Yesterday was St. Gregory Palamas. In order to prepare for the feast, I decided to do some research on the Archbishop. It turns out that one of his worst critics was a former Orthodox, later Catholic theologian named
Demetrios Kydones. Kydones wrote several dissertations about why the Empire should "return" to the Papacy. Among them was a statement from
Apologia which he describes the "final authority" argument still used by Catholics to this day. But, what he touches on indirectly references the Protestant Reformation:
Would not every matter of faith have to end with a question mark if there indeed be no final seat of authority in the Church? There can be no certitude anywhere, if none is worthy of credibility. Then we are no longer talking about the religion which St. Paul described as one; rather there will be as many religions as there are leaders, or worse still, none at all! Every believer will suspect everyone else and will proceed to pick and choose whatever belief suits him. Then, as in a battle fought in the dark, we will be striking at our own friends, and they at us. How the non-believers will enjoy our antics, because we Christians are now engaged in endless bickering among ourselves, since none of us wants to concede anything to anyone else.
The bolded sections are truly prophetic when you consider that the 15th and 16th centuries devolved Europe into a series of religious wars. Thankfully, as Orthodox Christians, we know how to answer this questions, but, to date, Protestants do not.
