[1] The sites shown on the plan are tentative, and cannot be regarded
as certain; see Nehemiah ii. 12-15, iii. 1-32, xii. 37-39.
[2] See 2 Kings xiv. 13.
JERUSALEM, SYNOD OF (1672). By far the most important of the many synods
held at Jerusalem (see Wetzer and Welte, _Kirchenlexikon_, 2nd ed., vi.
1357 sqq.) is that of 1672; and its confession is the most vital
statement of faith made in the Greek Church during the past thousand
years. It refutes article by article the confession of Cyril Lucaris,
which appeared in Latin at Geneva in 1629, and in Greek, with the
addition of four "questions," in 1633. Lucaris, who died in 1638 as
patriarch of Constantinople, had corresponded with Western scholars and
had imbibed Calvinistic views. The great opposition which arose during
his lifetime continued after his death, and found classic expression in
the highly venerated confession of Petrus Mogilas, metropolitan of Kiev
(1643). Though this was intended as a barrier against Calvinistic
influences, certain Reformed writers, as well as Roman Catholics,
persisted in claiming the support of the Greek Church for sundry of
their own positions. Against the Calvinists the synod of 1672 therefore
aimed its rejection of unconditional predestination and of justification
by faith alone, also its advocacy of what are substantially the Roman
doctrines of transubstantiation and of purgatory; the Oriental hostility
to Calvinism had been fanned by the Jesuits. Against the Church of Rome,
however, there was directed the affirmation that the Holy Ghost proceeds
from the Father and not from both Father and Son; this rejection of the
_filioque_ was not unwelcome to the Turks. Curiously enough, the synod
refused to believe that the heretical confession it refuted was actually
by a former patriarch of Constantinople; yet the proofs of its
genuineness seem to most scholars overwhelming. In negotiations between
Anglican and Russian churchmen the confession of Dositheus[1] usually
comes to the front.
TEXTS.--The confession of Dositheus, or the eighteen decrees of the
Synod of Jerusalem, appeared in 1676 at Paris as _Synodus
Bethlehemitica_; a revised text in 1678 as _Synodus Jerosolymitana_;
Hardouin, _Acta conciliorum_, vol. xi.; Kimmel, _Monumenta fidei
ecclesiae orientalis_ (Jena, 1850; critical edition); P. Schaff, _The
Creeds of Christendom_, vol. ii. (text after Hardouin and Kimmel, with
Latin translation); _The Acts and Decrees of the Synod of Jerusalem
translated from the Greek, with notes_, by J. N. W. B. Robertson
(London, 1899); J. Michalcescu, _Die Bekenntnisse und die wichtigsten
Glaubenszeugnisse der griechisch-orientalischen Kirche_ (Leipzig,
1904; Kimmel's text with introductions). LITERATURE.--_The Doctrine of
the Russian Church ..._ translated by R. W. Blackmore (Aberdeen,
1845), p. xxv. sqq.; Schaff, i. § 17; Wetzer and Welte,
_Kirchenlexikon_ (2nd ed.) vi. 1359 seq.; Herzog-Hauck,
_Realencyklopädie_ (3rd ed.), viii. 703-705; Michalcescu, 123 sqq.
(See COUNCILS.) (W. W. R.*)