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 THE BYZANTINES. WOt, same spirit which is manifest through the whole ( history of their race. " The unity of the Church was saved by the councils. These assemblies dealt with the here- sies and eradicated them ; they defined the doc- trines and ratified the organization of the Church. The territory of the Byzantine Empire was the I locality where the councils met. Their conduct was animated from first to last by the keenness of the Greek intellect, which, now clothed in its Byzantine phase, here offered to the service of the Gospel the same natural gifts which had once produced all that was best in thought of the old Hellenic world." The Greek inclination to partisanship showed itself in regard to religious matters to an ex- I traordinary degree. The fiercest fights between orthodoxy and heterodoxy inflamed the Greeks for centuries, lasting far into the Middle Ages, and often disturbed the public peace ; but event- ually they all ceased, never to return. In firm tenacity the Greeks adhere to the orthodox, the Anatolic Church, and their religion has become as well marked a part of their nationality as the religion of Homer and Plato was characteristic of the old Hellas. It must be confessed that unceasing disputes,