J
Jaypeeto4
Guest
Something has been bugging me for weeks.
A few weeks back, an Eastern Orthodox fellow believer, referring
to the mutual excommunications of 1041 A.D.,
noted that the majority of the communion (4 of the 5 patriarchates and eventually all their members) sided with the Patriarch of Constantinople’s action excommunicating the papal legates (and by extension, the western church).
The Majority of the (heretofore 5 Patriarchate) Communion rejected the Roman Bishop, the successor of Saint Peter.
You know what? SO what? Big deal. Considered historically, this means nothing.
Only the Bishop of Rome was successor of Saint Peter and had been regarded so by all from the very first century A.D.
But just as importantly, the “four of the five patriarchates” no longer held the numerical significance that they once held.
Mohammed’s hordes had overrun most of the middle east long before 1041 A.D.
While the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem still existed,
the number of their subjects had been reduced to a REMNANT of their former numerically-large selves. Constantinople was still Christian, but the Muslim hordes were even then encroaching on the Eastern “Roman” Empire.
These three once-large Patriarchates, which sided with Constantinople in 1041 A.D., had nowhere near the huge numbers of Christians as did the western Church under the Pope and Patriarchate of Rome. Russia was still being evangelized at the time, this noble work having begun under Cyril and Methodius in earnest many decades before, but Moscow did not yet even have a patriarch.
This statement about the majority of the communion siding against Rome is thus misleading and not NEARLY as impressive as it might sound at first.
The fact is, the number of Christians outside of the Roman Patriarchate had GREATLY DWINDLED. The majority of Christians were western Christians, and that situation, sadly, got even worse for the east as the Ottomans conquered more and more of the east, and eventually in the 1400s seized Constantinople itself, brutally murdering thousands of eastern Christians who had taken refuge in Hagia Sophia.
A few weeks back, an Eastern Orthodox fellow believer, referring
to the mutual excommunications of 1041 A.D.,
noted that the majority of the communion (4 of the 5 patriarchates and eventually all their members) sided with the Patriarch of Constantinople’s action excommunicating the papal legates (and by extension, the western church).
The Majority of the (heretofore 5 Patriarchate) Communion rejected the Roman Bishop, the successor of Saint Peter.
You know what? SO what? Big deal. Considered historically, this means nothing.
Only the Bishop of Rome was successor of Saint Peter and had been regarded so by all from the very first century A.D.
But just as importantly, the “four of the five patriarchates” no longer held the numerical significance that they once held.
Mohammed’s hordes had overrun most of the middle east long before 1041 A.D.
While the Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem still existed,
the number of their subjects had been reduced to a REMNANT of their former numerically-large selves. Constantinople was still Christian, but the Muslim hordes were even then encroaching on the Eastern “Roman” Empire.
These three once-large Patriarchates, which sided with Constantinople in 1041 A.D., had nowhere near the huge numbers of Christians as did the western Church under the Pope and Patriarchate of Rome. Russia was still being evangelized at the time, this noble work having begun under Cyril and Methodius in earnest many decades before, but Moscow did not yet even have a patriarch.
This statement about the majority of the communion siding against Rome is thus misleading and not NEARLY as impressive as it might sound at first.
The fact is, the number of Christians outside of the Roman Patriarchate had GREATLY DWINDLED. The majority of Christians were western Christians, and that situation, sadly, got even worse for the east as the Ottomans conquered more and more of the east, and eventually in the 1400s seized Constantinople itself, brutally murdering thousands of eastern Christians who had taken refuge in Hagia Sophia.