The [[First Ecumenical Council|First Council of Nicea]] singled out three great centers: [[Church of Rome|Rome]], [[Church of Alexandria|Alexandria]], and [[Church of Antioch|Antioch]] (Canon 6). It also laid down that the see of [[Church of Jerusalem|Jerusalem]], while remaining subject to the Metropolitan of Caesarea, should be given the next place in honor after these three (Canon 7). ([[Church of Constantinople|Constantinople]] naturally was not mentioned, since it was not officially inaugurated as the new capital until five years later; it continued to be subject, as before, to the Metropolitan of [[Heraclea]].).

This system is now known among Orthodox as the [[Pentarchy]], whereby the five great sees of the Church were held in honor, and established a particular order of precedence among them:

# Alexandria

All five claimed apostolic foundation. The first four were the most important cities in the Roman Empire. The fifth was added because it was the place where Christ had suffered on the Cross and risen from the dead.

The five patriarchates between them divided into spheres of jurisdiction the whole of the known world, apart from [[Church of Cyprus|Cyprus]], which was granted independence by the [[Third Ecumenical Council|Council of Ephesus]] and has remained self-governing ever since.

The different political situations in East and West made the Church assume different outward forms. People gradually came to think of Church order in conflicting ways. There had been a certain difference of importance between East and West. In the east there were many Churches whose foundation went back to the [[Apostles]]; there was a strong sense of the equality of all bishops, of the collegial and conciliar nature of the Church. The East acknowledged the [[Pope]] as the first bishop in the Church, but saw him as the first among equals. In the West, on the other hand, there was only one great see claiming Apostolic foundation, Rome, so that Rome came to be regarded as the apostolic see. The West, while it accepted the decisions of the Ecumenical Councils, did not play a very active part in the councils themselves. The Church was seen less as a college and more as a monarchy, the monarchy of the Pope.

Some saw [[Church of Russia|Moscow]] as the [[Third Rome]], and the [[primate]] of the Russian Church senior to the [[Patriarch]] of Constantinople. But this seniority has never been granted, and Russia has always ranked no higher than fifth among the Orthodox churches, after Jerusalem. The concept of Moscow the Third Rome also encouraged a kind of Muscovite Messianism, and led Russians sometimes to think of themselves as a chosen people who could do no wrong; and if taken in a political as well as religious sense, it could be used to further the ends of Russian secular imperialism. This may have led to the schism of the [[Old Believers]].

[[Categorie:Istoria Bisericii]]

[[Categorie:Eclesiologie]]

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