{This encyclical, while quite
polemical in tone was actaully
the cause of most of today's
dialogue between Rome and
Constantinople - because it
concealed no differences and
provided a framework for
understanding and resolving
these differences.}
[1895 Partriarch Anthimos VII transl ca1958 GOANSA]
ENCYCLICAL
To the most Sacred and Most Divinely-beloved Brethren in Christ the
Metropolitans and Bishops, and their sacred and venerable Clergy, and all the
godly and orthodox Laity of the Most Holy Apostolic and Patriarchal Throne of
Constantinople.
'Remember them which have the rule over you, who have spoken
unto you the word of God: whose faith follow, considering
the end of their own conversation:
'Jesus Christ the same yesterday, and to-day, and fore ever.
Be not carried about with divers and strange doctrines.'
(Heb. xiii. 7,8).
I. Every godly and orthodox soul, which has a sincere zeal for the glory of
God, is deeply afflicted and weighed down with great pain upon seeing that
he, who detests that which is good and is a murderer from the beginning,
impelled by envy of man's salvation, never ceases continually to sow divers
tares in the field of the Lord, in order to sift the wheat. From this source
indeed, even from the earliest times, there sprang up in the Chruch of God
heretical tares, which in many ways made havoc, and still do make havoc, of
the salvation of mankind by Christ; which morever, as bad seeds and corrupted
members, are rightly cut off from the sound body of the orthodox catholic
Church of Christ. But in the last times the evil one has rent from the
orthodox Church of Christ even whole nations in the West, having inflated the
bishops of Rome with thoughts of excessive arrogance, which has given birth
to divers lawless and antievangelical innovations. And not only so, but
furthermore the Popes of Rome from time to time, pursuing absolutely and
without examination modes of union according to their own fancy, strive by
every means to reduce to their own errors the catholic Chrich of Christ,
which throughout the world walks unshaken in the orthodoxy of faith
transmitted to her by the Fathers.
II. Accordingly the Pope of Rome, Leo XIII, on the occasion of his episcopal
jubilee, published in the month of June of the year of grace 1895 an
encyclical letter, addressed to the leaders and peoples of the world, by
which he also at the same time invites our orthodox Catholic and Apostolic
Church of Christ to unite with the papal throne, thinking that such union can
only be obtained by acknowledging him as supreme pontiff and the highest
spiritual and temporal ruler of the universal Church, as the only
representative of Christ upon earth and the dispenser of all grace.
III. No doubt every Christian heart ought to be filled with longing for union
of the Churches, and especially the whole orthodox world, being inspired by a
true spirit of piety, according to the divine purpose of the establishment of
the church by the God-man our Saviour Christ, ardently longs for the unity of
the Churches in one rule of faith, and on the foundation of the apostolic
doctrine handed down to us through the Fathers, 'Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner stone." [Eph. 2:20] Wherefore she also every day, in her
public prayers to the Lord, prays for the gathering together of the scattered
and for the return of those who have gone astray to the right way of the
truth, which alone leads to the Life of all, the only-begotten Son and Word
of God, our Lord Jesus Christ. [John 14:6] Agreeably, therefore, to this
sacred longing, our orthodox Church of Christ is always ready to accept any
proposal of union, if only the Bishop of Rome would shake off once and for
all the whole series of the many and divers antievangelical novelties that
have been 'privily brought in' to his Church, and have provoked the sad
division of the Churches of the East and West, and would return to the basis
of the seven holy Oecumenical Councils, which, having been assembled in the
Holy Spirit, of representatives of all the holy Churches of God, for all the
determination of the right teaching of the faith against heretics, have a
universal and perpetual supremacy in the Church of Christ. And this, both by
her writings and encyclical letters, the Orthodox Church has never ceased to
intimate to the Papal Church, having clearly and explicitly set forth that so
long as the latter perseveres in her innovations, and the orthodox Church
adheres to the divine and apostolic traditions of Christianity, during which
the Western Churches were of the Western Churches were of the same mind and
were united with the Churches of the East, so long is it a vain and empty
thing to talk of union. For which cause we have remained silent until now,
and have declined to take into consideration the papal encyclical in
question, esteeming it unprofitable to speak to the ears of those who do not
hear. Since however, from a certain period the Papal Church, having abandoned
the method of persuasion and discussion, began, to our general astonishment
and perplexity, to lay traps for the conscience of the more simple orthodox
Christians by means of deceitful workers transformed into apostles of Christ
[2Cor11:13], sending into the East clerics with the dress and headcovering of|
orthodox priests, inventing also divers and other artful means to obtain her|
prosletysing objects; for this reason, as in a sacred duty bound, we issue
this patriarchal and synodical encyclical, for the safeguard of the orthodox
faith and piety, knowing 'that the observance of the true canons is a duty
for every good man, and much more for those who have been thought worthy by
Providence to direct the affairs of others.' [Phot. Epist_iii Ss10]
IV. The union of the separated Churches with herself in one rule of faith is,
as has been said before, a sacred and inward desire of the holy, catholic and
orthodox apostolic Church of Christ; but without such unity in the faith, the
desired union of the Churches becomes impossible. This the case, we wonder in
truth how Pope Leo XIII, though he himself also acknowledges the truth, falls
into a plain self-contradiction, declaring, on the one hand, that true union
lies in the unity of faith, and, on the other hand, that every Church, even
after the union, can hold her own dogmatic and canonical definitions, even
when they differ from those of the Papal Church, as the Pope declares in a
previous encyclical, dated November 30, 1894. For there is an evident
contradiction when in one and the same Church one believes that the Holy|
Ghost proceeds from the Father, and another that He proceeds from the Father|
and the Son; when one sprinkles, and another baptizes (immerses) thrice in|
the water; one uses leavened bread in the sacrament of the Holy Eucharist,|
and another unleavened; one imparts to the people of the chalice as well as|
of the bread, and the other only of the holy bread; and other things like|
these. But what this contradiction signifies, whether respect for the
evangelical truths of the holy Church of Christ and an indirect concession
and acknowledgement of them, or something else, we cannot say.
V. But however that may be, for practical realization of the pious longing
for the union of the Churches, a common principle and basis must be settled
first of all; and there can be no such safe common principle and basis other
than the teaching of the Gospel and of the seven holy Oecumenical Councils.
Reverting, then, to that teaching which was common to the Churches of the
East and of the West until the separation, we ought, with a sincere desire to
know the truth, to search what the one holy, catholic and orthodox apostolic
Church of Christ, being then 'of the same body,' throughout the East and West
believed, and to hold this fact, entire, and unaltered. But whatsoever has in
later times been added or taken away, every one has a sacred and
indispensable duty, if he sincerely seeks for the glory of God more than for
his own glory, that in a spirit of piety he should correct it, considering
that by arrogantly continuing in the perversion of the truth he is liable to
a heavy account before the impartial judgement-seat of Christ. In saying this
we do not at all refer to the differences regarding the ritual of the sacred
services and the hymns, or the sacred vestments, and the like, which matters,
even though they still vary as they did of old, do not in the least injure
the substance and unity of the faith; but we refer to those essential
differences which have reference to the divinely transmitted doctrines of the
faith, and the divinely instituted canonical constitution of the
administration of the Churches. 'In cases where the thing disregareded is not
the faith (says also the holy Photius [Patriarch of Constantinople; c. 800]),
and so is no falling away from any general and catholic decree, different
rites and customs being observed among different people, a man who knows how
to judge rightly that neither do those who observe them act wrongly, nor do
those who have not received them break the law.' [Phot. Epist._iii Ss6]
VI. And indeed for the holy purpose of union, the Eastern orthodox and
catholic Church of Christ is ready heartily to accept all that which both the
Eastern and Western Churches unanimously professed before the ninth century,
if she has perchance perverted or does not hold it. And if the Westerns prove
from the teaching of the holy Fathers and the divinely assembled Oecumenical
Councils that the then orthodox Roman Church, which was throughout the West,
even before the ninth century read the Creed with the addition, or used
unleavened bread, or accepted the doctrine of a purgatorial fire, or
sprinkling instead of baptism, or the immaculate conception of the
ever-Virgin, or the temporal power, or the infallibility and absolutism of
the Bishop of Rome, we have no more to say. But if, on the contrary, it is
plainly demonstrated, as those of the Latins themselves, who love the truth,
also acknowledge, that the Eastern and orthodox catholic Church of Christ
holds fast the anciently transmitted doctrines which were at that time
professed in common both in the East and the West, and that the Western
Church perverted them by divers innovations, then it is clear, even to
children, that the more natural way to union is the return of the Western|
Church to the ancient doctrinal and administrative condition of things; for|
the faith does not change in any way with time or circumstances, but remains|
the same always and everywhere, for 'there is one body and one Spirit,' it is
said, 'even as ye are called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through
all, and in you all.' [Eph. 4:5-6]
VII. So then the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven
Oecumenical Councils believed and taught in accordance wit the words of the
Gospel that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father; but in the West, even
from the ninth century, the holy Creed, which was composed and sanctioned by
Oecumenical Councils, began to be falsified, and the idea that the Holy Ghost
proceeds 'also from the Son' to be arbitrarily promulgated. And certainly
Pope Leo XIII is not ignorant that his orthodox predecessor and namesake, the
defender of orthodoxy, Leo III, in the year 809 denounced synodically this
anti-evangelical and utterly lawless addition, 'and from the Son'
(_filioque_); and engraved on two silver plates, in Greek and Latin, the holy
Creed of the first and second Oecumenical Councils, entire and without any
addition; having written moreover, 'These words I, Leo, have set down for
love and as a safeguard of the orthodox faith' (Haec Leo posui amore et
cautela fidei orthodoxae).
[See life of Leo III by Athanasius, presbyter and librarian
at Rome, in his Lives_of_the_Popes. The holy Photius also,
making mention of this invective of the orthodox Pope of
Rome, Leo III, against the holders of the erroneus doctrine,
in his renowned letter to the Metropolitan of Acquileia,
expresses himself as follows: 'For (not to mention those who
were before him) Leo the elder, prelate of Rome, as well as
Leo the younger after him, shew themselves to be of the same
mind with the catholic and apostolic Church, with the holy
prelates their predecessors, and with the apostolic
commands; the one having contributed much to the assembling
of the fourth holy Oecumenical Council, both by the scared
men who were sent to represent him, and by his letter,
through which both Nestorius and Eutyches were overthrown;
by which letter he moreover, in accordance with previous
synodical decrees, declared the Holy Ghost to proceed from
the Father, but not also "from the Son." And in like manner
Leo the younger, his counterpart in faith as well as in
name. This letter indeed, who was ardently zealous for true
piety, in order that the unspotted pattern of true piety
might not in any way whatever be falsified by a barbarous
language, published it in Greek, as had already been said in
the beginning, to the people of the West, that they might
thereby glorify and preach aright the Holy Trinity. And not
only by word and command, but also having inscribed and
exposed it to the sight of all on certain shields specially
made, as on certain monuments, he fixed it at the gates of
the Church, in order that every person might easily learn
the uncontaminated faith, and in order that no chance
whatever might be left to secret forgers and innovators of
adultering the piety of us Christians, and of bringing in
the Son besides the Father as a second cause of the Holy
Spirit, who proceeds from the Father with honour equal to
that of the begotten Son. And it was not these two holy men
alone, who shone brightly in the West, who preserved the
faith free from innovation; for the Church is not in such
want as that of Western preachers; but there is also a host
of them not easily counted who did likewise.' Epist_v. Ss3]
Likewise he is by no means ignorant that during the tenth century, or at the
beginning of the eleventh, this anti-evangelical and lawless addition was
with difficulty inserted into the holy Creed at Rome also, and that
consequently the Roman Church, in insisting on her innovations, and not
coming back to the dogma of the Oecumenical Concils, renders herself fully
repsonsible before the one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ,
which holds fast that which has been received from the Fathers, and keeps the
deposit of the faith which was delivered to it unadulterated in all things,
in obedience to the Apostolic injunction: 'That good thing which committed
unto thee keep by the Holy Ghost which dwelleth in us';'avoiding profane and
vain babblings, and oppositions of science falsely so called: which some
professing have erred concerning the faith.' [2Tim1:14;1Tim6:20-21]
VII. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the first seven
Oecumenical Councils baptized by three immersions in the water, and the Pope
Pelagius speaks of the triple immersion as a command of the Lord, and in the
thirteenth century baptism by immersions still prevailed in the West; and the
sacred fonts themselves, preserved in the more ancient churchs in Italy, are
eloquent witnesses on this point; but in later times sprinkling or affusion,
being privily brought in, came to be accepted by the Papal Church, which
still holds fast the innovation, thus also widening the gulf which she has
opened; but we Orthodox, remaining faithful to the apostolic tradition and
the practice of the seven Oecumanical Councils, 'stand fast, contending for
the common profession, the paternal treasure of the sound faith.' [StBasil
the Great, Ep_243, To the Bishops of Italy and Gaul.]
IX. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils, according to the example of our Saviour, celebrated the divine
Eucharist for more than a thousand years throughout the East and West with
leavened bread, as the truth-loving papal theologians themselves also bear
witness; but the Papal Church from the eleventh century made an innovation
also in the sacrament of the divine Eucharist by introducing unleavened
bread.
X. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils held that the precious gifts are consecrated after the prayer of the
invocation of the Holy Ghost by the blessing of the priest, as the ancient
rituals of Rome and Gaul testify; nevertheless afterwards the Papal Church
made an innovation in this also, by arbitrarily accepting the consecration of
the precious gifts as taking place along with the utterance of the Lord's
words: 'Take, eat; this is my body': and 'Drink ye all of it; for this is my
blood.' [Matt. 26:26,28.]
XI. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils, following the Lord's command, 'Drink ye all of it,' [Matt. 26:28]
imparted also of the holy chalice to all; but the Papal Church from the ninth
century downwards has made an innovation in this rite also, by depriving the|
laity of the holy chalice, contrary to the Lord's command and the universal|
practice of the ancient Church, as well as the express prohibition of many
ancient orthodox bishops of Rome.
XII. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils, walking according to the divinely inspired teaching of the Holy
Scripture and the old apostolic tradition, prays and invokes the mercy of God
for the forgiveness and rest of those 'which have fallen asleep in the Lord';
[Matt 26:31,Heb11:39-40;2Tim4:8;2Macc12:45] but heaped together in the person
of the Pope, as one singularly privileged, a multitude of innovations|
concerning purgatorial fire, a superabundance of the virtues of the saints,|
and the distribution of them to those who need them, and the like, setting|
forth also a full reward for the just before the universal resurrection and|
judgement.
XII. The one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils teaches that the supernatural incarnation of the only-begotten Son|
and Word of God, of the Holy Ghost and the Virgin Mary, is _alone_ pure and|
immaculate; but the Papal Church scarcely forty years ago again made an|
innovation by laying down a novel dogma concerning the immaculate conception
of the Mother of God and ever-Virgin Mary, which was unknown to the ancient
Church (and strongly opposed at different times even by the more
distinguished among the papal theologians).
XIV. Passing over, then, these serious and substantial differences between
the two churches respecting the faith, which differences, as has been said
before, were created in the West, the Pope in his encyclical represents the
question of the primacy of the Roman Pontiff as the principal and, so to
speak, only cause of dissension, and sends us to the sources, that we may
make diligent search as to what our forefathers believed and what the first
age of Christianity delivered to us. But having recourse to the fathers and
the Oecumenical Councils of the Church of the first nine centuries, we are
fully persuaded that the Bishop of Rome was never considered as the supreme
authority and infallible head of the Church, and that every bishop is head|
and president of his own particular Church, subject only to the synodical|
ordinances and decisions of the Church universal as being alone infallible,|
the Bishop of Rome being in no wise excepted from this rule, as Church|
history shows. Our Lord Jesus Christ alone is the eternal Prince and immortal
Head of the Church, for 'He is the Head of the body, the Church,' [Col.1:18]
who said also to His divine disciples and apostles at His ascension into
Heaven, 'Lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world.'
[Matt.28:20] In the Holy Scripture the Apostle Peter, whom the Papists,|
relying on apocryphal books of the second century, the pseudo-Clementines,
imagine with a purpose to be the founder of the Roman Church and their first
bishop, discusses matters as an equal among equals in the apostolic synod of|
Jerusalem, and at another time is sharply rebuked by the Apostle Paul, as is|
evident from the Epistle to the Galatians. [Gal. 2:11] Moreover, the Papists|
themselves know well that the very passage of the Gospel to which the Pontiff
refers, "Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church,' [Matt
16:18] in in the first centuries of the Church interpreted quite differently,
in a spirit of orthodoxy, both by tradition and by all the divine and sacred
Fathers without exception; the fundamental and unshaken rock upon which the
Lord has built His own Church, against which the gates of hell shall not
prevail, being understood metaphorically of Peter's true confession
concerning the Lord, that 'He is Christ, the Son of the living God.' [Matt
16:16] Upon this confession and faith the saving preaching of the Gospel by
all the apostles and their successors rests unshaken. Whence also the Apostle
Paul, who had been caught up into heaven, evidently interpreting this divine
passage, declares the divine inspiration, saying: 'According to the grace of
God which is given unto me, as a wise master-builder, I have laid the
foundation, and another buildeth thereon. For another foundation can no man
lay than is laid, which is Jesus Christ.'[1Cor 3:10,11] But it is in another
sense that Paul calls all the apostles and prophets together the foundation
of the building up in Christ of the faithful; that is to say, the members of
the body of Christ, which is the Church; [Col 1:24] when he writes to the
Ephesians: 'Now therefore ye are no more strangers and foreigners, but
fellow-citizens with the saints and of the household of God; and are built
upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ Himself being
the chief corner stone.' [Eph 2:19,20. Cp.1 Pet. 2:4; Rev 21:14] Such then,
being the divinely inspired teaching of the apostles respecting the
foundation and Prince of the Church of God, of course the sacred Fathers, who
held firmly to the apostolic traditions, could not have or conceive any idea
of an absolute primacy of the Apostle Peter and the bishops of Rome; nor
could they give any other interpretation, totally unknown to the Chruch, to
that passage of the Gospel, but that which was true and right; nor could they
arbitrarily and by themselves invent a novel doctrine respecting excessive
priveleges of the Bishop of Rome as successor, if so be, of Peter; especially
whilst the Church of Rome was chiefly founded, not by Peter, whose apostolic|
action at Rome is totally unknown to history, but by the heaven-caught|
apostle of the Gentiles, Paul, through his disciples, whose apostolic|
ministry in Rome is well known to all. [See Acts of the Apostles 28:15, Rom|
15:15-16; Phil 1:13]
XV. The divine Fathers, honouring the Bishop of Rome only as the bishop of
the capital city of the Empire, gave him the honorary prerogative of
presidency, considering him simply as the bishop first in order, that is,
first among equals; which prerogative thay also assigned afterwards to the
Bishop of Constantinople, when that city became the capital of the Roman
Empire, as the twenty-eighth canon of the fourth Oecumenical Council of
Chalcedon bears witness, saying, among other things, as follows: 'We do also
determine and decree the same things respecting the prerogatives of the most
holy Church of the said Constantinople, which is New Rome. For the Fathers
have rightly given the prerogative to the throne of the elder Rome, because
that was the imperial city. And the hundred and fifty most religious bishops,
moved by the same consideration, assigned an equal prerogative to the most
holy throne of New Rome.' From this canon it is very evident that the Bishop
of Rome is equal in honour to the Bishop of the Church of Constantinople and
to those other Churches, and there is no hint given in any canon or by any of
the fathers that the Bishop of Rome alone has ever been prince of the
universal Church and the infallible judge of the bishops of the other
independent and self-governing Chruches, or the successor of the Apostle
Peter and vicar of Jesus Christ on earth.
XVI. Each particular self-governing Church, both in the East and West, was|
totally independent and self-administered in the time of the Seven
Oecumenical Councils. And just as the bishops of the self-governing Churches
of the East, so also those of Africa, Spain, Gaul, Germany and Britain
managed the affairs of their own Churches, each by their local synods, the
Bishop of Rome having no right to interfere, and he himself also was equally
subject and obedient to the decrees of synods. But on important questions
which needed the sanction of the universal Church an appeal was made to an|
Oecumenical Council, which alone was and is the supreme tribunal in the|
unversal Church. Such was the ancient constitution of the Church; but the|
bishops were independent of each other, and each entirely free within his own
bounds, obeying only the synodical decrees, and they sat as equal one to|
another in synods. Moreover, none of them ever laid claim to monarchical|
rights over the universal Church; and if sometimes certain ambitious bishops
of Rome raised excessive claims to an absolutism unknown to the Church, such
were duly reproved and rebuked. The assertion therefore of Leo XIII, when he
says in his Encyclical that before the period of the great Photius the name
of the Roman throne was holy among all of the peoples of the Christian world,
and that the East, like the West, with one accord and without opposition, was
subject to the Rowman pontiff as lawful successor, so to say, of the Apostle
Peter, and consequently vicar of Jesus Christ on earth is proved to be
inaccuate and a manifest error.
XVII. During the nine centuries of the Oecumenical Councils the Eastern
Orthodox Church never recognized the excessive claims of primacy on the part
of the bishops of Rome, nor consequently did she ever submit herself to them,
as Church history plainly bears witness. The independent relation of the East
to the West is clearly and manifestly shown also by those few and most
significant words of Basil the Great, which he writes in a letter to the holy
Eusebius, Bishop of Samosata: 'For when haughty characters are courted, it is
their nature to become still more disdainful. For if the Lord is merciful to
us, what other assistance do we need? But if the wrath of God abide on us,
what help is there for us from Western superciliousness? Men who neither know
the truth nor can bear to learn it, but being prejudiced by false suspicions,
they act now as they did before in the case of Marcellus. [Epist_239] The
celebrated Photius, therefore, the sacred Prelate and luminary of
Constantinople, defending this independence of the Church of Constantinople
after the middle of the ninth century, and foreseeing the impending
perversion of the ecclesiastical constitution in the West, and its defection
from the orthodox East, at first endeavoured in a peaceful manner to avert
the danger; but the Bishop of Rome, Nicholas I, by his uncanonical
interference with the East, beyond the bounds of his diocese, and by the
attempt which he made to subdue the Church of Constantinople to himself,
pushed matters to the verge of the grievous separation of the Churches. The
first seeds of these claims of a papal absolutism were scattered abroad in
the pseudo-Clemetines, and were cultivated, exactly at the epoch of this
Nicholas, in the so-called Pseudo-Isidorian_decrees, which are a farrago of
spurious and forged royal decrees and letters of ancient bishops of Rome, by|
which, contrary to the truth of history and the established constitution of
the Church, it was purposely promulgated that, as they said, Christian
antiquity assigned to the bishops of Rome an unbounded authority over the
universal Church.
XVIII. These facts we recall with sorrow of heart, inasmuch as the Papal|
Church, though she now acknowledges the spuriousness and forged character of|
those decrees on which her excessive claims are grounded, not only stubbornly
refuses to come back to the canons and decrees of the Oecumenical Councils,
but even in the expiring years of the nineteenth century has widened the
existing gulf by officially proclaiming, to the astonishment of the Christian
world, that the Bishop of Rome is even infallible. The orthodox Eastern and
catholic Church of Christ, with the exception of the Son and Word of God, who
was ineffably made man, knows no one infallible upon earth. Even the Apostle
Peter, whose successor the Pope thinks himself to be, thrice denied the Lord,
and was twice rebuked by the Apostle Paul, as not walking uprightly according
to the truth of the Gospel. [Gal 2:11] Afterwards the Pope Liberius, in the|
fourth century, subscribed an Arian confession; and likewise Zosimus, in the|
fifth century, was condemned for wrong opinions by the fifth Council; and|
Honorius, having fallen into the Monothelite heresy, was condemned in the|
seventh century by the sixth Oecumenical Concil as a heretic, and the popes
who succeeded him acknowledged and accepted his condemnation.
XIX. With these and such facts in view, the peoples of the West, becoming|
gradually civilized by the diffusion of letters, began to protest against|
innovations, and to demand (as was done in the fifteenth century at the|
Councils of Constance and Basle) the return of the ecclesiastical|
constitution of the first centuries, to which, by the grace of God, the|
orthodox Churches throughout the East and North, which alone now form the one
holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, the pillar and ground of the
truth, remain, and will always remain, faithful. The same was done in the
seventeenth century by the learned Gallican theologians, and in the
eighteenth by the bishops of Germany; and in this present centruy of science
and criticism, the Christian conscience rose up in one body in the year 1870,|
in the persons of the celebrated clerics and theologians of Germany, on|
account of the novel dogma of the infallibility of the Popes, issued by the|
Vatican Council, a consequence of which rising is seen in the formation of|
separate religious communities of the old Catholics, who, having disowned the
papacy, are quite independent of it.
XX. In vain, therefore, does the Bishop of Rome send us to the sources that
we may seek diligently for what our forefathers believed and what the first
period of Christianity delivered to us. In these sources we, the orthodox,
find the old and divinely-transmitted doctrines, to which we carefully hold
fast to the present time, and nowhere do we find the innovations which later
times of empty mindedness brought forth in the West, and which the Papal
Church having adopted retains till this very day. The orthodox Eastern Church
then justly glories in Christ as being the Church of the seven Oecumenical
Councils and of the first nine centuries of Christianity, and therefore the
one holy, catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, 'the pillar and ground of
the truth'; [1Tim3:15] but the present Roman Church is the Church of
innovations, of the falsification of the writings of the Church Fathers, and
of the misinterpretation of the Holy Scripture and of the decrees of the holy
councils, for which she has reasonably and justly been disowned, and is still
disowned, so far as she remains in her error. 'For better is a praiseworthy
war than a peace which separates from God,' as Gregory of Nazianzus also
says.
XXI. Such are, briefly, the serious and arbitrary innovations concerning the
faith and the administrative constitution of the Church, which the Papal
Church has introduced and which, it is evident, the Papal Encyclical
purposely passes over in silence. These innovations, which have reference to
essential points of the faith and of the administrative system of the Church,
and which are manifestly opposed to the ecclesiastical condition of the first
nine centuries, make the longed-for union of the Chruch impossible: and every
pious and orthodox heart is filled with inexpressible sorrow on seeing the
Papal Church disdainfully persisting in them, and not in the least
contributing to the sacred purpose of union by rejecting those heretical
innovations and coming back to the ancient condition of the one holy,
catholic and apostolic Church of Christ, of which she also at that time
formed a part.
XXII. But what are we to say of all that the Roman Pontiff writes when he
addresses the glorious Slavonic nations? No one, indeed, has ever denied that
by the virtue and the apostolic toils of SS. Cyril and Methodius the grace of|
salvation was vouchsafed to not a few of the Slavonic peoples: but history
testifies that at the period of the great Photius those Greek apostles to the
Slavs and intimate friends of that divine Father, setting out from
Thessalonica, were sent to convert the Slavonic tribes not from Rome but from
Constantinople, where moreover they had been trained, living as monks in the
monastery of St. Polychronius. It is therefore utterly incoherent which is
proclaimed in the Roman Pontiff's Encyclical, that, as he says, a kindly
relation and mutual sympathy was brought about between the Slavonic tribes
and the pontiffs of the Roman Church; for even if the Pope is ignorant of it,
history nevertheless explicitly proclaims that these sacred apostles to the
Slavs of whom we speak, encountered greater difficulties in their work from
the bishops of Rome through their excommunications and opposition, and were
more cruelly persecuted by the Frankish papal bishops than by the heathen|
inhabitants of those countries. Certainly, the Pope knows well that the
blessed Methodius having departed to the Lord, two hundred of the most
distinguished of his disciples, after many struggles against the opposition
of the Roman Pontiffs, were driven out of Moravia and led away by military
force beyond its boundaries, from whence afterwards they were dispersed into
Bulgaria and elsewhere. And he knows also that with the expulsion of the more
erudite clergy, the ritual of the East, as well as the Slavonic language then
in use, were also driven out, and in process of time all vestige of orthodoxy
was effaced frm those provinces, and all these things done with the official
co-operation of the bishops of Rome in a manner not the least honourable to
the holiness of the episcopal dignity. But notwithstanding all this
despiteful treatment, the orthodox Slavonic Churches, the beloved daughters
of the orthodox East, and especially the great and glorious Church of
divinely preserved Russia, having been preserved harmless by the grace of
God, have kept, and will keep till the end of the ages, the orthodox faith,
and stand forth conspicuous testimonies of the liberty that is in Christ. In
vain, therefore, does the Papal Encyclical promise to the Slavonic Churches
prosperity and greatness, because by the goodwill of the most gracious God
they already possess these blessings, and such as these, standing firm in the
orthodoxy of their fathers and glorifying it in Christ.
XXIII. These things being so, and being indisputably proved by ecclesiastical
history, we, anxious as it is our duty to be, address ourselves to the
peoples of the West, who through ignorance of the true and impartial history
of ecclesiastical matters, being credulously led away, follow the
anti-evangelical and utterly lawless innovations of the papacy, having been
separated and continuing far from the one holy, catholic and apostolic
orthodox Church of Christ, which is 'the Church of the living God, the pillar
and ground of the truth,' [1Tim3:15] in which also their gracious ancestors
and forefathers shone by their piety and orthodoxy of faith, having been
faithful and precious members of it during nine whole centuries, obediently
following and walking according to the decrees of the divinely assembled
Oecumenical Councils.
XXIV. Christ-loving peoples of the glorious countries of the West! We rejoice
on the one hand seeing that you have a zeal for Christ, being led by this
right persuasion, 'that without faith in Christ it is impossible to please
God'; [Heb 11:6] but on the other hand it is self-evident to every
right-thinging person that the salutary faith in Christ ought by all means to
be right in everything, and in agreement with the Holy Scripture and the
apostolic traditions, upon which the teaching of the divine Fathers and the
seven holy, divinely assembled Oecumenical Councils is based. It is moreover
manifest that the universal Church of God, which holds fast in the bosom
unique unadulterated and entire this salutary faith as a divine deposit, just
as it was of old delivered and unfolded by the God-bearing Fathers moved by
the Spirit, and formulated by them during the first nine centuries, is one
and the same for ever, and not manifold and varying with the process of time:
because the gospel truths are never susceptible to alteration or progress in
course of time, like the various philosophical systems; 'for Jesus Christ is
the same yesterday, and to day, and for ever.' [Heb 13:8] Wherefore also the
holy Vincent, who was brought up on the milk of the piety received from the
fathers in the monastery of Lerins in Gaul, and flourished about the middle
of the fifth century, with great wisdom and orthodoxy characterizes the true
catholicity of the faith and of the Church, saying: 'In the catholic Church
we must especially take heed to hold that which has been believed everywhere
at all times, and by all. For this is truly and properly catholic, as the
very force and meaning of the word signifies, which moreover comprehends
almost everything universally. And that we shall do, if we walk following
universality, antiquity and consent.' [In ipsa item Catholica|
Ecclesiamagnopere curandum est, ut teneamus, quod ubique quod semper ab
omnibus creditum est. Hoc est enim vere proprieque Catholicum (quod ipsa vis
nominis ratioque declerat), quod omnia fere universaliter comprehendit. Sed
hoc fiet si sequimur universalitem, antiquitatem, consensionem' (Vincentii
Lirinensis Commonitorium pro Catholicae fidei antiquitate et universalitate
cap. iii, cf. cap. viii and xiv).] But as has been said before, the Western
Church, from the tenth century downwards, has privily brought into herself
through the papacy various and strange and heretical doctrines and
innovations, and so has been torn away and removed far from the true orthodox
Church of Christ. How necessary, then, it is for you to come back and return
to the ancient and unadulterated doctrines of the Church in order to attain
the salvation in Christ after which you press, you can easily understand if
you intelligently consider the command of the heaven-ascended Apostle Paul to
the Thessalonians, saying: 'Therefore, brethren, stand fast, and hold the
traditions which ye have been taught, whether by word, or our epistle'; [II
Thess 2:15] and also what the same divine apostle writes to the Galatians
saying: 'I marvel that ye are so soon removed from him that called you into
the grace of Chirst unto another gospel: which is not another; but there be
some that trouble you, and would pervert the gospel of Christ.' [Gal 1:6-7]
But avoid such perverters of the evangelical truth, 'For they are such serve
not our Lord Jesus Christ, but their own belly; and by good words and fair
speeches deceive the hearts of the simple;' [Rom 16:18] and come back for the
future into the bosom of the holy, catholic and apostolic Church of God,
which consists of all the particular holy Churches of God, which being
divinely planted, like luxuriant vines throughout the orthodox world, are
inseperably united to each other in the unity of one saving faith in Christ,
and in the bond of peace and of the Spirit, that you may obtain the
highly-to-be-praised and most glorious name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ, who suffered for the salvation of the world, may be glorified among
you also.
XXV. But let us, who by the grace and goodwill of the most gracious God are
precious members of the body of Christ, that is to say of His one holy,
catholic and apostolic Church, hold fast to the piety of our fathers, handed
down to us from the apostles. Let us all beware of false apostles, who,
coming to us in sheep's clothing, attempt to entice the more simple among us
by various deceptive promises, regarding all things as lawful and allowing
them for the sake of union, provided only that the Pope of Rome be recognized
as supreme and infallible ruler and absolute sovereign of the universal
Church, and only representative of Christ on earth, and the source of all
grace. And especially let us, who by the grace and mercy of God have been
appointed bishops, pastors, and teachers of the holy Churches of God, 'take
heed unto ourselves, and to all the flock, over which the Holy Ghost hath
made us overseers, to feed the Church of God, which He hath purchased with
His own blood.' [Acts 20:28] as they that must give account. 'Wherefore let
us comfort ourselves together, and edify one another.' [1 Thess 5:11] 'And
the God of all grace, who hath called us unto His eternal glory by Christ
Jesus...make us perfect,stablish,strengthen,settle us,' [1 Pet 5:10] and
grant that all those who are without and far away from the one holy, catholic
and orthodox fold of His reasonable sheep may be enlightened with the light
of His grace and the acknowledging of the truth. To Him be glory and dominion
for ever and ever.
Amen
In the Patriarchal Palace of Constantinople, in the month of August of the
year of grace MDCCCXCV.
+ ANTHIMOS of Constantinople, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our
God.
+ NICODEMOS of Cyzicos, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ PHILOTHEOS of Nicomedia, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ JEROME of Nicaea, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ NATHANAEL of Prusa, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ BASIL of Smyrna, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ STEPHEN of Philadelphia, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ ATHANASIOS of Lemnos, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ BESSARION of Dyrrachium, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ DOROTHEOS of Belgrade, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ NICODEMOS of Elasson, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our God.
+ SOPHRONIOS of Carpathos and Cassos, beloved brother and intercessor in
Christ our God.
+ DIONYSIOS of Eleutheropolis, beloved brother and intercessor in Christ our
God.