missionaries, enlighteners of the Slavs Cyril and Methodius - who defeated the so-called "trilingual heresy" (the supporter of which claimed that there were some "sacred" languages, in which only one should pray to God).
Finally, like St. John Chrysostom, St. Photius in his writings actively preached the social ideal of Orthodox Christian society (and even compiled for the empire a code of laws imbued with Christian values, the Epanagoge). It is not surprising that, like John Chrysostom, Saint Photius was persecuted. However, if the ideas of St. John Chrysostom, despite persecution during his lifetime, after his death were nevertheless officially recognized by the imperial authorities, then the ideas of St. Photius, which were disseminated during his lifetime, were rejected shortly after his death (thus, accepted shortly before the death of St. Epanagoge and not entered into force).
In the 10th century, the Asia Minor region of Isauria (924) was included in the canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, after which the entire territory of Asia Minor (except Cilicia) entered the canonical jurisdiction of New Rome. At the same time, in 919-927, after the establishment of the patriarchate in Bulgaria, under the omophorion of the latter, almost the entire northern part of the Balkans (the modern territories of Bulgaria, Serbia, Montenegro, Macedonia, part of the territory of Romania, as well as Bosnia and Herzegovina). However, the most important event in the church history of the 10th century, without a doubt, was the second Baptism of Russia, carried out in 988 by the Holy Equal-to-the-Apostles Grand Duke Vladimir (978-1015). Representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople played a significant role in the formation of the Russian Church, which until 1448 was in the closest canonical connection with the Tsaregrad Patriarchal Throne.
In 1054, with the separation of the Western (Roman) Church from the fullness of Orthodoxy, the Patriarch of Constantinople becomes the first in honor among all Primates of the Local Orthodox Churches. At the same time, with the beginning of the era of the Crusades at the end of the 11th century and the temporary expulsion from their thrones of the Orthodox patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem, the bishop of New Rome began to acquire an exclusive church status for himself, striving to establish certain forms of canonical superiority of Constantinople over other autocephalous Churches and even to the abolition of some of them (in particular, the Bulgarian one). However, the fall in 1204 under the blows of the Crusaders of the capital of Byzantium and the forced relocation of the patriarchal residence to Nicaea (where the patriarchs resided from 1207 to 1261) prompted the Ecumenical Patriarchate to agree to the restoration of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church and the granting of autocephaly to the Serbian Church.
The recapture of Constantinople from the crusaders (1261) did not, in fact, improve, but rather worsened, the real situation of the Church of Constantinople. Emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos (1259-1282) headed for union with Rome, with the help of anti-canonical measures, he handed over the reins of power in the Ecumenical Patriarchate to the Uniates and perpetrated cruel persecution of supporters of Orthodoxy, unprecedented since the bloody iconoclastic repressions. In particular, with the sanction of the Uniate Patriarch John XI Vekka (1275 - 1282), there was an unparalleled defeat by the Byzantine Christian (!) Army of the monasteries of Mount Athos (during which a considerable number of Athos monks, refusing to accept the union, beamed in the feat of martyrdom). After the death of the anathematized Michael Palaiologos at the Blachernae Council in 1285, the Church of Constantinople unanimously condemned both the union and the dogma of the “filioque” (adopted 11 years earlier by the Western Church at the Council in Lyon).
In the middle of the 14th century, at the “Palamite Councils” held in Constantinople, the Orthodox dogmas on the difference between the essence and energy of the Godhead were officially confirmed, which are the pinnacles of truly Christian knowledge of God. It is to the Patriarchate of Constantinople that the entire Orthodox world owes the rooting in our Church of these saving pillars of the Orthodox Faith. However, soon after the triumphant establishment of Palamism, the flock of the Ecumenical Patriarchate again faced the danger of a union with heretics. Carried away by the addition of a foreign flock (at the end of the XIV century, the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church was again liquidated), the hierarchs of the Church of Constantinople at the same time exposed their own flock to great spiritual danger. The weakening imperial government of the Byzantine Empire, which was dying under the blows of the Ottomans, in the first half of the 15th century again tried to impose subordination to the Pope of Rome on the Orthodox Church. At the Ferrara-Florence Council (1438-1445), all the clergy and laity of the Patriarchate of Constantinople invited to its meetings (except for the unshakable fighter against the heresy of St. Mark of Ephesus) signed an act of union with Rome. Under these conditions, the Russian Orthodox Church, in pursuance of Canon 15 of the Holy Twofold Council, broke off its canonical connection with the Patriarchal See of Constantinople and became an autocephalous Local Church, independently electing its Primate.
Saint Mark of Ephesus
In 1453, after the fall of Constantinople and the end of the existence of the Byzantine Empire (which papal Rome never provided the help promised against the Ottomans), the Church of Constantinople, headed by the holy Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius (1453-1456, 1458, 1462, 1463-1464) she threw off the bonds of the union imposed by heretics. Moreover, soon after that, the Patriarch of Constantinople became the civil head (“millet-bashi”) of all Orthodox Christians living in the territory of the Ottoman Empire. According to the words of contemporaries of the events described, “The patriarch sat down like a Caesar on the throne of the Basils” (that is, the Byzantine emperors). From the beginning of the 16th century, other Eastern patriarchs (Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem), in accordance with Ottoman laws, fell into a subordinate position for four long centuries to persons occupying the Patriarchal Throne of Constantinople. Taking advantage of this kind of situation, many of the latter allowed tragic abuses of their power for the Church. Thus, Patriarch Cyril I Lucaris (1620-1623, 1623-1633, 1633-1634, 1634-1635, 1635-1638), as part of a polemic with papal Rome, tried to impose the Protestant doctrine on the Orthodox Church, and Patriarch Cyril V (1748-1751 , 1752-1757) by his decision changed the practice of accepting Roman Catholics into Orthodoxy, departing from the requirements established for this practice by the Council of 1484. In addition, in the middle of the 18th century, at the initiative of the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the Ottomans liquidated the Pech (Serbian) Patriarchate and the Orchid Autocephalous Archdiocese that provided care for the Macedonian flock (created back in the time of St. Justinian the Great).
However, one should not at all think that the life of the Primates of the Church of Constantinople - the ethnarchs of all Eastern Christians - was "truly royal" under Ottoman domination. For many of them, she was truly a confessor, and even a martyr. Appointed and dismissed at the arbitrariness of the sultan and his hangers-on, the patriarchs, not only by their position, but also by their lives, were responsible for the obedience of the oppressed, oppressed, robbed, humiliated and destroyed Orthodox population of the Ottoman Empire. So, after the start of the Greek uprising of 1821, on the orders of the Sultan's government, fanatics belonging to non-Christian Abrahamic religions, on Easter Day, 76-year-old elder Patriarch Gregory V (1797 - 1798, 1806 -1808, 1818 - 1821) were brutally murdered. , who became not only a holy martyr, but also a martyr for the people (εθνομάρτυς).
Patriarchate of Constantinople and the Russian Orthodox Church
Oppressed by the Ottoman sultans (who also bore the title of “caliph of all Muslims”), the Church of Constantinople sought support primarily from the “Third Rome”, that is, from the Russian state and the Russian Church (it was precisely the desire to gain such support that caused the consent of Patriarch Jeremiah II of Constantinople to establish in 1589 the Patriarchate in Russia). However, soon after the aforementioned martyrdom of Hieromartyr Gregory (Angelopoulos), the hierarchs of Constantinople made an attempt to rely on the Orthodox peoples of the Balkan Peninsula as well. It was at that time that the District Council Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs of 1848, the Orthodox people (whose representatives were integrated into the highest bodies of church administration of all the Eastern Patriarchates during the Ottoman period) was solemnly proclaimed the guardian of truth in the Church. At the same time, the Church of Greece liberated from the Ottoman yoke (the Greek Church) received autocephaly. However, already in the second half of the 19th century, the hierarchs of Constantinople refused to recognize the restoration of the autocephaly of the Bulgarian Church (having come to terms with it only in the middle of the 20th century). Similar problems with recognition from Constantinople were also experienced by the Orthodox Patriarchates of Georgia and Romania. However, in fairness, it should be noted that the restoration of a single autocephalous Serbian Orthodox Church at the end of the second decade of the last century did not meet with any objections from Constantinople.
A new, first in the 20th century, dramatic page in the history of the Church of Constantinople was associated with the stay on Her Patriarchal Throne of Meletios IV(Metaksakis), who occupied the chair of the Ecumenical Patriarch in 1921-1923. In 1922, he abolished the autonomy of the Greek Archdiocese in the United States, which provoked a division in both American and Greek Orthodoxy, and in 1923, by convening a "Pan-Orthodox Congress" (from representatives of only five Local Orthodox Churches), he led through this unforeseen the canonical structure of the Orthodox Church, the organ decided to change the liturgical style, which provoked church turmoil, which later gave rise to the so-called. "Old Style" split. Finally, in the same year, he received schismatic anti-church groups in Estonia under the omophorion of Constantinople. But the most fatal mistake of Meletius IV there was support for the slogans of "militant Hellenism", that after Turkey's victory in the Greco-Turkish war of 1919-1922. and the conclusion of the Lausanne Peace Treaty of 1923 became one of the additional arguments for justifying the expulsion from the territory of Asia Minor of the almost two million Greek-speaking flock of the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
As a result of all this, after the departure of Meletios from the see, almost a hundred thousand Orthodox Greek community of Constantinople (Istanbul) became almost the only support of the Ecumenical Patriarchal Throne on its canonical territory. However, the anti-Greek pogroms of the 1950s led to the fact that the Orthodox flock of the Ecumenical Patriarchate in Turkey, as a result of mass emigration to date, with a few exceptions, has been reduced to several thousand Greeks living in the Phanar quarter of Constantinople, as well as on the Princes' Islands in the Sea of Marmara and on the islands of Imvros and Tenedos in the Turkish Aegean. Under these conditions, Patriarch Athenagoras I (1949-1972) turned for help and support to Western countries, on whose lands, mainly in the United States, the vast majority of the almost seven million (at that time) flock of the Church of Constantinople already lived. Among the measures taken to gain this support was the lifting of the anathemas imposed on the representatives of the Western Church who broke away from Orthodoxy in 1054 by Patriarch Michael I Kirularius (1033-1058). These measures (which, however, did not mean the cancellation of conciliar decisions to condemn the heretical errors of Western Christians), however, could not alleviate the situation of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which was dealt a new blow by the decision taken by the Turkish authorities in 1971 to close the Theological Academy on the island of Halki. Shortly after the implementation of this decision by Turkey, Patriarch Athenagoras I died.
Primate of the Church of Constantinople - Patriarch Bartholomew
The current Primate of the Church of Constantinople, His Holiness Archbishop of Constantinople-New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew I, was born in 1940 on the island of Imvros, was consecrated bishop in 1973 and ascended Patriarchal Throne November 2, 1991 The canonical territory of the Patriarchate of Constantinople during the period of its administration of the Church essentially did not change and still includes the territory of almost all of Asia Minor, Eastern Thrace, Crete (where a semi-autonomous Cretan Church exists under the omophorion of Constantinople), the Dodecanese Islands, Mount Athos (also enjoying certain ecclesiastical independence), as well as Finland (the small Orthodox Church in this country enjoys canonical autonomy). In addition, the Church of Constantinople also claims certain canonical rights in the administration of the so-called "new territories" - the dioceses of Northern Greece, annexed to the main territory of the country after the Balkan wars of 1912-1913. and transferred by Constantinople in 1928 to the control of the Greek Church. Such claims (as well as the claims of the Church of Constantinople that have no canonical grounds at all for the canonical subordination of the entire Orthodox diaspora to it), of course, do not find the positive response expected by some Constantinople hierarchs from other Orthodox Local Churches. However, they can be understood on the basis that the vast majority of the flock of the Ecumenical Patriarchate is precisely the flock of the diaspora (which, however, still constitutes a minority among the Orthodox diaspora as a whole). The latter also to a certain extent explains the breadth of the ecumenical activity of Patriarch Bartholomew I, who seeks to objectify new, non-trivial areas of inter-Christian and, more broadly, inter-religious dialogue in the rapidly globalizing modern world.
Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople
The certificate was prepared by Balytnikov Vadim Vladimirovich
Some historical (including hagiographic and iconographic data) testify to the veneration of this emperor in Byzantium along with Constantine the Great, who was named after him.
Interestingly, it was this heretic patriarch who, with his “canonical answers” (about the inadmissibility of Christians drinking koumiss, etc.), actually thwarted all the efforts of the Russian Church to carry out a Christian mission among the nomadic peoples of the Golden Horde.
As a result, almost all Orthodox episcopal sees in Turkey became titular, and the participation of the laity in the implementation of church administration at the level of the Patriarchate of Constantinople ceased.
Similarly, attempts to extend its ecclesiastical jurisdiction to a number of states (China, Ukraine, Estonia) that are currently part of the canonical territory of the Moscow Patriarchate do not find support outside the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Reference: In September 2018, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew addressed the Synax with a statement about the interference of the Russian Church in the affairs of the Kyiv Metropolis. In response to this, the Holy Synod of the Russian Orthodox Church at an extraordinary meeting decided: “1. Suspend the prayer commemoration of Patriarch Bartholomew of Constantinople at the service. 2. Suspend concelebration with the hierarchs of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. 3. Suspend the participation of the Russian Orthodox Church in all Episcopal assemblies, theological dialogues, multilateral commissions and other structures chaired or co-chaired by representatives of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. 4. To accept the statement of the Holy Synod in connection with the anti-canonical actions of the Patriarchate of Constantinople in Ukraine.” The Russian Orthodox Church has severed Eucharistic communion with the Patriarchate of Constantinople.
Chapter:
CHURCH PROTOCOL
2nd page
DEVICE AND HIERARCHY
OF THE UNIVERSE ORTHODOX CHURCH
Spiritual guidance for those truly established in the holy Orthodox faith:
- questions of believers and answers of the holy righteous.
The Gospel tells how on the fortieth day after His Resurrection, the Lord Jesus Christ ascended into heaven in glory, commanding His disciples: “Go, make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe everything that I commanded you "(Mt. 28, 19-20).
These words of the Savior of the world contained the main goal of the great apostolic ministry to which the former fishermen of Galilee were called. Addressing the gospel preaching to the peoples and tribes that inhabited the Roman Empire, the apostles began to create the first Christian communities.
The principle of catholicity, i.e., the unity of many believers in Christ, underlies the existence of the Christian Church, since the very word "church" (Greek - εκκλησια) is literally translated as a public, people's assembly.
Over time, the number of Christians multiplied. Not being able to constantly personally participate in the life of the communities, the disciples of Christ began to elect for them from among the newly converted spiritual leaders - presbyters. Above those who devoted themselves to the service of God, the apostles performed a special prayer with the laying on of hands, calling on the chosen ones the grace of the Holy Spirit. This action, which is one of the seven sacraments of the Christian Church, was later called ordination.
Practically from the very beginning of the existence of the Christian Church, a three-level hierarchy of clergy has been formed in it, consisting of deacons (servants of help, who were assistants to presbyters), presbyters and bishops, who occupy a dominant position, being the bearers of the highest spiritual authority. Bishops are entrusted with the instruction of the people in the faith, the performance of divine services and the administration of the Church.
The Canons of the Holy Apostles, one of the oldest collections of church canons, indicate that hierarchical consecration, i.e., elevation to the episcopal rank, is performed by three or at least two bishops. Beginning in the 5th century, bishops were elected primarily by representatives of monasticism, which at all times in its mass preserved the purity of Orthodox dogma intact.
Initially, the bishop, like the presbyter, led the prayer meetings of only one Christian community. But when the number of communities increased, bishoprics (current dioceses) were formed - church districts under the spiritual authority of one bishop.
The Christian communities of the provinces of the Roman Empire, created by the bishops of large metropolitan cities, obeyed them, recognizing their authority and supremacy. The first bishops who headed them began to be called metropolitans. The clergy and faithful of one episcopate, headed by a canonically appointed bishop, constitute a small local Church.
For various historical and political reasons, these small Churches united into larger entities - this is how the Local Orthodox Churches arose. Since the middle of the 5th century, the word "Patriarch" (from the Greek πατριαρχης - father of the clan) is used for the first time in church documents as a hierarchical title of the leading bishops of the largest church areas.
The canonical territories of the Patriarchates were administratively divided into "dioceses", which consisted of several metropolitan districts, which in turn consisted of several bishoprics. The bishops who ruled them were subordinate to the metropolitans, and the metropolitans were subordinate to the Patriarchs. This practice exists in many Local Churches today.
Under the Equal-to-the-Apostles Emperor Constantine the Great, the rise of Constantinople as the second Rome begins - the new eastern capital of the Roman Empire and the ecclesiastical administrative center. In the 6th century (under St. Patriarch Mina, 536-552), the First Hierarchs of Constantinople assumed the title of Ecumenical Patriarchs.
The 36th canon of the Trullo Council, held in 691-692, established the "order of honor" of the first five Patriarchates: Roman, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem (after the fall of the Western Church, their number decreased to four). Primates of other Local Orthodox Churches were subsequently added to this list.
The highest ecclesiastical legislative and judicial authority in the Orthodox Church is the Ecumenical Council - an assembly of bishops representing all Local Churches. Presbyters and deacons may take part in these Councils as experts (and if they represent absent bishops, then with a casting vote).
In church history, there are seven Ecumenical Councils, at which the main provisions of the Orthodox dogma were fixed, as well as canonical and disciplinary norms were developed. In the periods between the Ecumenical Councils, Councils of the episcopate of the Local Church - Local Councils - were held to consider the dogmatic and canonical problems of one church area.
At present, the Ecumenical Church is administratively-territorially divided into Autocephalous and Autonomous Local Churches.
The Autocephalous Church has an independent source of power; its bishops themselves elect and appoint their First Hierarch. The Autocephalous Church, while maintaining doctrinal and liturgical unity with all other Local Churches, has the right to sanctify chrism, canonize saints, and compose liturgical rites.
All Patriarchates are large Autocephalous Churches, the primates of other Autocephalous Churches are metropolitans or archbishops.
The Autonomous Church is endowed with lesser rights, being administratively and judicially dependent on the kyriarchal (dominant) Local Church, which granted autonomy to this ecclesiastical region. The Chiriarchal Church approves the charter and the first bishop of the Autonomous Church, and also grants her holy chrism. Interchurch contacts of the Autonomous Church are also carried out through the kyriarchal one.
The position of each Local Orthodox Church is determined on the basis of a diptych - a list in which the First Hierarchs of the Churches are indicated by the importance of their sees. The rank of the cathedra depends mainly on the time when the Local Church received autocephaly, while those of them that were created directly by the apostles of Christ take precedence.
In Russia, the Patriarchate was established in 1589 under Tsar Theodore Ioannovich. The enthronement (ordaining) of the first Patriarch of Moscow, St. Job, took place with the participation of Ecumenical Patriarch Jeremiah II, who was in Russia to collect alms. The Council of 1590, held in Constantinople with the participation of the Primates of the Churches of Constantinople, Antioch and Jerusalem, approved the "chrysovul" - the charter laid down by Patriarch Jeremiah on the appointment of the Patriarch to Moscow. The Russian First Hierarch was given the fifth place in honor after the Eastern Patriarchs.
At present, the Ecumenical Orthodox Church includes nine Patriarchates, six Autocephalous and three Autonomous Churches (see).
During the joint ministry of the First Hierarchs of the Local Churches, their seniority is determined by the diptych. The titles of the First Hierarchs of the Eastern Orthodox Churches may seem excessively pompous and lengthy to our contemporaries, but we must remember that they were formed in ancient times and bear the imprint of the events of church history.
The diptych is headed by the Primate of the Local Orthodox Church of Constantinople, bearing the title: His Holiness Archbishop of Constantinople - New Rome and Ecumenical Patriarch. The jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople is the Autonomous Orthodox Church of Finland, headed by the Archbishop of Karelia and All Finland.
The primates of the ancient apostolic sees are: His Beatitude Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria and All Africa; His Beatitude Patriarch of Great Antioch and All the East; His Beatitude Patriarch of the Holy City of Jerusalem and All Palestine. The Jerusalem Patriarchate includes the Sinai Archdiocese as an autonomy, which has its Primate with the title of Archbishop of Sinai, Faran and Raifa.
The fifth place in the diptych from the 16th century is occupied by the First Hierarch of the Russian Orthodox Church - the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia. He is followed by His Holiness and Beatitude Catholicos-Patriarch of All Georgia, Archbishop of Mtskheta and Tbilisi. The title of Catholicos has been borne by the Georgian First Hierarchs since the 5th century, having received it from the kyriarchal Church of Antioch: this was the name of the First Hierarchs of the Local Churches, territorially located beyond the eastern borders of the Byzantine Empire.
Independent church structures in Southern Europe were formed in the early Middle Ages, but their canonical status was finally recognized by the Ecumenical Church only in XIX-XX centuries. The diptych includes: First Hierarch of the Serbian Local Orthodox Church - His Holiness Patriarch of Serbia, Archbishop of Pech, Metropolitan of Belgrade-Karlovatsk; Romanian Church - His Beatitude Patriarch, Archbishop of Bucharest, Metropolitan of Muntena and Dobruja; His Holiness Patriarch of Bulgaria.
The title of the Primate of the Cypriot Church reflects the events of church history of the 7th-8th centuries. In the 2nd half of the 7th century, under Emperor Justinian II, the Orthodox community of ancient Cyprus, led by the Primate Archbishop John, fleeing from the Arab conquerors, left the island and moved to the Hellespont province (the ancient name of the Dardanelles region), to the city of Justinianopolis founded by the emperor ( New Justinian).
The Council of Trullo, with its 39th canon, retained the rights of the Autocephalous Church for this community and bestowed on its First Hierarch the title of Archbishop of the city of New Justiniana. In 747, the Cypriots returned to the island, but the memory of their stay in the Hellespont was preserved both among the people and in church terminology: the Primates of the Cypriot Church retain the official title of His Beatitude Archbishop of New Justiniana and all of Cyprus to this day.
The Greek Church is the only Local Orthodox Church headed not by the Primate, but by the Holy Synod of the Hierarchy - an analogue of our Bishops' Council. His Beatitude Archbishop of Athens and All Hellas is only the chairman of the Synod.
This situation is similar to the one in which the Russian Orthodox Church was in the "synodal period", however, the Archbishop of Athens has the right to represent his Church in external contacts.
The synodal system of government arose in the Greek Church in the 19th century, when it was withdrawn in 1834 from the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople under the Greek king of German origin, Catholic Otto I. His advisers (Protestants by religion) recreated in Greece the same model of coexistence of Church and state, which by that time had already been tested to some extent in Russia: the king was considered the head of the Church, and the Synod included its official, in terms of authority corresponding to the Russian chief prosecutor of the Holy Synod.
In 1850, the Patriarchate of Constantinople issued a Tomos on granting autocephaly to the Church of Greece, which only contributed to the final approval of the synodal system in Greece (by the law of July 9, 1852), which laid the foundation for the life of the Church of Greece from the very moment of its formation and still exists: for The Liturgy after the words “Remember first, Lord” in the Church of Greece commemorates the Holy Synod of the Hierarchy, while in other Churches their Primates are commemorated (however, the synodal system originally established here later evolved towards strengthening the significance of the first hierarch).
Further along the diptych are His Beatitude the Archbishop of Tirana and All Albania, His Beatitude the Metropolitan of Warsaw and All Poland, His Beatitude the Metropolitan of the Czech Lands and Slovakia. On January 1, 1993, the Czechoslovak Republic was divided into two independent states - the Czech Republic and Slovakia, but the canonical authority of a single Local Church extends to their territory.
The Orthodox Church in America was originally under the canonical subordination of the Russian Orthodox Church, whose missionaries brought Orthodoxy to the North American continent back in the 18th century. It was not until April 1970 that autocephaly was granted to this Church. Its First Hierarch is His Beatitude Archbishop of Washington, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.
The diptych is completed by His Beatitude Archbishop of Tokyo, Metropolitan of All Japan. The Japanese Orthodox Church is included in the Moscow Patriarchate on the rights of autonomy.
In Russia, the commemoration by name of the Primates of the Churches at the “Great Praise” and “Great Entrance” is performed only at the Liturgy celebrated by the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia, while the First Hierarchs of the Autonomous Sinai, Finnish and Japanese Churches are not commemorated.
It should be noted that the aforementioned diptych adopted in the Russian Orthodox Church differs from that which exists in the Patriarchates of the Orthodox East - Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria. In it, the First Hierarch of the Georgian Orthodox Church occupies the ninth place, and the Primate of the American Church is absent. These discrepancies are due to a number of historical reasons.
What an Orthodox Christian Should Know:
THE MOST NEEDED ABOUT THE ORTHODOX FAITH OF CHRIST
He who calls himself a Christian must, with his entire Christian spirit, fully and without any doubt accept Symbol of faith and truth.
Accordingly, he must know them firmly, because you cannot accept or not accept what you do not know.
Out of laziness, out of ignorance, or out of unbelief, one who tramples and rejects due knowledge of Orthodox truths cannot be a Christian.
Symbol of faith
The Symbol of Faith is a brief and accurate statement of all the truths of the Christian faith, compiled and approved at the 1st and 2nd Ecumenical Councils. And whoever does not accept these truths can no longer be an Orthodox Christian.
The entire Creed consists of twelve members, and each of them contains a special truth, or, as they also call it, dogma Orthodox faith.
The creed reads like this:
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1. I believe in one God the Father, Almighty, Creator of heaven and earth, visible to all and invisible. |
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“Jesus said to them: Because of your unbelief; for truly I say to you, if you have faith the size of a mustard seed, and say to this mountain, "Move from here to there," and it will move; and nothing will be impossible for you; ()
Sim By His Word Christ gave people a way to test the truth of the Christian faith of everyone who calls himself a believing Christian.
If this Word of Christ or as otherwise stated in Holy Scripture, you question or try to interpret allegorically - you have not yet accepted truth Holy Scripture and you are not yet a Christian.
If, according to your word, the mountains do not move, you have not yet believed enough, and the true Christian faith is not even in your soul. with mustard seed. With very little faith, you can try to move something much smaller than a mountain with your word - a small hillock or a pile of sand. If this fails, you must make many, many efforts to acquire the faith of Christ, while absent in your soul.
By this the true Word of Christ check the Christian faith of your priest, so that he does not turn out to be a seductive servant of the insidious Satan, who does not have the faith of Christ at all and falsely dressed in an Orthodox cassock.
Christ Himself warned people about many false church deceivers:
“Jesus answered and said to them, Beware that no one deceives you, for many will come under my name and say, I am the Christ, and they will deceive many.” ()
Councils are called ecumenical, convened on behalf of the whole Church to resolve questions about the truths of the dogma and recognized by the whole Church as sources of its dogmatic Tradition and canon law. There were seven such Councils:
The 1st Ecumenical (I Nicene) Council (325) was convened by St. imp. Constantine the Great to condemn the heresy of the Alexandrian presbyter Arius, who taught that the Son of God is only the highest creation of the Father and is called the Son not in essence, but by adoption. The 318 bishops of the Council condemned this teaching as heresy and affirmed the truth about the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father and His pre-eternal birth. They also compiled the first seven articles of the Creed and recorded the privileges of the bishops of the four major metropolitanates: Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem (canons 6 and 7).
The II Ecumenical (I Constantinople) Council (381) completed the formation of the Trinitarian dogma. He was called by St. imp. Theodosius the Great for the final condemnation of various followers of Arius, including the Macedonian Doukhobors, who rejected the Divinity of the Holy Spirit, considering Him to be the creation of the Son. 150 eastern bishops affirmed the truth about the consubstantiality of the Holy Spirit "proceeding from the Father" with the Father and the Son, made up the five remaining members of the Creed and recorded the advantage of the Bishop of Constantinople as the second in honor after Rome - "because this city is the second Rome" (3- th canon).
The III Ecumenical (I Ephesus) Council (431) opened the era of Christological disputes (about the Person of Jesus Christ). It was convened to condemn the heresy of the Bishop of Constantinople Nestorius, who taught that the Blessed Virgin Mary gave birth to a simple man Christ, with whom God subsequently united morally and graciously dwelt in Him, as in a temple. Thus the divine and human natures in Christ remained separate. The 200 bishops of the Council affirmed the truth that both natures in Christ are united into one God-human Person (Hypostasis).
The IV Ecumenical (Chalcedon) Council (451) was convened to condemn the heresy of Archimandrite Eutyches of Constantinople, who, denying Nestorianism, fell into the opposite extreme and began to teach about the complete merging of the Divine and human nature in Christ. At the same time, the Divinity inevitably devoured humanity (the so-called Monophysitism), 630 bishops of the Council affirmed the antinomic truth that the two natures in Christ are united "unmistakably and invariably" (against Eutychius), "inseparably and inseparably" (against Nestorius). The canons of the Council finally fixed the so-called. "Pentarchy" - the ratio of the five patriarchates.
The V-th Ecumenical (II Constantinople) Council (553) was convened by St. emperor Justinian I to pacify the Monophysite turmoil that arose after the Council of Chalcedon. The Monophysites accused the adherents of the Council of Chalcedon of hidden Nestorianism and in support of this they referred to three Syrian bishops (Theodore of Mopsuet, Theodoret of Cyrus and Iva of Edessa), in whose writings Nestorian opinions really sounded. In order to make it easier for the Monophysites to join Orthodoxy, the Council condemned the errors of the three teachers ("three heads"), as well as the errors of Origen.
The VI Ecumenical (III Constantinople) Council (680-681; 692) was convened to condemn the heresy of the Monothelites, who, although they recognized two natures in Jesus Christ, united them by one Divine will. The Council of 170 Bishops affirmed the truth that Jesus Christ, as true God and true Man, has two wills, but his human will is not opposed, but submissive to the Divine. Thus, the revelation of the Christological dogma was completed.
The direct continuation of this Council was the so-called. The Trulli Council, convened 11 years later in the Trulli chambers of the royal palace to approve the established canonical code. He is also called the "Fifth-Sixth", implying that he canonically completed the acts of the Vth and VIth Ecumenical Councils.
The 7th Ecumenical (II Nicaean) Council (787) was convened by Empress Irina to condemn the so-called. iconoclastic heresy - the last imperial heresy, which rejected icon veneration as idolatry. The Council revealed the dogmatic essence of the icon and approved the obligatory nature of icon veneration.
Note. The Ecumenical Orthodox Church has stopped at the seven Ecumenical Councils and confesses Itself as the Church of the seven Ecumenical Councils. so-called. The Ancient Orthodox (or Oriental Orthodox) Churches stopped at the first three Ecumenical Councils, not accepting the IVth, Chalcedonian (the so-called non-Chalcedonites). The Western Roman Catholic Church continues its dogmatic development and already has 21 Councils (moreover, the last 14 Councils are also called Ecumenical). Protestant denominations do not recognize Ecumenical Councils at all.
The division into "East" and "West" is rather conditional. However, it is convenient for showing a schematic history of Christianity. On the right side of the diagram
- Eastern Christianity, i.e. predominantly Orthodoxy. On the left side
- Western Christianity, i.e. Roman Catholicism and Protestant denominations.
EASTERN CHRISTIANITY
Eastern Churches:
1. Churches of Universal Orthodoxy:
Ecumenical Orthodoxy is a family of local Churches that have the same dogma, initial canonical structure, recognize each other's sacraments and are in communion. Theoretically, all the Churches of Ecumenical Orthodoxy are equal, although in fact the Russian Orthodox Church claims the main role ("Moscow is the third Rome"), and the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople jealously observes its honorary "primacy of honor." But the unity of Orthodoxy is not of a monarchical, but rather of a Eucharistic nature, for it is based on the principle of catholicity. Each Church has the fullness of catholicity, i.e. with all the fullness of grace-filled life, given through the true Eucharist and other sacraments. Thus, the empirical plurality of the Churches does not contradict the dogmatic unity that we profess in Article IX of the Creed. Empirically, Ecumenical Orthodoxy consists of 15 autocephalous and several autonomous Churches. We list them in the traditional order.
The Orthodox Church of Constantinople, according to legend, was founded by St. Andrew the First-Called, who c. 60 ordained his disciple St. Stakhios the first bishop of the city of Byzantium. B. 330 St. imp. Constantine the Great founded the new capital of the Roman Empire, Constantinople, on the site of Byzantium. Since 381 - an autocephalous archdiocese, since 451 - a Patriarchate, the center of the so-called. "imperial heresies", fought for primacy with the Alexandrian Church, and then with Rome itself. In 1054, relations with the Roman Church were finally severed and only in 1965 were partially restored. Since 1453, the Patriarchate of Constantinople has existed on the territory of Muslim Turkey, where it has only 6 dioceses, 10 monasteries and 30 theological schools. However, its jurisdiction extends beyond the borders of the Turkish state and embraces very significant ecclesiastical areas: Athos, the Autonomous Church of Finland, the semi-autonomous Cretan Church, Episcopal sees in Western Europe, America, Asia and Australia (234 foreign dioceses in total). Since 1991, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew has headed the Church.
The Alexandrian Orthodox Church is said to have been founded c. 67 by the apostle and evangelist Mark in the capital of Sev.Egypt - Alexandria. Since 451 - Patriarchy, the third in importance after Rome and Constantinople. However, already at the end of V - beginning. 6th century The Alexandrian Church was greatly weakened by the Monophysite turmoil. In the 7th century It finally fell into decay due to the Arab invasion, and at the beginning of the 16th century. was conquered by the Turks and until recently was in strong church dependence on Constantinople. Currently there are only approx. 30 thousand believers, who are united in 5 Egyptian and 9 African dioceses. The total number of temples and prayer houses is approx. 150. Divine services are performed in ancient Greek and Arabic. The Church is currently headed by His Beatitude Parthenius III, Pope and Patriarch of Alexandria.
The Antiochian Orthodox Church is said to have been founded c. 37 in Antioch by the apostles Paul and Barnabas. Since 451 - Patriarchate. At the end of V - beginning. 6th century weakened by the Monophysite turmoil. Since 637, it fell under the rule of the Arabs, and at the beginning of the 16th century. captured by the Turks and fell into disrepair. Until now - one of the poorest Churches, although now it has 22 dioceses and approx. 400 temples (including in America). Divine services are performed in ancient Greek and Arabic. It is headed by His Beatitude Ignatius IV, Patriarch of Antioch, whose residence is in Damascus.
The Jerusalem Orthodox Church is the oldest of the Orthodox Churches. the first bishop of which is considered the apostle James, brother of the Lord († c. 63). After the Jewish War of 66-70. was ruined and lost its primacy to Rome. From the 4th century gradually recovers. In the 7th century falls into disrepair due to the Arab invasion. Now it consists of two metropolias and one archdiocese (the ancient Sinai Church), has 23 temples and 27 monasteries, of which the largest is the monastery of the Holy Sepulcher. In Jerusalem itself, there are no more than 8 thousand Orthodox believers. The service is performed in Greek and Arabic. At present, the head of the Church is His Beatitude Diodorus I, Patriarch of Jerusalem.
Russian Orthodox Church - founded in 988 under St. Prince Vladimir I as the Metropolis of the Church of Constantinople with its center in Kyiv. After the Tatar-Mongol invasion, the department of the metropolis was moved to Vladimir in 1299, and to Moscow in 1325. From 1448 - autocephaly (1st independent metropolitan - St. Jonah). After the fall of Byzantium (1453) and still claims to be the "third Rome". From 1589 - Patriarchate (1st Patriarch - St. Job). Since 1667 greatly weakened by the Old Believer schism, and then by Peter the Great's reforms: the Patriarchate was abolished (Abolition of the Patriarchate) - the so-called. Holy Synod, appointed by the emperor. Councils were not allowed.
After the fall of the autocracy, the Local Council of 1917-18 was convened, which returned the canonical leadership of the Church (St. Patriarch Tikhon). At the same time, the Church experienced severe persecution from the Soviet authorities and underwent a series of schisms (the largest of which, the "Karlovatsky" ("Karlovtsy"), still exists). In the 1930s she was on the brink of extinction. Only since 1943 did its slow revival as a Patriarchate begin. At the Local Council of 1971, reconciliation with the Old Believers took place. In the 1980s The Russian Church already had 76 dioceses and 18 monasteries. But since 1990, the unity of the Patriarchate has been attacked by nationalist forces (especially in Ukraine). Today the Russian Church is going through a difficult and responsible period of adaptation to post-socialist reality. It is headed by His Holiness Kirill, Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.
The Serbian Orthodox Church was founded at the end of the 9th century. Since 1219 - autocephaly. Since 1346 - the first (so-called Pech) Patriarchate. In the XIV century. fell under the yoke of the Turks and became dependent on the Church of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1557 it gained independence, but after two centuries it was again subordinate to Constantinople. Only in 1879 did it again become autocephalous.
On the territory of neighboring Macedonia, Christianity has been known since the time of ap. Paul. From the 4th to the 6th century The Macedonian Church alternately depended either on Rome or on Constantinople. At the end of IX - beginning. 11th century had the status of autocephaly (with its center in Ohrid) and, possibly, participated in the Baptism of Russia.
Montenegro had a special ecclesiastical fate, and the so-called. Bukovinian Metropolis.
The unification of all these Orthodox regions into a single Serbian Church took place in 1919. In 1920, the Serbian Patriarchate was restored. The fascist occupation and the subsequent socialist period caused significant damage to the Serbian Church. Nationalist tendencies intensified. In 1967, Macedonia seceded into a self-made autocephaly (under the leadership of the Archbishop of Ohrid and Macedonia). The Serbian Church is currently in a state of crisis. It is headed by Patriarch Pavel.
Romanian Orthodox Church. The first dioceses in this territory are known from the 4th century. For a long time they were in church dependence on the Patriarchate of Constantinople. From the 14th century under the rule of the Turks. In the first half of the XIX century. temporarily attached to the Russian Church. In 1865 (3 years after the formation of the Romanian state), the local Church declared itself autocephalous, but the Ecumenical Patriarchate recognized this only in 1885. In 1919. the Romanian Patriarchate was formed, which now consists of 13 dioceses, has 17 million believers and is headed by the Patriarch of All Romania, His Beatitude Theoktist.
The Bulgarian Orthodox Church was founded in 865 under St. prince Boris. From 870 - autonomous church within the framework of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Since 927 - an autocephalous archdiocese with its center in Ohrid. This ecclesiastical independence was constantly challenged by Byzantium. From the 14th century Bulgaria was under the rule of the Turks and again became dependent on Constantinople. After a stubborn struggle in 1872, the Bulgarian autocephaly was arbitrarily restored, declared schismatic by the Ecumenical Patriarchate. Only in 1945 the schism was abolished, and in 1953 the Bulgarian Church became a Patriarchate. Now She is in a state of split and crisis. It is headed by the Patriarch of Bulgaria, His Holiness Maxim.
The Georgian Orthodox Church was founded at the beginning of the 4th century. the labors of St. Equal-to-the-Apostles Nina († c. 335). Initially, it was subordinate to the Patriarchate of Antioch. Since 487 - an autocephalous Church with a center in Mtskheta (the residence of the Supreme Catholicos). Under the Sassanids (VI - VII centuries) it withstood the struggle with the Persian fire-worshippers, and during the Turkish conquests (XVI - XVIII centuries) - with Islam. This exhausting struggle led to the decline of Georgian Orthodoxy. The consequence of the difficult political situation of the country was its accession to the Russian Empire (1783). The Georgian Church came under the jurisdiction of the Holy Synod as an exarchate, and the title of Catholicos was abolished. Exarchs, on the other hand, were appointed from Russians, which in 1918 was the reason for the ecclesiastical rupture with Russia. However, in 1943 the Moscow Patriarchate recognized the autocephaly of the Georgian Church as an independent Patriarchate. Now the Church consists of 15 dioceses, uniting approx. 300 communities. It is headed by the Catholicos - Patriarch of All Georgia Ilia II.
The Cypriot Orthodox Church, according to legend, was founded by St. Barnabas in 47. Initially - the diocese of the Church of Antioch. From 431 - autocephalous archdiocese. In the VI century. fell under the Arab yoke, from which it freed itself only in 965. However, in 1091 the island of Cyprus was captured by the crusaders, from 1489 to 1571 it belonged to Venice, from 1571 to the Turks, from 1878 to the British. Only in 1960 did Cyprus achieve independence and proclaim itself a republic, with Archbishop Makarios (1959-1977) as its president. Today the Cypriot Church consists of one archdiocese and 5 metropolias, has more than 500 churches and 9 monasteries. It is headed by Archbishop Chrysostomos.
Helladic (Greek) Orthodox Church. Christianity appeared on its territory under ap. Pavel. From the 4th century Greek episcopal sees were part of either the Roman or the Constantinople Church. In 1453, Greece was conquered by the Turks and entered the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. Only in 1830 Greece achieved independence and began the struggle for autocephaly, which it received in 1850. But, having barely freed itself from Constantinople, it became dependent on the king. It was not until the Constitution of 1975 that the Church was finally separated from the state. It was headed by the Archbishop of Athens and all Hellas, His Beatitude Seraphim.
At the same time (in the 1960s), the so-called Greek Orthodox Church broke away from the Greek Orthodox Church. True Orthodox Church of Greece (old style), consisting of 15 dioceses (including in the USA and North Africa), headed by Metropolitan Cyprian of Philia.
The officially recognized Greek Church is one of the largest. It consists of 1 archdiocese and 77 metropolitanates, has 200 monasteries and has approx. 8 million Orthodox believers (out of 9.6 million of the total population of Greece).
Albanian Orthodox Church. The first Christian communities in this territory have been known since the 3rd century, and the first episcopal see was established in the 10th century. Soon a metropolis was formed, which is under the jurisdiction of the Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and from the second half of the 18th century. - under the jurisdiction of the Patriarchate of Constantinople. In 1922, Albania gained independence and gained autocephaly. The communist regime completely destroyed the small Albanian Church, but now it has risen from the dead. It is headed by His Beatitude Archbishop Anastassy.
The Polish Orthodox Church was founded in 966 under Prince Mieszko I. After the division of the Churches, the Orthodox dominated mainly in the eastern regions, where in 1235 they established an episcopal see in the city of Kholm (later in Przemysl). But in 1385, Prince Jagiello declared his state Catholic, which was the reason for the conversion of the Orthodox to Catholicism. In 1596, the Orthodox bishops, headed by Metropolitan Michael (Rogoza) of Kiev, accepted the jurisdiction of the Pope at the Brest Council. This so-called. The Union of Brest lasted until 1875, when, after the partition of Poland, the Orthodox Kholm diocese was restored. In 1918, Poland again became an independent Catholic state, and the Orthodox Church, separating itself into a self-made autocephaly, degraded more and more. Only in 1948, on the initiative of the Moscow Patriarchate, was the Polish Autocephaly recognized and its position strengthened. Today this Church has no more than 1 million believers (about 300 parishes); It is headed by the Metropolitan of Warsaw and all Poland, His Beatitude Basil.
The Czechoslovak Orthodox Church was founded on the territory of the Czech Republic (in Moravia) in 863 by the works of Sts. Equal-to-the-Apostles Cyril and Methodius. However, after the death of the Thessalonica brothers, the initiative passed to the supporters of the Latin rite. Orthodoxy survived only within the Mukachevo diocese. But in 1649 this diocese also entered into union with the Catholic Church. Only in 1920, thanks to the Serbian initiative, Orthodox parishes under Serbian jurisdiction reappeared in the Carpathians. After World War II, they turned to the Moscow Patriarchate for help and were organized first into an exarchate, and in 1951 into the Autocephalous Czechoslovak Orthodox Church. It has only 200 thousand believers and approx. 200 parishes united in 4 dioceses. It is headed by the Metropolitan of Prague and all Czechoslovakia Dorotheos.
American Orthodox Church. Exactly 200 years ago, in 1794, the monks of the Valaam Monastery of the Transfiguration of the Savior created the first Orthodox mission in America. The American Orthodox consider the Reverend Herman of Alaska († 1837) to be their apostle. Under Archbishop Tikhon (later St. Patriarch), the See of the Aleutian Diocese was transferred from San Francisco to New York. In the very first years of Soviet power, contacts with her turned out to be very difficult. The American hierarchs were suspected of having links with the GPU, and discord intensified. In this regard, in 1971 the Moscow Patriarchate granted autocephaly to the American Church. This decision came into conflict with the interests of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, which already had 2 million American Orthodox in its jurisdiction. Therefore, the American Autocephaly has not yet been recognized by Constantinople, but exists de facto and has more than 500 parishes united in 12 dioceses, 8 monasteries, 3 seminaries, an Academy, etc. The service is held in English. The Church is headed by His Beatitude Theodosius, Metropolitan of All America and Canada.
2. Ancient Oriental Churches:
This is mainly the so-called. "non-Chalcedonites", i.e. The Eastern Churches, for one reason or another, did not accept the Chalcedon (IV Ecumenical) Council. According to their origin, they are divided into "Monophysite" and "Nestorian", although they have gone very far from these ancient heresies.
The Armenian Apostolic Church, according to legend, goes back to App. Thaddeus and Bartholomew. Historically formed in the 320s. through the labors of St. Gregory the Illuminator († 335), whose son and successor, Aristakes, was a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. In its dogma, it is based on the decrees of the first three Ecumenical Councils and adheres to the Christology of St. Cyril of Alexandria (the so-called Miaphysitism). She did not participate in the IV Ecumenical Council for objective reasons and did not recognize its decisions (distorted by translation). In the period from 491 to 536, it finally separated from the unity of the Universal Church. It has seven sacraments, honors the Mother of God, icons, etc. It currently has 5 dioceses within Armenia and several others in America, Asia, Europe and Australia. Until 1994, it was headed by the Supreme Patriarch - the Catholicos of All Armenians, His Holiness Vazgen I (the 130th Catholicos); his residence is in Etchmiadzin.
Coptic Orthodox Church, from the family of the so-called. "Monophysite" Churches, formed in the period from 536 to 580 among the Egyptian Copts. National isolation, due to hatred of Byzantium, facilitated its conquest by the Arabs. Forced Islamization led to a significant decline. As a result of this, the Coptic Patriarch Kirill IV († 1860) began negotiations with His Grace Porfiry (Uspensky) about reunification with Orthodoxy, but was poisoned, and his opponents entered into union with Rome (1898). At present, it has actually united with the Alexandrian Orthodox Church of Patriarch Parthenius. Is in Eucharistic communion with the Armenian and Syrian Churches. Consists of 400 communities. Worship in Arabic and Coptic. Osmosis. Liturgies of Basil the Great, Gregory the Theologian and Cyril of Alexandria. It is headed by the Pope of Alexandria and Patriarch His Holiness Shenouda III.
Ethiopian (Abyssinian) Orthodox Church - until 1959 part of the Coptic Orthodox Church, and then - autocephaly. Under the reign of Sisinia (1607-1632), it entered into a union with Rome, but the next, King Basil (1632-1667), expelled the Catholics from Ethiopia. Divine services are distinguished by an extraordinary richness of texts, hymns and an abundance of holidays. There are many desert monasteries. Currently, this Church is headed by the Patriarch of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Abuna Merkarios (residence in Addis Ababa).
The Syro-Jacobite Orthodox Church, from the family of "Monophysite" Churches, was formed in the 540s. Syrian Monophysite Bishop Jacob Baradei. Having withstood a fierce struggle with the empire, the Jacobites in 610 surrendered themselves to the dominion of the advancing Persians. In 630, at imp. Heraclius, partially adopted Monothelitism. At the beginning of the 8th century, fleeing from the Arabs, they fled to Egypt and the North-West. Africa. They also settled eastward throughout Mesopotamia all the way to India, where in 1665 they entered into union with the Malabar Christians. Currently, this Church is headed by the Patriarch of Antioch and All the East, His Holiness Mar Ignatius Zakke I Ivas (residence in Damascus).
The Malabar Orthodox Church, according to legend, goes back to the communities founded in India by St. Foma on the so-called. Malabar coast. In the 5th century organizationally belonged to the Nestorian Patriarchate "Seleucia-Ctesiphon", whose influence in Arabia and North. India was dominant. Nevertheless, the "Christians of the Apostle Thomas" did not become Nestorians. After the defeat of the Sev. India Tamerlane in con. XIV century, the Malabar coast was discovered by the Portuguese (1489 Vasco da Gama) and forced latinization began (Cathedral in Diamper, 1599). This led to a schism in 1653, when the largest part of the Malabar Christians separated from the union imposed on them by the Spaniards and joined the Syrian-Jacobite Church, which dominated the north (1665). This united Church is now called the Syrian Orthodox Church of India. It is headed by the Patriarch-Catholicos of the East, His Holiness Basil Mar Thomas Matthew I (residence in Kottayam).
Syro-Persian (Assyrian) Church, from the so-called. "Nestorian"; It was formed in 484 on the basis of the Persian ("Chaldean") Church and the Patriarchate "Seleucia-Ctesiphon" (modern Baghdad). Spread throughout Arabia, Sev. India and Center. Asia (up to China inclusive) among the Turkic and Mongolian peoples. In the VII-XI centuries. - the largest Christian Church in the territory. In the XIV century. almost completely destroyed by Tamerlane. Only in Kurdistan survived approx. 1 million believers under the leadership of the Patriarch with residence in Mosul. In 1898, several thousand Aisors (Assyrian Christians) from Turkey, led by Archbishop Mar Jonah of Urmia, entered the Russian Orthodox Church through repentance. There are currently approx. 80 Assyrian communities (in Syria, Iraq, Iran, Lebanon, India, USA and Canada), which are governed by 7 bishops. This Church is headed by the Catholicos-Patriarch of the Assyrian Church of the East, His Holiness Mar Dinhi IV (residence in Chicago).
The Maronite Church is the only one with a Monothelite Christology. It was formed at the end of the 7th century, when the Byzantine government resettled the Isaurian Monothelite tribe from Taurus to Lebanon. The center of the new Church was the monastery of St. Maron, founded in the 4th century. near Apamea. The church existed among the Lebanese highlanders until the era of the Crusades. In 1182, the Maronite patriarch concluded a union with Rome and received the title of cardinal. The rest of the communities joined the union in 1215. Therefore, the dogma of the Maronites is close to Catholic, but the priests do not observe celibacy. Services are held in Middle Assyrian.
Donicean period (I - early IV century)
This early period of church history covers three centuries before the Nicene (I Ecumenical) Council.
The first century is usually called the Apostolic. According to legend, for 12 years after Pentecost, the apostles remained in the vicinity of Jerusalem, and then went on a worldwide sermon. Mission App. Paul and Barnabas showed that in order to preach successfully, converted Gentiles should not be bound by outdated Jewish law. The Apostolic Council in 49 in Jerusalem approved this practice. But not everyone agreed with his decision. so-called. "Jewish" formed a schism between the Ebionites and Nazirites. These first decades are sometimes referred to as the time of "Judeo-Christianity", when the New Testament Church still existed within the Old Testament, Christians attended the Temple in Jerusalem, and so on. Jewish War 66-70 AD put an end to this symbiosis. It began with an uprising of Jerusalem nationalists against Roman power. Nero sent the provinces of Vespasian and Titus to pacify. As a result, Jerusalem was completely destroyed, and the temple was burned. The Christians, warned by a revelation, left the doomed city in advance. So there was a final break between Christianity and Judaism.
After the destruction of Jerusalem, the significance of the church center passes to the capital of the empire - Rome, consecrated by the martyrdom of App. Peter and Paul. From the reign of Nero begins a period of persecution. The last apostle, John the Evangelist, dies c. 100, and with it the apostolic age ends.
"Apostolic Men":
II and III centuries. - time of early Christianity. It opens with a group of so-called. "Apostolic men", i.e. early Christian writers who were disciples of the apostles themselves. The diagram shows two of them:
ssmch. Ignatius the God-bearer, 2nd Bishop of Antioch, sentenced to death in the persecution of imp. Trajan. Convoyed to Rome to be torn apart by lions in the arena of the Colosseum. Along the way, he wrote 7 epistles to local churches. Commemorated December 20th.
ssmch. Polycarp of Smyrna - a student of St. John the Evangelist, 2nd Bishop of Smyrna. Witness of the martyrdom of St. Ignatius. He himself was burned at the stake in the persecution of imp. Marcus Aurelius in 156 (canonical date † 167). Commemorated February 23rd.
"Apologetics"
Apostolic men were a transitional group from the apostles themselves to the so-called. apologists. Apology (Greek "justification") is a word about intercession directed to persecuting emperors. Justifying Christianity as a just and reasonable religion, the apologists voluntarily or involuntarily translated the truths of faith into the language of reason, and thus Christian theology was born. The first of these apologists-theologians was Martyr. Justin The Philosopher of Samaria, a Platonic philosopher, after his conversion (c. 133) arrived in Rome, where he founded a theological school to combat Gnostic heretics. Wrote 3 apologies. Died in the persecution of imp. Marcus Aurelius in 166. Commemorated June 1.
The Council of Laodicea in 170 was the first major Council after the apostolic age. It decided the question of the day of the celebration of Easter.
OK. In 179, the African Stoic philosopher Panten transformed the Alexandrian catechumenical school (according to legend, founded by ap and ev. Mark) into a theological school. Here was born the most ancient tradition of Alexandrian theology (Origen, St. Athanasius the Great, St. Cyril of Alexandria, etc.). At the origins of this tradition was -
Clement of Alexandria († 215) - student of Panten, author of the famous trilogy "Protreptik" - "Teacher" - "Stromaty". Clement developed the trend of St. Justin the Philosopher to a harmonious combination of faith and reason, but in general his theology is more eclectic than systematic. The first attempt at systematization was made by his student -
Origen of Alexandria († 253), encyclopedically educated and very prolific author, the greatest exegete ("Hexapla"), dogmatist ("On the Beginnings") and apologist ("Against Celsus"). But in his attempt to harmonize Christianity with the highest achievements of Hellenic thought, he allowed a bias towards Neoplatonism and theological opinions, subsequently rejected by the Church.
Saint Dionysius, Bishop of Alexandria († 265) - disciple of Origen, c. 232 led the Alexandrian school. The author of the first Paschalia, known for his extensive correspondence, as well as polemics with the heretics of the monarchists. Commemorated October 5th.
St. Gregory the Wonderworker († 270) is a disciple of Origen, an outstanding ascetic and miracle worker, who prayerfully acquired the God-revealed Creed. Subsequently - Bishop of Neocaesarea, a deep preacher and fighter against the heresy of Paul of Samosata. Commemorated November 17th.
Eastern heresies of this period:
Montanism is a heresy of uncontrolled ecstatic prophecy that appeared in Phrygia in the middle of the second century. and named for its founder, Montanus, a former priest of Cybella, a fanatical rigorist and apocalyptic.
Manichaeism is a dualistic heresy that borrowed from Persian Zoroastrianism the fundamental equality of good and evil principles (hidden ditheism).
Paul of Samosata, on the contrary, taught that God is the only one, and this is God the Father, and Jesus Christ is only a man (the so-called monarchianism).
The ante-Nicean period ended with the largest "Diocletian persecution" in the history of Christianity (302-311), the purpose of which was the complete destruction of the Church. But, as always happens, the persecution only contributed to the establishment and spread of Christianity.
Christianization of Armenia and Georgia. It is the beginning of the Diocletian persecution (302) that makes St. the educator Nina, together with the community of girlish ascetics, to flee to Armenia. When persecution overtakes them there too, she hides in Iberia (Georgia). Sts. the virgins were martyred by the Armenian king Tiridates. But this contributed to the conversion of his kingdom through the preaching of St. Gregory the Illuminator, who c. 305 became the first bishop of Armenia. And 15 years later, St. Nina Gruzinsky managed to convert Tsar Marian to Christianity. Thus, the Christianization of Armenia and Georgia are almost simultaneous and interconnected events.
The era of persecution ended with the accession of St. equal to ap. Constantine the Great. A new period in the history of the Church began.
Period of Ecumenical Councils (IV-VIII centuries)
Under Constantine the Great and his successors, Christianity quickly became the state religion. This process has a number of features. The conversion of huge masses of yesterday's pagans sharply lowers the level of the Church, contributes to the emergence of mass heretical movements. Interfering in the affairs of the Church, emperors often become patrons and even initiators of heresies (for example, monothelitism and iconoclasm are typical imperial heresies). Ascetic Christians hide from these troubles in the deserts. It was in the IV century. Monasticism flourished rapidly and the first monasteries appeared. The process of overcoming heresies takes place through the formation and disclosure of dogmas at the seven Ecumenical Councils. This conciliar reason allows Christianity to realize itself more and more deeply in the form of patristic theology, confirmed by the ascetic experience of outstanding ascetics.
Saint Nicholas, Archbishop of the World of Lycia († c. 345-351) - a great saint of God, originally from Patara. In the 290s - Bishop of Patara. OK. 300 - Bishop of the World of Lycia. He suffered martyrdom for the faith and a long prison term in the persecution of imp. Galeria (305-311). Subsequently, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council. Especially glorified as a miracle worker and protector of those in distress. Commemorated on December 6 and May 19.
Arianism is the first mass heresy of an antitrinitarian nature, rationally substantiated by the Alexandrian presbyter Arius (256-336), who taught that the Son of God is not contemporaneous with the Father, but is His highest creation, i.e. God only in name, not in essence. The First Ecumenical Council (325) condemned this teaching, affirming the consubstantiality of the Son with the Father. But the emperors Constantius (337-361) and Valens (364-378) supported the followers of Arius and subordinated almost the entire Church to them. St. Athanasius the Great and the so-called Saints Athanasius the Great fought against this modernized Arianism until the very end of the century. Great Cappadocians.
Saint Athanasius the Great (c. 297-373) - refuted Arius at the First Ecumenical Council, while still a deacon. At the same time (c. 320), in an early work "The Word on the Incarnation of God the Word", he taught that "It became human so that we could be deified" (chap. 54), expressing in one inspired intuition the whole essence of Orthodoxy. From 326 g - Bishop of Alexandria. During the years of the Arian reaction, he was deprived of his chair 5 times and spent a total of 17 years in exile and exile. He lived in the desert among the founders of monasticism. The life of St. Anthony, many writings against the Arians ("History of the Arians", etc.), two books against Apollinaris of Laodicea on the Orthodox meaning of the incarnation, etc. rightly called "the father of Orthodoxy." Commemorated May 2nd.
"Great Cappadocians":
Saint Basil the Great (c. 330-379) - one of the three Ecumenical teachers, philosopher, ascetic and theologian. Having received an excellent education in the best schools of Athens (together with St. Gregory the Theologian), he retired to the desert, where he founded a cenobitic monastery (258) and compiled for him the “Monastic Rules”, which became the basis of all subsequent monasticism, even in Russia. From 364g. - presbyter, and from 370g. - Archbishop of Caesarea of Cappadocia, who united 50 dioceses against the Arians. Founder of the so-called. Cappadocian theological school, which avoided the extremes of the Antiochian and Alexandrian schools. Compiler of the order of the Divine Liturgy and "monastic rules". Of his works, the most famous are "Conversations on the Six Days" and the book "On the Holy Spirit". Commemorated January 1 and 30.
St. Gregory the Theologian (or Nazianzus; c. 330-390) - one of the three Ecumenical teachers, philosopher, ascetic, poet and great theologian, for whom theology was the knowledge of God, i.e. path to worship. In 372, against his will, he was appointed by his friend, Basil the Great, to the bishop of Sasim. Since 379 - Patriarch of Constantinople captured by the Arians, restorer of Orthodoxy in it and chairman of the Second Ecumenical Council, at which he left the patriarchate "for the sake of church peace." The most famous of his 45 "Conversations" and theological poems. Commemorated 25 and 30 January.
Saint Gregory of Nyssa (c. 332 - 395) - Father of the Church, philosopher and theologian, ml. brother of Saint Basil the Great. Since 372 Bishop of Nyssa (in 376-378 he was deposed by the Arians). Member of the II Ecumenical Council. Author of the so-called. "Great Catechism", in which he completed the teaching of the Cappadocians about the Holy Trinity and the Person of Jesus Christ. He left many exegetical and moral-ascetic writings. In his theology (especially in eschatology) he was influenced by Origen, but avoided his delusions. Commemorated January 10th.
Pneumatomachy, or "the heresy of the Dukhobors", which is associated with the name of the Bishop of Constantinople Macedonia (342-361). It was taken up by the later Arians as a natural continuation of their doctrine: not only the Son, but also the Holy Spirit are created and only similar to the Father. This heresy, among others, was condemned by the Second Ecumenical Council.
Saint Epiphanius of Cyprus († 403) - a native of Palestine, an ascetic, a disciple of the Monk Hilarion the Great. Since 367 Bishop of Constant (in Cyprus). Knowing many languages, he collected all kinds of information about various heresies. The main work "The Book of Antidotes" lists 156 heresies. In the treatise "Ankorat" (Greek "Anchor") reveals the Orthodox teaching.
Saint John Chrysostom (c. 347-407) is one of the three Ecumenical teachers, a brilliantly educated preacher and exegete from the Antioch school of Diodorus of Tarsus. From 370 - an ascetic, from 381 - a deacon, from 386. -presbyter, from 398 - Patriarch of Constantinople. His pastoral uncompromisingness aroused the resentment of Empress Eudoxia and the intrigues of envious people. In 404 he was unjustly condemned and exiled. Died on the way. He left a huge literary and theological heritage (more than 800 sermons alone) and the order of the Divine Liturgy. Commemorated November 13 and January 30.
Rise of Monasticism in Egypt, Syria and Palestine
In all three named areas, monasticism arose independently of each other. But Egyptian monasticism is considered the most ancient. Its founder, the Monk Anthony the Great, as early as 285, withdrew into the depths of the desert to Mount Colisma (Comm. January 17). His disciple, the Monk Macarius of Egypt, laid the foundation for asceticism in the Skete Desert (Comm. January 19), and the Monk Pachomius the Great founded c. 330 the first Egyptian monastery in Tavennisi. Thus, we see that monasticism arises in three forms at once: hermitage, skete life, and community life.
In Palestine, the founders of monasticism were the Monk Khariton the Confessor - the builder of the Faran Lavra (330s) and the Monk Hilarion the Great (Comm. 21 Oct.). - the builder of the Lavra near Mayum (c. 338).
In Syria - the Monk James of Nisibis († 340s) and his disciple the Monk Ephraim the Syrian (373), who is also known as the founder of the Edessa-Nisibian theological school 1 poet-psalmist. Commemorated January 28th.
From the 5th century the era of Christological heresies begins (about the Person of Jesus Christ), the forerunner of which was
Apollinaris of Laodicea († 390) is a theologian philosopher, a participant in the First Ecumenical Council, and a fighter against the Arians, and from 346 to 356 - Bishop of Syrian Laodicea. From 370 he developed a very risky Christology according to which "Christ is the Logos in a human form", i.e. the embodied Divine mind, and the rational part of the human soul (i.e. human nature!) is absent in Him. This doctrine was condemned at the Second Ecumenical Council. But the question of the image of the union of the two natures in Christ remained open. A new attempt to solve it was
Nestorianism is a Christological heresy, named after the Patriarch Nestorius of Constantinople (428-431), who taught that the Virgin Mary should be called the Mother of Christ, because. She gave birth not to God, but only to the man Christ, to whom the Divinity subsequently joined and dwelt in Him as in a temple. Those. the two natures in Christ have remained separated! This concept of separate and parallel functioning in the God-Man of His two natures was condemned at the Third Ecumenical Council (431) on the initiative of St. Cyril of Alexandria. However, his speech against Nestorius was hasty and not very intelligible. It created confusion and division.
Fleeing from persecution, the opponents of St. Cyril emigrated to Persia, which was hostile to Byzantium (the so-called Chaldean Christians), and at the Council of 499 they separated from the Church of Constantinople. having formed its own patriarchy with a residence in the city of Seleucia-Ctesiphon (modern Baghdad). Further see "Syro-Persian (Assyrian) Church".
St. Cyril Bishop of Alexandria (444) is an erudite theologian (an expert on Plato and Greek philosophy), a profound irrationalist, a sharp and temperamental polemicist, he rightfully crowns the "Golden Age of Patristics" in the East, and his creations are the pinnacle of Alexandrian theology. However, the neglect of "ratio" made his concepts not quite clear. He, for example, did not distinguish between the terms "nature" and "hypostasis" and allowed expressions like "the unified nature of God the Word incarnate."
This literally understood "single nature" of Christ was justified by his ardent supporter Archimandrite Eutyches in his struggle against the Nestorians. Thus Eutyches fell into the opposite extreme: Monophysitism. This is a Christological heresy, which asserts that although the God-man is born from two natures, but in the act of their union, the Divine nature absorbs the human. And therefore Christ is no longer consubstantial with us in humanity.
The II Ephesian (robber) Council (449), presided over by Bishop Dioscorus (successor of St. Cyril of Alexandria), forcibly established the Monophysite heresy in the East as a true Orthodox confession. But St. Pope Leo the Great called this council a "robber gathering" and insisted on convening a new Ecumenical Council in Chalcedon (451), which condemned both Nestorianism and Monophysitism. True teaching The Council expressed in an unusual antinomian form ("unconfused" and "inseparable"), which caused temptation and prolonged "Monophysite confusion":
The Monophysites and the seduced monks seized Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem, driving out the Chalcedonian bishops from there. A religious war was brewing.
To prevent it, imp. Zeno in 482 published the so-called. The Geyotikon is a compromise agreement with the Monophysite hierarchy on a pre-Chalcedonian basis. Pope Felix II accused Constantinople of apostasy from Chalcedon. In response, Patriarch Akakios of Constantinople (471-488) excommunicated the pope. Thus was formed "Akakievskaya schism" - a 35-year gap between East and West.
Of the great ascetics of this troubled time, St. Simeon the Stylite († 459) is mentioned, who practiced a rare type of Syrian asceticism - standing on a stone pillar (the ultimate restriction of space). The last pillar was 18 meters high. In total, the monk stood for approx. 40 years, vouchsafed various grace-filled gifts of the Holy Spirit. Commemoration 1 Sept.
"Areopagitics" (Соgrus Ageoragiticum) - a collection of four treatises and ten letters on dogmatic topics attributed to the Schmch. Dionysius the Areopagite († 96), most likely appeared at the turn of the 5th and 6th centuries. and had a huge influence on the development of apophatic (negative) theology.
St. imp. Justinian (527-565) and his reign is a whole era of ecclesiastical and political history. The son of a simple peasant, but versatile educated, extraordinarily active, an outstanding politician, theologian, ecumenist, Justinian was the initiator of the V Ecumenical Council (553). But his attempt at reconciliation with the Monophysites came too late; they have already formed their own church organizations, from which the so-called. Oriental family of Old Orthodox Churches. And the grandiose attempt to restore a unified Roman Empire exhausted the forces of Byzantium and led to a protracted political crisis.
Of the ascetics of this era, the following are mentioned: the Monk Savva the Sanctified († 532) - from the age of eight he was brought up in a monastery, by the beginning of the Monophysite turmoil (456) he came to the Jerusalem desert, where he became a disciple of the Monk Euthymius the Great, and after his death he founded the Great Lavra (480s). In 493, he was appointed head of all hermit monasteries, for which he wrote the first liturgical charter. Of his disciples, the Monk Leontius of Byzantium († c. 544) is especially famous. Commemoration 5 December
Saint John of the Ladder († c. 605) - c. 540 entered the Sinai Monastery of St. Catherine, from 565 to 600, he labored in the nearby desert, and then, at the age of 75, he was elected abbot of Mount Sinai and wrote his famous "Ladder", which is still the reference book of every monk. Commemorated on the fourth week of Great Lent.
The Monk Abba Dorotheos († c. 619), in the monastery of Abba Serida near Gaza, was a disciple of the Monk Barsanuphius the Great. Subsequently, he retired from the monastery and at the end of the 6th century. founded his own monastery, in which he wrote for the brethren his famous "Soulful Teachings".
The last attempt to reconcile with the Monophysites (and thereby preserve the religious integrity of the empire) belongs to imp. Heraclius (610 - 641). For the sake of this, a special Christological platform was invented -
Monothelitism - heresy imp. Heraclius and Patriarch Sergius, suggesting that the two natures in Jesus Christ are united by the unity of the Divine will. Condemned at the VI Ecumenical Council (680 - 681), which confirmed the truth that only two wills in Jesus Christ make it possible to understand Him as True God and the true man (without which the deification of human nature is impossible - the goal of the Christian life).
The first to feel this heresy was St. John the Merciful, since 609 - the Patriarch of Alexandria, who provided free food for all the poor of Alexandria (7 thousand people!), For which he was nicknamed the Merciful. Shortly before his death († c. 619), he intercepted the correspondence of Patriarch Sergius with the leader of the Monophysites, George Ars, and wanted to immediately raise the issue of heresy, but did not have time ... Memory 12 November.
Saint Sophronius, Patr. Jerusalem († 638) - the spiritual son of the blessed. John Moschus († c. 620), with whom he traveled to the monasteries of Syria, Palestine and Egypt (collecting material for the "Spiritual Meadow"). For a long time he lived in Alexandria with St. John the Merciful. In 634 he was elected patriarch of Jerusalem and immediately issued a district message against the Monothelites. But at this time, Jerusalem was blockaded by the Arabs and after two years of siege plundered. During the desecration of churches, Saint Sophronius died in sorrow and grief. He left the Life of St. Mary of Egypt and the interpretation of the Divine Liturgy. Commemorated March 11th.
Saint Maximus the Confessor († 662) is the main fighter against the monothelite heresy. Secretary of the imp. Heraclius, from whom c. 625 retired to the Kizichesky Monastery of St. George, and then to Sev. Africa. Becomes a student of St. Sophronius, and after his death he leaves for Rome, where he condemns monothelitism at the Lateran Council of 650. For disagreeing with the will of the heretic emperor, he was arrested, tortured (tongue and right hand). He died in Georgian exile, leaving a great theological legacy. His main work: "Mystagogia" (Secret Science). Commemorated January 21st.
Iconoclasm is the last imperial heresy that condemned icon veneration as idolatry. This heresy was erected by the emperors from the Isaurian dynasty. In 726 Leo III (717-741) issued an edict against icons and relics, and in 754 his son Constantine V (741-775) held a false council against icon veneration. The heresy was condemned at the 7th Ecumenical Council (787), but despite this, Emperor Leo V (813-820) and his successors renewed it. The final Triumph of Orthodoxy over heresy came at the Council of 843.
The Monk John of Damascus († c. 750) was the main fighter against the iconoclastic heresy at its first stage, having developed the theology of the icon. His main work, An Exact Exposition Orthodox faith"was a model for all subsequent expositions of Christian dogma. In the prime of his life, he left his high post (1st Minister of Caliph Velida) to the Lavra of St. Savva the Sanctified, where he studied hymnography, composed the tones of the Oktoechos and wrote about 64 canons ( including our Easter one) Pam, December 4
The Monk Theodore the Studite († 826) was the main fighter against the iconoclastic heresy at its second stage. A monk, and then hegumen of the Olympic Monastery, he was not afraid to excommunicate the imp. Constantine V, for which he was exiled. Empress Irina returned him to the Studite monastery in the capital, from where he fearlessly denounced Leo V, for which he was tortured and again exiled to Bethany, where he died. His ascetic instructions occupy the entire fourth volume of the Philokalia. Commemorated November 11th.
After that, the iconoclastic orientation was preserved only by the Paulician sect, which grew up on the basis of Marcionism and Manichaean dualism, rejected church rituals, priesthood, veneration of the Mother of God, saints, etc.
The period after the Ecumenical Councils (IX - XX centuries)
St. Patriarch Photius and the Schism 862-870 The predecessor of Photius, St. Patriarch Ignatius was a strict ascetic and canonist, who was deposed by imp. Michael III the Drunkard and exiled (857). It was then that he was elevated to the patriarchate of the state. secretary Fotiy is a learned man, but a secular one. Ignatius sent an appeal to the Pope himself. The power-hungry Pope Nicholas I made a case and in 862 declared Photius' patriarchate illegal. Outraged by this interference, Photius wrote the District Epistle (866) to the Eastern Patriarchs, calling them to trial the pope. . Basil I deposed Photius and returned Ignatius. At the IV Council of Constantinople in 870, Photius was condemned, and this Council, which recognized the correctness of Rome, is considered by Catholics to be the VIII Ecumenical. However, when Patriarch Ignatius died in 879, the Fifth Council of Constantinople in 880 acquitted Photius and again raised him to the patriarchate. He was finally deposed in 886 by imp. Leo VI the Wise. Schism 862 - 870 usually seen as a rehearsal for the final break with Rome in 1054.
"Macedonian Renaissance" - this is usually the name of the rule of a strong Macedonian dynasty in the period from Basil I the Macedonian and Leo VI the Wise to Basil II the Bulgar Slayer inclusive (ie from 867 to 1025).
The events parallel to this period are already in many respects related to the emerging Russia.
So, already in his District Epistle, Patriarch Photius reports on the attack of Askold and Dir on Constantinople, which was miraculously saved by the intercession of the Most Holy Theotokos, after which part of the Russians was baptized (860).
Sts. equal to ap. Cyril and Methodius in 858, on behalf of Photius, go to Chersonesos, where they acquire the relics of St. Pope Clement. According to some assumptions, among the baptized Khazars there could be their tributaries - the Slavs. In 863 Sts. brothers at the invitation of the book. Rostislav arrive in Moravia, where they translate into Slavic the liturgical parts of the Holy Scriptures and the main church rites. Both are commemorated on May 11th.
On October 1, 910, Blessed Andrew for the sake of the holy fool contemplated the Protection of the Most Holy Theotokos in the Blachernae Church (a vision especially important for Russian Mariology).
Hike book. Oleg to Constantinople (907) forces the Byzantines to pay close attention to Russia. At the end of the predatory campaigns of St. book. Olga is baptized in Constantinople. And soon her grandson St. equal to ap. book. Vladimir helps Vasily II suppress the dangerous rebellion of Varda Foka and receives the hand of his sister, Princess Anna. But first, of course, he accepts baptism, and then baptizes his people. (Further events in the section of the Russian Orthodox Church)
so-called. The "separation of the Churches" (see page 31 for details) was at first perceived as yet another schism. Contacts with Zap. Church sporadically continued. Under the emperors from the Komnenos dynasty, the crusader knights went through Constantinople to liberate the Holy Sepulcher. But the constant struggle for the throne at the turn of the 12th and 13th centuries leads Byzantium into decline and ends with the calling of knights who devastate Constantinople (1204). Throughout the East, a so-called. Latin Empire. Greek statehood is concentrated in the Nicene region. Only in 1261 did Michael VIII Palaiologos regain Constantinople. Realizing that Byzantium, cut off from the West, is doomed, he, with the support of Patriarch John Vekka, concludes the Union of Lyon in 1274, which lasted only 7 years. However, imp. Andronicus III (1328-1341), having been defeated by the Turks, again enters into negotiations on the unification of the Churches with Pope Benedict XII. These negotiations go through the Calabrian monk Varlaam and unexpectedly lead to extremely important Palamite disputes:
Saint Gregory Palamas († 1359) - Athos monk-hesychast, in 1337-38. begins a dispute with a Calabrian monk about the nature of the Light of Tabor, Varlaam argued that this is a "subjective insight" (for God is incomprehensible), and accused Palamas of the Messalian heresy, Palamas answered with three "Triads" (i.e. 9 treatises), in which he proved that God, inaccessible in His essence, reveals Himself in His uncreated energies. These energies are able to adore a person and give him an experienced comprehension of God Himself. The doctrine of Palamas was considered at the Council of Constantinople in 1341 and recognized as Orthodox.
However, he was soon again accused by the Bulgarian monk Akidin, excommunicated from the Church (1344) and imprisoned. But the Council of 1347 justified him again. From 1350 to 1359 Saint Gregory Palamas - Archbishop of Thessaloniki. Memory 14 Nov.
Meanwhile, the Turks continued to approach Constantinople, and the imp. John VIII (1425 - 1448), hoping for help from the West, was forced to conclude the Union of Florence in 1439. However, among the Orthodox people, the union did not have any support and the Council of Constantinople in 1450 condemned it. And three years later Constantinople was taken by the Turks and Byzantium came to an end (1453).
The Patriarch of Constantinople became a Turkish subject. The position of the Orthodox was constantly deteriorating in the 17th and 18th centuries. became terrifying. In other places, it came to the general massacre of Christians. The rights of the patriarch were gradually reduced to zero. Against this gloomy background, a rather bright personality looks
Patriarch Samuil (1764-68; † 1780). Strong-willed and well educated, he reformed church administration and established a permanent Synod with whom he shared responsibility for the Church. He constantly strove for the supremacy of Constantinople: in 1766 he subjugated Serbian autocephaly, ordained the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria, and so on. But soon he was deposed by his own Synod.
The more humiliated and dependent the Patriarchs of Constantinople felt themselves, the more they sought to subjugate the autocephalous Slavic Churches and "slander" them. When in 1870 the Bulgarian Church rejected the Greek episcopate and the Greek liturgical language imposed upon it, the Council of Constantinople in 1872 condemned the Bulgarians as schismatics who deviated into phyletism. Thus an important precedent was set. In the XX century. it would not hurt to remember that phyletism is a heresy that attaches more importance to the national idea than to the truths of faith and church unity.
In the context of a general decline, when the Orthodox Churches stopped developing their theology and even began to forget their own dogma, the appearance of symbolic (doctrinal) books was especially important:
"Orthodox confession" - the 1st symbolic book of the Orthodox Church. Compiled on the initiative of the Metropolitan of Kyiv Peter Mohyla and presented to him for consideration and approval by the fathers of the Iasi Cathedral of 1643, who, supplementing it, released it under the title "Orthodox Confession of the Greeks". Russian translation 1685
"Epistle of the Eastern Patriarchs" - the 2nd symbolic book of the Orthodox Church. Written by Patriarch Dositheus of Jerulim and approved by the Council of Jerusalem in 672. It was translated into Russian in 1827. It consists of 18 members interpreting the dogmas of the Orthodox faith.
WESTERN CHRISTIANITY
Western churches:
1. Catholicism
Unlike the Orthodox Churches, Roman Catholicism impresses, first of all, with its solidity. The principle of organization of this Church is more monarchical: it has a visible center of its unity - the Pope of Rome. In the image of the Pope (since 1978 - John Paul II) the apostolic power and teaching authority of the Roman Catholic Church is concentrated. Because of this, when the Pope speaks ex sathedga (that is, from the pulpit), his judgments on matters of faith and morals are infallible. Other features of the Catholic faith: the development of the Trinitarian dogma in the sense that the Holy Spirit proceeds not only from the Father, but also from the Son (lat. filigue), the dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, the dogma of purgatory, etc. The Catholic clergy take a vow of celibacy (the so-called celibacy). Baptism of children is supplemented by confirmation (i.e. chrismation) at the age of approx. 10 years. The Eucharist is celebrated on unleavened bread.
The formation of Catholic doctrine began in the 5th-6th centuries. (Blessed Augustine, St. Pope Leo the Great, etc.). Already in 589, the Council of Toledo accepted the Filiogue, but despite this, both Churches went on together for a long time. However, frightened by the scope of the Eastern "imperial heresies", the Catholics sought support in Roman legalism, in strengthening papal authority and external power. This increasingly alienated the Churches from each other, making the schisms of 862 and 1054 inevitable. And subsequent attempts at reconciliation were built according to the traditional Uniate model for Catholicism - completely unacceptable for the Eastern Church.
It should be noted here that the unity of the Catholic Church, based on the primacy of the Pope, is not only a strong but also a flexible doctrine. It allows you to form the so-called. unions, i.e. unions with various confessions, which, accepting the leadership of the Catholic Church, preserve their traditional practice of worship. An example is the modern Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church(UGCC), which is the successor to the Brest Union of 1596 (see diagram). Another example: the Catholic Churches of the Eastern Rite, which broke away from various branches of Eastern Christianity: the Maronite Patriarchate, the Greek Catholic Melchite Patriarchate, the Assyro-Chaldean Church. The Syro-Malankara Church (Catholics of the Antiochian rite), the Armenian Catholic Church and the Coptic Catholic Church (not marked on the diagram).
Thus, one should not exaggerate the centrality of Catholicism. A classic example: the Old Catholics, who separated from the Roman Church in 1870 during the First Vatican Council without accepting the dogma of papal infallibility. In 1871, on the initiative of Priest I. Dellinger, a professor at the University of Munich, an independent Old Catholic Church was formed, ruled by bishops and the Synod. Old Catholics reject the dogmas of the primacy of the Pope, the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary, and others. Currently, their communities exist in Germany, France, Switzerland, Australia and the USA. True, their number is small. A more numerous entity is the National Church of the Philippines (NCP), which separated from the Roman Catholic Church in 1904 and now has more than 4 million Catholic believers (not indicated on the diagram due to lack of space).
2. Protestantism
appeared as a result of the European anti-Catholic movement, which at the beginning of the 16th century. completed the so-called. Reformation. Objectively, this was the reformation of the ossified and medieval in spirit of the Catholic Church in the interests of the emerging bourgeoisie. Subjectively, Luther and his associates had a lofty goal: to cleanse the Church of later distortions, to restore its apostolic purity and simplicity. They did not understand that the Church is a living Divine-human organism, the development of which cannot be reversed and reduced to infancy. Rejecting the extremes of Roman Catholicism, they themselves fell into extremes, "cleansing" the Church from Holy Tradition, from the decrees of the Ecumenical Council, from the spiritual experience of monasticism, from the veneration of the Blessed Virgin Mary, all saints, icons, relics, angels, from prayers for the dead and etc. Thus Protestantism essentially lost the Church. Formally, it is based on the Bible, but in reality it is based on its arbitrary interpretation by various theologians. The main and common thing in Protestantism is the doctrine of a person’s direct (without the Church) connection with God, of salvation by personal faith alone (Rom III. 28), which is understood as confidence in one’s chosenness and inspiration from above.
In all other respects, Protestantism is extremely decentralized: it exists as a multitude of completely heterogeneous Churches, sects and religious associations. It is not always easy to trace the connection of modern Christian denominations with their original forms of the Reformation period. Therefore, in the upper left corner of the diagram, instead of church historical events, we place the genealogy of the most famous Protestant movements.
From the 16th century:
Anglicanism - arose during the English Reformation, which was used to strengthen royal absolutism. In 1534, Henry VIII severed relations with the Vatican and became head of the Church. Since 1571 - Creed of 39 members, Preserved: church hierarchy (with episcopate and celibate clergy), magnificent cult, Liturgy, sacramental understanding of the Eucharist, etc. Anglicanism is closest to Catholicism and Orthodoxy, especially the so-called. High Church. The Low Church is more typical Protestantism. The Broad Church is more ecumenical.
Lutheranism is the largest Protestant denomination founded by Luther and now widespread in many countries up to America and South. Africa. She retained from Catholicism everything that does not directly contradict Holy Scripture: the church organization, the episcopate, the Liturgy with a mysterious understanding of the Eucharist, the cross, candles, organ music, etc. In practice, it has only two sacraments: Baptism and Communion (although, according to Luther's Catechism, Confession is also allowed). The Church is understood only as the invisible community of the justified and regenerated by personal faith.
Zwinglianism is a Swiss variant of Protestantism founded by Zwingli. An extremely radical and completely non-church teaching that rejects the Christian sacraments (baptism and communion are understood purely symbolically). It has now almost completely disappeared into Calvinism.
Calvinism is a predominantly French variant of Protestantism, more radical than Anglicanism and Lutheranism. Baptism and communion are understood symbolically. There are no bishops, pastors do not have special vestments, there is not even an altar in the churches. Divine services are reduced to preaching and singing psalms. A distinctive feature is the doctrine of absolute predestination: God initially determined some to perish, others to salvation (success in business indicates a possible chosen one).
Calvinism currently exists in three forms:
- Reformed - the most common, French-Dutch variant (in France they were also called "Huguenots");
- Puritanism (or Presbyterianism) - Anglo-Scottish variant:
- Congregationalism is a radical English Puritanism that denies a single church organization. Each community (congregation) is completely independent and independent,
Anabaptism is a movement of extremely radical Protestant sects that arose during the German Reformation. The name literally means "re-baptizers", because. they did not recognize the baptism of children and rebaptized adults. Sacraments, rituals and clergy were rejected. At the heart of this denomination is not even the Bible, but personal faith.
From the 17th - 18th centuries:
Methodism is a sectarian movement in Anglican Church founded at Oxford University by the Wesley brothers. The cult is close to Anglicanism, but the sacraments are understood symbolically. Methodists are deeply indifferent to dogmatics. Their main focus is on righteous behavior and charity (the so-called method). Characterized by developed missionary activity and skillful influence on believers through emotional preaching.
Pietism is a mystical sectarian movement in Lutheranism founded by Philipp Spener († 1705). Rejects both entertainment and church rituals, placing above all the religious feeling of the personal experience of God.
The Mennonites are a sectarian movement founded in the Netherlands by Menno Simons († 1561). The preaching of non-resistance and pacifism is combined with chiliastic expectations. They retained only the rite of baptism, which is understood symbolically. Subsequently, they were divided into "gupfers" and "fraternal Mennonites" (in Russia).
Baptism is the largest Protestant sect that arose in Holland in 1609. Genetically descended from the English Congregationalists, who also assimilated some of the views of the Mennonites and Arminians (Dutch Calvinists). Hence - the doctrine of predestination, the preaching of non-resistance and elements of mysticism. Baptism and communion (breaking bread) are interpreted as symbolic rites. They have their own holidays and rituals.
American Baptism is the largest (after Catholicism) religious organization in America (over 35 million people). Founded by the English Congregationalist Roger Williams in 1639. It exists in the form of a number of unions, societies and missions. Leads a very active missionary activity - incl. and in Russia, covering capitalist attitudes and private enterprise.
From the 19th - 20th centuries:
The Salvation Army is an international philanthropic organization that spun off from Methodism in 1865. It is organized along military lines. He believes that baptism and communion are not obligatory, the main thing is the moral revival of society.
Haugeanism is a Norwegian offshoot of pietism, requiring the confirmation of faith by deeds, an independent understanding of the gospel and its more active propaganda.
Adventists (from Latin adventus - advent) - a Protestant sect founded in 1833 by the American W. Miller, who calculated the date of the second coming of Christ (1844) from the book of the prophet Daniel. They are close to the Baptists, but the main emphasis is on the expectation of the imminent end of the world (the so-called Armageddon) and the subsequent millennial reign of Christ (the so-called Chiliasm).
Seventh-day Adventists prioritize the Jewish command to keep the Sabbath. It is believed that the souls of people are mortal, but will be resurrected after Armageddon.
Jehovists separated from American Adventists in the 1880s. and in 1931 adopted the name Jehovah's Witnesses. After the Second World War, they turned into a worldwide movement. It is believed that the second coming has already taken place invisibly in 1914, and now Armageddon is being prepared, which will lead to the death of all people, with the exception of the Jehovists themselves - they will remain to live on the renewed earth in the kingdom of Jehovah. The denial of the Trinitarian and Christological dogmas, as well as the immortality of the soul, characterizes the "witnesses" more as a Jewish than a Christian sect.
The Pentecostals broke away from the Baptists in Los Angeles in 1905-1906. as a new charismatic movement. They teach about the incarnation of the Holy Spirit in every believer, a sign of which is "speaking in tongues." In their meetings they practice artificial exaltation and ecstasy. They exist in the form of scattered communities.
In 1945 part of the Pentecostals united with evangelical Christians (related to classical Baptism) in a more moderate and centralized movement.
Note. In addition to the "natural" Protestant denominations that are genetically derived from each other, there is also a kind of "super-Protestantism", i.e. artificially invented cults that bring enormous income to their founders. As the first example of such a cult, the diagram shows
Mormons (Latter Day Saints) - a religious society founded in 1830 by the American visionary Smith, who allegedly received a revelation and deciphered the records of the mythical Jewish prophet Mormon, who sailed to America with his people c. 600 B.C. so-called. The Book of Mormon is for the "last saints" a continuation of the Bible. Although Mormons practice baptism and accept a semblance of the Trinitarian dogma, it is extremely risky to consider them Christians, because. there are elements of polytheism in their doctrine.
For the same reason, we do not show D. H. Noyes' Oneid Church, Sun Moon's "Unity Church", "Church of God", "Christian Science", etc. on the diagram. All these associations have nothing to do with Christianity.
Donicean period (I - early IV century)
The initial stage of the Church in the West was associated with the two main cultural centers of Europe: Athens and Rome. Apostolic men worked here:
ssmch. Dionysius the Areopagite - student of St. Paul and the first Bishop of Athens, a philosopher by profession. Several letters and treatises on Christian mysticism are attributed to him. According to legend, ca. 95 he was sent to St. Pope Clement at the head of the Mission to preach in Gaul and died there in the persecution of Domitian c. 96 Commemorated 3 Oct.
St. Clement, Pope of Rome - disciple of St. Peter, an outstanding preacher (his epistle to the Corinthians has been preserved), he was persecuted by the imp. Trajan was exiled to the Crimean quarries and c. 101 drowned. His relics were found by Sts. Cyril and Methodius. Memory 25 Nov.
OK. 138 - 140 years. in Rome, the Gnostic heretics began their preaching: Valentinus, Kerdon and Marcion.
Gnosticism replaced faith with esoteric knowledge (gnosis). It was an attempt to develop Christianity through the models of pagan philosophy, Jewish mysticism and magic. It is not for nothing that Simon Magus (Acts VIII. 9-24) is considered the forerunner of Gnosticism. The Gnostics also used the doctrine of the docets about the "appearance" of the incarnation of Christ and the heresy of the Nicolaitans, who believed that Christ freed them from the laws of morality. Like them, many Gnostics led a deliberately immoral lifestyle, for they saw their justification no longer in Christ, but in the sophistication of their own doctrines. "Gold can wallow in the mud without getting dirty," they said of themselves. This was a great temptation for the Church.
To combat Gnosticism, the schmch arrived in Rome. Justin Philosopher. In Athens, at the same time, the apologists Kodrat and Athenagoras (also a philosopher) acted. Thus, in the struggle against heresies, Christian theology arose.
Shmch. Irene of Lyons is considered the father of Christian dogma. He was a student of ssmch. Polycarp of Smyrna, and c. 180 became bishop of the Lyon Church in Gaul, where he wrote an extensive work "Five books against heresies." Martyred in the persecution of the imp. Septimius Severus c. 202 Comm. 23 Aug.
Quintus Tertullian was also an outstanding theologian and one of the later apologists. He lived in Carthage (Northern Africa), where approx. 195 became a presbyter. A brilliant antinomian and author of many political treatises, he is famous for his rigorism and paradoxical opposition of faith to reason (“I believe because it is absurd”). This militant irrationalism of ca. 200 took him away from the Church to the Montanist sect.
Shmch. Ippolit Rimsky - a student of schmch. Irenaeus of Lyon, philosopher, apologist, exegete, hereseologist and church writer, bishop of the port of Rome. His main work "The Refutation of All Heresies" (in 10 books) is directed against the Gnostics. He also fought against the antitrinitarian teachings of Sabellius. Martyred in the persecution of the imp. Maximinus Thracian c. 235 Commemorated January 30
Sabellius - heretic, presbyter of Libya, in the beginning. 3rd century arrived in Rome and began to teach that God is not trinity and all three Persons are only modes of His Unity, which manifests itself sequentially: first in the form of the Father. then the Son and finally the Spirit. This antitrinitarian teaching had the same effect in the West as the similar heresy of Paul of Samosata in the East.
In 251, the Church was persecuted by the imp. Decia is one of the most bloody and devastating. In Rome, Pope Fabian immediately died and his pulpit was empty for 14 months. The remarkable theologian Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage, was forced to flee and hide. Not all Christians could endure cruel torture - some renounced Christ and fell away from the Church. At the end of the persecution, the question arose: is it possible to take them back?
Saint Cyprian of Carthage and the new pope Cornelius believed that this was possible (under certain conditions, of course). The rigoristic Roman presbyter Novatian believed that the Church should not forgive and get dirty with sinners. He accused Cornelius of unacceptable concessions, and proclaimed himself the true successor of Fabian (the so-called antipope) and the head of the so-called. "Churches of the Pure" ("Kafar"). Saints Cyprian and Cornelius at the Council of 251 excommunicated the Novatians from the Church for mercilessness and violation of canonical discipline. During the next persecution ssmch. Cyprian voluntarily accepted death for Christ. Such is the history of one of the first disciplinary schisms (the so-called Novatian).
It had great consequences, because the end of the ante-Nicene period was marked by the greatest persecution of the emperors Diocletian and Galerius (302-311). There were a huge number of Sts. martyrs, but also many who have fallen away. The devastation was supplemented by political turmoil, which ended only with the accession of Constantine the Great. In 313, Constantine granted freedom of religion to the Church (the so-called "Edict of Milan"). But some of the African bishops, led by Donatus (a rival of the legitimate Bishop Caecilian), caused a new schism, proclaiming themselves the "Church of the Martyrs", and the rest as traitors and compromisers with the godless state power (St. Emperor Constantine was baptized only before his death). Subjectively, this was a movement against the stateization of the Church in order to preserve its freedom. But objectively, it destroyed the African (Carthaginian) Church and became the main reason for its subsequent disappearance.
The Novatian and Donatist temptation of schismatic "purity" will constantly haunt the Church and will respond in the West with the heresies of the Cathars and Waldenses (see p. 33), and in the East with the movement of the Bogomils and Strigolniks.
Period of Ecumenical Councils (IV - VIII centuries)
Arianism was an external phenomenon in the West, forcibly introduced by Eastern emperors. Arianism brought to the barbarian periphery of the Western world
Wulfila († 381) - the educator is ready. He is kind. OK. 311 in a Christian family brought by the Goths from Asia Minor. Until the age of 30 he was a preacher. In 341, he received the Arian ordination in Constantinople and, as the first bishop, he infected the Germanic peoples with this heresy. Compiled the Gothic alphabet and translated the Bible into it.
Hierarch Hilarius of Pictavia († 366 .) - the leader of the Gallic bishops during the period of the struggle against Arianism ("Athanasius of the West"). From 353 - Bishop of Pictavia (Poitiers). At the Arian Council in Milan (355) he was convicted and exiled to Phrygia, where he wrote a treatise on the Trinity. Laid the foundation of Latin trinitarian terminology. After the death of the Arian imp. Constantius restored the Nicene Confession at the Council of Paris. Compiled by the so-called. Gallic Liturgy. Prominent exegete and ascetic, teacher of St. Martin of Tours. Commemorated January 14
Saint Martin of Tours († 397) - while still a soldier, led a chaste and temperate Christian life. After his retirement (372) he was a disciple of St. Hilarius. From 379 - Bishop of Tours, strict ascetic, founder of Gallic monasticism. The Marmoutier monastery he built became the center of the Christianization of Gaul. Future bishops, missionaries and ascetics were brought up here. Saint Martin is the national saint of France. Commemorated October 12th.
Saint Ambrose of Milan († 397) was at first a distinguished and brilliantly educated governor of Liguria. In 374 he was unexpectedly elected bishop of Mediolan (Milan). Having studied the works of Vel. Cappadocians, fought against Arianism, converted the Germanic peoples. Prominent liturgist, hymnographer, preacher and moralist ("Chrysostom of the West"). Augustine the Blessed teacher. Commemoration 7 December
Blessed Augustine († 430) - the greatest theologian of the Western Church, "Father of Catholicism" (in the Catholic tradition: "teacher of the Church"). He received a rhetorical education, spent 10 years in the Manichean sect. In 387, under the influence of St. Ambrose of Milan, he was baptized. From 391 - presbyter, and from 395 - bishop of Hippo (North Africa). Writes his famous "Confession". In the process of fighting the Donatist schism and heresy, Pelagia forms her own doctrines of original sin, grace and predestination. Impressed by the fall of Rome (410), he creates his main work "On the City of God" (426) - Christian historiosophy. Commemorated June 15th.
Pelagius († 420) - a heretic from Britain, became famous for his strict and moral life. OK. 400 came to corrupted Rome, where he began to teach that any person can overcome evil on his own and achieve holiness. He rejected the necessity of grace, the heredity of original sin, and so on. Twice condemned as a heretic (416 and 418), after which he left for the East and soon died. His disciples Celestius and Julian of Eklan also reduced Christianity to moralism.
Bliss. Hieronymus of Stridon († 420) - erudite monk, connoisseur of ancient and Christian literature. OK. 370 travels in the East, studying theology and the Hebrew language. From 381 to 384 he was an adviser to Pope Damasius. Since 386, he has been a hermit near Bethlehem, founded a kinovia near the cave of the Nativity (388), translated the Bible into Latin (405) and wrote a number of theological works, of which the most famous is "On famous men." Commemorated June 15th.
Saint Leo I the Great († 461) - Pope of Rome from 440. He fought the Pelagians in the West and the Monophysites in the East. He insisted on convening the Council of Chalcedon (451), which was guided by his famous Christological epistle to St. Flavian. In 452 he saved Rome from the invasion of Attila's Huns. In 455, he ransomed his flock during the ruin of the city by the Vandals. Significantly strengthened the authority of papal power (in the Catholic tradition: "teacher of the Church"). Commemorated February 3rd.
Fall of Rome. The end of the Western Roman Empire (476) The rise of the authority of the Roman popes took place against the backdrop of the decline and degradation of imperial power. All the affairs of the empire were in fact controlled by barbarian military leaders. In 476 one of them. General Odoacer, deposed the last infant emperor of the West, Romulus Augustulus. This event is considered the boundary between Antiquity and the coming Middle Ages. The main content of the period: the formation of independent barbarian states on the territory of the West. Europe and their subsequent Christianization.
Among the Franks, Clovis I Merovingian (481-511) became the builder of the state. Having defeated the Visigoths and Alemanni, he c. 496 was the first of the barbarian kings to be baptized according to the Catholic rite. Unlike his neighbors, who were all Arians, he began to rule, relying on the Catholic episcopate and received the sanction of the Church for his policies. This led the Frankish state to considerable political power and allowed it to become an empire later on.
Saint Geneviève of Paris († c. 500) - from a noble Gallo-Roman family. She became a monk at the age of 14. In 451, with her prayers, she saved Paris from the invasion of Attila. In 488, during the siege of Paris by Clovis, she passed through the enemy camp and brought 12 ships with bread to the starving city. Paris nevertheless capitulated to the Franks, but Clovis bowed to the saint. Soon the Monk Genevieve became the support of his Christian wife Clotilde and contributed to the conversion of the king. Saint patroness of Paris. Commemoration January 3:
Among the Britons, the Christian Church reaches its peak by the middle of the 5th century. In the so-called. "times of King Arthur" (real name Nennius Artorius, c. 516 - 542) it becomes an independent national Church. But the Anglo-Saxon conquest that began at the same time pushes it into the depths of the island (There, in North Wales, the last bright page of its history is associated with the name of David, Bishop of Menevia († 588). Since then, the leading role has been transferred to the independent Irish The Church of St. Patrick († 461), which quickly became famous for its cultural potential, In the 7th-8th centuries the Irish missions would play a major role in the Christianization of Western Europe.
The Angles, who moved to Vost. Britain from the mainland, was a pagan religion of the Scandinavian type. Their baptism dates back to the very end of the 6th century. and is connected with the mission of the Benedictine monk Augustine († 604), sent to St. Pope Gregory I. In 597, missionaries converted Ethelbert (560 - 616), the ruler of the kingdom of Kent, to Christianity and established the Archdiocese of Canterbury there. Other Catholic bishops establish dioceses in Londinia (London) and Eborac (York). However, these ancient (from the 3rd century) chairs are also claimed by the driven to the West. coast local Old British Church. Relations with the national Irish Church are also aggravated.
The culminating point of this rivalry is the Council of Whitby (664): where the members of the Irish and Roman Churches met. After a long dispute, in which the prelate Wilfred defeated the local ascetic Cuthbert, the advantage passed to the Roman Church.
A century earlier, in Visigothic Spain, the local bishops were trying to facilitate their conversion from Arianism to the Catholic faith through the introduction of the filiogue (Toledo Sob., 589). Soon this private opinion of the Toledo bishops will receive considerable distribution (as a theologian).
Of the major church figures of that time, the scheme mentions: the Monk Benedict of Nursia († 543) - "the father of Western monasticism." Genus. in Nursia (c. Spoleto), studied rhetoric in Rome. Early began to anchor in Subyako. In 529 he founded a monastery in Monte Cassino, for which he wrote an original charter, which became a model for many subsequent charters. He became famous for miracles and missionary activities. Commemorated March 14th. His life was described by Pope Gregory the Great.
Saint Gregory I the Great († 604) - a noble family and superbly educated, he left his state post for the sake of monasticism and spent all his fortune on the construction of six monasteries. He lived for a long time in Byzantium, where he composed the Liturgy of the Presanctified Gifts. From 590 - Pope of Rome Carried out a reform of liturgical singing (the so-called Gregorian Antiphonary) and other reforms that further strengthened the authority of the papacy. Actively engaged in missionary work (including in England). For the dialogue about the life of the Italian fathers, he was nicknamed "Dvoeslov". Commemorated March 12th.
Columban the Younger († 615) - a student of the educator Komgel (602) from the southern Irish monastery of Bangor. In 585 he led a mission of 12 monks to Merovingian Gaul. In Burgundy he founded the monasteries Anegrey, Luxey and Fontanelle (for which he wrote a charter c. 590). He denounced the Queen of the Franks Brunnhilde for immorality, for which he was expelled by her (610). He wandered around Gaul, founding monasteries everywhere (the last one was in Bobbio, in the possessions of the Lombard king, where he died).
Isidore of Seville († 636) - church writer and scholar, one of the "lights of the Middle Ages", since 600 - archbishop of Seville, where he converted Jews, presided over the Council, became famous as a miracle worker and saint. He left a huge literary legacy, incl. "World Chronicle", "Etymology" (in 20 books) and three books. "Sentences" (the first systematic exposition of dogmatics). In the Catholic tradition - "teacher of the Church." Completes the period of Western patristics, when it passes into scholasticism.
The heresy of Monothelitism, which affected almost the entire Eastern Church, was nevertheless condemned in Rome at the Lateran Council of 650, presided over by St. Pope Martin, who, by order of the imp. Heraclius was captured and brought to Byzantium. where the Monk Maximus the Confessor shared the fate. He died in exile in 655. Commemorated April 14th.
This was the last major Eastern heresy that had an impact on the West, as in the 7th - 8th centuries. isolation is greatly enhanced.
Bede the Venerable († 735) - Anglo-Saxon theologian and historian, one of the "lights of the Middle Ages". From the age of 17, a Benedictine monk in the monastery of Virmot, then - in the monastery of Yarrow. From 702 - presbyter. Bible translator and commentator, philosopher, grammarian. The main work: "Ecclesiastical history of the people of the Angles" (731) - the only source on ancient English history. In the Catholic tradition - "teacher of the Church."
Boniface, the apostle of Germany, was also a pupil of the Anglo-Saxon monastery (in Wessex). Since 719 - a missionary among the wildest Germanic tribes. From 725 Bishop of Hesse and Thuringia, founder of the missionary school, creator of male and female monasteries. From 732 - Archbishop of all Germany, great enlightener and builder of the Frankish Church (Chairman of the Frankish Council in Leptin 745). He ended his life as a martyr on June 5, 754.
Medieval period after the Ecumenical Councils (VIII - XIII centuries)
At the beginning of the 8th century, major changes took place throughout the Christian world associated with the expansion of Islam. In 711, the Arabs melted down through the Strait of Gibraltar, quickly captured Spain and moved into the depths of modern France. The terrible danger looming over Europe united former enemies under the banner of the mighty Frankish majordomo Charles Martel († 741). October 17, 732 in the grandiose two-day battle of Poitiers, the Arab hordes were dispersed (for this battle, Karl received his nickname "Martell", i.e. Hammer). This highly raised the authority of the Frankish rulers. The son of Charles Martel - Pepin III the Short already felt like a king. Few remembered the real king from the dying Merovingian dynasty (Childeric III).
In 751, Pepin, with the consent of the pope, was elected to the throne and crowned by Boniface (and Childeric III was tonsured a monk). On July 28, 754, Pope Stephen II, who fled from the warlike Lombards to the abbey of Saint-Denis, anointed the new king to the kingdom. This rite, borrowed from the Byzantine emperors, meant the conformity of the election with the will of God. It was first used on the Western European continent and immediately gave the new dynasty a divine status. In gratitude for this, Pepin defeated the Lombards, took the Exarchate of Ravenna from them and presented it "as a gift to St. Peter." So in 755, Pope Stephen II received the Papal States, i.e. he also became a secular sovereign (officer until 1870), which in the conditions of that time greatly increased his authority.
The son of Pepin the Short - Charlemagne (768 - 814) wages endless wars and extends his state to almost the entire West. Europe. On December 25, 800, Pope Leo III crowns him emperor. In this way, the Roman Church, estranged from Byzantium, hopes to rely on its own empire. But almost immediately a conflict arises. In 809, Charles convenes the Aachen Council at his residence, on behalf of which he demands the recognition of the filiogue from Pope Leo. The pope stubbornly disagrees and even puts up in his temple two silver plaques with the Constantinople formula of dogma. But this makes no impression on Charlemagne.
843 - Verdun Partition: Charles' grandsons divided his huge empire into three parts (future France, Italy and Germany). At the same time, the title of emperors was retained by the German Kaisers. In the tenth century under the kings Otto I, II and III of the Saxon dynasty, Germany is extremely strengthened (the so-called "Ottonian Renaissance") and the so-called. "Holy Roman Empire of the German Nation".
The accelerated growth of the state leads to the weakening of the Church. Powerful feudal lords took possession of church property and the right to investiture, and the Church became more and more secular and fell into decay. The 10th century is a time of shameful degradation of the papacy, a time of fierce struggle for the Holy See and submissive pleasing to all-powerful secular rulers.
So, Pope Benedict VIII (1012 - 1024), deposed by antipope Gregory, again receives the tiara from the hands of Henry II of Germany and, at his insistence, confirms the filiogue in the Creed (1014). The next pope, John XIX, escaping from the conspiracy, also runs to the German king, after which a tri-papacy is formed (Benedict IX, Sylvester III, John XX). Simony and unnatural vices flourish among the clergy. It is clear that the Church is in dire need of renewal. I already felt it
Benedict of Anyan († 821) - monastic reformer from a noble family. He grew up at the court of Pepin the Short and Charlemagne. In 774 he went to a monastery, but did not find true asceticism there. Then he founded his own Anyansky monastery, where he revived the charter of the Monk Benedict of Nursia in all its severity and on this basis began the reform of other monasteries of the order.
A century later, a new surge of the reform movement begins. Now it is formed on the basis of the Burgundian monastery of Cluny (founded in 910) and is called Cluny (mid-X - early XII century). In the XI century. a congregation of 3,000 Cluniac monasteries arises, which are no longer subordinate to secular feudal lords, live according to a strict charter and actively fight against simony. Reformers unite around such figures as
Peter Damiani († 1072) - a hermit, a teacher of monks, later - an abbot, since 1057 - a cardinal. An irrationalist who opposed faith to reason: God does not even obey the law of contradiction, for example, he can make the former not the former (treatise "On Divine Omnipotence"). Supporter of the symphony of Church and State. In Catholicism, a teacher of the Church.
Hildebrand († 1085) is a monastic leader from Cluny, a fighter for the purity of celibacy. Since 1054 - an influential deacon under several popes. From 1073 - Pope Gregory VII. A supporter of the absolute "dictatorship of the pope." Twice excommunicated the recalcitrant Henry IV of Germany from the Church. He continued the reform of the very institution of the papacy, which was begun by Leo IX (1049 - 1054).
The Great Schism of 1054 and the Division of the Churches. The reason was a dispute over lands in southern Italy that formally belonged to Byzantium. Having learned that the Greek rite is supplanted and forgotten there, Patriarch of Constantinople Michael Cerularius closed all the temples of the Latin rite in Constantinople. At the same time, he demanded that Rome recognize itself as an equal Ecumenical Patriarch in honor. Leo IX refused him this and soon died. Meanwhile, papal ambassadors arrived in Constantinople, led by Cardinal Humbert. The offended patriarch did not accept them, but only presented written denunciations of the Latin rites. Humbert, in turn, accused the patriarch of several heresies, and on July 16, 1054, he arbitrarily declared an anathema to the patriarch and his followers. Michael Cerularius responded with a Council Decree (reproducing all the accusations of Photius in 867) and anathema to the entire embassy. Thus, in terms of genre, it was another schism, far from immediately recognized as the final break between East and West.
The actual division of the Churches was a long process that took place over four centuries (from the 9th to the 12th centuries), and its cause was rooted in the growing difference in ecclesiological traditions.
As a result of the Cluniac movement, a stormy flowering of Catholicism began (late 11th - late 13th centuries): new orders were founded, theology developed (but also heresies!). Cathedrals and crusades follow each other. This general revival is facilitated by the end of the Norman threat, which for several centuries kept all of Europe in fear. But 1066 is the end of the Viking Age, when their descendants, the Norman knights, defeated the Anglo-Saxons near Hastings and established themselves in England.
Anselm, Archbishop of Canterbury († 1109) - one of the founders of the scholastic method, which reconciled faith and reason on the basis of the conceptual apparatus ancient philosophers(especially Aristotle). He compiled an ontological proof of the existence of God: from the concept of God as a Perfect Being, he deduced the reality of His existence (because the incompleteness of being is imperfection). Formulated a legal interpretation of the dogma of the Atonement. In Catholicism, the teacher of the Church.
Pierre Abelard († 1142) - master of the Paris Cathedral School, an outstanding rationalist, "a wandering knight of dialectics", which he only once betrayed for the sake of love for the beautiful Eloise. Finally identified theology with philosophy. He was twice (1121 and 1141) accused of the Nestorian-Pelagian heresy. He died at rest in the Cluniy Monastery, leaving frank memories of "The History of My Disasters".
Bernard of Clairvaux († 1153) - the offspring of a famous knightly family, went through a severe school of asceticism in the Sieto monastery. In 1115 he founded the monastery of Clairvaux and became the builder of the Cistercian Order. An ardent preacher, church politician and an outstanding mystic philosopher, he developed the doctrine of 12 levels of humility and 4 levels of love, with the help of which the soul ascends to the sphere of Divine truth. Under his influence arose
Saint Victor mystical school at the monastery of St. Victor, founded on the outskirts of Paris by Guillaume of Champeaux in 1108, developed a method of contemplation and fought against rationalism. Of the Victorian philosophers known: Hugo († 1141), Richard († 1173) and Walter (XII century) Saint-Victor.
The Chartres school, founded by Bishop Fulbert († 1028), on the contrary, developed moderate rationalism. In the XII century. it was headed by: Bernard of Chartres (until 1124), then by his student Gilbert de la Porre (or Porretanus; † 1154), then by Jr. Bernard's brother - Thierry († 1155) - Abelard's comrade-in-arms and like-minded person. Adjoined: Bernard of Tours († 1167) and William of Conches († 1145).
Of the spiritual knightly orders, only three are mentioned: The Carthusian order was founded by canon Bruno of Cologne († 1101), who in 1084 built a small monastery in the Chartreuse valley. The name of this valley in the Latin form (Сartasia) gave the order its name. It was officially approved in 1176.
The Cistercian Order was founded by Robert of Molesma († 1110), who in 1098 built a monastery in the swampy town of Sito (lat. Cistercium). Under the third abbot, Stephen Harding, Bernard of Clairvaux entered Sieve (see above). By the middle of the XII century. the order becomes a cultural outpost of medieval Europe.
The Teutonic Order was founded in 1198 by a group of German crusaders at the Jerusalem hospital of St. Mary (to assist German pilgrims). Quite quickly he went over to the side of Frederick II (and the Staufen in general) in their fight against the papacy. In the XIII century. was a conductor of German expansion in the Baltic states, but in 1410 he was defeated in the battle of Grunwald.
Note. Not mentioned: Templars (since 1118), Carmelites (since 1156), Trinitarils (since 1198), Hospitallers (Johnites), Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians and other orders.
I Lateran Council (1123) was convened by Pope Callixtus II to approve the Concordat of Worms (1127), with the help of which a long-awaited compromise was reached in the dispute over investiture between the Roman popes and the German emperors.
II Lateran Council (1139) convened by Pope Innocent II to condemn Arnold of Brescia and the heresy of the Arnoldists (see below).
III Lateran Council (1179) convened by Pope Alexander III to condemn the heresies of the Cathars, Albigensians and Waldensians (see below).
The IV Lateran Council (1215) was convened by Pope Innocent III at the height of the crusade against the Albigensians. He again condemned the burgher heresies and actually established the Inquisition (the largest figure of which will be Torquemada). He adopted strict regulations governing monastic life. Prohibited the creation of new orders. Called Frederick II Staufen to a new crusade.
I Lyon Council (1245) was convened by Pope Innocent IV in Lyon, where he fled from Frederick II Staufen, who besieged Rome. At this Council, Frederick II was solemnly excommunicated, after which, under the influence of the pope, Henry of Raspethuringen (1246-1247) was elected German Emperor.
The Second Council of Lyons (1274) was convened by Pope Gregory X to strengthen church discipline. He established the current order of the election of popes and finally formulated the filiogue as a dogma of the Church. An important act of the Council was the Union of Lyons with the Church of Constantinople (however, having found out that Michael VIII was only imitating "unity" for political purposes, the pope excommunicated him already in 1281 "for hypocrisy").
Heresies of this period:
Arnoldists - named after Arnold of Brescia († 1155), a student of Abelard, who was the leader of the democratic opposition and the inspirer of the Roman Republic. His main heresy consisted in the denial of church possessions and church hierarchy. In this he was the forerunner of the Cathars and the Albigensians, and remotely of the Protestants.
Cathars, Albigensians and Waldensians are related teachings of the "pure" or "perfect", which arose at the end of the 12th century, but are rooted in Bogomil Manichaeism and Paulicianism. They denied everything earthly as "devilish" and, accordingly, the earthly Church, with its dogmas, sacraments, hierarchy and rituals. They preached extreme asceticism and poverty.
Crusades:
I Crusade (1096 - 1099) - announced by Pope Urban II in order to defuse the warlike energy of the feudal lords. But the knights were ahead of the foot militia under the leadership of Peter the Hermit, which was almost all killed by the Turks. In the autumn of 1096, the leaders of the campaign arrived in Constantinople: Gottfried of Bouillon - Duke of Lotharine (later the first king of Jerusalem), his brother Baldwin, Bohemond of Tarentum, Raymond VIII Count of Toulouse, Robert Curtges - Duke of Normandy and others. In the spring of 1097, the knights moved from Constantinople into the depths of Asia Minor, captured Antioch (making it the capital of the Principality of Antioch) and in 1099 took Jerusalem by storm, freeing Christian shrines from the power of the Turks.
II Crusade (1147 - 1149) - announced by Bernard of Clairvaux, after the disparate Muslim principalities united and launched a counteroffensive in the face of the crusading threat. The leaders of the campaign, Louis VII of France and Conrad III of Germany, were not successful and did not even reach Jerusalem.
III Crusade (1189 - 1192) was the most significant in terms of the number of participants, but also unsuccessful. Frederick Barbarossa died at the very beginning and the German knights returned back, Richard I the Lionheart quarreled with Philip Augustus and Leopold of Austria, heroically but unsuccessfully besieged Jerusalem and on the way back was captured by Leopold, who betrayed him to the hostile Henry VI of Germany.
IV Crusade (1202 - 1204) was the last of the major campaigns. The knights did not have the money to attack Jerusalem from the sea, and agreed to first conquer the city of Zadar for Venice, and then restore Isaac II Angel, who had been deposed by his brother, on the Byzantine throne. Isaac's son Alexei joined the Crusaders, promising to pay for their further campaign. In reality, of course, the crusaders did not receive money and, outraged by the perfidy of the Byzantines, plundered Constantinople. The Byzantine Empire fell apart and the Latin Empire was created on its ruins.
The rest of the crusades are rightly called "small". Of the late campaigns, we can mention VII and VIII, organized by Louis IX the Saint. Both were extremely unsuccessful. In the 7th campaign, Louis was captured by the Egyptian Sultan. In the 7th campaign, a significant part of the army died from an epidemic along with Louis himself.
Francis of Assisi († 1226) is one of the greatest Western mystics. At first - the frivolous son of wealthy parents. In 1207, under the influence of a sudden spiritual break, he left his father's house to preach evangelical poverty and love. Pope Innocent III approved his brotherhood of "minorites", soon transformed into an order. After participating in the V Kr.p. (1219 - 1220), Francis retired from the leadership of the order and spent the rest of his life in solitary prayers.
Thomas Aquinas († 1274) is the largest Catholic Dominican philosopher, whose works represent the systematic completion of Western European scholasticism. Thomas, like other scholastics, insists on the possibility of rational theology, for the God of revelation is, at the same time, the creator of reason and cannot contradict Himself. The main works: "The sum against the pagans" (1259 - 1264) and "The sum of theology" (1265 - 1274). In the Catholic tradition, the teacher of the Church, the "angelic doctor".
Bonaventure († 1274) - the largest philosopher of the Franciscan tradition, a friend of Thomas Aquinas, a follower of the mystical direction. He developed the doctrine of 6 degrees of contemplation, the highest of which is the ecstatic vision of the transcendent mysteries of God. Main work: "Guide of the soul to God." In the Catholic tradition: teacher of the Church, "seraphic doctor".
The period of the Renaissance and the New Age (XIV - XX centuries)
The 14th century opens with the rivalry between royal absolutism and the Church. The French king Philip IV the Handsome (1285 - 1314) deposes the objectionable Pope Boniface VIII (1294 - 1303) and in 1307 liquidates the Knights Templar order, which began to disturb him with its power.
These events open a new page in the history of the papacy - the so-called. Avignon captivity of the popes (1309 - 1377). Their throne is transferred to Avignon as a token of their defeat, and the popes themselves become obedient instruments of French politics. So the very first "Avignon Pope" Clement V (1305 - 1314), in order to please Philip IV, convenes
The Council of Vienna (1311 - 1312), which sanctioned the judicial arbitrariness of the king and (already retroactively!) Abolishes the Order of the Templars, accusing its leadership of witchcraft and anti-Christian rites. (for those who are interested, we recommend reading the book "Near there is before the door" by S. Nilus - note by the RPIC)
Dante Alighieri († 1321) - the first and largest representative of the Ducento, a poet with a strong theological and philosophical bias. Opponent of Pope Boniface VIII and supporter of strong imperial power. In his "Divine Comedy" he populated Hell and Paradise with political friends and enemies. In his work, the spiritual insights of the Middle Ages are replaced by mystical fantasies and subjective arbitrariness. His contemporary is
Meister Eckhart († 1327) - Dominican monk, prior of Erfurt, founder of German apophatic mysticism, who developed the doctrine of the consubstantiality of the Divine Nothing and the "groundless basis" of the soul. Having gone through all the steps of detachment from the created, the soul merges with the Baseless and returns to God, which it was before its creation. This subjective mysticism is also very characteristic of the Proto-Renaissance.
The last "Avignon pope" was Gregory XI (1370 - 1378), who was forced to move to Rome in order to more conveniently wage war with the rebellious Florence. Two popes were elected as successors to him at once: in Rome - Urban VI (1378-1339), in Avignon - Clement VII (1378 - 1394), so the "Avignon Captivity" grew into the "Great Schism" of the papacy (1378 - 1417 gg.). At the same time, even the Papal States broke up into a number of warring parts,
Catherine of Siena († 1380) - from 1362 in the Dominican Order. She was a witness to these events, but was by no means tempted by them. On the contrary, she came to Avignon, trying to reconcile Pope Gregory with Florence, and during the split she sided with Urban VI. Highly devout and mystically gifted, she dictated The Book of Divine Doctrine and is regarded in the Catholic tradition as a teacher of the Church.
Bridget of Sweden († 1373) - daughter of a Swedish magnate, mother of eight children, widowed - a Cistercian nun. In 1346 she founded the Order of the Passion of Christ and Mary. Along with Catherine of Siena, she insisted on the return of the papal throne from Avignon to Rome. The patron saint of Sweden. The book "Revelations of St. Brigid" (published in 1492) is one of the sources of creativity of M. Grunewald.
John Wycliffe († 1384) - English theologian, prof. Oxford University, forerunner of the European Reformation. Long before Luther, he spoke out against the sale of indulgences, the veneration of saints, and called for the separation of the English Church from Rome. In 1381 he completed the translation of the Bible into English. He enjoyed the protection of the king until his teaching was taken up by the plebeian heresy of the Lollards, who came out under the banner of Wat Tyler. After the uprising was suppressed, it was condemned, but it had an impact on Jan Hus.
Jan Hus († 1415) - Czech theologian, from 1398 - professor, from 1402 - rector of the University of Prague. A typical ideologue of the Reformation, a follower of J. Wycliffe: he condemned the sale of indulgences and demanded a fundamental reform of the Church along the lines of the early Christian communities. In 1414 he was condemned by the Council of Constance.
The Council of Constance (1414-1418) put an end to the "Great Schism" of the papacy. It was convened at the insistence of imp. Sigismund in Constance (modern Switzerland) and was the most representative Cathedral of the Middle Ages. He deposed all three then-existing popes and elected Martin V. In the case of heresy, the teachings of J. Wycliffe, Hus and Jerome of Prague were condemned. All three are burned as heretics (Wycliffe - posthumously). 5 decrees on the reform of the Church were adopted.
The Basel-Florence Council (1431-1449) continued the development of reforms, defending the conciliar supremacy over the pope. Pope Eugene IV (1431-1447) could not bear the loss of initiative and declared the Council dissolved. He convened a continuation of the Council in Florence, where in 1439 the Union of Florence with the Orthodox was signed. However, the main supporter of the union, the Russian Metropolitan Isidore, was deposed upon his return to Moscow. Constantinople also abandoned the union after 11 years at the request of the Orthodox people.
Girolamo Savonarola († 1498) - Dominican friar, whose sermons were the impetus for the overthrow of the Medici tyranny in Florence. Irrationalist and mystic: he strove for religious immediacy, for the restoration of the ascetic ideals of early Christianity. Partly anticipated the views of Luther. He was put on trial for heresy and executed.
Thus, the pathos of Protestantism was born already in the bowels of the Catholic Church.
The Reformation, prepared by mediaeval heresies and uncontrolled religious subjectivism, began in Germany in 1517, when Luther nailed his 95 theses against indulgences to the gates of Wittenberg Cathedral. Pope Leo X excommunicated him from the Church, but at the Imperial Diet in Worms (1521) Luther won a moral victory and was sheltered by the princes in the Wartburg fortress. While he was busy translating the Bible into the vernacular, radical theologians were at the helm of the reforms. The consequence of this was the Peasants' War of 1524-25, after the suppression of which the Reformation initiative passed from the theologians to the Protestant princes. As a result of the war of 1546 - 1555. they defeated Charles V and introduced Lutheranism into Germany. At the same time, the Reformation won in Switzerland, Holland, England and other countries of Western Europe. In Russia, reformist sentiments were reflected in the heresy of the Judaizers.
The Council of Trent (1545 - 1563) opens the era of the Counter-Reformation. Convened to affirm the faith. truths attacked by Protestants. He condemned the Protestant doctrine of justification by faith alone and of Holy Scripture as the only source of Revelation. Rejected worship in national languages. Outlined the so-called. The Tridentine Confession of Faith (1564) is a return to classical medieval Catholicism.
Counter-Reformation: Church-Political Movement of the 16th-17th Centuries. striving to restore the spiritual monopoly of the Catholic Church, to discredit the ideas of the Reformation and Renaissance culture. At the same time, this movement gave rise to a new understanding of holiness as a combination of mystical contemplation and activity. Examples:
Jesuit Order - founded in Paris by Ignatius Loyola in 1534, approved by Paul III in 1542. The order is characterized by: severe discipline and a high degree of education. Its members often led a secular lifestyle, exercising religious control over educational institutions and public institutions.
Teresa de Avila († 1582) - reformer of the Carmelite order, mystical religious writer. In 1534 she entered the Carmelite monastery "Incarnation" in Avila. In 1565, she founded her first monastery of barefoot Carmelites. Persecuted by the Inquisition. She left essays: "The Book of My Life", "The Book of Dwellings or the Inner Palace". Saint, patroness of Spain. In the Catholic tradition - a teacher of the Church.
Juan de la Cruz († 1591) - an associate of Teresa of Avila in the implementation of the reform. Since 1563 - in the Carmelite monastery. He was persecuted by the Inquisition, was in prison, from where he fled. Died in exile. Main composition: "Climbing Mount Carmel". In the Catholic tradition - a teacher of the Church.
Francis de Salle († 1622) – leader of the Counter-Reformation in Switzerland. From 1602 - Bishop of Geneva. Converted Calvinists to Catholicism. He became famous as a preacher and religious writer. Corresponded with Henry IV. Main work: "Introduction to the pious life."
Pope Innocent XI (1676 - 1689) - an outstanding church leader of the 17th century. He defended traditional Catholic values in the fight against the absolutist claims of Louis XIV. In 1682, he abolished the rights of the national French Church, independent of the papacy. Subsequently beatified.
Pope Pius VI (1775 - 1799) - the last pope of the "old regime". His exceptionally long pontificate (24 years) ended already in the conditions of the French Revolution, which provoked his active opposition. However, in 1798 the French occupied Rome and expelled the pope.
Note. Thus, the influence of the Counter-Reformation was felt until the beginning of the French Revolution of 1789-1794.
Pope Pius IX (1846 - 1878) in 1854 proclaimed the Catholic dogma of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. In 1864 he published the so-called. "Syllabus" - a list of socio-political delusions that undermine the teachings of the Catholic Church (socialism, atheism, rationalism, the demand for freedom of conscience, etc.). He convened the First Vatican Council in 1870, which proclaimed the dogma of papal infallibility in matters of faith and morality. In the same year, he finally lost the Papal States, liquidated by the revolutionary movement.
Pope Leo XIII (1878 - 1903) - the founder of the course towards the rapprochement of the Church and modern civilization (with the help of Thomism). Recognized democracy and parliamentarism. In the encyclical "Rerum novarum" ("On new things", 1891) condemns capitalist exploitation, but calls on workers not to fight, but to cooperate with employers. He speaks in favor of social justice, recalling that the only goal of the rulers is the good of the subjects.
II Vatican Council (1962 - 1965) - convened by Pope John XXIII to modernize (the so-called agiornamento) the Church. He created a new concept of church life - not power over the sacraments, but service to people. After the death of John XXIII, this direction of the Council was continued by Pope Paul VI. Particular emphasis was placed on ecumenical relations and rapprochement with the Orthodox Church: on December 7, 1965, in Rome and Istanbul (Constantinople), the letters of mutual curses between Western and Eastern Churches, after which, from the pulpit of John Chrysostom, the primates of both Churches read a joint declaration on the termination of the schism,
Note: The reconciliation of the Constantinople and Roman Churches, however, leaves complete freedom of self-determination in this matter for the rest of the autocephalous Churches of Ecumenical Orthodoxy.
Orthodoxy is one of the main offshoots in Christianity, officially taking shape in the territory. Byzantium after the split of the church in 1054. Eastern and. Western. Has millions of followers, mostly in the countries of nah. Eastern. Europe,. Middle. East. Received in IV in the status of the state religion, having settled it from the imperial power (the Catholic Church distances itself from political power, tries to be on the bottom of it), made it a zealous supporter of traditional dogma and cult. Unlike Catholicism, Orthodoxy does not have a single church center. If the Catholic Church is an international interpretation of canons, rites and holidays, then in Orthodoxy national features dominate: each of the churches produces its own tradition, has its own holidays. For example, for the Ukrainian church. The Intercession is a great holiday, in the Russian church calendar it is nothing special, in the Georgian one it does not exist at all.
At the heart of the Orthodox doctrine -. Sacred. Scripture (Bible). Saint. Translation (decision of the ecumenical and local councils of the 5th-8th centuries, the work of the church fathers). Creed (recognition of the trinity. God, the incarnation of the atoning sacrifice. Jesus. Christ, afterlife veneration, also the recognition of the church as an intermediary between. God and people). Visiting temples, praying, observing fasts, sacraments are of particular importance for Orthodox believers. A special role belongs to the cult of saints, church holidays, ushanovannyu icons. Orthodoxy recognizes baptism, communion, chrismation, confession, marriage, priesthood. The consecration of the oil and divine services object to Catholic dogmas about the filioque, purgatory, and infallibility. Popes. Rimsky and Ita in.
First Orthodox centers, which subsequently began to control the activities of believers in large areas, became independent church formations. With decay. The Roman Empire they formed in. Alexandra her. Antioch,. Constantinople and. Jerusalem. The centrifugal forces acting in Byzantium, accelerated the weakening of interdependence between these territories, as a result of which each church center became independent in the Orthodox world. Over time, Orthodox churches arose in other regions, acquiring independence in religious and church life.
There are fifteen autocephalous and several autonomous Orthodox churches in the modern world. According to the traditional list (diptych), each of them occupies a precisely defined place in the structure. Ecumenical Orthodoxy. In addition to them, there are other Orthodox church formations that, for certain reasons, are not included in this list.
Churches of Universal Orthodoxy
Ecumenical Orthodoxy embraces all Orthodox Churches that unswervingly adhere to the principles of doctrine, the norms of church canons, have much in common in the ritual and cult sphere, while maintaining certain specifics regarding the language of worship, worship and rituals, architecture, structure and appearance clear. The formation of autocephalous churches was caused by their desire to free themselves from guardianship. Constantine of the Polish emperor and patriarch. They were the first to achieve autocephaly. Constantinople,. Antioch,. Alexandria and. Jerusalem Orthodox churches, which were then in the eastern part. Roman Empire (IV vt.).
Orthodox Church of Constantinople. Traditionally, it takes the first place in the structure. Universal Orthodoxy. According to the decision. Second. Ecumenical. Cathedral (Constantinople, 381). The bishop of Constantinople took second place in "honor" among Christian bishops after. Rimsky. In the Orthodox world, and now he is considered "the first among equals among equals."
The see of Constantinople arose after its foundation by the emperor. Constantine. And a new capital. Roman Empire on the site of an Asia Minor town. Byzantium (second quarter of the 4th century)
Yielding authority to other Christian centers, she strengthened her position due to the fact that from 330 c. Constantinople was the capital. Roman Empire. At the time of the fourth (Kydonian Hulk). Ecumenical Council (451) Bishop. Constantinople already possessed the patriarchal dignity. Positions were especially strengthened. Constantinople after the fall in the 7th century. Alexandria,. Antioch t a. Jerusalem churches due to the conquest of their territories by the Arabs. Thanks to the efforts of the missionaries, the Byzantine version of Christianity, and hence the influence. Constantinople extended to. Eastern and. Southeast on. European Europe.
However, at the end of XI in position. The Church of Constantinople in the Orthodox world began to weaken. First, as a result of oppression by Western Christians, when in 1240 these crusaders took possession of Constantinople. And after the conquest. Byzantium by the Ottoman Turks, the position of the church was even more complicated since then it was forced to be in a Muslim environment, caring primarily about self-preservation. Only in 1923, after the conclusion of an agreement on Greek-Turkish friendship, its situation was normalized and lost.
time. The Church of Constantinople unites up to 65 thousand believers. Within the territory of. Turkey, it has 6 dioceses, in countries. Western. Europe,. Asia,. Northern and. South. America,. Australia - 23, as well as 10 people and 2 women's monasteries. Photos of the clergy, church leaders and theologians are being prepared. Higher theological school in Brooklyn and the academy Harrison (USA). to jurisdiction. The Church of Constantinople also belonged to. Finnish Autonomous Orthodox Church. Cretan Orthodox Church and Mt. Athos in Greek.
It has been headed by a patriarch since 451, whose power does not extend to the leaders of other Orthodox churches. They act under the patriarch. Sacred. Synod and working commissions. The official printed organ is the journal "Orthodoxy"
Included in. World. Council. churches. Often between her and Discussions arise in the Russian Orthodox Church regarding reluctance. Moscow Patriarchate to grant autocephaly or autonomy to the national churches existing in it.
Alexandrian Orthodox Church. It is one of the oldest churches and is considered the birthplace of monasticism. The beginning of its history reaches in the II century, when c. Egypt founded an episcopal see. As is the head. K. Constantinople, primate. Alexandrian Orthodox Church at the time IV. The Ecumenical Council had a patriarchal title. Its historical development is not much different from other Orthodox churches. On the move. In the 5th century, Christians living in Egypt, divided into Orthodox and Monophysites (Copts). At the end of the first half of the 7th century, the territory inhabited by believers belonging to the Patriarch of Alexandria was conquered by the Arabs, and in the 16th century by the Ottoman Turks. This fettered the activity of the church, weakened its influence in the Christian world (in the middle of the 19th century, it united less than 2 thousand believers).
time. The Church of Alexandria has up to 30 thousand believers, its jurisdiction extends to the entire African continent. V. Egypt has 5 dioceses, up to 50 churches, outside - 9 dioceses, more than 100 churches. Since 19956 in Odessa has a courtyard with a temple. Trinity in the church belong to 3 monastery,. Higher Theological and Pedagogical Seminary, several schools, a charitable society. Library based. Patriarchate of Alexandria p racue. Institute of Oriental Studies. The official printed organ is the Pantenosuot;Pantenos magazine.
The primate of Alexandria has a title. His Beatitude. Dads. Patriarch. Alexandria and all. Africa. His residence is located in Alexandria. At. The patriarch is active. The Holy Synod, which includes all the ruling bishops. Refers to the World. Council. Churches.
Antiochian Orthodox Church. Its name comes from the former capital. Syria m. Antioch - at one time an outstanding center of Christian theology, the place of the secret cathedrals of the first Christians. After. Cathedral of Chalcedon (451) Bishop. Antioch, along with the bishops of other Christian centers. East received the title of patriarch.
Historical path. The Church of Antioch is marked by turbulent events that have negatively affected its position in the Orthodox world. In the 5th century, it separated from it. Chaldean church, in the VI century - Copts (monofizita). From the 7th to the 10th century Antioch was owned by the Arabs, and in the 11th-13th centuries it fell under the yoke of the crusaders. Another blow was dealt to her in the 13th century by the Egyptian Mamluks (warriors-slaves of Turkic and Caucasian origin, of whom the guards of the Egyptian sultans consisted), and in the 16th century the Turks enslaved. That's when the name disappeared. Antioch, but the name appeared. Antakya. And before that, the patriarchal residence was moved to. D amask to. Damascus.
Constant oppression and poverty. The church of Antioch led to the fact that for several centuries it was the object of pressure from outside. Constantinople and. Jerusalem Patriarchates. Only at the end of XI IX in her position began to improve. Now. The Church of Antioch has 22 dioceses: 6 - c. Syria, 6 - c. Lebanon, 1 - c. Iraq, 3 - c. Turkey, 6 - on. the American continent, up to 400 temples, 20 monasteries,. Belmentsky theological academy (near metro station Tripoli), a seminary and several colleges. Issues 6 magazines and bulletins. The official organ is the magazine "An-Nakhrt; An-Nakhra".
The patriarch who heads the church has a title. His Beatitude. Patriarch. Great. Antioch and everything. East. His residence is in the capital. Syria -. Damascus. At. The patriarch is active. The Holy Synod, which includes the ruling bishops. Antiochian Orthodox Church is a member. World. Council. Churches.
Jerusalem Orthodox Church. She is considered the mother of all Christian churches, because her jurisdiction is extended in the area where Christianity originated. Since ancient times, n%. The Jerusalem church was laid on boviazki to preserve the places of worship of Christians. For this purpose, 326 r was created. Svyatogrobsky. Brotherhood.
By the 16th, the Orthodox were the absolute rulers of Christian shrines, until the influence of Catholics and representatives of other Christian churches spread over them at the present time in the main shrine of Christians - the temple. C. Resurrection - Orthodox, Catholics, Copts, Virmeno-Gregorians, etc. come. However, according to tradition, only a representative can be the rector of the temple. Jerusalem church. Except the temple. Resurrection, on the territory of the Orthodox monastery of St. The tomb, owned by the brotherhood, are other Christian shrines. The most important among them is the mountain. Calvary and. Coffin. Lord. There is also a residence here. Patriarch, who has the title of st. His Beatitude. Patriarch. Saint. Grad. Jerusalem and all. Palestine
At. The patriarch is active. The synod, which includes all the bishops and several archimandrites: there cannot be more than 18. The church has two metropolias and one archdiocese, 23 churches, 22 male and 5 female monasteries. The Sinai archdiocese, which has an autonomous status and significant independence from the supreme power, is its center. Monastery of St. Catherine, famous for its library of manuscripts and the most historical monuments. The abbot of the monastery has the episcopal rank and the title of archbishop. Under his tutelage are 15 households. Egypt. Turkey,. Greece,. Lebanon and pas. Cyprus. Total. Jerusalem church has more than 50 thousand believers. Official publication - magazine "New. Zion" Subject. World. Council. Church. For the sake of. Churches.
Georgian Orthodox Church. It began its history in the 4th century. The process of active Christianization of the Georgian population, and subsequently the constitution of the Orthodox Church, is associated with the names of St. Nina and the king. Miriana. Already at the beginning of the 4th century in the central part. Georgia -. Christianity was the state religion of Kartli.
In V the archbishop of the church was subordinate. Patriarchate of Antioch. political association. Georgia in 487 as king. Vakhtang. And it was accompanied by the proclamation of autocephaly. Georgian Orthodox Church. The chief next to her was the Catholicos, whose chair was located in the then capital - m. Mtskheta. From the ninth to the eighteenth century Several Catholicoses acted in Georgia at the same time, but he was always the main one among them. Mtskheta. The flight of many cataclysms shook the country and tangibly affected the life of the church. This was manifested not only in the loss of its centralized control, but also in attempts to introduce fire worship - serving God in the fire (VI-VII centuries) and Islam (XVI-XVIII centuries), in the repeated destruction of Orthodox shrines and the oppression of Orthodox believers by the conquerors-warriors.
According to. Treaty of St. George in 1783, Georgia was included. Russian Empire, a. The Georgian Orthodox Church was subjugated. Holy Synod. The Russian Orthodox Church's head of state is the title of member of the synod. Over time, the position of the Catholicos was abolished, since in 1811 Gruzno was formed on the territory. Georgian exarchate. Only after. During the February (1917) revolution, the local clergy revoked the autocephaly of their church. The Moscow Patriarchate recognized autocephaly. Georgian Orthodox Church only in 1943-1943 p.
Now the church has 15 dioceses, uniting up to 300 communities. The clergy are trained by the Seminary and the Theological Academy (Mtskheta). The management of the church is catholicos with the title. Holy and. His Beatitude. He is. Patriarch of all ie. Georgia,. Archbishop. Mtskheta and. Tbilisi. It works with him. Holy Synod of all the ruling bishops and the patriarchal vicar (deputy). The official printed organ is "Jvari. Vazisa" ("Cross wine. City vines"). Refers to the World. Council. Churchdo. All-worldly. For the sake of. Churches.
Serbian Orthodox Church. Its history goes back to the 9th century, when, at the request of secular rulers, Greek priests were sent to her. Education. Serbian diocese dates back to the last quarter of the 9th century. In 1219 p. The Serbian Church was recognized as autocephalous, and since 1346 - as a patriarchy. However, it soon fell into disrepair, since at the end of the XIV century. Serbia came under the rule of the Turks. The Serbian Church was subjugated. Patriarch of Constantinople until 1557, having existed independently in the structure. Ecumenical Orthodoxy for another two centuries, it again falls into dependence on. Constantinople as a metropolis. Only in 1879 did he regain his autocephalous autocephaly.
Along with. Serbian Orthodox Church on the territory of the former. Yugoslavia, there were other Orthodox churches: c. Montenegro,. Bosnia,. Herzegovina and. Macedonia. After formation in 1918 p. The Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes begins the formation of a unified one. Serbian Orthodox Church, which ended in May 1919, and the next year the patriarchate was restored. In years. During the Second World War, the Serbian Orthodox Church adhered to a consistent anti-fascist line.
The instability of the political union of the peoples that were part of. Yugoslavia, in the post-war years also affected the affairs of the church. In the 50s of the XX century, an autonomous one arose in its composition. Macedonian. Orthodox. Churches va, proclaimed itself in 1967 autocephalous.
Serbian Orthodox Church on the territory of the former. Yugoslavia had 21 dioceses c. Yugoslavia and 7 outside it, almost 2.3 thousand churches, more than 1.5 thousand priests, 180 monasteries and up to 8 million believers. Priests are trained by the theological faculty. Belgrade University and four seminaries.
Leads the church. Patriarch. Serbian, archbishop. Pech, Metropolitan. Belgrade-Karlovatsky. His residence in Belgrade. Supreme ecclesiastical authority -. Synod of Bishops, consisting of the Patriarch and four of their diocesan bishops. The official printed organ - the magazine "Glasnik" is a member. World. Council. Church. For the sake of. Churches.
Romanian Orthodox Church. This is one of the largest Orthodox churches, uniting almost 16 million believers. Its history is connected with foreign enslavement and dependence on. Patriarch of Constantinople Rhatta.
Christianity in modern territory. Romania arose in the 5th century, and in the 14th century there were two metropolises here. Autocephalous. The Romanian Orthodox Church became only in 1865 due to the unification of the principalities. Wallachia and. Moldova, which ended in 1862 with the formation. Romanian state. However. The Patriarchate of Constantinople recognized autocephaly only 20 years later. Since 1919. Romanian. The church has the status of a patriarchy, and its head has a title. His Beatitude. Patriarch of all. Romania, viceroy. Caesarea. Cappadocia, Metropolitan. Ungro-Walachian, archbishop. Bucharest. His residence is located in Bucharest. It works under the patriarch. The Holy Synod of all bishops, which meets once a year, as well as a permanent synod, consisting only of the Metropolitan Metropolitan.
According to church charter and cathedrals of the rightful tradition operate national church assemblies composed of members of the synod and representatives of the clergy and laity elected by the faithful from all dioceses. The highest administrative and executive body of the church is elected for a four-year term. National Church Assemblies. The National Church Council, which includes three representatives of the clergy and six laity.
Within the territory of. The Romanian Church has 13 dioceses, united in 5 metropolias, its jurisdiction extends to Orthodox Romanians living in the countries. Western. Europe,. Northern and. South. America,. austro rally i. New. Zealand. Structural divisions with different status USA,. Hungary and the former. Yugoslavia. The church has more than 8 thousand churches, 133 monasteries. The official printed organs are the magazines "Romanian Rights of the Orthodox Church", "Orthodoxy" and "Theological Studies" in addition to religious ones. The Romanian Orthodox Church also performs state-political functions, since it is not legally separated from the state. Is a member. World. Council. Churches. Є a member. All-worldly. For the sake of. Churches.
Bulgarian Orthodox Church. Christianity in modern territory. Bulgaria began to spread in ancient times. However, a mass baptism took place in 864 for the king. Boris is an active supporter of her autocephaly. Bulgarian church. First (in 870) she was granted autonomy within. Patriarchate of Constantinople. The church became autocephalous only in 919 due to the strengthening of the state. Bulgaria period. The first would be the Bulgarian kingdom. Constantinople recognized. The Bulgarian Church had autocephaly and patriarchal dignity only in 927, but political dependence. Bulgaria from. Byzantium led to the return of its church in 1010 to the status of an archbishop and the renewal of Greek dominance in it. During the period. At the end of the 12th century in the second Bulgarian kingdom, a patriarchal see was founded in the town of Tarnovo, which protected national interests. Next to it acted and the archbishop's cathedra. Ohrid, which remained under Greek influence with the German influence.
From the 14th century. The Bulgarian Church is experiencing new oppression, which was a consequence of the conquest. Bulgaria by the Ottoman Turks who tried to eradicate Christianity
Renaissance. The Bulgarian Church became a component of the general process of national revival. However, he was slowed down by the strongest Greek influence. Confrontation between believing Bulgarians and. The Patriarchate of Constantinople ended with the formation of the Bulgarian Exarchate in 1870, and two years later with the restoration of autocephaly. Bulgarian Orthodox Church, which Constantinople recognized only in 1945. In 1953 the head of the church was given a title. Patriarch. It works with him. Holy Synod composed of four metropolitans. One of them is in charge. The Supreme Church Council of two clerics and two laity, issues of inter-Christian relations and economic activity fall within its competence.
The Bulgarian Church has more than 6 million believers. Within the territory of. Bulgaria has 11 dioceses, almost 3200 churches, more than 120 monasteries. In Sofia there are a theological academy and a seminary. Outside. Bulgaria, she has her dioceses in. USA and. Canada,. South. America and in Australia, several parishes in. Hungary,. Romania and. Austria. V. Istanbul is located. Bulgarian church governorship, and c. Moscow -. Bulgarian courtyard. The official organ of the church - the magazine "Church Herald" is a member. World. Council. Church. For the sake of. Churches.
Cypriot Orthodox Church. It operates on the territory. Cyprus close to Islamic, Catholic and Protestant religious institutions. Belongs to the apostolic churches. Its founder is considered the apostle a. Barnabas, and the beginning of existence - 47 AD.
In the process of becoming. The Cypriot Orthodox Church had to fight not only with Jews and pagans, but also with. Antioch Church. The independence of her church was recognized only in 431. Ephesus Cathedral and and confirmed. Church of Constantinople in 488 r.
From the middle of the 6th c. Cyprus was under the rule of the Arabs, which led to a significant decline in the church. After the elimination in 965 of the Arab dominance. Cyprus was conquered in 1191 by the crusaders, who, together with the western European feudal lords, planted Catholicism here. The persecution of the Orthodox population and the humiliation of the church hierarchy by the Roman Catholic Church changed into brutal pogroms by the Ottoman Turks, who ruled. Cyprus since 1571. Over time, the Turks changed their attitude towards the Cypriot Orthodox Church, giving its head the powers not only of the head of the church, but of the entire Greek community of the island.
During the period of English domination. Cyprus (1878 - 1960). The Cypriot Church led the liberation struggle. In 1974, she received full independence and organizational independence.
The head of the church bears a title. His Beatitude. Archbishop. New. Justinians and everything. Cyprus. His residence is in the capital of the republic. Nicosia. The composition of the synod, acting under the patriarch, includes all the ruling and bishops. The church has more than 400 thousand believers. It includes 6 dioceses, more than 500 churches, 6 male and 9 female monasteries, more than 40 schools of various profiles and a theological seminary. The official organ is the magazine "Apostle. Barnabaol. Barnabas".
The Cypriot Orthodox Church is an influential social and political force, owns a fourth of the agricultural land, a monopoly on the production of mineral fertilizers. Refers to the World. Council. It. Erkov.
Helladic (Greek) Orthodox Church. For more than 1100 years it has been in the composition. Patriarchate of Constantinople, its autonomous development began in the 19th century with a decline. Ottoman Empire. Including uvals, the national liberation movement of the peoples oppressed by it. The uprising in Greece in 1821 was headed by the Orthodox hierarchy, he was blessed by the archbishop. Patraska -. Hermarman.
The consequence of these events was the actual autonomization. Helladic dioceses. Patriarchate of Constantinople. After the proclamation Greece an independent state (1822), their independence is strengthened, and the Orthodoxy is proclaimed "the dominant religion of the kingdom of Greece" Toli raised the question of status. As a result of complex political vicissitudes, in 1833 the Greek Church was proclaimed autocephalous, one to which the rules existing in the church were instituted. Concerning. Greek church for 17 years she was deprived of the opportunity to communicate with other Orthodox churches, since none of them recognized her as an autocephalous. The situation returned to normal only after. Local Cathedral. Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1850, which decided to grant. Greek Church of autocephalyerkvі autocephaly.
According to. Constitution of 1975,. The Greek church is separated from the state. It has 77 dioceses, since 1922 they have been called metropolitans, and all the ruling bishops have the title of metropolitans, it owns 7.5 thousand churches and almost 200 monasteries. Territorial jurisdiction extended to the peninsula. Peloponnese and mainland. Greece. Its center is located in Athens. Supreme governing body -. The Holy Synod, composed of all the ruling bishops, Permanent Holy Synod and. The General Church Assembly, which includes delegates from the dioceses. The Permanent Holy Synod, which unites 12 members, is headed by the head of the church, who has a title. Archbishop cop. Athens and all. Hellas. Yelladi.
Church cadres are trained at special faculties. Athensky and. Thessalonian universities, as well as seven theological institutes and eight seminaries. The Church publishes many publications. The official organ of the synod is the magazine "Ecclesia" Included in. World. Council. Churches. For the sake of. Churches.
In Ukraine there are two currents of Greek Orthodoxy -. Greek Orthodox Church (2 communities) i. True Orthodox Church. Greece (1 community)
Albanian Orthodox Church. The first mention of Christianity c. Albania belongs to the III century. However, the establishment of Christianity and the formation of church structures here took place slowly. The first episcopal frame was founded only in the 10th century, later it was transformed into a metropolis, having several dioceses in its composition. From IV to her communities were under jurisdiction. Bulgarian Orthodox Church, and from the other half of the XVIII century - under control. Patriarch of Constantinople. Only after receiving. Albanian independence in 1932, the church was proclaimed autocephalous.
For a long time due to the proclamation of the former leadership. Albania's "atheistic state" the church existed in a depressed state. The ban on its activities was not lifted and in last years XX century. With the democratization of Albanian society, church structures began to revive. plays a significant role in this. Albanian diocese, which is in the composition. Autocephalous. Orthodox. Churches in Americaqui in. America.
Polish Orthodox Church. Mass spread of Christianity c. Poland began in 966 and is associated with the name of the prince. Meshko (Mechislava). Baptism. Poland according to the Latin rite caused a confrontation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy "pits.
In the XII century in the cities. Holme and. Przemysl, which then belonged to the Galicia-Volyn principality of Kyiv. Rus, was founded by the Orthodox eparchy, and in 1840 -. diocese of Warsaw. First proclamation. The Autocommittee of the Ephalia of the Orthodox Church c. Poland (1921) had few political reasons and was not recognized. Russian Orthodox Church, under whose jurisdiction was the Orthodox population. Poland. Only in 948 was she given autocephaly, which was recognized by other Orthodox churches. Modern. The Polish Orthodox Church has 5 dioceses, 21 deaneries and more than 200 parishes, has three monasteries, 311 churches and a chapel.
Church cadres are preparing. The Christian Theological Academy is a higher interfaith educational institution and a theological seminary. Printed publications - the magazine "Vedomosti. Autocephalous. Orthodox Church", which is an official body, and the newspaper "Tygodnik. Podleski" The church is headed by a bishop who has a title. Metropolitan. Warsaw and all. Poland. His residence is located in Warsaw is located at. Warsaw.
Orthodox Church. Czech Republic and Slovakia. The emergence of Orthodoxy in the territory of modern. Czech Republic and Slovakia is associated with the activities of enlighteners. Cyril and. Methodius. Mass baptism of nations. Great. Moravia began in 863. Subsequently, these lands became the arena of confrontation between Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In the early 20s of the XX century, it was formed here. Czechoslovakian. Orthodox. Church floor jurisdiction. Serbian churches and In years. World War II, the Nazis defeated it. The reason was the active support of the anti-fascist movement Rukh by the church.
In the post-war period, the restoration of church structures and their full-fledged activities began. First, an exarchate was created, and in 1951 autocephaly was proclaimed. Czechoslovak Orthodox Church. In our time, the church has more than 150 thousand believers, up to 250 parishes, united in 4 dioceses. The head of the church is the metropolitan, whom he elects. The cathedral. He is a title. His Beatitude. Metropolitan. Prague and all. Czech Republic and Slovak ini. Under it, there is a synod and. Metropolitan Council. The official organ is the magazine "Voice of Orthodoxy" The Metropolitan's residence is located in. Prague located in Prazi.
Autocephalous Orthodox Church c. America. In the United States, there are up to two million Orthodox Christians under jurisdiction. Constantinople,. Antioch,. Romanian and. Moscow Patriarchates c. There is also. Romanian Diocese, Ukrainian Autocephalous Orthodox Church,. The Russian Orthodox Church Abroad and other church structures do not recognize the superiority of the respective patriarchs over themselves.
The spread of Orthodoxy in the north of the American continent is associated with names. Valaam monks who arrived on about. Kodiak in 1794. One of them is an old man. Herman, who devoted forty years of his life to missionary work, is revered as a saint. Hermann. Alaskan.
The first diocese in the lands. America was founded in 1840. Its development is associated with the name of the bishop. Kamchatsky,. Kurilsky and. Aleutian. Innokenty, the future metropolitan. Moscow. after sale. Rus so. Alaska (1867) Both states accepted jurisdiction. Russian Orthodox Church (ROC) over local parishes and church institutions. The first Orthodox parishes in the territory. The United States emerged in the 1860s. The strengthening of Orthodoxy is associated with the migration of the population from the European part. Russian Empire. In 1898-1907. The American diocese was headed by the future. Moscow Patriarch. Tikhon. Even then, the question arose of a significant expansion of its autonomy.
After 1917 Orthodox church structures c. America became the subject of controversy between. ROC and. Ecumenical Patriarch. Melentius IV, who tried to subdue all the Orthodox churches of the Diaspora. However, it is obligatory with the decisions of the All-American Council c. Detroit (1924) on the basis of the former American diocese was established. Temporary metropolitan district.
In the 30s of the XX century. The USA is taking shape. American diocese. Church Abroad and the Exarchate. Moscow Patriarchy, under spiritual guardianship. ROC. Subsequently, already for political reasons, a third church jurisdiction was formed, also subordinate. ROC. In years. World War II saw opportunities for the unification of these three centers, however. The Church Abroad did not agree to this. Revived. The American Metropolis immediately raised the question of autocephaly, which it received from. ROC in 1970. This created a threat of absorption by it of other Orthodox jurisdictions, and then led to the non-recognition of the autocephaly granted to Zatz and kavlenima by Orthodox churches.
Now the autocephalous Orthodox Church in. America has more than 500 parishes, 11 bishops and 550 priests, trained by two theological seminaries and an academy. The head of the church bears a title. His Beatitude. Archbishops. New York,. Metropolitan of all. America and. Canada. His residence is in New York. The official organ is the newspaper "Orthodox. Church. Church".
Russian Orthodox Church. It is the largest among modern local Orthodox churches. In the diptych (traditional list of churches) it ranks fifth. He considers the introduction of Christianity to be the beginning of history. Kievskaya. Russia at the end of the X century. However, at the time it worked. Kyiv Metropolis, which was formally dependent on. Church of Constantinople. Northeast Territories. Kievskaya. Russia was christianized much later.
Transfer of the church center from. Kyiv first in. Vladimir-on-Klyazma (1299), and then c. Moscow (1325) was associated with decline. Kyiv as a result of the Mongol-Tatar invasion and fortification. Moscow state. In 1354, the Patriarch of Constantinople agreed to the transfer of the center. Kyiv Metropolis, but on condition that. Kyiv will remain "its first throne and first chair of the federation."
result of the struggle between Moscow and. The Lithuanian states in 1458 were divided. Kyiv Metropolis on. Lithuanian (Kyiv) and. Moscow. All this time, until the end of his stay at the Metropolitan's chair. Jonah, set in 1448 without consent. Constantinople, the Moscow metropolitans bore the title of "Kyiv and all. Russia" Only a successor. Metropolitan Jonah. Theodosius began to be called "Moscow and all. Russia" It is 1448 that is considered the beginning of autocephaly. Moscow Metropolis. But the metropolitans Kyiv department continued to appoint. Constantinople. Moscow and. The Kyiv metropolia developed independently from one to the end of the XVII century and one to the end of the XVII century.
With strengthening. Moscow state, especially when. Ivan. Grozny, her claims to a special place in the Orthodox world began, in connection with which the doctrine of Fr. Moscow as the third. Rome. In the 1680s, secular authorities made several attempts to approve c. Moscow Patriarchal See. She achieved this goal in 15899.
After the political subjugation of the Ukrainian lands. Russia. The Moscow Patriarchate swallowed it up. Metropolis of Kyiv, which gradually became an ordinary diocese. ROC
Since 1921, Ukrainian Orthodoxy has existed as an exarchate. Moscow Patriarchate. At the same time, Orthodox church structures of a national direction also operate, the most influential among which was the Ukrainian one. Autok is a cephalic Orthodox church. The modern national-religious awakening in the Orthodox environment of Ukraine forced. The Moscow Patriarchate should be given some independence to Orthodox structures. In the official December amoti of the Moscow Patriarch, handed over to the Synod. UOC October 28, 1990, it was said what to be. The UOC is "independent and self-governing" This gave the right. The UOC independently resolve personnel, financial and economic issues, create dioceses. However, the head of the church -. Metropolitan Kyiv and all Ukraine should be elected by the Ukrainian episcopate, a. The Moscow Patriarch only blesses the yogi.
Being independent in management. The UOC appealed to the clergy. ROC with a request to grant it full canonical independence - autocephaly. However, as is known, Bishops' Cathedral. The ROC refused. The UOC is trying to do it. Anna get full independence. Wherein. The ROC constantly demonstrates the desire to keep. UOC in the sphere of its influence.
Leads. The Russian Orthodox Church is a patriarch who has a title. Patriarch. Moscow and all. Russia. It works with him. Holy Synod. Primate. The UOC is a permanent member. Holy Synod. ROC. The administrative structure of the church includes four levels: parish, deanery, diocese, patriarchy. The only exception is. UOC i. Belarusian exarchate. Foreign dioceses, separate deaneries and parishes, since 1990, are also subordinate to the patriarchy. The church has a three-stage system of spiritual education - parish schools, seminaries and academies. Location of central governing bodies. ROC -. Svyatodaniliv Monastery in Moscow. The ROC is a member. World. Council. Churchdi. Churches.
THE UNIVERSE CHURCH - the one church, or Catholic, or Catholic, is the church that unites all true believers, regardless of nationality, place or time of their residence. V.c. calls itself the Orthodox Church, for only she, according to Orthodox theologians, has preserved the true faith. United V.c. unites separate and independent churches - Jerusalem, Antioch, Alexandria, Constantinople, Russian, etc. All these churches are considered as parts of a single V.Ts. have one head - Jesus Christ, one spirit of faith and grace. Apparently, this unity is expressed by the same confession, communion in prayers and sacraments. However, private (non-universal) churches may lose the light of true faith. V.c. cannot fall away from faith and fall into error, because with her, as Orthodox theologians affirm, Christ and the Holy Spirit, who guides her to the truth, and therefore she is called the pillar and ground of the truth (I Tim. 3, 15).
The focus of the highest hierarchical power in V.ts. are the Ecumenical Councils. However, after the falling away of the Roman Church from V.ts. Councils ceased to be essentially Ecumenical, therefore the Orthodox Church recognizes the decrees of only the first seven Ecumenical Councils, and only these decrees are steadily observed in the Orthodox Churches.
After the division of the single Christian Church into Western Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox, the concept of V.ts. increasingly rare in Orthodox theological literature.
In Russian philosophical literature, the concept of V.ts. acquired a special sound after the works of Vladimir Solovyov, in which V.ts. regarded as a single Christian church uniting all Christian denominations.
V.ts., as I understood it Solovyov, is the true Church of Christ, led by the Ecumenical Councils. “The objective truth of faith has a universal character,” writes Solovyov, “and the true subject of faith must be consistent with its object; and therefore the subject of true religion must necessarily be universal. True faith cannot be the lot of an individual person in his isolation, but only of all mankind in his unity; an individual can be a participant in it only as a living member of the universal body” (Soloviev Vl. Russia and the Universal Church. M., 1911, p. 203). From the point of view of Solovyov, it is realistic to reunite humanity in the V.Ts. only love as a force that overcomes individualism is capable. “Love, which has to create a religious feeling of the human race, or V.Ts., must go beyond nationality and have as its object the totality of human beings” (Ibid., p. 204). Since it is impossible to love everyone at the same time, therefore love for all must be concentrated on love for one - this is love for Christ, "infallibly determined by the voice of one (the Pope). Outside of this unity, as we have already seen, the opinion of the multitude may be erroneous, and even the faith of the elect may remain vague” (Ibid., p. 208). Solovyov was not embarrassed by the idea of the falsity of the thesis of the infallibility of the Pope; for him, the role of the Pope as an organ of unity for all believers in Christ was more important. “The universal church is founded on truth, established by faith. Truth is one, and therefore, true faith must be one. And since this unity of faith is not really and directly given in the totality of believers (for there is no unity of all in matters of faith), then it must remain in the lawful power of a single head, the guarantee of which is divine help and which is accepted by the love and trust of all believers. Ibid., p. 209).
As can be seen from the above statements of Solovyov, he understood V.ts. as a church organized along the lines of the Roman Catholic Church. Solovyov was so carried away by the idea of the unity of all Christian churches that he did not pay attention to the dogmatic differences between the Eastern and Western churches. For him, the idea of unity was important, which would “hover” over all confessional differences, over all national and historical features. And in this desire for unity, he saw a lot of value in the centralized organization of Catholicism, which in its socio-political activities ensures the unity of believers, regardless of their national and state isolation.
Solovyov's idea of "all-Christianity" led to ignoring confessional differences. Analyzing views F.M. Dostoevsky, Solovyov focuses on Dostoevsky's thought that true Christianity is all-human unity in one world common cause, and the great mission of reconciliation of East and West fell to the lot of Russia, and the very abolition of the dispute between Slavophilism and Westernism means the abolition for the time being in the idea of the centuries of historical discord between East and West, a discord that led to an unnatural struggle between kindred faiths. Hence Solovyov's understanding of V.ts. as a universal church, in which “the division of mankind into rival and hostile tribes and peoples must completely disappear” (Soloviev B.C. Soch. In 2 vols. T. 2. M., 1998. P. 304).
Dictionary of philosophical terms. Scientific edition of Professor V.G. Kuznetsova. M., INFRA-M, 2007, p. 94-95.
