Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 6.djvu/824

 GREECE

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GREECE

'Ekk\. 'IffTop/a, Athens, 1898, III, 1142, p. 154). The first National Assemblies (at Epidaurus and Troezen) in 1822 and 1827, while declaring that the Orthodox faith is the religion of Greece, had pointedly said noth- ing about the ceeumenical patriarch. In July, 183.3, the Greek Parliament at Nauplion drew up a constitu- tion for the national Church. Imitating Russia, they declared their Church autocephalous — independent of any foreign authority — and proceeded to set up a " Holy Directing Synod ' ' to govern it. They also sup- pressed, of the great number of almost deserted monas- teries in Greece, all that had less than six monks as inmates. In 1844 the same thing was repeated, and copies of the law were sent to Constantinople and to the other Orthodox Churches. The patriarch was exceedingly indignant at what he, not unnaturally, described as an act of schism. The Greek Govern- ment had put off the evil moment of announcing to him its new arrangement as long as it dared. Between 1822 and 1844 the Greek Church considered itself autocephalous, managing its own affairs by its synod, but had sent no notice of the change to the Phanar. So the patriarch affected to ignore the change. But he showed his anger plainly enough in 1841, when he received notice from the Greek Church that she had excommunicated for heresy Theophilos Kaires, the founder of the " Theosebismos " sect, an imitation of French Deism. The patriarch (Anthimos IV) refused to accept, or even to answer, this letter. So also did his successor, Germanos IV, refuse to notice the decla- ration of their independence that he received from his former subjects in 1844. In 1S49 the Greek Synod made another attempt. James Rizos, the Greek minister at Constantinople, had just died and the pa- triarch buried him with great honour. The Greek Government sent the Archimandrite Misael, then pres- ident of the synod, to Constantinople with the new Order of the Holy Saviour and a message of thanks to the patriarch (Anthimos IV restored) from the au- tocephalous Church of Greece. Anthimos took the order and then said that he knew nothing of an auto- cephalous Greek Church. The Greek Synod sent another circular to him and to all the other Orthodox Churches, explaining what ha.d been done and pro- claiming their independence. At last, in 1850, Anthi- mos IV summoned his synod to consider the matter. The result of its consultation was the famous Tomos. The Tomos at last acknowledged a certain limited in- dependence of the Greek Holy Synod, but proceeded to lay down a numlier of rules for its guidance. Any sort of interference of the Stateis absolutely forbidden, there is to be no royal commissioner in the synod, the patriarch is to be named, as before, in the Holy Liturgy, the chrism is to be procured from him, and all important matters must still be referred to his judgment. The tone of the Tomos is still that of ab- solute authority; each clause begins with the words: " We command that ..."

This document produced an uproar in Greece. Afraid of a formal schism, the Synod was at first dis- posed to accept it. There was also a conservative party led by Oikonomos (d. 1857), v/ho were opposed to any change and inclined to submit to the patriarch in everything. But the feeling of the majority was strongly against any sort of submission. The free Greeks had determined to have nothing more to do with the Phanar at all. Pharmakides (d. 1860), the leader of the Liberal party (with a distinct Protest- antizing tendency), answered the Tomos by an indig- nant protest: "The [patriarchal] Synodical Tomos, or concerning Truth" (6 :SvvoSi.kI>s T6;uos ^ vepl dXijfieias, Athens, 1S52). And the Parliament (aUvayc the last court of appeal for these independent Orthodox ('hurche.s) rejected every kind of mterforence on the part of the patriarch. Eventually the Greek Cliuroh admitted two points from the Tomos: that the Metro- politan of Athens should be ex officio President of the

Synod; and that the holy chrism should be sent from Constantinople. The first of these points has become a fixed rule ; the second obtains so far, but there is in Greece a strong movement in favour of consecrating the chrism at Athens. For the rest the patriarch's rules were rejected. The royal commissioner sits in the Holy Synod, and the Greek Church is as Erastian as that of Russia. The Holy Synod is named in the Liturgy instead of the patriarch. Forced by Russia, the Phanar had to give in and to acknowledge yet another loss to its patriarchate and another " Sister in Christ", the "Holy Directing Synod" of the auto- cephalous Church of Hellas. Since then there has been no more question about this point; the common cause of all Greeks against Slavs in the Balkans has restored very friendly feeling between the free Greeks and their Phanariot brothers. Two political changes further diminished the jurisdiction of the patriarch and en- larged that of the Greek Synod. In 1866 England ceded the Ionian Isles to Greece. True to the now acknowledged principle that the Church must reflect the political situation, the (ireek Government at once separated the dioceses of these islands from the patri- archate and joined them to the C'hurch of Greece. The Phanar made an ineffectual protest, and for a short time there was an angry correspondence between Athens and Constantinople. But once more the pa- triarch had to give in and submit to his loss. In 1881 Thessaly and part of Epirus were added to Greece, and again their dioceses were matle subject to the Greek Synod by the government. This time the patriarch did not even trouble to protest.

IV. CONSTITDTION OP THE ChuRCH OF GREECE.

The laws that fix the establishment, organization, and regulations of the Greek Church are those of 1852, in which the parliament, having finally rejected the pa- triarch's Tomos, repeated and codified the arrange- ments made by various governments since 1822: —

"The dominant religion in Hellas is the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. Every other known reli- gion may be practised without hindrance and shall enjoy the protection of the laws, only Proselytism and all other attacks on the dominant Religion are forbidden."

"The Orthodox Church of Hellas acknowledges as her Head our Lord Jesus Christ. She is indissolubly united in faith with the Church of Constantinople and with every other Christian ChiuTh of the same per- suasion [as Constantinople]. She is autocephalous, uses her sovereign rights independently of any other Church, and is ruletl by the members of the Holy Synod" (Arts. 1 and 2 of the Constitution of 1864).

There are now 32 sees in Greece of which the first is Athens, which includes the Nomas (political depart- ment) of Attica; further, (2) Corinth, (3) Patras, (4) Larissa, Pharsalus and Platamon, (5) Monembasia and Laceda^monia, (6) Arta, (7) Corfu (Kerkyra), (8) Cephallenia, (9) Thebes and Livadia, (10) Demetrias, (11) Syros, Tenos and Andros, (12) Mantinia and Cy- nuria, (13) Chalcis and Carystia (for the island of Euboea), (14) Zante (Zakynthos), (15) Argolis, (16) Akarnania and Naupaktos, (17) Photis, (18) Tricala (Tricca, or Trikke) and Stagai, (19) Messenia, (20'» Leucas and Ithaca, (21) Triphylia and Olympia, (2^) Gytheios and Oitylos, (23) Phokis, (24) Ilia, (25) Phanarios and Thessaliotis, (26) Ercytania, (27) Kala- brytai and Aigialia, (28) Gortys and Megalopolis, (29) Kytherai, (30) Hydra and Spetzai, (31) Thera, (32) Paronaxia. Hitherto the bishops of all these sees have borne the quite meaningless title Metropolitan. The Government has declared that as the present incumbents die out their successors shall be called simply bishops; only Athens is to be r, permanent metropolitical see.

The Holy Synod, to which all bi.shops are subject, meets at Athens. The Metropolitan of Athens is al- ways president for life. Four other bisliops arc chosen