The Northern Daily Times.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-11-30 00:00:00

THE REV. H. S. BROWN'S LECTURE.

On last evening, the Rev. Mr. Brown delivered, in the
Concert Hall, Lord Nelson-street, another of the series of
lectures which he purposes giving on the Religions of the
Eastern World. The subject of last night's lecture was,
" The Greek Church —its progress." The rev. gentleman
commenced his discourse by briefly sketching the events
which led to the establishment of Constantinople by *L„
Emperor Constantine on his conversion to.
Having marked out the bounds of b;,. —.Line city, he deter-
mined that it should Jiro. L., 1)011nd-hand in magnificence,
and accoril;no.3.7 cue old cities of Greece, which had then n)
,I,,Lies left them but their ruins, were searched from end to
end, in order that their remaining treasures in art and
sculpture might be transferred from their once glorious
shores to those of the " Golden Horn." And among
the treasures which were thus removed was a colossal
Apollo, by Phidias, and least it might be in any
measure suggestive of Paganism it was christened Con-
stantine, aua •ae for a fair fac simile of its
namesake. At that time the great
dom were those of Rome, Alexandria, and Antioch. The
bishop of the newly-found city, Constantinople, was
placed second in the list, and although the bishop of Rome
was still first, yet he was exceedingly exasperated by the
proximity of his rival ; and he was still more exasperated
when at a succeeding council in 451 of the eastern bishops,
it was decreed that both bishops should be equal in dignity
and all other respects, inasmuch as both cities were of equal
lustre. From that period might be dated the commence-
ment of that tremendous struggle which lasted for about
1000 years, in which those two great heads of Christendom,
instead of paying the slightest attention to the spread of a
pure and refined religion, busied themselves, from one
generation to another, in endeavouring to establish their
own supremacy. Each took the title of ectiminital, or uni-
versal bishop, and each in turn excommunicated the other
and his followers. The dispute still waging, Pope Leo
addressed to the Emperor Leo, the Isorian, a letter, which
seemed to be a foreshadow of the haughty manner in which
popes afterwards learned to address kings and princes of the
world. In this communication he observed that the
holy letters were sufficient for the emperor's con-
fusion, and that in opposition to his force they could only
pray God to send him a devil for the destruction of his
body, and the salvation of his soul. This was one of the
first papal bulls issued against the emperor, and simply be-
cause he smashed a few images of the Virgin and saints.
But while this dispute was raging, another controversy
arose which was almost likely to rend Christendom asunder,
and this controversy depended on two little words which had
been introduced into the Nicene Creed. The rev. lecturer
then described the famous controversy between the eastern
and western churches on the words filioque, and observed,
that had the emperor given back supremacy to the Pope of
Rome, he would have considered this matter of very little
consequence, indeed. He (the lecturer) did not take up the
cause of either church. He believed there was very little
difference between them. They were both essentially bad ;
for popes, patriarchs, bishops, and nearly all the parsons
into the bargain, were unprincipled men, and were, without
exception, Christianised pagans, or rather blackguards; and
that was all we could say about them. The lecturer then
described how the Greek patriarchs and Whops, taking their

cue from the emperors, were at one times furious Icono-
clasts ; and again equally as violentwc,z-
shippers ; and how, in one instancet, .on.q emperor. ;I,IIA
being, if he might use a vulgar expression uucitmection with -,;;;;
so august a personage, 's hard-up," mada,--np. ones about;
seizing upon some silver images of the it d Saints,,
and converting them into " tin." (Laughter,) " this the.:;,-3)'•
emperor was excommunicated, and, as liallse:re•W
quence, he and his successors became theCoes •
own defence. They caused their interpretations •
ceived under pain of death, until at length one emperor
threatened to cut off the head of any man who said a word
on either side of the subject. The lecturer then described
the temporising policy of the emperors, until at length Con-
stantinople fell beneath the power of the Turk; after which
the Popes of Rome never renewed the controversy with the
Eastern Church. The lecturer here observed that he consi-
dered the Turks acted then with great generosity and tolera-
tion to the vanquished ; and in order to show, in a future
lecture, the nature of the right which the Emperor of Russia
claims as protector of the Greek Church, briefly sketched
the growth of Russia, and its thorough conversion to Chris-
tianity under Peter the Great. In the first instance, it re-
ceived a metropolitan from the Greek Patriarch; but on the
fall of Constantinople, an independent Russian Patriarch
was appointed. The Russian church then grew in wealth,
until it was finally confiscated under Catherine the Second,
the Patriarchate abolished, and bishops and priests put upon
a fixed salary. In approving of this change, he did not
mean to praise the Russian church. It was not other now
than what it formerly was, and that was not saying much,
for worse it could not be. (The rev. gentleman was warmly
applauded throughout and at the conclusion of the lecture.)

BANKRUPTS.

. -
From the London Gazette of last night.

Thomas Rolph, builder, Lees Mews, Upper Brook-street,
Grosvenor-square, Middlesex.
Charles Geal, grocer, East-row, Kensal New-town,
Middlesex.
Robert Walker, grocer, Staley-bridge, Lancaster.
Douglas Bradbury, builder, Derby.
Henry Reading, draper, Birmingham, Warwick.
Michael Robinson, linen-draper, Halifax, Yorkshire.