men must be convinced of the truths they are called to believe, and of the reasonableness of the duties they are required to practise. While the Lord Jesus sends his gospel to nations that hitherto have known him not, he sheds increasing light upon those countries in which his truth has been long obscured by the darkness of error. We trust the day of the peace of the Church is approaching, when God will give to his Son all parts of the earth for his possession. It is not to be expected that the Catholic Church will be lost, in the changes which will take place at the approach of that day but, like every portion of the visible church, will be purified of its errors and corruptions, and be made meet for the approbation of its Saviour. It has a little strength, and in an important sense, has not denied the name of the Lord Jesus.

CHAPTER II.

THE GREEK CHURCH.

THE greatest division of the Christian Church that has yet taken place, and one more ancient than any other that has become permanent, is into the Eastern and Western Churches. The respective limits of the two departments have had frequent variations, but, generally, the Eastern Church has included all who acknowledge the religion of Christianity in Asia, Africa, and the eastern parts of Europe. The Western Church includes the central and western countries of Europe, from which have sprung all the churches on the continent of America.

These two portions of Christendom have been commonly denominated in modern times, the Greek and Latin Churches. The eastern was called the Greek Church because it included ancient Greece; its principal centre was at Constantinople, and the public proceedings of the Church, together with their forms of worship, have been, generally, in the Greek language. The Western has been denominated the Latin Church, as its principal seat was at Rome, and the Latin language has been generally used in the liturgies and public transactions of the Church.

The primary cause of this ancient division, which became the source of great calamities to the Christian world, was the removal of the seat of empire from Rome to Constantinople. This event took place in the year 330, a few years after the Emperor Constantine had embraced the Christian faith, and the pagan persecution ceased. The church, now released from the oppressions which had been endured ever since the ascension of Christ, in the enjoyment of external prosperity, decorated with the splendours of wealth and power, became

the object of attention to worldly minds, and declined from that purity and internal peace which had been, hitherto, its greatest ornament and strength. The jealousies, which naturally arose between the modern and ancient capital, became, in their progress, as injurious to the peace of the church, as they were fatal to the perpetuity of the empire.

In the first ages of Christianity all of its ministers possessed an equality of office. The terms, Bishop, Elder, Minister, are used in the New Testament, interchangeably, referring to the same office, with the same rights and duties in the church. A number of churches, within certain convenient limits, usually united together, for their mutual benefit, for additional strength, and for the proper maintenance of gospel order, which would naturally become an established ecclesiastical body. For the sake of convenience and due order of proceeding, the pastor of the church in the principal town gradually became the standing moderator and presiding officer of the body. By degrees this distinction was claimed as a matter of right, and, with more or less reluctance, was acceded to by the other pastors and churches. This led to the establishment of bishops as a superior order of clergy in the Christian church.

Upon the same principle that the clergy of the provincial towns acquired a superiority over their brethren in the vicinity, the bishops of the great cities claimed a precedence above all others of the episcopal order. This led to a distinct denomination in the clerical office, and introduced the titles of metroplitan bishops and archbishops. An additional authority and supremacy were given by the Christian emperors to the bishops of Rome, Constantinople, Antioch, and Alexandria, who exercised a certain controul over all other bishops and churches, and were dignified by the title of Patriarchs. As the declining purity and increasing opulence of the church afforded additional motives to aspiring ambition, the patriarch of Constantinople, with the countenance of the imperial city, gradually acquired a superiority over those of Antioch and Alexandria, while the patriarch of Rome, through a variety of concurring causes, was rapidly increasing his dominion over all the churches of the West. These two ambitious prelates had been too successful in their progress to wealth and power to endure with patience the sight of a rival. One presiding in the metropolis, and the other in the most august city of the empire, each claimed the supremacy, and, in vindication of their claims, involved the respective portions of the church in perpetual contentions. While good men exceedingly regretted these events, which brought so great a reproach upon the Christian cause, all attempts to reconcile the contending parties seemed inffectual. At times the contest would abate for a season, but various causes were constantly increasing the alienation.

In the beginning of the seventh century, one of the gloomiest periods of the church, about the time of the rise of Mahomettanism, Phocas, an inhuman tyrant, who had obtained the impe

rial crown at Constantinople by the murder of the reigning emperor, knowing in what a light his character must be viewed in that city, and desirious to obtain support in the distant provinces, proclaimed Boniface, the patriarch of Rome, universal bishop of the Christian church. All others were directed to acknowledge his supremacy. As a violent death soon deprived the tyrant of power to enforce his command, and as his reign was considered a usurpation, the edict of Phocas was generally treated with contempt. The Roman pontiff, however, has never ceased to assert his supremacy, from that time, and has condemned as schismatics all Christians who do not acquiesce in his arrogant pretensions.

In the next age the breach between the Eastern and the Western churches was widened by violent contentions respecting the worship of images. This practice was advocated by the Latins, and violently opposed by the Greeks. The latter, however, after the long controversy had subsided, gradually fell into the practice, and adopted the error of the churches of the West. But the great schism," as it has generally been called by ecclesiastical writers, may be considered as established, from the time of the claim of the title of Universal Bishop by the Roman Pontiff. And, from that time to the present, there has been an alienation between the Greek and Latin Churches which no efforts have been able to reconcile. The separation, however, was not considered as confirmed, till about the middle of the ninth century.

The Eastern, or Greek Church, may be considered as divided into two distinct communities. The first, that of the Greek Christians, properly so called, who agree in all points of doctrine and worship with the Patriarch residing at Constantinople, and are subject to his jurisdiction.

The second comprehends those Christians who are not subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople, and who differ in some respects, from him in doctrine and forms of worship.

SECTION I.

Of the Greek Church subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople.

The Oriental or Greek church is the most ancient of all Christian churches; for, though it may be granted that the Roman pontiff had acquired a spiritual, or rather a temporal jurisdiction, before the patriarch of Constantinople, and perhaps before any other Oriental patriarch, yet it cannot be doubted that the first Christian church or society was established at Jerusalem.

The next churches were, doubtless, those of Syria and Greece; and if ever St. Peter was at Rome, which has not yet been fully ascertained, it was not till after he had been bishop of Antioch; so that the Latin church is unquestionably the daughter of the Greek, and is indebted to her for all the bles