== Notes ==
*Some of these dates are necessarily a bit vague, as records for some periods are particularly difficult to piece together accurately. *The division of Church History into separate eras as we do here will always be to some extent arbitrary, though we have tried to <references group periods according to major watershed events. *This timeline is necessarily biased toward the history of the Orthodox Church, though a number of non-Orthodox events are mentioned for their importance in history related to Orthodoxy. ===Church and State===The Orthodox Church in Greece has been considered historically as the protector of the so-called “Hellenic Orthodox Civilization.” The actual role of the Orthodox Church since the creation of the Greek nation-state has been interpreted in many diverse and opposing ways; nevertheless, '''in all Greek Constitutions the Orthodox Church is accorded the status of the “prevailing religion"'''. <br>Article 3 of Greece's Constitution defines the relations between the Church and the State : :''"The prevailing religion in Greece is that of the Eastern Orthodox Church of Christ. The Orthodox Church of Greece, acknowledging our Lord Jesus Christ as its head, is inseparably united in doctrine with the Great Church of Christ in Constantinople and with every other Church of Christ of the same doctrine, observing unwaveringly, as they do, the holy apostolic and synodal canons and sacred traditions. It is autocephalous and is administered by the Holy Synod of serving Bishops and the Permanent Holy Synod originating thereof and assembled as specified by the Statutory Charter of the Church in compliance with the provisions of the Patriarchal Tome of June 29, 1850 and the Synodal Act of September 4, 1928."''<ref>"[http://www.greeceindex.com/About_Greece/Greek_Religion.html Religion of Greece]." at Greece Index.</ref> '''Greece is the only Orthodox state in the world'''. The relationship between the Church and the State can be characterized as ''[[w:Sui generis|sui generis]]'', since there is no complete separation nor is there an established church. The Church is the State-Church. The role of the Orthodox Church in maintaining Greek ethnic and cultural identity during the 400 years of Ottoman rule has strengthened the bond between religion and government. Most Greeks, whether personally religious or not, revere and respect the Orthodox Christian faith, attend church and major feast days, and are emotionally attached to Orthodox Christianity as their "nationalnote" religion. === Names of the Greeks ===The Greeks have been known by a number of different names throughout history. Their rise to great heights of power and lapse to near complete destruction were situations that were repeated more than once, which is perhaps why they are such a polyonymous people. The onset of every new historical era was accompanied by a new name, either completely new or old but forgotten, extracted from tradition or borrowed from foreigners. Every single one of them was significant in its own time. From ancient times to the present these included:* Achaeans (Αχαιοί)* Hellenes (Έλληνες)* Graeci (Γραικοί)* Romans (Ρωμαίοι)* Byzantines (Βυζαντινοί)* [[w:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Names_of_the_Greeks#Romans_.28.CE.A1.CF.89.CE.BC.CE.B1.CE.AF.CE.BF.CE.B9.29_and_Romioi_.28.CE.A1.CF.89.CE.BC.CE.B9.CE.BF.CE.AF.29|Romioi]] (Ρωμιοί) ===Patriarchate of Rome=== The Byzantine ''"themes"'' of Greece rebelled against the iconoclast emperor Leo III in 727 and attempted to set up their own emperor, although Leo defeated them. ''Up to this time Greece and the Aegean were still technically under the ecclesiastic authority of the Pope'', but Leo also quarreled with the Papacy; the defiant attitude of Popes St. Gregory II and St. [[Gregory III of Rome|Gregory III]], who summoned councils in Rome to anathematize and excommunicate the iconoclasts (730, 732) on behalf of image-veneration, led to a fierce quarrel with the emperor. Leo retaliated however by transferring the territories of southern Italy, Greece and the Aegean from the papal diocese to that of the the Patriarch of Constantinople, in effect throwing the Papacy out of the Empire.<br>Previously the lands which Leo ΙΙΙ now placed under the authority of the [[Church of Constantinople]], although subject to the civil rule of the emperor of Constantinople ever since the end of 395, had nevertheless depended upon Rome ecclesiastically, except for a few brief interruptions including: * In 421 (when a decree enacted by Emperor Theodosius II placed all churches within the pale of the ''Illyricum prefecture'' (then part of the Eastern Empire) subject to the Archbishop of Constantinople).* In 438, through the Theodosian Codex, ''Illyricum'' was again placed under Constantinopolitan jurisdiction.* To some extent during the Acacian schism, 484-519.'''Praetorian Prefecture of Illyricum'''<br>The ''Prefecture of Illyricum'' was named after the former province of Illyricum and was one of the four principal divisions of the Empire instituted by Diocletian. It originally included two dioceses, the ''Diocese of Pannoniae'' and the ''Diocese of Moesiae''. The Diocese of Pannoniae did not belong to the cultural Greek half of the empire, and it was transferred to the western empire when Theodosius I fixed the final split of the two empires in 395. The ''' ''Diocese of Moesiae'' ''' (later split into two dioceses: the ''Diocese of Macedonia'' and the ''Diocese of Dacia'') was the area known as "Eastern Illyricum", and in view of the detailed list of provinces given by Pope Nicholas Ι (858-67) in a letter in which he demanded the retrocession of the churches removed from papal jurisdiction in 732-33, this area seems to have been the region affected by Emperor Leo's punitive action. * The ''' ''Diocese of Macedonia'' ''' consisted of seven provinces: Achaia, Creta, Thessalia, Epirus vetus, Epirus nova, Macedonia Prima, Macedoniae salutaris (Secunda).* The ''' ''Diocese of Dacia'' ''' consisted of five provinces: Dacia mediterranea, Dacia ripensis, Moesia Prima, Dardania, Praevalitana.
== Published works ==
