The four Patriarchs, of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and
Alexandria, are the religious rulers of the Greek Church; the three
latter being, in a certain degree, subordinate to the Patriarch of
Constantinople, without whose consent nothing of general importance can
be effected. This Patriarch is elected by the votes of the neighbouring
bishops; but he must be presented to the Sultan for institution; and as
nothing is done in Turkey without a present, the fee on this occasion
amounts to 20,000 or 30,000 dollars, the Sultan still retaining the
power of deposition, banishment, or even of death. The Patriarch
possesses the considerable privilege of naming his brother patriarchs,
but the rescript of the Sultan is still necessary for their
confirmation, and even to that of every bishop who may be appointed by
the Patriarch. Thus the Greek Church exhibits none of the “supremacy” of
the Roman. It has since the reign of Constantine claimed no “temporal
sovereignty,” and it has thus in some measure been freed from the
intrigues, violences, and crimes, which form so large a part of the
history of priestly ambition.
Another important prevention of those evils was the marriage of the
parochial priesthood. In the earlier periods of this Church, marriage
was _commanded_ to the priest, and was considered so necessary to his
office that on the death of his wife he must give up his parish. Even
now, notwithstanding the example of Rome, the _secular_ clergy are
permitted to marry, though only once. The _regular_ clergy (monks) are
not permitted to marry, on the absurd principle that their lives are an
offering for the popular sins, and that celibacy belongs to holiness.
The marriage of the priesthood had the natural effect of rendering them
loyal, by the connection of their children with the country, of
preventing the irregularities to which constrained celibacy inevitably
gives rise, and of preventing that ambition for the influence of their
class which naturally exhibits itself in great bodies who have no tie
but to the head of their order. _Constrained_ celibacy is, in fact, a
conspiracy against human nature, which always transpires in a conspiracy
against human Allegiance.
Monasticism forms a prominent feature of the system. The Greek convents
are numerous, powerful, and in some instances opulent. Their inhabitants
are divided into Caloyers (monks) and lay brethren. The lives of the
former are comparatively indolent; of the latter, comparatively
laborious. But the Caloyer has his peculiar round of irksome
occupations. Matins begin at four in the morning, and last until dawn.
The performance of the Liturgy is followed by reciting the life of some
saint, and that is followed again by nine hymns, six of which are to the
Virgin, and three to the saint of the day. In Lent, his task is
wearisome: he must go through the whole Psalter every day, and perform
the Metania, which consists in kissing the ground _three hundred_ times
in the twenty-four hours. To this employment four hours of the night, of
which two are immediately after midnight, are devoted. How any human
understanding can conceive that this drudgery is connected with virtue,
is productive of good to man, or is acceptable to his Creator, must be
left to the reveries of the monk, and the recorded absurdities of human
nature.
The lay brothers are the farmers, the shepherds, the tillers, and the
traders of the convent. They are industrious, and so far they remove the
stigma from the general uselessness of conventual life. Some of those
communities are largely endowed. The monks of the well-known brotherhood
of Mount Athos have twenty convents, and possess extensive lands. Their
Turkish taxation is generally moderate, and indolence never had an
easier form than in the shape of the Caloyer.
The state of the Russian Church would lead us too far into inquiry; but
it has a history of its own, some remarkable peculiarities, and some
prospects well worthy of examination. Those who feel an interest in the
subject may be referred to Stourdza, _Considerations sur la Doctrine_,
to King _On the Russian Church_, and to the brief but exact _Treatise on
the Greek Church_ by the present learned Dean of Durham. The subject may
well interest us, when it involves the religious welfare of the millions
inhabiting the Eastern provinces of Europe, the Danubian provinces, the
length of Asia Minor, a portion of Syria, Assyria, and Africa, and the
sixty millions of Russia—an immense extent of human existence, which a
few years may open to a purer faith, and which is already qualifying, by
the effects of knowledge, suffering, and war, for the GOSPEL.