Editing Caesaropapism (section)

==Eastern Church==
{{See also|State church of the Roman Empire}}
[[File:Nicaea icon.jpg|thumb|Icon depicting the Roman Emperor [[Constantine the Great]] (centre) and the [[bishop]]s of the [[First Council of Nicaea]] (325) holding the [[Nicene Creed#Niceno-Constantinopolitan Creed|Niceno–Constantinopolitan Creed of 381]].]]

Caesaropapism's chief example is the authority that the [[Byzantine Empire|Byzantine]] [[List of Byzantine emperors|(East Roman) emperors]] had over the [[Church of Constantinople]] and [[Eastern Christianity]] from the 330 consecration of [[Constantinople]] through the tenth century.<ref>{{Citation| last1 = Cross | first1 = F.L.| last2 = Livingstone | first2 = E.A.| title = Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church| publisher = Oxford University Press| year = 1983| location = Oxford| pages = [http://faculty.cua.edu/Pennington/ChurchHistory220/LectureTwo/caesaropapism.htm 218]| edition = 2nd
}}</ref><ref>{{Citation| last = Douglas| first = J.D.| title = The New International Dictionary of the Christian Church| publisher = Zondervan| year = 1978| location = Grand Rapids, MI| pages = 173| edition = revised
}}</ref> The Byzantine emperor would typically protect the Eastern Church and manage its administration by presiding over [[ecumenical councils]] and appointing [[Patriarchs]] and setting [[Patriarchate|territorial boundaries for their jurisdiction]].<ref name="Britannica">{{Citation
  | title = Encyclopædia Britannica
  | year = 1985
  | pages = [http://faculty.cua.edu/Pennington/ChurchHistory220/LectureTwo/caesaropapism.htm 718–719]
  | volume = II
}}</ref>  The emperor exercised a strong control over the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and the [[Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople|Patriarch of Constantinople]] could not hold office if he did not have the emperor's approval.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Latourette
  | first = Kenneth Scott
  | title = A History of Christianity to A.D. 1500
  | publisher = Harper & Row
  | year = 1975
  | location = San Francisco
  | pages = 283; 312
  | volume = I
  | edition = revised
}}</ref> Such emperors as [[Basiliscus]], [[Zeno (emperor)|Zeno]], [[Justinian I]], [[Heraclius]], and [[Constans II]] published several strictly ecclesiastical edicts either on their own without the mediation of church councils, or they exercised their own political influence on the councils to issue the edicts.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Schaff
  | first = Philip
  | author-link = Philip Schaff
  | title = History of the Christian Church: Nicene and Post-Nicene Christianity: A.D. 311–600
  | publisher = Eerdmans Publishing Company
  | year = 1974
  | location = Grand Rapids, MI
  | pages = 135
  | volume = II
  | edition = 5th
}}</ref> According to [[Timothy Ware|Metropolitan Kallistos Ware]], the historical reality of caesaropapism stems from the confusion of the Byzantine Empire with the [[Kingdom of God]] and the zeal of the Byzantines "to establish here on earth a living icon of God's government in heaven."<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Ware
  | first = Timothy
  | author-link = Timothy Ware
  | title = The Orthodox Church
  | publisher = Penguin Books
  | year = 1980
  | location = New York
  | pages = 50
  | edition = revised
}}</ref>

However, Caesaropapism "never became an accepted principle in Byzantium."<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Meyendorff
  | first = John
  | author-link = John Meyendorff
  | title = Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes
  | publisher = Fordham University Press
  | year = 1983
  | location = New York
  | pages = 6
  | edition = rev. 2nd
}}</ref> Several Eastern churchmen such as [[John Chrysostom]], Patriarch of Constantinople<ref name="Britannica"/> and [[Pope Athanasius I of Alexandria|Athanasius]], [[Patriarch of Alexandria]], strongly opposed imperial control over the Church, as did [[Western Christianity|Western theologians]] like [[Hilary of Poitiers]] and [[Hosius of Cordoba|Hosius]], [[Bishop of Córdoba]].<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Dawson
  | first = Christopher
  | title = The Making of Europe
  | publisher = Meridian Books
  | year = 1956
  | location = New York
  | pages = 109–110
  | edition = 2nd
}}</ref> Saints, such as [[Maximus the Confessor]], resisted the imperial power as a consequence of their witness to orthodoxy. In addition, at several occasions imperial decrees had to be withdrawn as the people of the Church, both lay people, monks and priests, refused to accept inventions at variance with the Church's customs and beliefs. These events show that power over the Church really was in the hands of the Church itself – not solely with the emperor.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Meyendorff
  | first = John
  | author-link = John Meyendorff
  | title = Byzantine Theology: Historical Trends and Doctrinal Themes
  | publisher = Fordham University Press
  | year = 1983
  | location = New York
  | pages = 5
  | edition = rev. 2nd
}}</ref>

During a speech at the St. Procopius Unionistic Congress in 1959, [[John Dvornik]] stated, "...the attitude of all Orthodox Churches toward the State, especially the Russian Church is dictated by a very old tradition which has its roots in early Christian political philosophy... the Christian Emperor was regarded as the representative of God in the Christian commonwealth, whose duty was to watch not only over the material, but also the spiritual welfare of his Christian subjects. Because of that, his interference in Church affairs was regarded as his duty."<ref> [[Hélène Iswolsky]] (1960), ''Christ in Russia: The History, Tradition, and Life of the Russian Church'', [[The Bruce Publishing Company]], [[Milwaukee]]. Page 80.</ref> The regional church was elevated by the rivals of the Byzantine Empire, namely the [[Serbian Empire|Serbian]] and [[Second Bulgarian Empire|Bulgarian empires]], to patriarchate according to a prevailing theory during the time the status of the church had to be equal to the state.<ref>{{Cite book
|last=Dimitrov
|first=Ivan Zhelev|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fWp9JA3aBvcC
|section=Bulgarian Christianity
|title=The Blackwell Companion to Eastern Christianity
|editor-first=Ken
|editor-last=Parry
|publisher=John Wiley & Sons
|year=2010
|isbn=9781444333619
|pages=51
}}</ref>

Following the [[Fall of Constantinople]] in 1453, the sultans of the [[Ottoman Empire]] took control of appointing the [[Patriarch of Constantinople]] and all Byzantine Rite Bishops within their dominions. According to historian Charles A. Frazee, the Greek Hierarchs appointed by the sultan and his advisors were almost invariably opposed to the reunification decrees at the [[Council of Florence]] and rejected the authority of the [[Papacy]].<ref> Charles A. Frazee (2006), ''Catholics and Sultans: The Church and the Ottoman Empire1453-1923'', Cambridge University Press. Pages 5-45.</ref>

At the same time, however, so great was the suffering of the [[Greek people]] under the Sultans that, in the February 14, 1908 [[Papal allocution]] ''Ringraziamo Vivamente'', [[Pope Pius X]] accused the Greek Orthodox Church under Turkish rule of having preferred, "a harsh yoke (that of [[Islam]]) to the tenderness of their mother."<ref> Yves Chiron (2002), ''Saint Pius X: Restorer of the Church'', [[Angelus Press]]. Page 278.</ref>

Caesaropapism was most notorious in the [[Tsardom of Russia]] when [[Ivan IV the Terrible]] assumed the title [[Tsar]] in 1547 and subordinated the [[Russian Orthodox Church]] to the state.<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Bainton
  | first = Roland H.
  | title = Christendom: A Short History of Christianity
  | publisher = Harper & Row
  | year = 1966
  | location = New York
  | pages = 119
  | volume = I
}}</ref> In defiance of the Tsar's absolute power, [[Philip II, Metropolitan of Moscow|Philip]], the Metropolitan of Moscow, preached sermons in Tsar Ivan's presence that condemned his indiscriminate use of [[state terror]] against real and imagined traitors and their families by the [[Oprichnina]]. Metropolitan Philip also withheld the traditional blessing of the Tsar during the [[Divine Liturgy]]. In response, the Tsar convened a Church Council, whose bishops obediently declared Metropolitan Philip deposed on false charges of moral offenses and imprisoned him in a monastery. When the former Metropolitan refused a request from the Tsar to bless the 1570 [[Massacre of Novgorod]], the Tsar allegedly sent [[Malyuta Skuratov]] to smother the former Bishop inside his cell. Metropolitan Philip was canonized in 1636 and is still commemorated within the Orthodox Church as a, "pillar of orthodoxy, fighter for the truth, shepherd who laid down his life for his flock."<ref> Constantine de Grunwald (1960), ''Saints of Russia'', The Macmillan Company, New York. Pages 104-124.</ref>

Tsar Ivan's level of caesaropapism far exceeded that of the Byzantine Empire<ref>{{Citation
  | last = Billington
  | first = James H.
  | title = The Icon and the Axe: An Interpretive History of Russian Culture
  | publisher = Random House
  | year = 1966
  | location = New York
  | pages = 67
}}</ref> but was taken to a new level in 1721, when [[Peter the Great]] and [[Theophan Prokopovich]], as part of their [[Church reform of Peter the Great|Church reforms]], replaced the [[Patriarch of Moscow]] with a department of the [[civil service]] headed by an [[Procurator (Russia)|Ober-Procurator]] and called the [[Most Holy Synod]], which oversaw the running of the church as an extension of the Tsar's government.<ref> James Cracraft (1971), ''The Church Reform of Peter the Great'', Stanford University Press. Pages 112-302.</ref>

The [[Patriarch of Moscow and all Rus'|Patriarchate]] was only restored on November 10 ([[Julian calendar|October 28 O.S.]]), 1917, 3 days after the [[Bolshevik Revolution]], by decision of the [[1917–18 Local Council of the Russian Orthodox Church|All-Russian Local Council]]. On 5 November 1917, after his election by vote as one of the three candidates for the restored Patriarchate of Moscow, Metropolitan [[Vladimir Bogoyavlensky|Vladimir of Kiev]] announced that [[Patriarch Tikhon of Moscow|Metropolitan Tikhon]] had been selected for the position after a [[Cleromancy|drawing of lots]] as the new Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia.

Seeking to convince [[Soviet Union|Soviet]] authorities to stop [[Persecution of Christians in the Soviet Union|the campaign of terror and persecution against the Church]], [[Patriarch Sergius of Moscow|Metropolitan Sergius]], acting as patriarchal ''[[locum tenens]]'', tried to look for ways of peaceful reconciliation with the government. On July 29, 1927, he issued {{Interlanguage link|Declaration of Metropolitan Sergius|lt=his famous declaration|ru|Декларация митрополита Сергия}}: an [[encyclical]] letter where he professed the absolute loyalty of the Russian Orthodox Church to the [[Soviet Union]] and to its government's interests.

This declaration, sparked an immediate controversy among the Russian Eastern Orthodox, many of whom (including many notable and respected [[bishop]]s in prisons and exile) broke [[Communion (Christian)|communion]] with Sergius. This attitude of submission to the Soviet Government is sometimes derogatorily called "[[Sergianism]]", after Metropolitan Sergius and his declaration, and is to this day deemed by some Eastern Orthodox Christians, especially [[True Orthodox]], as a [[Heresy in Christianity|heresy]].

Later, some of these bishops reconciled with Sergius, but many still remained in opposition to the "official Church" until the election of [[Patriarch]] [[Patriarch Alexy I of Moscow|Alexius I]] in 1945.