- The withdrawal of the cup from the laity. In the Greek Church the laymen receive the
consecrated bread dipped in the wine and administered with a golden spoon. - A number of minor ceremonies peculiar to the Eastern Church, such as trine immersion
in baptism, the use of leavened bread in the eucharist, infant-communion, the repetition of the holy
unction (to; eujcevlion) in sickness.
Notwithstanding these differences the Roman Church has always been obliged to recognize
the Greek Church as essentially orthodox, though schismatic. And, certainly, the differences are
insignificant as compared with the agreement. The separation and antagonism must therefore be
explained fully as much and more from an alienation of spirit and change of condition.
Note on the Eastern Orthodox Church.
For the sake of brevity the usual terminology is employed in this chapter, but the proper
name of the Greek Church is the Holy Oriental Orthodox Apostolic Church. The terms mostly in
use in that church are Orthodox and Oriental (Eastern). The term Greek is used in Turkey only of
the Greeks proper (the Hellens); but the great majority of Oriental Christians in Turkey and Russia
belong to the Slavonic race. The Greek is the original and classical language of the Oriental Church,
in which the most important works are written; but it has been practically superseded in Asiatic
Turkey by the Arabic, in Russia and European Turkey by the Slavonic.
The Oriental or Orthodox Church now embraces three distinct divisions: - The Orthodox Church in Turkey (European Turkey and the Greek islands, Asia Minor,
Syria and Palestine) under the patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem. - The state church of Russia, formerly under the patriarch of Constantinople, then under
the patriarch of Moscow, since 1725 under the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg and the headship of
the Czar. This is by far the largest and most important branch. - The church of the kingdom of Greece under the Holy Synod of Greece (since 1833).
There are also Greek Christians in Egypt, the Sinaitic Peninsula (the monks of the Convent
of St. Catharine), the islands of the AEgean Sea, in Malta, Servia, Austria, etc.
Distinct from the Orthodox Church are the Oriental Schismatics, the Nestorians, Armenians,
Jacobites, Copts, and Abyssinians, who separated from the former on the ground of the christological
controversies. The Maronites of Mount Lebanon were originally also schismatics, but submitted
to the pope during the Crusades.
The United Greeks acknowledge the supremacy of the pope, but retain certain peculiarities
of the Oriental Church, as the marriage of the lower clergy, the native language in worship. They
are found in lower Italy, Austria, Russia, and Poland.
The Bulgarians, who likewise call themselves orthodox, and who by the treaty of Berlin in
1878 have been formed into a distinct principality, occupy an independent position between the
Greek and the Roman Churches.
§ 69. The Causes of Separation.
Church history, like the world’s history, moves with the sun from East to West. In the first six
centuries the Eastern or Greek church represented the main current of life and progress. In the
middle ages the Latin church chiefly assumed the task of christianizing and civilizing the new races
which came upon the stage. The Greek church has had no Middle Ages in the usual sense, and