ABSTRACT
The title at the head of this chapter is used merely for convenience, and not as implying any judgment on the correctness of the doctrines taught by the Church of which it treats —the Church, that is, of Constantinople, Russia, and the greater part of the Balkan Peninsula. Eastern Church is too wide a designation, as it seems to include Armenians, Nestorians, and other bodies with whom the Orthodox Church is not in communion ; and Greek Church is too narrow, and likely besides to give rise to serious misconceptions. It seems, therefore, simplest to describe this Church by the name she gives herself, Orthodox—or, in Russian, Pravo-slavny—just as we call a certain style of religious belief Evangelical, without necessarily implying that we think it accurately represents the teaching of the Gospel.
