I Confess One Baptism

Publication Data: Holy Mountain, Greece: St. Paul’s Monastery, 1994
Format: softcover
Number of Pages: 143
Dimensions (l × w × h): 20.8 cm × 14.1 cm × 1.0 cm
ISBN: 960‒85542‒0‒9

   
Protopresbyter George D. Metallinos
Translated by Priestmonk Seraphim

“The debate over the validity of the baptism of non-Orthodox who come over to Orthodoxy, a very old problem of the Church, flared up around the middle of the eighteenth century in the see of the Ecumenical Patriarchate, during the reign of Cyril V beginning in 1750. The reopening of the problem by this Patriarch, who imposed (re)baptism of Western converts, provoked vehement disputes that survived in print as a very rich production of relevant literature. Hence this issue, together with the ‘kollyva dispute’ that broke out around the same time, theologically stamp the eighteenth century, otherwise relatively poor in theological interest. The question of how the (early) heretics were to be received was synodically resolved by the early Church through, among others, Canon VII of the Second Ecumenical Council. Therefore, it was reasonable that, in the solutions also proposed for regulating the matter in the eighteenth century, an interpretation of this Canon be attempted applying it now to the case of the later heretices, i.e. the Westerners in general, and specifically the Latins.”
—“INTRODUCTION”

CONTENTS

Foreword
Preface to the English Edition
Preface to the Greek Edition
Abbreviations
INTRODUCTION
I. The PRINCIPAL FIGURES
   1. The Kollyvades Fathers of the Holy Mountain
   2. Constantine Oikonomos of the Oikonomoi
   3. Cyril V, Patriarch of Constantinople
II. INTERPRETATION OF THE CANON
   1. Ecclesiological and canonical presuppositions
   2. Authenticity of the Canon
   3. Interpretation of the Canon
   4. Summary
III. APPLICATION OF THE CANON
   1. Latins are “heretics” and “unbaptized”
   2. Latins are “in need of baptism”
   3. Explanation of the Orthodox Church’s action in dealing with the Latins
      a) Until the Council of Florence
      b) After Florence
IV. CRITICAL EVALUATION
   1. The position of the Ecumenical Patriarchate
   2. The action of Patriarch Cyril V
   3. The policy in Russia
EPILOGUE
APPENDIX I
   Holy Canons dealing with Baptism
APPENDIX II
   Oros of the holy Great Church of Christ on the baptism of converts form the West (1755/56)
APPENDIX III
   (Re)baptism of Latins on the Ionian Islands in the Nineteenth Century
About the Author
By the Same Author