There was to be no fourth Rome.
Tsar Ivan III the Terrible
(1533-1584) established his reign on this foundation. He was crowned
tsar in 1547 as the successor to the Byzantine emperor. He ruthlessly
persecuted his enemies as he subjected both church and state to his
personal control. Among Ivan's many victims was Metropolitan Philip of
Moscow. He was strangled by the tsar's henchmen in 1568 for his open
opposition to the actions of the mad ruler. Philip has since been
canonized by the Church as a saint.
In 1547-1549 the Church of
Russia formally canonized many saints from different parts of the
country, utilizing the national veneration of these holy people - who
were previously honored only locally - as a means toward national
unification. In 1551, the Council of a Hundred Chapters - the Stoglav Sobor - further asserted the supremacy of Russian Orthodoxy over the
other Eastern Orthodox churches. After the Russian defeat of the Turks
in Kazan in 1551, Ivan built the famous Church of Saint Basil in the
Moscow Kremlin in honor of Saint Basil, the Moscow Fool for Christ. This church building is known for its combination of Christian
and Oriental styles.
During the early part of Ivan's
reign his spiritual father was the priest Sylvester. Many of Ivan's
early reforms were guided by this simple pastor. Sylvester was the main
contributor to a book called Domostroi or Home-builder which taught
Russian Christian families how they should arrange their lives according
to the ritual and ethical practices of the Orthodox Church. The
Domostroi was a very popular book which influenced generations of
Russian families. Ivan exiled Sylvester in 1559.
Also during Ivan the Terrible's
reign, Metropolitan Makarii of Moscow (1542-1563) wrote twelve volumes
called Monthly Readings. It was a vast collection of commentaries on the
Bible, the lives of the saints, sermons, and other material for
spiritual reading. At this time, the "non-possessor" Saint Maxim the
Greek (d.1556) was imprisoned and tortured for his attempts to revise
and correct the liturgical books of the Russian Church. Saint Gury
(d.1563), the bishop of Kazan, was carrying on his mission among the
Siberian tribes.
Russia during the Reign of
Theodore
During the reign of Ivan's son,
Theodore, the Patriarch of Constantinople, Jeremiah II, came to Moscow
in quest of aid. The patriarchal church of Constantinople was under the
power of the Turks. So, under the obvious pressures of that situation,
the patriarch recognized the Muscovite bishop, Job, as the first
Patriarch of All Russia in 1589. The installation document of the new
patriarch was almost a repetition of the prophesy of Philotheus about
Moscow as the third Rome. Thus the theory, which had become practice
under Ivan III, was now officially affirmed by the highest prelate in
the Orthodox Church. In 1593 the Russian Church received the approval of
its status as a patriarchate from the bishops of Jerusalem, Alexandria,
and Antioch. Thus, it was officially recognized as the fifth in honor
among the Orthodox patriarchates.
The Union of Brest-Litovsk
The sixteenth century saw the
development of the Polish-Lithuanian kingdom on the Western boundary of
Russia. By 1569 Poland and Lithuania had become one under Sigismund. The
kingdom had taken segments of the Russian lands as far east as Kiev -
territory populated almost exclusively by Orthodox Christians. Jesuits
had entered this territory earlier, bringing Latin learning and
practices. The result was the Union of Brest-Litovsk in 1596 through
which the Orthodox bishops of the area effected a union with the Roman
Church on the foundations agreed to in Florence a century earlier. The
rites and customs of the Church for the masses of Orthodox faithful
taken into the "unia" remained the same. The ecclesiastical hierarchy,
clerical, and academic leadership of the Church was totally subjected to
the Latin discipline and doctrine of the Roman papacy. This union of
1596 remained in effect in the territories which have continued to be
ruled by non-Orthodox governments such as Poland, Austro-Hungary, and
Czechoslovakia. From its inception, the uniate movement was always
confronted with substantial opposition. Opposers were mainly Orthodox
laymen who were organized into brotherhoods and blessed by Patriarch
Jeremiah of Constantinople to defend the Orthodox faith, as early as
1588. In the beginning the anti-uniate movement was helped by the use of
the printing press of Ivan Fedorov. This man was expelled from Muscovy
with his "diabolical invention" by Ivan III.
The East
In the second half of the
sixteenth century, the Eastern patriarchs were in contact with the
Protestant reformers in the West. Josaphat II (1551-1565) sent
representatives to Wittenberg and Tubingen. They returned highly
displeased with what they found. Jeremiah II, after a careful study of
the Augsburg Confession – which was sent to him for his inspection –
soundly declared the Lutheran teachings to be heretical. During this
same period, Saints George and John the New (1526) were added to the
Church's list of saints for their martyrdom under the Moslems. Other
Greek saints at this time were Saint Vissarion, Bishop of Larissa
(d.1541) and Saint Philotheas of Athens (d.1589).
The West and the Protestant
Reformation
The West in the sixteenth
century went through the Protestant reformation and the
counter-reformation of the Roman Church. Martin Luther (d.1545), John
Calvin (d.1564) and Ulrich Zwingli (d.1545) led the reformation movement
on the European continent. They attacked the practical abuses of the
Roman Church as well as its official teachings. King Henry VIII founded
the Anglican Church by the Act of Supremacy in 1534 and John Knox
(d.1572) brought the Calvinist faith to Scotland.
The Roman Church held the
Council of Trent (1561-1563) which officially formulated the doctrines
of purgatory, indulgences, transubstantiation of bread and wine in the
eucharist and other positions attacked and denied by the Protestants.
The Protestant position is based on the doctrine of justification by
grace through faith alone. The Bible is the sole churchly authority,
interpreted directly by each believer under the inspiration of God. The
sacramental life of the Church is reduced to Baptism and the Lord's
Supper, which is understood primarily as a memorial meal, in no sense a
sacrifice. The Council of Trent reinforced the doctrines of the
supremacy of the pope of Rome and the authority of the church hierarchy.
Both these doctrines were main targets of the Protestant attack.
The West and the
Counter-Reformation
The Roman counter-reformation
was led by the Jesuits. The Society of Jesus was founded in 1534 by
Ignatius of Loyola (d.1556) for the specific purpose of defending the
Roman papacy. Francis Xavier (d.1552) was the famous Jesuit missionary
who reached the Far East during this period. The Dutch Jesuit, Peter
Canisius (d.1597) led the counter-reformation in Germany, writing his
famous Catechism which became a standard text of post-reformation
Catholicism.
In Spain the mystical writers,
Teresa of Avila (d.1582) and John of the Cross (d.1591) were leading the
reform of the religious life of the Roman Church. In Geneva, the Roman
bishop of the city, Francis de Sales (d.1622) was writing his works
about the spiritual life. During this same time the artist Titian
(d.1576) was painting and the musician Palestrina (d.1594) was producing
his grandiose musical compositions which were used in the Roman Church.
From: Bible and Church History by
Fr. Thomas Hopko,
Dept. of Religous Education - Orthodox Church in America, Crestwood, New
York
