The Daily Ardmoreite. [volume] (Ardmore, Okla.) 1893-current, 1917-11-18
The RELIGIOUS Rambler

doctrines and dogmas OF the earl!
. Christian church were settled.
Now Russia's church is the inherito
OF the Eastern church. which centere'
at Byzantium, or Constantinople. Tha
is why Russia has wanted Constants
nople. and TO put again the cross above
the ancient Byzantine church of thu
Divine Wisdom. These political aspi
rntions are for the moment gone; the
people are too busy with the immediate
implications of the revolution To Civ,
heed to the fulfillment Of ancient ma
tional aspirations. Nevertheless. the
first large fact 10 hold In mind concern
ing the Russian church Is that II Is
the largest of the divisions OF the East
I ern church. which followed the separa'
tion of the East from the West the
| Greeks from the Latins. .t r-
WHY East and West Divide.
Russia herself did not become chris.
tian until near the end OF the tenth
century, when vladimir led his rude
people by hordes into the Greek Catho'
| lie church, baptising them by masses
In the Dneiper river During the gol-
den period of ByZantium, Russia was
barbarous land. With the decline of
creased in the church. so that there
eventually came TO be patriarch at
/ Moscow. to take the place of the repu'
dated patriarch at Rome This was
after the final break between Rome
( and the Eastern church. The latter
| fiercely denies the primacy of the bish-
| op of Rome. contending that all five
Datriarchs of the early church--at Je-
rusalem Antioch. Alexandria, Constan-
tinople and Rome-were on an equal
lity one Constantinople patriarch did
once claim primacy over his fellows,
, which claim Rome resented, on behalf
Of the other four.
To go into all the differences between
the Roman and the Greek churches
would be an intricate and tedious task.
There are professors OF church history,
and countless dry books on the subject,
who treat the theme with fulness The
division has continued ever since il
became complete, in the elevnth cen
tury. with bitterness on both sides
While the Roman Catholic church and
the Greek Catholic church have all es-
sentials in common-creed. litury, his
tory orthodoxy. and ecclesiastical prac
tices-yet the gulf between them is
wider by far than that between the
Epicopal church and the Russian
church. The Moscow council which Is
now i'm session. may take steps that
will lead to relationship between the
Anglican Communion and the Greek
but even the most sanguine persons
do not expect any immediate step to-
ward reunion between the Eastern and
Western bodies.
Hair-splitting doctrinal questions
which now have been supplanted by
the sophistries of political doctrines
occupied the minds of the Russian &C.
clesiastics. even as they did the fathers
in the early church of the East. The
primacy of the pope is less an issue
with the Greeks than Rome's insertion
of the "Filioque" clause into the Nicene
Greed: both the Professionalism and
Catholicism of the West contending
that the Holy Spirit proceeds from
both the Father and the Son. There is
scarcely pulpit in America where the
doctrine of the procession of the Holy
Spirit" as il is called is so much as
mentioned The very term itself is un-
known to the average person of in
tellisence. Yet here in the Eastern
church it is an absorbing subject even
with the laity-or was until the revo-
luton submitted a bewildering and
engrossing lot of speculations concern
ing the complete making over of life
within a few weeks As the idea of
forty acres and mule" drove all less
concrete considerations from the minds
Of the freed slaves OF the South, so
the prospect OF an immediate economic
millennium has usurpe1 the place of re-
ligious interest amonS the great mass
of the Russian people.
Matters Of church government have
always concerned the Eastern church
less than questions of doctrine and
practice. Thus, three of the emperors
of the eastern empire tried in vain TO
drive out image worship from the
church. yet Peter the Great was able
to overthrow the entire ancient sys.
TEN Of church government, with the
immemorial order of patriarchs. and
substitute purely political control,
through the Holy Synod This was in
order to make the church in all things
subservient to the state, and its com
plant tool. The procurator of the
Holy Synod represented the czar. who
was the little father" at the head of
the church and he had the appoint
ment of bishops and archbishops. The
Russian church continues TO rever-
once and kiss and burn candles before
the ubiquitous icons. or sacred pictures,
but ii yielded with scarcely a struggle
to the radical action Of an emperor who
carried to an extreme the ancient idea
that the state is above the church.
The Pinch of Revolution.
In the Iight of this condition. il is
apparent that most radical ecclesiasti-
cal consequences were bound TO flow
from the revolution. one Of the first
acts of the provisional government. IN
evitable if only because OF the import
ant place the Jews held in the revo-
lutionary party. was to declare free
dom of religious belief and practice
This al once abolished the Pale within
which the Jews were confined. IT lift
ed the ban from dissenting sects, like
Ola Believers, Stundists and others.
Upon the immemorial hostility toward
the other Christian churches Of the
Ease-Nestorian, Gregorian. Roman,
Coptic. Jacobite, anu others-it threw
the mantle of tolerance. The toilsome
ly-erected STRUCTURE of a subservient
state church became imperiled.
Now the Holy Synod has become the
Ministry of Religions and procurator
loses his old title 1t is true that both
the head of this department. and his
assistant must be members of the Holy
Orthodox church. but the old order has
gone, never to return. Beneath the