Because of this origin, the "Church of Rome" had little connection with the Orthodox Church in Constantinople.
At that time, in the eyes of the Orthodox Church, they might have gone beyond heresy. Patriarch Zhang organized the teachings, which actually had the effect of formalizing it, and instead made the concept of the "Church of Rome" closer to Orthodoxy. At the very least, some of the more outrageous claims such as "The Great Khan is the reincarnation of Brother Tian" have been suppressed. To be honest, Junbao Church still needs to thank others...
Of course, even so, Orthodoxy is just complaining and doing nothing.
The church in Eastern Rome was different from the Holy See in that it was greatly restricted by the emperor and the court. Although they are also quite powerful, owning a lot of real estate and loyal believers, and sometimes they can even call on the people to cause trouble and put pressure on the emperor, but these ultimately rely on various political forces and rely on the game between them. The Orthodox Church itself does not have as much ability to act independently as the Holy See.
It was okay for a while before, because some big nobles were at odds with the emperor, and everyone often needed to win over the church to give them some bargaining power.
But it is a pity that at the time when the Purple Tent was just rising, there were not many capable and truly wealthy nobles in Eastern Rome, and the church's own property was also very small.
——Because of the frequent Ottoman attacks, the great nobles either went bankrupt or surrendered to the enemy. In short, it was almost finished by the Ottomans.
The Church of King's Castle didn't even have time to issue a formal condemnation at that time - at that time, the Greek officials were fighting among themselves, and the church forces were also deeply involved in it. Everyone was too busy fighting among themselves to care about them.
After the Purple Horde Khanate took control of Constantinople, the "Church of Rome" did not consider itself to be a reformed church, or the two churches merged. They thought they were here to "take over" the Greek church.
This was not because they rejected the Orthodox Church. At that time, the "Church of Rome" still classified itself as Orthodox. But faith is faith, and organization is organization. These are two different things.
The "Roman Church" was the official organization of the Purple Horde Khanate. After Guo Gai rectified the official positions of the Khanate and established provinces and ministries, it was always directly under the Ministry of Rites. The patriarch usually also held the position of minister or even minister.
Moreover, this is not a false position. Because the cultural and educational level of the Purple Horde Khanate was not as good as that of the Central Plains, Guo Gai, Patriarch Zhang and others had been consciously using the church to carry out education and management work. For example, now, the "Civilian Hundreds" of various farms in Romania are staffed by the church and are responsible for a lot of clerical and educational duties.
Above them, up to the patriarch of the province, they are all part of the government. Assessment and promotion are decided by the Ministry of Personnel, and supervision is the responsibility of the Post Office Minister, one of the chief officials of Zhongshu Province.
The Ministry of Personnel used the old system of the Tang Dynasty, and post officials were responsible for supervision. This was not only a habit that existed in the Han Dynasty, but also the experience gained by the Eastern Roman Empire. Even the position of postmaster was directly transferred from Roman official positions.
Although it is mixed everywhere like other official systems of Zi Zhang, it works well here and continues to this day. Even the Greeks themselves, when they came to take charge of national affairs, felt that this method was more effective. The system of "Roman Church" such as the inspection of priests in state capitals and the regular rotation of priests in church were introduced by the Queen Mother of Greece.
In this case, the Roman Church believed that it was the government. The Greek church in Constantinople was different in nature.
Since Emperor Constantine accepted the church, although the court has been managing them, the church has always continued its own organization. It has only been reused by the court and helped the court, and has never been truly incorporated.
Therefore, when I came to take over the Constantinople Church this time, I actually thought highly of them. This is a matter of establishment, which is equivalent to upgrading from a civil society organization to a formal official.
Where can I pick up such a good thing? Others want it, but the government won’t give it to them.
This incident caused fierce quarrels and even schisms in the Church of Constantinople at that time. Most of the upper-level patriarchs and senior priests agreed with the Purple Horde Khanate's proposition and believed that there was no choice now. However, many middle- and lower-class clergymen are firmly opposed to this. Some are worried that their jurisdiction and power will be deprived of their jurisdiction, while more people may simply feel that the teachings of these "brethren" are too outrageous and have never seen such heresy. degree...
Because of these lower-level priests, they were very influential in many Greek villages and towns. Moreover, the Khan's court indeed needed a group of theologians in the traditional sense to engage in work on scripture and meaning - such as regularly debating scripture with the Holy See. Therefore, in the end, the Purple Horde and the "Roman Church" could only make some concessions.
What is now Constantinople is a special diocese with various temples and colleges below it. In terms of staffing, some priests and priests in the Greek region are not officials under the provinces-the Patriarchate, but commissioners sent from various monasteries and academies in the Diocese of Constantine. Their church does not belong to the parish establishment of the state capital. It can be regarded as a liaison station for the Diocese of Constantine in various places. In this way, a certain degree of independence is maintained while being acceptable to both parties.
The conflict between the two parties was not resolved until Guo Kang's father's generation. At that time, the Ottomans tried to take risks and storm Constantinople, and the church was the most active group of people in the city who resisted. If others are capable, they can easily find another job by switching to Ottoman, but if the priests switch there, the industry threshold will be relatively high...
After that, the two sides became more stable.
The bigger problem is that there are more than just these two companies in Zi Zhang. To the north, there is a third force that later joined - the Kiev Church.
Already at the time of the baptism of Rus', Kiev became the center of Orthodoxy in the Rus' region. The Patriarch of Constantinople sent a group of clergy to establish the Kiev Metropolitanate. After that, the academic affairs in the Rus' region were all hosted by Kiev, and Kiev became the "Metropolitan Diocese of All Rus'".
But later, a schism occurred in the All-Russian Metropolitanate. In order to gather manpower to deal with the Mongols, the Galich-Volyn Principality west of Kiev decided to accept the Roman Catholic Church, received the crown from the Pope, and began to call itself a kingdom.
This move caused dissatisfaction in the Orthodox world. Since Galich was relatively powerful among the principalities at the time, neighboring Kiev was leaning toward them. Feeling threatened, the Metropolitan of All Russia led his troops to flee to Vladimir, and finally to Moscow. This also led to a schism in the Rus church.
Of course, this split seems inevitable. After the arrival of the Mongols, Galich and Kiev in the southwest, and Moscow and Vladimir in the northeast, became the two centers of the Rus region. The differentiation of politics and economy eventually led to the differentiation of religions as well.
Finally, through the mediation of Patriarch Constantine, it was decided that both metropolitan areas would remain. Among the fifteen dioceses in the Rus' region, six in the southwestern part are still under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Kiev and are called the "Little Rus' Metropolitan Diocese". The remaining nine are under the jurisdiction of the Metropolitan of Moscow and are called the "Greater Rus' Metropolitanate". The once "all-Russian diocese" was now divided into two, which had a profound impact on later generations.
(End of chapter)
