8.

 An active interest and participation of the laity in theology and Church life has always been a significant factor in Orthodoxy. In the West, theological education became limited to what group?

            Theological education in the West came to be the exclusive domain of the clergy. As Archbishop Averky of Jordanville writes in this regard:

Every kind of... disregard, contempt and patronization of one's flock is characteristic of Roman Catholicism, in which the clergy imagine themselves to be a higher, privileged class, in comparison with the lower class — the flock [“The Essence and Method of True Pastoral Care in Our Times,” Orthodox Life, vol. 47, no. 3, 1997, p. 15].

Further development of this idea is given by Professor A.P. Lopukin of the St. Petersburg Theological Academy. He notes that:

Roman Catholicism is, as it were, a continuation of ancient, pagan Rome, the spirit of which it assimilated, arraying itself in Christian garb only outwardly. In ancient Rome there were only two classes — the upper, privileged class of the patricians, and the lower class of the plebeians. This dichotomy was carried over into Christianized Rome: the clergy became the patricians, the upper, privileged class; the rank and file faithful laymen became the plebeians, the lower class, without any rights, who were required only to listen and in all things to submit without reservation, not daring to put itself forward in any way or in anything whatever [Ibid].

Another way in which the Latin Church browbeat the laity was in its depriving them of the ability to commune of the chalice, an innovation that was first allowed in the West in the twelfth century. This change runs contrary to Christ's direct words: “Drink ye all of it,” and also: “Except ye eat the flesh of the Son of Man, and drink of His blood, ye have no life in you” (Jn 6:53). Other scriptural passages as well clearly testify against the Roman Catholic practice (1 Cor 10:16-17; 11:26-30), as do patristic works. Moreover, Rome's change went against the universal practice of the ancient Church, as well as the express prohibition of many ancient popes. (It is important to note, however, that at that time, the Latin Church no longer had the Holy Eucharist, nor was there grace in any of its Sacraments, for it was severed from Christ's Church as of its schism in 1054). Protopriest Victor Potapov explains that although the Latin Church attempted to justify its deviation in this matter with various pretexts, the ultimate aim of this change was to show in the very communicating the superiority of the clergy over the laity.

            (It is of interest to note that when the Bohemian religious reformer Jan Hus attacked the corruption of the Latin clergy, he insisted that the laity should be able to commune from the chalice, as was the Orthodox and early Western custom. For stating these things, he was excommunicated in 1409, after which he was captured and burned at the stake by the Latin Church).

            In yet another attempt to separate the clergy from the rest of society, a married clergy was done away with in the West. In the early Church, especially in the East, a married priesthood was the norm. This ancient practice was abandoned in the West with the papal changes of 1046-73. As Professor Aristeides Papadakis writes concerning this change: “Behind the campaign for celibacy, in sum, aside from the moral and canonical issues involved, was the desire to set all churchmen apart from and above the laity; the need to create a spiritual elite by the separation of the priest from the ordinary laymen was an urgent priority” [The Christian East and the Rise of the Papacy, p. 37].  Adding to these ideas, Protopriest Victor Potapov explains that:

The Church cannot become free of subordination to laymen if clerics do not become free of their wives. With the rise of papal authority, a striving naturally had to arise to break those ties whereby the clergy is united with the family, and through it with the state; only a priest completely free of all familial and civil bonds and obligations could serve as a reliable instrument in the hands of the Roman pontiffs for the achievement of their ambitious political plans [Orthodoxy and Heterodoxy].

The same Fr. Victor notes that too sharp a line between the clergy and laity was drawn by the Catholic clergy with the pope at its head. An artificial division into the Church of those who teach and those who are taught appeared, while in the sacramental life, the significance of the prayerful participation of the people of the Church has been diminished. In the Roman Catholic Church, the clergy elevated itself too much over the people, and abusing its position, it oppressed them.