29. Церковное управление

The Lord Jesus Christ himself established a hierarchy in the Church. Having chosen twelve apostles from among His disciples, He gave them the authority to teach the people, perform the sacraments and govern the Church and, having sent down the Holy Spirit on them, clothed them with the power necessary for this. The Holy Apostles were the first and for some time the only servants of the Word, performers of the Mysteries and priests of the Church. Over time, the apostles, according to the will of God and the needs of the Church, ordained first deacons, then presbyters, and finally bishops, to whom they gradually transferred part of their responsibilities. Deacons were appointed to receive and distribute offerings that came into the Church, but at the same time they served the bishops and presbyters during the performance of divine services and sacraments, the presbyters taught and performed sacred services depending on the bishops; The bishops had the responsibility to monitor order in the Church, to supervise the actions and very lives of the clergy and all members of the Church, and in general, the highest right after the apostles to teach, minister and govern the Church. After the death of the apostles, the fullness of church power passed to the bishops, and they, each in their own diocese, are the heads of the Church and the successors of the apostolic ministry in it. Even in the apostolic age, the power of metropolitans or regional bishops began to rise among bishops. The 34th canon of the holy apostles obliges bishops to honor the first of them, that is, the metropolitan, and recognize him as the head. This same rule, however, prescribes the chief bishop not to undertake anything important without the consultation of all the bishops of his region. For this purpose, the metropolitans convened the bishops of their region to councils, which in ancient times were appointed annually. The external structure of the Church, naturally, was at first consistent with the structure of the Roman Empire. The bishop's see in ecclesiastical terms corresponded to the so-called urban district in the empire. The metropolitanate, the main city of the region, rose above the urban district, and the bishops' departments were grouped around the metropolitan, the bishop of the main regional city. But, in addition to the regional cities, in the Roman Empire there were so-called imperial dioceses, which were under the authority of a specially trusted person, who represented for the areas of the diocese, as it were, the emperor himself (vicar, or viceroy). In relation to these main centers of government, centers for church administration, later known under the name of patriarchates, began to form to one degree or another. The rights and advantages of patriarchates were approved by the highest authority in the Church of the Ecumenical Councils. At the first Ecumenical Council, the primacy of the power of the bishops of the three main cities of the Roman Empire was approved: Rome, Alexandria and Antioch. Equated with them in honor is the Bishop of Jerusalem, who for this reason was freed from dependence on the bishop of the main city of Caesarea in Palestine. At the Second Ecumenical Council, the same advantage of honor was given to the bishop of New Rome, i.e., Constantinople, which to this day is dependent on Metropolitan Heraclius 59, and with this honor was combined for him the right to govern the entire district of Thrace. In addition to the importance of these cities as the most important in the empire, and Jerusalem as the place of the suffering and resurrection of the Savior, the following circumstances could have contributed to the rise of their episcopal sees: 1) The episcopal sees in Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and ancient Byzantium were established by the apostles themselves: here they preached and suffered for Christ. Therefore, in subsequent times, Christians turned here in case of disputes (for example, Corinthian Christians to Saint Clement of Rome), believing that the Holy Tradition was especially alive and faithfully preserved here. 2) There were Christian schools in Alexandria and Antioch, and the pastors emerging from them naturally felt dependent on the archbishop who was their main mentor and leader during their upbringing. Behind Rome stood the charm of the former capital of the whole world, and Constantinople acquired primacy among other cities of the East because it was New Rome - the capital of the emperor. The advantages of the leading bishops (who hitherto had the title of archbishops) were finally determined at the Fourth Ecumenical Council. Unlike metropolitans, they began to be called patriarchs. At the initial establishment of the patriarchates, they were distributed as follows: the authority of the Roman Patriarchate was subject to Italy with the islands adjacent to it, part of what is now France and Germany, North Africa, and, in addition to these areas, under the authority of the Roman Patriarchate was the Thessalonica Exarchate, which extended to the shores of the Archipelago; Pontus, Asia and Thrace were subject to the authority of the Patriarch of Constantinople, i.e. Asia Minor, with the exception of Cilicia and Isauria, and part of the lands on the Balkan Peninsula, and, in addition to this, he was given the right to ordain bishops in barbarian regions, in the event of the conversion of these regions to the Church; Egypt and Libya were subject to the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Alexandria; the Patriarchate of Antioch consisted of the regions of Asia Minor - Cilicia and Isauria, Syria, Phenicia on the Mediterranean Sea and Mesopotamia; Palestine and Arabia belonged to the Patriarch of Jerusalem. But no matter how exalted the rights of metropolitans and patriarchs were over other bishops, the difference between them related only to church government: these are different types of one degree - episcopal. The distinctive rights of this highest sacred degree - to ordain presbyters and deacons (and collectively bishops), to consecrate churches, antimensions and chrism - belonged and belong equally to all bishops. The rights of church government of the patriarchs are higher than those of other bishops and metropolitans, but all five patriarchs have equal rights, and only in numerical order the Patriarch of Rome was called first, the Patriarch of Constantinople second, the Patriarch of Alexandria third, the Patriarch of Antioch fourth and the Patriarch of Jerusalem fifth 60 . But despite the equal rights of the patriarchs to govern the regions entrusted to them, these regions, even at their initial distribution, were uneven in extent and population. For example, the areas of the Roman and Constantinople patriarchs were larger and more populated than the areas of the other three patriarchs. And the methods of management, according to prevailing legends and local circumstances, were also different. The Pope felt less dependent on the emperor, who lived far from Rome, than the Pope of Constantinople. The Patriarch of Alexandria, in whose region there were no metropolises, was much closer to the bishops subordinate to him than the patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem, where there were metropolitans between the patriarch and the bishops. Over time, various local and historical events occurred, according to which the areas of the patriarchs either decreased in volume and extent, or increased. The greatest events took place in the world, such as the invasion of Europe by new peoples, the fall of the Western Roman Empire, the emergence and unusually rapid and widespread spread of Mohammedanism, which completely changed the situation of countries and peoples and could not but affect the position of patriarchates. The consequence of all these local and historical complications and upheavals was that by the end of the 2nd period of the history of the Church - the period of the Ecumenical Councils - the area of ​​the Pope spread throughout Western Europe and North Africa; the area of ​​the Patriarchs of Constantinople was also very extensive, but they were constrained in their actions by the emperors of Constantinople, who aroused in the Church a dangerous and harmful iconoclastic movement; the regions of the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem were extremely diminished and constrained and were under the authority of Mohammedan rulers. During this extremely troubling time for the Church, claims to dominance in the Church began to manifest themselves in particular on the part of the Popes. - Who, in memory of his former power over Byzantium, still hands the staff to the Patriarch of Constantinople upon his elevation to this rank. – The Roman patriarch was called the pope. For a long time, other bishops were also called this way. And to this day this name is found in the title of the Patriarch of Alexandria. Papa is a Greek word meaning father, and can be applied to every bishop. Since ancient times, even priests have been called fathers. As a special official name, it was originally adopted by the Alexandrian patriarchs, and from them it was already borrowed by the Roman ones. In the 5th century, the name pope in the general sense was found among many bishops in the West. Already in the 11th century, Pope Gregory VII decreed that this title belong exclusively to the bishop of Rome. You might be interested in: