Greek Architecture

The Par the non at Athens, from the northwest. of perfection, simple and imposing in their general composition, were enriched with statuary and sculptured ornament and brilliantly colored (see polychromy in architec ture , under polychromy ) to bring out all their details with full effect in the clear air of the Mediterranean. Until Maced on i an preponderance had vitiated the ideals of independent Greece, all this magnificence of art was reserved for the glory of the gods and the public buildings of the state. Luxury in private life was not approved, private houses being small and plain. See masonry (Greek). Greek Church, the church of the countries formerly comprised in the Greek, Greco-Roman, or Eastern (Roman) Empire, and of countries evangelized from it, as Ru ia; the church, or group of local and national Oriental churches, in communion or doctrinal agreement with the Greek patriarchal see of Constantinople. It is also called the Eastern Church , in distinction from the Western , the Latin , or Ro man Catholic Church . The full official title of the Greek Church is the Holy Orthodox Catholic Apostolic Oriental Church. (See Catholic , a., 3 (c).) The epithet Orthodox is that most frequently used for the Greek or Eastern Church. The estrangement between the Greek and Latin churches, culminating finally in the Great Schism, stands historically in close connection with the division of the Roman Empire into an Eastern and a Western Empire, with the growing power of the see of the new Roman capital, Constantinople or New Rome, the increasing rivalry between the see of Old Rome and that of New Rome, the insertion by the Latin Church of the filioque (see Filioque ) in the Nicene Creed, the question of the ecclesiastical allegiance of the Bulgarians, and of the papal supremacy. Eastern Illyricum, including Greece, with the chief see at The alonica, which had belonged to the Roman patriarchate, remained with the Eastern Church. Before the ninth century there had been temporary suspensions of communion between the Roman Church and the East. The Great Schism began, however, in the latter part of the ninth century, the principal doctrinal difficulty relating to the Filioque . The immediate occasion of suspension of communion was the intrusion by the emperor Michael III., in A. D. 857, of the learned Photius into the see of Constantinople instead of Ignatius, at that time patriarch. The Roman see a erted jurisdiction in the matter as po e ing supreme power, and mutual charges of false doctrine and excommunications followed; but Photius was finally acknowledged at Rome as patriarch. The final division was that between Pope Leo IX. and the patriarch Michael Cerularius, in A. D. 1054, since which time Roman Catholics regard the Greeks or Easterns as cut off from the Catholic Church; the Greeks, on the other hand, claim that they have remained faithful to the catholic creed and ancient usages. The Greek Church is the dominant form of Christianity in the kingdom of Greece, the archipelago with the opposite coast and Cyprus, in European Turkey among both Slavs and Greeks, in part of Austria and Hungary, throughout the Ru ian empire, and in Rumania, Bulgaria, Servia, and Monte negro. In most of these countries the church authorities are independent of the patriarch at Constantinople. It acknowledges the first seven ecumenical councils. The doctrine of the Greek and that of the Western Church with regard to the Trinity, apart from the question of the filioque and double proce ion, and that with regard to the person of Christ, are the same. Baptism is regularly conferred on infants with trine immersion. Confirmation follows immediately upon baptism. Communion is given in both kinds, and to infants as well as adults. The offices of bishop, priest, and deacon are regarded as the three "nece ary degrees" of orders. The highest officers of the church are the four patriarchs of Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem, and the Ru ian Holy Governing Synod. Honor is paid to relics as in the Roman Catholic Church. The ordinary secular clergy can marry before ordination, but their wives must have been previously single, and they cannot remarry. Only the monastic clergy are advanced to the episcopate and other offices. The liturgical language is not absolutely fixed: in Greek-speaking communities it is Greek; in Slavonic communities, not Ru ian, but the ancient language known as Ecclesiastical Slavonic or Old Bulgarian. - Greek cro . See cro 1.- Greek embroidery, fancy work executed by sewing upon a background pieces of colored cloth, silk, etc., and embroidering the edges of these and the background between them with chain-stitch and other ornamental stitches. - Greek fire. See fire . - Greek key-pattern, a meander. - Greek lyre. See lyre. - Greek modes. See mode. - Greek partridge. See partridge . Greek point-lace. See lace . Greek sculpture. See Greek art (b).-On or at the Greek calends. See calends . IMG:content-2648.png:[graphic] IMG:content-2649.png:[graphic] Greek Greekt (grēk), v. i. [ Greek , a.] To imitate the Greeks: with an indefinite it . Those were prouerbially said to Greeke it that quaft in that fashion.