THE ORTHODOX EASTERN CHURCH
The history of the Eastern Churches begins at the time of the Apostles. The native Christians of Jerusalem, Cyprus, Greece, the few communities still left in Antioch, or scattered through Asia Minor have not now much to boast of, in comparison with the far greater and more flourishing Churches of Western Europe; but they remember with just pride that the Gospel was preached to their fathers, not by unknown missionaries of the fourth or fifth centuries, not even by saints sent out from the great Roman Church, but by the Apostles themselves, and they read the names of their cities and of their first bishops in the pages of the New Testament. And during the first six centuries at least, these Churches play a leading part in the general history of Christianity. It was in the East that the great heresies arose, their chief opponents were Eastern bishops, and it was in the East that the first eight general councils were held. To write a history of any of the Eastern Churches during these earlier centuries then, would be only to tell over again the most important facts of general Church history. We will therefore pass over the great public events that are commonly known, and be content with an account of the domestic affairs of the most important of these Churches, that of the great body of Christians who remained Orthodox after the Nestorian and Monophysite heresies, over whom the Patriarchs of Constantinople gradually managed to assume the leadership, and who fell into schism with that see in the 9th and 11th centuries. This is the communion that calls itself the Orthodox Church.
Such an account will fall naturally into four parts, treating of: I. The period before the Great Schism, that is during the first eight centuries. II. The Story of the Schism. III. From the Schism to Modern Times. IV. The Orthodox Church at the Present Time.