GREEK CHURCH, the Eastern Church, that of the old Eastern Empire, which, prior to the Turkish conquest, had its metropolis at Constantinople, as dis tinguished from the Western Church, which had its capital at Rome; the church of the people speaking the Greek language rather than that of the Roman nation.
History.—That the Eastern and West ern Churches would first disagree, and then separate, was insured from the first by the difference in their mental con stitution. The Greeks were notable for intense intellectual acuteness, which they used to frame hair-splitting subtleties of doctrine. The Romans, on the contrary, who had the imperial instinct employed the new faith as a means of building up again a world-embracing dominion, with the "eternal city" as its capital. The first variance between the East and the West arose in the 2d century regarding the time of keeping Easter. The dis putes which succeeded were chiefly as to personal dignity. As long as Rome was the metropolis of the empire, the Bishop of Rome had indisputably the most im portant see in the Church; but when, on May 11, 330, Constantine removed the seat of government to Byzantium (Con stantinople), the bishop of the new me tropolis became a formidable rival to his ecclesiastical brother at Rome. In the
second General Council, that of Constan tinople, 381, the Bishop of Constantinople was allowed to sit next to the Bishop of Rome; by the 28th canon of the Synod of Chalcedon, 403, he was permitted to enjoy an equal rank. In 588, John, Patriarch of Constantinople, assumed the title of oecumenical or universal bishop, for which he was denounced by Pope Gregory the Great. Disputes in the 8th century about image-worship widened the breach, as did the continued rejection by the Greek Church of the word Filioque, asserting the procession of the Holy Ghost from the Son as well as from the Father, introduced by the second Council of Constantinople, 381. The last General Council in which the Churches of the East and the West were united was the Seventh, or Second Council of Nice, 787. The feud continued through the 9th and on to the 11th century. In the 13th an effort was made by Michael Palwologus to promote a reunion of the two great Churches at the Council of Florence, but all was in vain. They have remained separate till now. Efforts are said to be on foot looking to the union of the Greek and Roman Churches.