In the Christian East ecclesiastical institutions developed in the framework of a centralized imperial system, but traditions also determined them going back to early Christianity and preserving the autonomy of local churches. Occasional national separatism encouraged decentralization, but the prestige of the imperial church of Constantinople was strong enough to impose a single Byzantine pattern on the entire body of "orthodox" Christians.
Bishops and regional primacies. In the time of Constantine, throughout the Christian East the practice of establishing a bishop in each city (the Greek polis) became the norm, but the ancient practice of also having bishops in villages (chorai) survived locally. In practice they gradually deprived the "village bishops" (chorepiskopoi) of their administrative and sacramental functions. Novella 6 of Justinian (545) regulated the election of new bishops. It required that three candidates for a vacant episcopal see be nominated "by the clergy and the notables" of the town, and that the "best" be chosen by the metropolitan of the province. Today the other bishops of the province generally make the selection of candidates, with the final choice still being left to the metropolitan. In important sees, especially Constantinople, imperial will can also be decisive in the selection, though canons consider the appointment of bishops by civil authorities to be "null."
Since the consecration of each new bishop requires the participation of several neighboring bishops (Apostolic Canon 1), and as the First Council of Nicaea in 325 adopted the principle of parallelism between the civil and the ecclesiastical administrations, the bishops of each civil "province" (provincia; Greek: eparchia) are required to meet twice a year in a council presided over by the bishop of the provincial capital (metropolis), the metropolitan. His role in filling the empty sees is also a ministry of leadership among his fellow bishops. With the gradual loss of Anatolia depriving many metropolitans of their suffragans, sometimes the title alone remains. By special arrangement some bishops are exempt from the jurisdiction of a provincial metropolitan, and depend directly on a patriarch: they are given the title of autocephalous archbishops.
Patriarchs and patriarchates. After Constantine there appeared a strong trend toward centralization. A few major ecclesiastical centers began to exercise leadership on a scale wider than a single province. In the East the original centers were Alexandria and Antioch, the two major cities to the Empire. However, the bishop of the new imperial capital, Constantinople, soon competed for the first place (after the "Old Rome"), which the First Council of Constantinople formally acknowledged in 381. The Council of Chalcedon in 451 formally acknowledged the existence of five ecclesiastical primacies, first called exarchates of dioceses and later patriarchates: Rome, Constantinople, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem. Jerusalem was added because it was a major center of pilgrimages and monastic life. In the Byzantine view purely pragmatic considerations determined the rights and privileges of these five centers: they were "major cities" of the empire. In the West, however, they saw primacies as originating from "Petrine" foundation. Rome is the main "apostolic" see, but Alexandria and Antioch are also considered "Petrine," because Peter preached in Antioch and sent his disciple Mark to Alexandria. These two different approaches to the origins of the patriarchates led to a direct conflict concerning the position of Constantinople as "New Rome."
Besides the primates of the five patriarchates, which eventually came to constitute a permanent pentarchy in the church. The heads of national churches such as Georgia, Bulgaria and Serbia, attempted to gain the title patriarch, and sometimes succeeded.
The ecumenical patriarchate. Defined by the Council of Chalcedon as enjoying privileges "equal" to those of Old Rome because it was now the residence "of the emperor and the Senate," the archbishopric of Constantinople assumed the title of "ecumenical patriarchate." This title did not imply a usurpation of the honorary primacy of the bishop of Rome, which continued to be recognized, but a direct role in the life of the oikumene, the ideally Christian empire. According to Canon 28 of Chalcedon, the territory of the patriarchate covered Asia, Pontus and Thrace. In the eight century Illyricum and southern Italy was added.
The patriarch governs the church with the cooperation of a permanent synod (synodos endemousa) of metropolitans and numerous staff.
Lower clergy. Men married once (but not to a widow) can be admitted to the orders of deacon and priest. Unmarried or widowed women can be deaconesses, who are in charge of women candidates for baptism and of social work. Exempt from certain taxes, the lower clergy are responsible to episcopal courts only, and canon law strictly regulates their lives and obligations. Secular clergy and monasteries are subject to episcopal jurisdiction, except stavropegiac monasteries, which are responsible directly to the patriarch. In some monasteries the hegoumenos, or abbot, carried the title of archimandrite.
Social obligations. The bishops or monastic abbots administer the constantly growing ecclesiastical properties. They define the obligations of the church in the framework of a unified Christian society. Church revenues are to be used for the upkeep of the clergy, the maintenance of churches and all objects necessary for worship, help to the sick and the poor, and redemption of war prisoners. Consequently, all charitable institutions are placed under the jurisdiction of the bishops. Furthermore, the Code of Justinian formally requires bishops and lower clergy to supervise the moral behavior of state officials, to oppose arbitrary acts, to visit prisons and to receive information about the functioning of courts. Bishops are often the formal addressees of imperial laws and responsible for their application (for instance, a law of Justinian's protecting women from being forced into dishonorable professions).
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Last modified: Tue Jan 5, 1999