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 218 GREEK CHURCH excommunicated and deposed. Besides these errors, the Roman church was charged with having drawn the Bulgarians into ecclesiastical connection with Rome, though they had been converted by Greeks. Since Photius the rela- tions of the eastern church to that of Rome have never been reestablished in a definite form, though the great schism was not fully declared before July 16, 1054, when Roman legates de- posited on the great altar of the church of St. Sophia at Constantinople the sentence of excom- munication which had been issued against the patriarch Caerularius, who in 1053 had added to the former charges of heresy brought against the Roman church that of using unleavened bread in the eucharist. At the council of Lyons (1274) Michael Palseologus allowed his representatives to subscribe to the Roman con- fession of faith, as he hoped thus to obtain aid against the Turks from the West ; but when Pope Martin IV. excommunicated the em- peror (1281), Greek synods held at Constanti- nople in 1283 and 1285 reaffirmed the indepen- dence of the Greek church. For the last time a union between the two churches was con- summated at the synod of Florence (1439), by the Greek emperor and the patriarch himself. But the people and the great body of the in- ferior clergy were entirely strangers to any such union, and the conquest of Constantino- ple (1453) made the hostility of the Greek church to Rome still greater. The Roman Catholic church never ceased in its endeavors either to bring about a corporate union, or to gain over individual Greek congregations. Numerous Latin convents were established in the East, and in Calabria the Orosinian semi- nary was founded by Clement XII. for this special purpose. They succeeded in organizing a Greek United church, which acknowledged the supreme authority of the pope, while on the other hand it was permitted to abide by all the peculiar usages of the Greek church which did not affect fundamental doctrines, as mar- riage of the priests, reception of the Lord's sup- per in both kinds, use of the Greek language in the divine service, &c. In Russia, however, almost all the dioceses of the United Greek church were induced, under the reigns of Cath- arine II. and of Nicholas, again to dissolve their connection with Rome, and to pass over to the Russian church. It was believed that a portion of the clergy and of the people were opposed to this change of ecclesiastical rela- tions, and several congregations in 1858 peti- tioned Alexander II. for permission to return to the United Greek church ; but this was not granted, and that church in 1873 had become almost extinct in the Russian dominions. In general, the clergy and people of the Greek church have at all periods showed themselves decidedly hostile to a union with Rome, and numerous controversies, such as that under the patriarch Dositheua in Jerusalem on the holy sepulchre (1674), as well as the yearly repeated excommunication of the pope and of his adherents, kept up this spirit of hos- tility. When, therefore, Pius IX. in 1848 again invited by an encyclical letter the en- tire eastern church to a corporate union with Rome, his proposition was rejected ; and the invitations which in 1869 were addressed by the pope to the Greek bishops to attend the Vatican council were unanimously declined. There seems to be in the Greek church not even any organized party, as in most of the other eastern and some of the Protestant churches, which hopes and labors for a future union with the Roman Catholic church. The return to the Roman communion of numbers of the high Russian nobility, and the establish- ment of such societies as those of St. Diony- sius in Turkey and St. Peter in Germany for effecting a reunion of the churches, have led to no appreciable result. The Protestants early sought to establish friendly relations with the Greek church. Melanchthon in 1559 sent a Greek translation of the " Confession of Augs- burg " to the patriarch of Constantinople, and in 1574 an epistolary correspondence on this confession took place between the theologians of Tubingen and the patriarch Jeremiah II., yet without success. Cyril Lucaris, who lean- ed toward Calvinism, was strangled in 1638. In modern times the Greek church has shown itself, in general, very hostile to the Protestant missionary schools, and to the Bible societies, though its literature shows a strong influence of Protestantism ; a periodical, sympathizing with the principles of Protestant Christianity, was established at Athens in 1858, and found a large patronage. The high-church party in the church of England, which recognizes the Greek church as an orthodox branch of the church of Christ, sought to obtain from the Greek bishops the same recognition for it- self, and the establishment of a closer inter- course, and a special society was established for promoting intercommunion between the two churches. ,The idea has found many zealous friends among the eastern bishops, and a friend- ly correspondence has sprung up between the dignitaries of the two churches, in which even the archbishop of Canterbury and the patriarch of Constantinople have taken part. The Greek church has manifested a profound interest in the progress of the Old Catholic movement. Prominent clergymen of that church attend- ed and addressed the congresses held by the Old Catholics of Germany, and the hope was generally expressed that the movement might lead to the reunion of the eastern and west- ern churches. The internal history of the Greek church since its separation from the Roman Catholic is almost entirely destitute of great events. In 1588 Russia received an independent patriarchate, whereby the spiritual supremacy which the patriarch of Constanti- nople had virtually exercised over the church was abolished. In 1833 a synod of 36 Greek metropolitans, held at Nauplia, declared the orthodox eastern church of Greece independent