In recent decades, linguists have paid considerable attention to the consideration of various terminological systems. Until now, the terms of material culture have been mainly studied. Despite the existence of a significant spiritual sphere for a person, religious vocabulary is insufficiently studied. The semantics of terms of religious content was considered by F. P. Sergeev in the work "Formation of Russian diplomatic terminology (According to written monuments of the XI-XVII centuries)" - Lviv, 1978.
In our study, we will focus on words that denote the hierarchy of the Christian Church, which is the basic principle of the organization of Orthodox and Catholic clergy and the subordination of clergy with church authority.
The common name for clergy of the highest degree of the Christian church hierarchy is hierarch (Greek) "a clergyman who has the episcopal rank, the supreme head of the church in the rank of bishop" (Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language. Edited by S. A. Kuznetsov, St. Petersburg, 2000). This word is used along with the lexemes bishop, archpastor (Markunas A., Uczitiel T. Leksykon chrzescijaristwa. Poznaii, 1999).
The basis of the Catholic church organization consists of three degrees of priesthood (deacon, priest, bishop), which are considered a divine institution, and in turn are divided into two ranks: the highest, consisting of those who receive their authority directly from the pope (cardinals, apostolic vicars), and the lowest, consisting of those whose authority comes from from the bishop (vicars general representing the bishop in the exercise of his jurisdiction, and synodics, i.e. members of the ecclesiastical tribunal appointed by the bishop).
Papa (lat. Pope is the title of the head of the Catholic Church, the supreme ruler of the Vatican City state. Full title of the Pope: Bishop of Rome, Vicar of Jesus Christ, successor of the Prince of the Apostles, Supreme Pontiff of the Universal Church, Patriarch of the West, Primate of Italy,
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Archbishop and Metropolitan of the Roman province, monarch of the Vatican City state, slave of the servants of God. The Pope is elected by a conclave of cardinals for life. According to the dogma of the Catholic Church, adopted by the First Vatican Council in 1870, the Pope is considered infallible in matters of faith and morality (Markunas A. et al. Edict. op.).
The second highest title in the hierarchy of the Catholic Church after the Pope belongs to the cardinal. cardindlis - chief, main), who is appointed by the Pope with the consent of the consistory-a meeting of the cardinal college. Cardinals make up the supreme council of the Pope, and they have the right to elect popes at a general meeting called a conclave. Among Catholics, the title of senior cardinal or bishop, who heads the college, is held by the deans (from Lat. decanus - rector of the cathedral chapter).
If the vicar (from Lat. vicarius-assistant, viceroy) If the Pope of Jesus Christ is the Pope of Rome for Catholics, then the apostolic vicar in Catholicism is the representative of the highest spiritual authority in places where there is no bishop (Markunas A. et al. Edict. op.). The common name vicar is found both in the vocabulary of Catholicism and Orthodoxy. In the Catholic Church, a vicar is an assistant bishop or parish priest; in the Orthodox Church, a bishop is a deputy or assistant bishop who manages the diocese.
Vicar in the second sense - a clergyman of the highest (third)degree a member of the Christian ecclesiastical hierarchy who replaces a ruling bishop who, due to some circumstances, is unable to perform the duties assigned to him for the administration of the diocese, or who helps him in this on a permanent basis. In the Russian Orthodox Church, this name was officially introduced in 1708. Vicars manage religious life in parishes united in the vicariate, and in this case they are accountable to the ruling bishop and perform ordination only with his knowledge.
As for the hierarchy of the Orthodox Church as an organizational form, there is a procedure for subordinating subordinate bodies - clergy and officials-to higher ones in strictly defined degrees. Black (monastic) clergy are the patriarch, metropolitan, archbishop, bishop, archimandrite, hierodeacon, etc. White clergy - presbyter, priest, archpriest, protopresbyter, deacon, etc. In the names of church ranks, there are a lot of borrowings from the Greek language. This is quite understandable: the structure of the Orthodox Church was borrowed from the Greeks, and almost all church positions, especially the highest ones, in the first period of Christianity in Russia were performed by the Greeks. Designations of ranks - patriarch, bishop, deacon, archdeacon, priest, etc. - entered the lexical system of the Old Russian language from Greek through Old Slavonic. All of them with-
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they kept their terminological unambiguity and for many epochs of language development did not leave the narrow sphere of church speech.
The common name for the highest ranks of the black clergy in the Orthodox church hierarchy - bishop (Greek) is recorded in secular explanatory dictionaries of the Russian language.
The head of the local Autocephalous Orthodox Church in a number of countries is the Patriarch (Greek), who is also endowed with the highest spiritual rank. As the highest rank of the Orthodox Church, it was introduced in 1589. Having existed until 1721, it was replaced by a Synod, but was re-established in 1917.
In the Russian Orthodox Church, the Patriarch is elected by the Local Council from among the bishops of the metropolitan city and, according to its charter, governs the Church jointly with the Holy Synod. He has the primacy of honor before the bishops and is accountable only to the Local and Episcopal Councils, and is an authorized representative of the Church before the state. The rank of patriarch is for life. Official ecclesiastical address to the Patriarch of Moscow and All Russia-Your Holiness. Some autocephalous Churches have adopted the address Your Beatitude, Archpriest (Markunas A. et al. Edict. op.).
In ancient monuments, the lexeme patriarch was used as the name of the ancestor of a clan or tribe (in biblical texts, patriarchs were called 12 sons of Jacob, the ancestors of the" tribes " of the Jewish people, one of them - Abraham) and as the title of a clergyman with the highest church authority.
In secular explanatory dictionaries, the Patriarch: 1) the head or elder of a clan or tribal community. 2) High. The oldest, most revered person in a certain group of people. // The person who is the oldest and most outstanding in any field of activity. 3) The Church. In Orthodoxy: title of a clergyman with the highest ecclesiastical authority; a person who holds this title. // Bishop who heads the local autocephalous Church (Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian language).
Metropolitan (Greek) - a spiritual rank in the Orthodox and some other churches, "a priest of the highest (third)degree degrees of the Christian church hierarchy" (Markunas A. et al. Edict. op.). In those churches where the patriarchate is established , it is the second rank after the patriarch. The lexeme metropolitan is recorded in secular explanatory dictionaries and is interpreted as "... the title of some bishops who govern particularly ancient or extensive dioceses; a person who bears this title" (Large Explanatory Dictionary of the Russian Language). Metropolitanate - the rank or district of a metropolitan.
One of the highest degrees in the Christian church hierarchy is also the ecclesiastical rank, called archbishop. It's spiritual
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the title occupies an intermediate position between bishop and metropolitan. The word archbishop (Greek) refers to a bishop who oversees several dioceses, as well as the honorary title of bishop in general.
Bishop is the name of the highest hierarch in many Christian churches (this is the highest spiritual rank in the Orthodox, Catholic, and Anglican churches, except for the Protestant one); clergyman (third) degrees in the church hierarchy from the black (monastic) clergy, managing the diocese. According to an ancient tradition, archimandrites - priests who have accepted the monastic order-are consecrated to the rank of bishop. Secular explanatory dictionaries interpret this word as "a person of the highest priestly rank from the black clergy who manages the diocese."
The Bible Encyclopedia considers only the word bishop out of all the names of the highest officials in Orthodoxy that we have given: "A bishop is one of the necessary degrees of the priesthood, the first and highest, since a bishop not only performs the sacraments, but also has the power to teach others through ordination the grace - filled gift of performing them" (The Bible Encyclopedia. Work and publication of Archimandrite Nikifor, Moscow, 1891).
Unlike Catholics and Orthodox Christians, Protestants do not have the title of bishop for life; its assignment is not a sacrament of the priesthood, but an appointment or election to a position. Currently, this lexeme is used both in the liturgical sphere and in the secular one.
Greek Archimandrite (from the Greek. - fence means senior over the fence, that is, monastery) denotes the highest spiritual rank among monks of the Orthodox Church, the honorary title of abbots of large monasteries, vicars of the lavra, as well as the honorary title of rectors of theological seminaries, heads of spiritual missions. In secular dictionaries, this word is interpreted as "the highest rank of the monastic clergy, preceding the bishop."
A degree lower from the black (monastic) clergy is the white clergy: priest (presbyter, priest), archpriest, protopresbyter, deacon.
The word priest (Greek) refers to an Orthodox clergyman who is allowed to conduct divine services independently and performs all the sacraments (rites), except for the priesthood. Synonyms of this lexeme are presbyter (Greek): 1) in the Orthodox and Catholic Churches - a priest; in Orthodoxy-a person of the middle (second) degree of the church hierarchy, who, through the ordination of a bishop, receives the right and duty to teach his flock, perform the sacraments for it; 2) in the Reformed Church-a senior, a secular representative of the community in the church council, as well as a priest (Greek).
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Greek priest both in the era of Ancient Russia and in later times remained in the sphere of church speech and was used mainly in translated monuments of religious content, in the texts of Holy Scripture.
The variety of terms that denote the concept of "priest" depended on the localization of a particular name. The common designation of a priest in the Old Russian language was the word pop, an old borrowing common in all Slavic languages, but the source of this borrowing is not exactly established (Fasmer M. A., the author of the article). Etymological Dictionary of the Russian language, Moscow, 1986). The widespread use in the colloquial language, parallel to the more official name-priest, has reduced the stylistic coloration of the word pop, and now it appears only with a negative-expressive connotation.
Senior priest, rector of the church-Archpriest (Greek. - high priest) - until the beginning of the XIX century - protopop (Greek). Protopresbyter (Greek. - senior priest) is an exclusively honorary title of the oldest by merit or authority of a priest. The initial component of these words, proto -, is an amplifying prefix that appears in additions modeled on Greek loanwords with proto - (Greek. protos - the first one).
The lowest spiritual rank in the Orthodox Church also includes the deacon/deacon (Greek). In the II-III centuries, the word deacon / deacon denoted an official position under a bishop; he was in charge of the economic affairs of the Christian community, then became an assistant priest in worship and administration of rites. Deacons / deacons - clergy of the lowest (first) degree of the Christian church hierarchy, they participate in the performance of church sacraments, serve bishops and presbyters, but do not perform the sacraments themselves; proclaim Litanies, read the Gospels, prepare everything necessary for the liturgy on the altar; directly report to the rector of the church. A deacon who becomes a monk is called a hierodeacon. A senior deacon / deacon in the white clergy is called a protodeacon (first deacon), and in monasticism - an archdeacon (senior deacon).
The Diaconate is an institution of lower ranks and the Catholic hierarchy. The functions and positions of deacons have changed over the course of the Church's history. In the Middle Ages, the diaconate was seen as a preliminary degree on the path to the priesthood. The Second Vatican Council restored the deacon as a permanent rank of the Catholic hierarchy (deacon - priest - bishop) with liturgical functions: the deacon assists the priest in performing the sacraments, preserves and distributes the host (wafers - small cakes made of unleavened wheat dough; from the Latin "sacrifice"), reads the Holy Scriptures, etc.
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