The Liverpool Standard and General Commercial Advertiser.
Liverpool, Merseyside, England, 1853-08-09 00:00:00

THE GREEK CHURCH

TO TRH EDITOR OP TIIE LIV:

"ERPOOL STANDARD

SIR,—As I attempted last week to give a very succinct ac-
count of the origin of the Greek Church, I shall proceed this

week with an elucidation of its progress from the earliest ages
up to the present time. The rumours of a pacific solution to
the differences existing between Russia and the Porte for the
last few days may, in some measure, have drawn the minds of
men from so prevailing a subject. But still, though state-
ments appear to show that the matter which has been so long
pending will be amicably settled, that as soon as the combined
Fleets shall be withdrawn from the Bay of Besika, the Rus-
sian troops will vacate the Turkish provinces which they now
occupy.---still the grasping ambition of the Northern Bear
varies not nor is at all abated, and Turkey is, most assuredly, the
object of hls long-cherished desires—desires which have been
fondly nourished by many of the predecessors of the Emperor
Nicholas. The remarkable observations which " Na•,oleon
le Grand" has left us in O'Meara's "Voice from St. Helena,"
vol. 2, from pages 69 to 72, at the present juncture,
are well worthy of attention. But I must proceed to
the subject of my letter, viz.,—the progress and pre-
sent state of the Greek Church. Several of the patri-
archiates in the seventh century suffered by the Periian
army under Chosroes, followed by the inroads of the Saracens,
who first seized upon and conquered Antioch, (A.D. 634) then
Jerusalem, (A.D. 637) and finally, Alexandria, (A.D. 640).
In (A.D. 714.) the Sarccens crossed the sea which separates
Spain from Africa, routed the army of Roderic King of the
Spanish Goths, and subdued the greater part of that country,
and though Charlemagne (A.D. 778) marched a large army into
Spain, with a design to rescue that country from them, and
met with considerable success, yet he did not fully accom-
plish his wishes. In Spain, in Sardinia, and in Sicily, which
they laid waste, was the power of their arms also felt;—they
possessed besides Syria, Egypt, and Palestine. (A.D. 1453) the
Turkish forces advanced to Constantinople, and after a vigor-
ous siege won it and made it the imperial residence of their
Sultan. Thus was the Eastern Church under a state of vassal-
age, passing through a chequered scene of persecution and
repose, tolerated certainly, but exposed to scorn. To show
the servility of the Greek Patriarch, it has been said that be-
tween the years 1620 and 1671, the Patriarchal throne was
vacant no less than nineteen times. The position of rank in
the Greek Church has been usually a position of danger. The
martyrdom of Gregory, born in 1739, Patriarchate of Con.
stantinople, 1796, also the martyrdom of Jewelrias of Phila-
delphia, (A.D. 1657) of Dionysius of Smyrna, (A.D. 1763) and
of Dionysius of Ephesus, (A.D. 1818) sufficiently show the
cruelty exercised by the Turks towards the Greek Church,
Though the Church suffered many trials and afflictions under

the sway of the crescent, the darkness of the picture is someL
what relieved by the progress it made in the vast and exten-
sive kingdom of Russia. Tradition says that the Apostle
Andrew predicted that the light of Divine grace should shine

forth on the hills of Kiet, but passing over that point, credi-
ble historians assert that in the year 886, during the reign of

Ruric, the founder of the Russian Empire, two princes of
Kieff appeared before the walls of Constantinople with a force
of 200 armed boats. Michael 111., by the advice of his priests,
ordered in this emergency the miraculous robe of the Virgin
to be produced, and to be cast into the sea. The effect caused

have was