Are you sure you still want to claim you hold a PhD in history?
You know as well as I do that the eastern Roman empire out of Constantinople was fully THE Roman empire.
What people today call the Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church is officially called The One Catholic Apostolic Church and that Greeks up until recently self-identified as Romans.
In some nations (Arabs, Turks, Persians) variations of the name Roman is what they called the Greeks or "Greek Orthodox Christians".
Greek Rite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic (as opposed to Latin Catholic) all are interchangeable, etc.
See also Mosocow's claim to be the "Third Rome".
What was your thesis on, 'doc'?
You wrote:
“What people today call the Orthodox Church or the Greek Orthodox Church is officially called The One Catholic Apostolic Church and that Greeks up until recently self-identified as Romans.”
Uh, no. First, there is no such thing as the “Orthodox Church” but many churches. We commonly use the expression “Orthodox Church” as a collective term for convenience. Also, the Greek Church you’re talking about did not officially call itself “The One Catholic Apostolic Church” in the 9th century or today. That is a description taken from the Nicene Creed. Perhaps you picked that up from the wikipedia page on the Ecumanical Patriarch. If you hit the link, you’d go here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/One,_Holy,_Catholic,_and_Apostolic_Church
“In some nations (Arabs, Turks, Persians) variations of the name Roman is what they called the Greeks or “Greek Orthodox Christians”.”
No. The Turks call the church based in Istanbul (what we today call the Ecumenical Patriachate) the Patriachate of the Romans because of its Byzantine past.
“Greek Rite, Greek Orthodox, Greek Catholic (as opposed to Latin Catholic) all are interchangeable, etc.”
No. Completely wrong. Greek Orthodox, for instance, belong to this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Church_of_Greece or this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecumenical_Patriarch_of_Constantinople .
Greek Catholics, on the other hand, belong to churches like this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byzantine_Catholic
They are, in other words, completely different institutions, with different bishops, and different loyalties. The Greek Orthodox are loyal to Orthodox bishops while the Greek Catholics are loyal to Catholic bishops.
If this is a sign of your proficiency, then you might want to start over.
“See also Mosocow’s claim to be the “Third Rome”.”
I know all about it. And clearly you can’t tell the difference between a descriptive term from the Creed and the actual official name of the churches of the East. How sad for you.
“What was your thesis on, ‘doc’?”
Where is your proof for these claims:
1) “This is laid the groundwork for the resentment that long simmered against the Latin church.”
and
2) “Moravians fought to return to the ‘eastern Greek rite’.”