who had embraced the Augustan Confession at Vilna in the year 1599. Here several Proposals were made about their uniting in Spirituals which met at first with opposition from the ignorance and obstinacy of the Lithuanian Bishops and Priests and became afterwards upon a sedate reflexion on things more inclinable to terms of peace and reconciliation But they being unwilling to determine any thing of this nature without consulting the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Alexandria there was a stop put to the Debate for a time while Letters were dispatch'd away from the Evangelici about this excellent design which afterward fell to the ground and proved abortive It was much about this time that Sigismund out of his great zeal to the Roman Church had published an Edict for the preventing the farther spreading of the Greek Religion in his Dominions and forbidding Strangers to enter there without leave and soon after wrote a Letter to Patriarch Meletius to perswade and advise him to acknowledge and submit to the Pope of Rome This Letter he answered with all due and becoming respect desiring the King to bestow his Royal favour upon Cyril his Exarchus or Nuntio a Person both for learning and integrity very worthy of it A tua verò clementia hoc quidem tempore petimus ut reverendum Patrem Cyrillum Lucari Exarchum hujus Apostolicae sedis filium nostrum favore Regio dignetur hominem Probitate eruditione Regio favore dignissimum In this second journey from his Patriarch meeting with great opposition from the other Party who were favoured by the Government and finding that the answer of Meletius to the Protestant Divines would disgust the King and all of the Roman Communion he forbore either to deliver or make it publick And here it was in all probability that reflecting upon the great hazards which he ran during his stay in those parts his heart failed him if it be true what Petrus Scarga a Jesuite who had been Chaplain to the three Ambassadours at Bresta saith that in a Letter written at Leopolis in January 1601 and left with the Archbishop of that City he published a Confession of Faith agreeable to the Roman However if it were so he redeemed this slip of humane infirmity with undaunted resolution and courage in the future course of his life which he afterwards sacrificed as it were in a way of expiation His active way of life and knowledge of the world gained by his travels and employments in several matters of concern relating to Religion and the State of the Greek Church render'd him every-where conspicuous and worthy in the judgment of those who knew him of the highest dignity of that Church for which he seemed every way fit and proper The Patriarchal See of Alexandria becoming vacant he was chosen to succeed Meletius as being a person of a publick spirit and of equal zeal and learning and prudence Here he continued above nineteen years The great deference which the other Oriental Patriarchs of the Greek Communion pay to the chief See that of Constantinople puts them upon frequent voiages thither as the affairs of their respective Churches require Here he came about the beginning of the year 1612. In the Lent following a certain Kaloir a Neapolitan born in a Lent-Sermon having received his instructions from the Jesuits with whom he had daily conversation said many things in favour of the Romish Religion to the great distraction of the minds of the People But he was opposed herein by Cyrillus who perceiving the designs of the Jesuits who began to grow confident of success was resolved to set himself against them and ever after detested them vehemently It pleased God that during his last being in that City Neophytus the Patriarch died At such a time horrid quarrels and dissensions usually happen among the Metropolitans and Bishops about the choice of a new Patriarch of which the Turks greedy of mony know how to make a mighty advantage For the chief Vizir and the Bassa's expect in such cases that the several Pretenders should make application to them Without the Grand Signor's confirmation no one dares accept the title or exercise the power of a Patriarch nor dare the Greeks refuse whom they impose be the person otherwise never so unfit or the Election of another never so Canonical Cyril had a great party among the Bishops who wish'd that the Primary conduct and management of the affairs of their Religion might be committed to him and therefore were very zealous in his promotion to the Patriarchate To prevent which the opposite Faction made use of the accustomed evil arts of bribing the Turks and proffer'd to advance considerably the yearly Tribute which they pay the Emperour for the Exercise of their Religion so Timotheus Bishop of Marmara might be the man Mony doing all things in Turkie they got him establisht Patriarch The new Patriarch which is usual makes use of the Interest which he has lately gained with his masters the Turks and prosecutes such as opposed him and banishes and displaces as his passion suggests and as he finds himself able Among them the Competitor especially could not hope to find any favour and therefore retires or rather is driven away Timotheus not long after dies though Allatius a most passionate and virulent Writer who cares not what stories though never so false and scanâ—dalous he picks up from any discontented Greek so they reflect upon the honour of Cyrillus or such as favoured him will have him poisoned at an Entertainment at the Dutch Ambassadour's and further adds as if they being afraid that the poisonous wine which he drank should not have the desired effect that the Physician who was sent for was hired with a thousand zechins to accelerate his death by stronger medicaments Whereupon Cyril was chosen unanimously and without any opposition to succeed him the 26. day of October in the year 1621 doubtless to the great regret and trouble of the Latinizing Greeks and especially the Jesuits and Friers who by the permission of the Grand Signor under the protection of several Ambassadours of the Roman Communion kept up the Service of their Church in their respective Convents For they were very sensible what an active man Cyril was and with what zeal he had declared himself against their several Innovations and Encroachments and thence they could not but conclude that now having attained to this supereminent Dignity in the Eastern Church he would vindicate the honour of his See and by degrees work off the Greeks from those Errours and Mispersuasions into which they had insensibly faln and introduce a Reformation among them And now began with this new Honour the most laborious and troublesome part of his whole life from the bitterness and fierceness of the Roman Zealots who were so exasperated against him that they were resolved by all imaginable artifice and policy either to gain him or ruine him and to that purpose they thought fit
which now belong to the Greeks are narrow and mean and without any rich furniture whereby they become less liable to be made a prey to the covetousness of the Infidels who are wont to envy the Christians the use of any thing that is rich and beautifull Christianity here as to the exteriour part of it being reduced to the same state and condition as it was in before the times of Constantine the Great when their Sacred Conventions sometimes forbid by the cruel Edicts of the Heathenish Proconsuls and other Magistrates under most severe penalties and made Treason against the Government were kept secret in Grotta's and Caves under ground and when tolerated and connived at in obscure and unadorned Chappels which had nothing to attract either envy or emulation or to please and gratify the eye and fancy but where God was worshipt in the Beauties of holiness These Churches they still enjoy by virtue of the Grant made them by the Emperour Mahomet at his triumphal entrance into and taking possession of this Imperial City it being their interest not to depopulate it wholly of Greeks but in case of any ruine or breach caused by Fire or Earthquake or any other unforeseen accident they are utterly forbid to rebuild or repair them without leave which is not obtained without great difficulty and vast summs of money too the Turks presuming I suppose that if their Churches were once demolisht their Religion would sensibly decay and in process of time be wholly extinguisht It concerns the Greeks therefore to be carefull as indeed they are of these Sacred Structures upon the least defect in the walls or roof as soon as 't is visible lest it being neglected they be necessitated to purchase the good will of the Cadyes with expencefull Bribes to keep up and maintain the Fabrick There are about six and twenty Churches in Constantinople whose names here follow as they were communicated to me by a Greek Priest when I was upon the place The Patriarchal Church dedicated to the B. Virgin S. Nicolas not far from Sancta Sophia if I do not misremember S. George The Holy Virgin S. Nicolas S. Carpus These four are in the Streets towards the Propontis not far from Psamathia-Gate S. Constantine in Caramania-Street hard by the Seven Towers The Holy Virgin in Belgrade-Street The Holy Virgin in New-Street Another near the Gun-Gate S. Demetrius in the Street called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 S. George near Adrianople-Gate The Holy Virgin Queen or Lady of Heaven in the same Street S. Demetrius near the Wood-Gate The Holy Virgin near the Crooked-Gate The Holy Virgin in Arabage Meidan or Arabian Market-place The Holy Virgin near Balini S. Nicolas of the Achridians The Chappell of the Holy Sepulchre The Holy Virgin S. George S. Nicetas near the house of the Prince of Walachia The Holy Virgin near the house of the Prince of Moldavia The Holy Virgin near the Patriarchal Church called for distinction 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the little Church S. George near the Lantern-Gate S. John belonging to the Patriarch of Alexandria There were about seven Christian Churches burnt down in the dismal fire that happened about fifteen or sixteen years ago near Condoscali by the Sand-Gate some of which they thought to have re-built having procured leave from the Caimacam or Governour of Constantinople but the Imams and other zealous Turks remonstrating against it they were commanded to desist They have likewise six Churches at Galata which are The Holy Virgin Christ hanging upon the Cross S. Demetrius near Sophana the place where the Turks cast their Guns and where I have seen several Cannon and Field-pieces taken from Christian Princes S. Nicolas Christ's S. John They have a small Church in the Bagno where a Greek Priest is sometimes permitted to come and officiate before the poor Slaves of their Communion at such time as the Armata of Gallies is returned from visiting the Isles in the Arches or any such like Summer-expedition Not to mention the Churches belonging to the Towns and Villages near Constantinople on either side of the Bosphorus Those glorious and magnificent Piles of building mentioned by Procopius the Authour of the Survey made in the times of Theodosius Junior Cedrenus and Codinus which latter lived a little before Constantinople was taken which the Piety of several Emperours had raised in honour of our Religion at so vast an expence in Constantinople and the like is to be said of the other great Cities under the dominion of the Grand Signor are either levelled with the ground and new Foundations built upon them or else seized upon by the Turks pleased with the curious Architecture and turned into Moschs upon the taking of that City with some little alteration the better to accommodate them to the Uses of their Religious Worship the Chancells being laid open and the curious Images in Mosaick disfigured We may guess at the richness and beauty and glory of the rest by those few which remain of which I shall onely mention the Churches of Saint Sophia and of the Holy Apostles The former which is now the chief seat of the Mahometan Worship as it was before of the Christian was called so in honour of our Blessed Saviour who is the Wisedom of the Father built by the Emperour Justinian according to the contrivance and modell of the two famous Architects of that Age Anthemius of Tralles and Isidorus of Miletum upon which he had set his heart so much that he judged no cost great enough in order to the accomplishment of his design as if this had been the crown and perfection of all those glorious actions both in peace and war for which his Reign is so deservedly famous At the Dedication whereof after he had given solemn thanks to Almighty God who had enabled him to finish it and had continued him alive to see the holy Triumphs of that day he could not contain himself but brake out into rapturous expressions of joy saying O Solomon I have got the better of thee And if we may give credit to Codinus he caused the Statue of that King to be placed near the Regia Cisterna sitting in a Chair and in a melancholick posture leaning upon his elbow with his eyes turned toward Sancta Sophia By which kind of Emblem he designed to represent the great Grief that would seize upon him if he were to be restored to life for some time to see this Church so much out-shine the Temple he had the honour to build at Jerusalem The Turks call this Church with very little alteration from the Greek Aïa Sophia the Greeks in their ordinary discourse as formerly in their writings before it fell into the hands of the barbarous Infidels the great Church or the great Holy Church The Church of the Holy Apostles where the Reliques of S. Andrew S. Luke and S. Timothy
the other Countries of Greece the Islands of the Aegaean and Ionian Seas Dalmatia Albania Walachia and Moldavia But as for those Countries that lie North of Thrace toward Mount Haemus on the one hand and bounded by the Danube on the other they remain exempt from his Jurisdiction and enjoy the privilege of being independent on any other then their own Metropolitans according to the Constitutions of the Emperours who rais'd them to that dignity Such are the Archbishop of Justiniana Prima or Achridae who claims this privilege from the times of the Emperour Justinian who to doe honour to the Country where he was born equalled it in dignity to an Apostolical See and made it altogether absolute and free He is Primate of all Bulgaria and has under him about eighteen Bishops though it must be acknowledged that some who have enjoyed this Title have come to the Patriarch of Constantinople to be consecrated But this can no more be alleged as a prejudice and bar to their just liberty and power then it might be to the Patriarchs of Alexandria who have sometimes received their Consecration in the same place Next the Archbishop of Pecium a City of Servia who governs that whole Country with the assistence of sixteen Bishops These two Countries make up the higher and lower Moesia of the Ancients Then the Archbishops of Georgia and Mingrelia And lastly the Archbishop of the Island of Cyprus who has three or four Suffragans being free from the pretensions of the Patriarch of Constantinople as well as of Antioch But notwithstanding these immunities all of them yield a mighty deference to the chief See and upon occasion according as they are able contribute to support the necessities of it For besides the Present they are obliged to make upon the Presentation of a new Patriarch who is always to be confirmed by the Grand Signor or Vizir who indeed do oftentimes impose such as they think fit a yearly summe is now exacted in the way of Tribute Emanuel Malaxus in his History of the Patriarchs of Constantinople from the taking of the City to his own time that is to the year 1577 tells us that the Elections of the four first Patriarchs were free and how that afterward upon a Present of a thousand Ducats of Gold made in favour of a certain Kaloir of Trapezond named Symeon whom his Countrymen especially desir'd to make Patriarch the Turks took advantage of their forwardness and made it a standing rule and precedent for the future and the summ was soon doubled and trebled and not long after turned into a yearly Tribute And this has been encreasing ever since by the covetousness and rapaciousness of the Turks to which the horrid Differences and Dissentions among the Greeks have given too great an occasion as I shall have occasion to shew immediately by late examples The Sultana and the Favourites and great Officers of the Port besides the yearly Presents made to them also are to be bribed lustily upon all occasions so that the standing and accidental Charge of the Patriarch put both together make a great summ for which he is responsible For the raising of this mony with which they buy the liberty of their Religion there is a certain Tax or portion of mony payable by every Metropolitan and Bishop besides what is given at their Consecration for he usually makes them every year which they receive from the several Priests under their Jurisdiction according to the value of their Incomes To collect these summs or honourable Presents he deputes one of his Dependents every year as his Legate whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and sometime upon occasion he goes himself in person to visit for the same purpose Mony comes in also from the Ordination of Priests that are within his particular Diocese who pay him so many Dollers a year as their Livings are worth from granting Licences of Marriage and Dispensations and from Law-suits judicially heard before him For to prevent the ill consequences of running to the Turks for Justice they usually appeal to him as to their Judge in Civil causes and are concluded by his sentence and determination under the grievous penalty of being excommunicated which they dread more then death it self For if they refuse to stand to his arbitrement and decision they are ipso facto deprived of the benefit of the Sacraments and in case any should be so hardy and obstinate as not to endeavour quickly to be reconciled to the Church unless he has a mind to turn Turk to gain his pretended right by suing his Adversary before a Cady or in the Divan the Patriarch and those about him will spare for no charge to get such a one condemned to the Gallies for a certain time till they have conquered his refractoriness of humour and brought him to terms of submission this being the main pillar and support of their Government But they seldome make use of this rigorous and expencefull course a Principle of conscience in the persons concern'd hindring the prosecution of it and making them afraid to transgress therein while they remember that chiding expostulation of S. Paul in his Epistle to the Corinthians 1 Epist 6. 1. as if it had been particularly directed unto them Dare any of you having a matter against another go to law before the unjust and not before the Saints The Patriarch in the determination of causes brought before him has the assistence of twelve of the chief Officers belonging to the Patriarchal Church and dignity These also assist the Archbishop of Heraclea in vesting and crowning him at his Inauguration and still retain the same high titles as they did before the Turks came among them These are as it were his standing Council to whom he refers the great affairs and concerns of Religion Lastly several devout persons that by their hand-labour and frugal way of living or otherwise have advanced their fortunes and have scraped some mony together leave it oftentimes in the way of Legacy to the Church to serve the needs of it By all which ways and means the Patriarch as I was made to believe may receive between thirty and forty thousand Dollers a year But this being matter of conjecture and wholly uncertain I lay not any great stress upon it and determine nothing in the case The Patriarch most commonly is chosen out of the number of the Bishops who according to the present constitution and practice of that Church are Kaloirs of the Order of S. Basil and bred up for the most part at mount Athos and consequently under a vow of Celibacy To derive a greater lustre upon the Episcopal Dignity and Function their menial servants and such as attend them are usually in Deacons Orders When they address to him the usual style is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Holy Father or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 your Holiness
and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 most Blessed Father or your Blessedness that they may not be behind-hand with the Romanists in expressing the great esteem and veneration they have of the Patriarch whom they make equal in all respects with the Pope As formerly ambition and greedy thirst after the highest Dignities and preferments in the Church occasioned great disorders and distractions amongst the People according as they took part and sometime introduced a Schism whereby Altar was set up against Altar to the great scandal of Religion and breach of Christian Communion the Heathen making sport at these Divisions and taking advantage hereby to oppress and ruine both parties So it is still the Peace and Quiet and the great and real Interest of Christianity being oftentimes sacrificed to this restless Passion The oppression which the Greeks lie under from the Turks though very sad and dismal in it self becomes more uneasy and troublesome by their own horrid Quarrels and Differences about the choice of a Patriarch there being oftentimes several Pretenders among the Metropolitans and Bishops and they too making an interest by large summs of mony in the Vizir or the other Bassa's to attain their ends He who by his mony and his friends has prevail'd and has defeated his Competitors will endeavour to reimburse himself and lay the burthen and debt which he has contracted upon the Church which must pay for all while the rest who envy his preferment and are vext at their disappointment unite their interest and strength to get him displaced by remonstrating against his injustice and ill management of affairs and put up fresh Petitions to the Turks and bribe lustily to be heard The Turks glad of such an opportunity of gain readily enough admit their Complaint and put out and put in as they see occasion In the mean while large sums of mony are usually taken up at a great interest by the contending Parties to carry on these foolish and un-christian Quarrels Sometime beside the reigning Patriarch there have been three others alive at the same time who have enjoyed the Title Such were in the years 1669 1670. Païsius Dionysius and Parthenius the Patriarch then being the most Reverend Father Methodius before Archbishop of Heraclea But I concluded from the murmurings and dissatisfactions I observed among the Greeks that he would not continue long in that dignity and the event soon justified my fears For Parthenius being a man of an unquiet temper and not able to brook his former disgrace makes in with the Vizir and recovers his former pretensions and by the usual arts prevails and was restored to the Patriarchal throne Methodius being thrown into prison by the Caimacam or Governour of Constantinople But he being after some time restored to his liberty by the new Governour and thinking himself not safe from the malice and revenge of Parthenius who had got him displaced takes sanctuary in my Lord Embassadour's Palace at Pera where he had all manner of good accommodation Parthenius by his imperious carriage and cruell exactions grew hatefull to the Bishops of his See and to the generality of the Greeks whereupon they accuse him of fraud and injustice and that he had detained for his private use the yearly tribute due to the Emperour which had been collected whereupon the Turks were content to displace him provided that they made good the same summ Thus after eight months sitting he was banished to the Island of Cyprus and Dionysius Archbishop of Larissa made Patriarch In this state of affairs I left Turky what has happened since I leave to the relation of others While I reflect upon these Revolutions and Changes I am filled at the same time with amazement and pity and cannot but put up this hearty prayer to Almighty God and I doubt not but that whosoever shall cast his eyes upon these Papers will joyn with me as heartily in it that He would be pleased to inspire the Grecian Bishops with sober and peaceable counsels that laying aside all partiality and the consideration of base worldly interest they may study the good and quiet of their Church and see at last in this day of their most severe Visitation the things which belong to their peace before they be hid from their eyes and before their name and Religion be quite lost and extinguisht To which sad doom these horrid Differences seem fatally to enclose them The State of the Greek Church as to the number and order of the severall Metropoliticall and Episcopal Sees now subject to the Patriarchate of Constantinople is vastly different from what it was in ancient times as may easily appear by comparing the following List which I received from a very able and learned hand whilst I lived in Constantinople with any of the ancient Notitia's or Surveys For alas besides the Alterations and Changes which happen in the succession of several Ages since the ruine of their Empire such great Confusions have followed that there seems to be a new face of things Some Ecclesiasticall Dignities being lost in the ruine of those Cities from whence they were denominated others retaining onely the Title severall Metropolitans being without Suffragans as the Archbishop of Caesarea to whose Jurisdiction formerly eight Bishops were subject others having onely two or three some few retaining a greater number according as the Christians are more or less in the several Districts A Catalogue of the Metropolitanships and Bishopricks at this day subject to the Throne of Constantinople which consisting onely of bare Names when I received it I have inserted a few explications to make it the better understood Caesarea Ephesus Heraclea The Archbishop of this See challenges a right of consecrating the Patriarch which custome is still continued He writes himself Exarchus of all Thrace and Macedonia and has five Bishopricks under him which are Callipolis a maritim City on the Propontis Rodesto situated upon the same Sea Tyriloe Metra and Myriophyton up in the Continent of Thrace Ancyra Cyzicus Philadelphia Nicomedia before which formerly was Sardes now utterly extinguisht Chalcedon now a poor Village onely with one Church in it dedicated to S. Euphemia In the whole Province there may be about sixty Churches and no more Thessalonica This Archbishop has Jurisdiction over all Thessaly and has for Suffragans the Bishops of Citros anciently called Pydna Servia Campania Petra Ardamerion Hierissus and Mount Athos Plantamon and Poleanina Athens Under this Metropolis are the Bishopricks of Talantium Sâ—yrros Solon and Mendinitza Prusia Trapezond Philippolis Philippi and Drama Thebes Methymna Lacedaemon under which are the Bishopricks of Cariopolis Amiclae and Brestena Larissa under which are the Bishopricks of Demetrias Zetonion Stagon Thaumacus Gardicion Radobisdion Sciathus Loidoricion Letza and Agrapha Adrianople to which onely belongs the Bishoprick of Agathopolis Smyrna Mitylene Serrae Christianopolis the same with Arcadia Amasia in Cappadocia Neo-Caesarea Iconium Corinth under which the
runs thus Thou O Lord remit pardon and forgive the Sins committed by thy Servants again Be pleased to absolve thy Servants according to thy word again Do thou pardon as being our good and gracious God again Our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ pardon all these Sins which thou hast confest before him to my Meanness and those which thou hast forgotten again Thou O Lord pardon this thy Servant all those Sins which he hath committed by me thy poor unworthy Servant and be reconciled to him and unite him to thy Holy Church again God pardon thee by me who am a Sinner that is by my Ministery and sometimes very briefly in the vulgar language 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Be thou pardoned or absolved Out of this great variety it is most clear and evident that the sentence of Absolution is not pronounced by the Priest who is the onely Minister of this sacred Rite in his own proper person much less judicially but onely in the way of supplication or deprecation So that we may here justly conclude this form My Meanness absolves thee or the other which is more plain and express I absolve thee from all the Sins which thou hast confest before God and before my Vnworthiness or the third I pardon all thy Sins to be upstart and novell and borrowed from the Latines whom they love to imitate in most things This authority of the Church in inflicting and relaxing Censures is generally esteemed sacred venerable and divine and consequently of great efficacy and does very much conduce as I have intimated before to the preservation of the Christian Religion among them For fear of these Censures they are not onely affrighted from the commission of those Sins which would bring a scandal upon their holy Profession this argument prevailing more with slavish and degenerous minds then considerations of modesty or the loveliness and agreeableness of Vertue to humane nature but from running to the Turkish Judges for justice For they look upon the person to be in a most desperate condition and as undone for ever in the other world who dies unabsolved from the sentence of Excommunication that was canonically past upon him Such great power has the dread and reverence of Ecclesiasticall Authority over this querulous and contentious people If any person happen to die before the Excommunication be taken off the general belief is that his body feels the sad effects of it in the grave and quickly becomes black the bloud no way clotted or dried up notwithstanding its stagnation and all the parts remaining entire in their natural posture without the least alteration and this for ten or twelve months after or longer except that the skin hardens and swells like a drum whence the person is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that this is caused by the Devil 's entring into it Stories pass current among them of the walking of their Ghosts especially in the night-time not onely in the Church-yards but in the Streets and knocking at the doors of the houses and calling them by their names The Greeks are so timorous and superstitious herein that they will not answer any one in the dark at the first call though they know his voice never so well for fear it should be this Spirit for then they look upon themselves as dead men and fall into an irrecoverable melancholy This opinion is so rooted in their minds that there is no perswading them to the contrary They will tell you of matter of fact how several graves have been opened and the bodies found undissolved though I could not hear of the success of the experiment notwithstanding my diligent enquiry But I found the Priests equally credulous not so much out of design to keep the poor people in awe of the Church-censures as out of weakness being led away with the same popular errour The Bishops accordingly in their Briefs when they forbid any thing to be done threaten the transgressours that they shall be separated from God and cursed and deprived of the use and benefit of the Sacrament and after death their bodies shall swell and be undissolved And this latter is inserted in the sentence of Excommunication to adde to the horrour and terrour of it At the same time they will tell you that as soon as the Dead person has been absolved at Constantinople by the Patriarch or by the Bishop of the Province the body though buried in some of the Islands in the Arches or at what great distance soever immediately corrupts and dissolves and crumbles into ashes This indulgence is procured and granted to the Dead and read over his grave with several Prayers to the same purpose They have the same fearfull apprehensions of an evil Spirit called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which they pretend to be let loose the twelve days of the Christmas-Solemnity and possess Children born within that space during which time also the little Boys and Girls dare not go abroad in the night-time for fear of meeting this Hobgoblin but hasten home before Sun-set The Turks seem to be infected with the like Superstition for they will scarâ—e venture to Sea till after the waters are blest by the Christians that is till after the Twelfth day the Festival of the Baptism of our Saviour when that Ceremony is performed grosly imagining that in their voyage they shall be met and sunk by a brazen Ship They usually also fright their Children with stories of Apparitions and Spectres which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which word properly denotes any thing drest up in an odd ridiculous shape and habit All clandestine Espousals are severely forbidden and therefore they are never lawfully done but before witnesses and sometime to ratify and confirm them the more before a Priest At such time they go to Church and standing before the middle door of the Chancell the Priest having made the sign of the Cross upon their heads delivers lighted Tapers into their hands and descends with them into the body of the Church where after some Collects he produces two Rings the one of gold the other of silver which before had as it were been consecrated by being put upon the Altar and gives the former to the Man and the latter to the Woman repeating these words thrice The Servant of God such a one espouses the Servant of God such a one in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost now and for ever Amen Which form mutatis mutandis he turning toward the Woman uses as often Immediately after the Paranymph or Bride-man takes the Rings from off their fingers and makes an exchange the Priest then joyning their hands And this is done as well that the Woman might not too much resent the inferiority of her condition represented by the Ring of the less noble metall as to signify that she is to be admitted into an
AN ACCOUNT OF THE Greek Church AS TO Its Doctrine and Rites of Worship WITH Several Historicall Remarks interspersed relating thereunto To which is added An Account of the State of the Greek Church under Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of Constantinople with a Relation of his Sufferings and Death By THO. SMITH B. D. and Fellow of S. Mary Magdalen College Oxon. LONDON Printed by Miles Flesher for Richard Davis in Oxford MDCLXXX TO THE Right Reverend Father in God HENRY Lord Bishop of London Dean of His MAJESTIE's Chappel-Royall AND One of the Lords of His MAJESTIE's most Honourable Privy Council My Lord IF I had no particular obligation to your Lordship the very Argument of the following Observations upon a Presumption at least that they are faithfully made and collected would soon have determined my choice and suggested to me where I ought to address my self in a Dedication How highly your Lordship has merited of the Greek Church by taking it into your care and by opening a Sanctuary for the poor distressed Bishops and Priests of that Communion to fly unto is not unknown at Constantinople and whatever the success of it may be They cannot be so unjust as not to applaud your Lordships design as worthy of your great Charity and Piety to relieve the necessities of those whom either curiosity and love of learning shall draw into these parts or Turkish cruelty and persecution shall drive and force out of their own Country and at the same time to reduce them from those errours and corruptions which have of late crept in among them by bringing them into a nearer and more familiar acquaintance with the Doctrin and rites of Worship establisht in the Church of England It cannot be doubted in the least that the most likely way to effect this excellent design was not onely to permit but to encourage the building of a Church in London for their Nation where they might enjoy the free exercise of their Worship in all things that are decent and inoffensive and any way essential to their Religion That this has been done with such Christian generosity and prudence they owe next to His Majesty unto your Lordship whom they must for ever look upon as their great Patron And if the Governours of their Church have not such a grateful resentment of the favour as it highly challenges and deserves or if They who enjoy the happiness and benefit should render themselves less worthy of it yet your Lordship will not lose your reward with God and all good men consider it as the effect of that publick and generous mind which has been so conspicuous in all parts of your Lordships conduct With what a steday courage your Lordship has defended the Church of England in this day of Trial against the furious assaults of her restless enemies the Papists on the one hand and the Giddy Sectaries on the other who both agree in the same designs of pulling down the Hierarchy and overturning the Government in order to her more effectual ruine all her true and genuine Sons who love and pray for her peace and prosperity cannot but most gratefully acknowledge And though the spirit of fury rages still and is not to be charmed or allayed by that mildness and sweetness of temper which is so natural in your Lordship yet they cannot but inwardly admire you against whom they have onely this to object that you are a Bishop It is for the great honour of our Church that we can ballance your Lordship against any of your renowned Predecessours and against the most celebrated Bishops of the Church of Rome as Antonine Borromeo and Sales and it is the great happiness of our Church too that a Person of such Illustrious Birth and Merit is advanced to so high a Station and Dignity in it It will be the proper work of those who shall write the History of our Times to transmit a full character of your Lordships worth to Posterity which when envy and malice are laid aside and an impartial judgment is made of Persons and Things will always pay a great respect and honour to your Name and Memory and therefore it will better suit with my Meanness with my Function and with my Obligations to pray to Almighty God to continue such a publick Blessing to his Church and to profess my self in the highest degree of duty My Lord Your Lordship 's most Humble and most Obedient Servant Tho. Smith TO THE READER HAving obliged my self by Promise in a Letter which I wrote from Constantinople in the year 1669. to an Honourable Gentleman at Whitehall upon my return into England to present him with an account of the State and Condition of the Greek Church as to matter of Doctrine and Rites of Worship and Discipline an inbred curiosity which made me undertake that Voyage at first and afterwards sufficiently exposed me to danger in that barbarous Country where they are so jealous of every inquisitive Franke that appears in any of their inland Towns out of a place of Trade as if he were a Spy and come to view the several places where they might be attaqued with the greatest advantage or rather the duty of my Function inciting me to make use of those happy opportunities which I there enjoyed in order to a full and satisfactory discovery to comply with this obligation and to satisfy the importunity as it is very well known of several excellent persons who were pleased in Discourse and by Letters to mind me of a Promise also which I had made in my Latine Epistles of publishing at some time or other an account of those Observations which I had collected upon this Argument I drew up about five years since a short Scheme of them in Latine and not long after presented it to the Right Reverend Father in God the present Lord Bishop of Oxford one of the greatest examples of the Age for promoting and encouraging Learning and whose merits to the Vniversity will make up a great part of the future History of it who did me the honour to print it at the Theater where so many excellent Books have been by his Lordships direction and care published That I now publish the same in English though with large additions it is more to doe right to the world then to my self who have no private passion to gratify in it my design in the one and the other being to contribute somewhat to the publick good It cannot be imputed to me as a piece of vanity and ostentation that I say that I have taken all imaginable care to represent things truly as I found them and relate nothing but what is confirmed by the Offices used in the Service of that Church and other Ecclesiasticall Writings as Confessions and Catechisms and the like or by notoreity of practice and fact there being a necessity to premise so much to make the following Narrative credible In the contexture of which I wholly aimed at truth without serving any Party
of those Countries where the doctrine and rites of it are profest and maintain'd is a very considerable part of the Catholick Church All the Christians of the vast dominions of the Emperour of Moscovy the Cossacks the Inhabitants of Podolia and of the black Russia who are Subjects of Poland the people of Aethiopia in the inner part of Africk lying South of Aegypt of Circassia of Georgia formerly Iberia and of Mengrelia the Colchis of the Ancients and of the Islands of the Mediterranean under the Venetians being of its Communion In all which places it may be justly said to flourish being the establisht Religion and where the Christians are either absolute Lords and Masters or else onely make some acknowledgment to the Grand Signior or Sophy of Persia for their peace and quiet as do those Asiatick Princes who live beyond the Euxine Sea and whose Country reaches towards Mount Caucasus and so are as it were miserably harassed and ground between the two mighty Empires of the East But I am to consider the Greek Church chiefly as it is contain'd in the dominions of the Turks where it is most sadly afflicted For though the Greeks have the free use and exercise of the Christian Religion and are allowed their Churches for the publick Worship of Christ and in Moldavia and Walachia especially which the Turks leave wholly to be inhabited by them under the Government of the respective Princes who indeed are in effect but their Tax-gatherers and who swear Allegeance to the Port and whom they prefer and degrade as their interest or covetousness incline them yet in all other respects they are no other than as Slaves 'T is meerly out of interest and a sense they have of the benefit of their service and not any regard to the last Testament of Mahomet which commands all his followers to shew kindness to the Christians for to That they are strangers it being most probably the invention of some good meaning persons of our Religion who hoped by this pious kind of fraud to take off the Conquerours from that fury and barbarity wherewith their own â—ough temper and the Chapter of the Sword in the Alcoran might inspire them that they admit the Greeks to the favour of enjoying their lives and their Religion together Which they dearly pay for being subject to innumerable arbitrary taxes upon all occasions besides their head mony which is severely exacted every year even of boys if above 14 years of age not to mention either the extortions of the Cadies who suck their very bloud upon every slight miscarriage when they fall into their clutches and oftentimes upon unjust and frivolous avanias or pretensions when they are wholly innocent or the insolencies of the Souldiers who enter their houses in the Country especially and rob and spoil and tyrannize over the poor people these injustices though too much connived at being besides the intent of the Government They are forced sometimes into the wars to doe all the drudgery of the Camp or to serve as Pioneers in working their Mines or to look to their Carriages and the like exposed daily to horrid indignities and injuries against which they have no remedy every rascally Turk making use of his Privilege to triumph over them oftentimes out of zeal to his false Religion but oftener out of wantonness and a proud insolent humour This wretched state and condition of life though it cannot but strike a horrour into the minds of all who enjoy the happiness of freedom and a mild government might be digested well enough and born with some kind of patience if they suffer'd onely in their bodies or in their purses if they were not upbraided with their being Christians if they could be free from either their menaces or invitations of renouncing their Faith and their Saviour if their Children were not ravaged and torn from their arms and bred up in the false and bruitish Religion of Mahomet to be afterwards their plagues and tormentors For to supply their Seminaries formerly as often as the necessity of affairs required though of late years they have forborn to practise it they send forth Officers into the several Provinces of Europe they yielding generally the most hardy and best Souldiers who coming to any Town command the poor Christians to bring their male-children from seven or eight years old and upwards before them If any should dare to conceal them at home or send them away into the woods or upon the mountains they are punished But of these they chuse the best complexion'd and strongest and the most likely to answer the ends of their Collection Some of their Parents indeed out of natural pity and out of a true sense of Religion that they may not be thus robbed of their children who hereby ly under a necessity of renouncing their Christianity compound for them at the rate of fifty or a hundred Dollars as they are able or as they can work upon the covetousness of the Turks more or less Though others to the great shame and dishonour of their Religion Christians onely in name part with them freely and readily enough not onely because they are rid of the trouble and charge of them but in hopes they may when they are grown up get some considerable command in the government After some trial some of the most hardy are taught the use of arms in order to their being Janizaries others that are of a softer but more docile temper are bred up in the studies of the Persian language and fitted for civil affairs and advanced to some place and office about the Emperour's Person the more stupid are sent into the Seraglio to be Cooks Bakers Gardiners Confectioners and such like inferiour servants or else are cut that they may be the better qualified to attend at the women's apartments What a Glorious design would it be and how much for the honour of our Religion if the Christian Princes would unite and enter upon a Holy War and redeem the Oriental Christians from the burthen of this intolerable tyranny and slavery But alas there is little hope of such an Union in this great declension of Christianity when the life and spirit of it seem to be lost and swallowed up in those horrid feuds and factions that disturb the peace of Christendom and expose it to the assaults of the common enemy whenever he shall be at leisure to attaque it and when interest seems wholly to govern and influence all Publick Councils However the Bishops of Rome who then exercised an entire and absolute dominion over the consciences of all of their Communion might have private designs of their own in Publishing their Crusades and putting the several Princes of the West upon the recovering the Holy Sepulchre out of the hands of the Sarazens yet this ought not to diminish from the glory of their piety and generous Courage who undertook those long painfull and hazardous Voyages This we may
miscall easiness of temper and misguided and ill-managed zeal but in the meantime do not the Infidels inlarge their conquests and gain ground continually and advance their half Moons where the Cross before was placed Where have we recover'd for several scores of years so much as a village or slight fortification from them except perchance one or two in Dalmatia The poor Christians in those parts of the World are in a desperate and remediless condition as to any help and assistance they may receive from us who have not that compassion for them which their condition deserves And indeed all they have to doe to make their condition tolerable is to flatter their Imperious Patrons and scrape a little mony together to buy their favour and good will For long slavery continued for several years has broken their spirits and quite alter'd their tempers and taken them off from the natural courage and vigour and love of liberty wherewith their Ancestors were inspired They are content not to say well pleas'd with their slavish condition of life they dare not entertain any generous thoughts of revenge they are afraid to venture though there were probable hopes of gaining their liberty by it They are so overaw'd and stupified and lost to all sense of honour that they have abandon'd all thoughts and hope of a change which uses to be the poor and miserable comfort and support of the distressed 'T is sad to consider the great number of wretched people who turn Turks some out of meer desperation being not able to support the burthen of slavery and to avoid the revilings and insultings of the Infidels some out of a wanton light humour to put themselves into a condition of domineering and insulting over others or of wearing a pair of yellow shoes which is the peculiar finery and gallantry of the Musulmans the Christians and Jews wearing either red or black though the Greeks belonging to the Christian Ambassadours relying upon their protection presume to doe otherwise a miscarriage which has sometimes been complain'd of by the Turks and severely punish'd with drubbing some to avoid the penalties and inflictions due to their heinous crimes and to enjoy the brutish liberties that Mahomet consecrated by his own example and recommended to his followers These are the great and tempting arguments and motives of their Apostasy meer considerations of ease pleasure and prosperity or else of vanity and guilt for it cannot be presumed that any through conviction of mind should be wrought upon to embrace the dotages and impostures of Turcisme By these Accessions the Turkish Empire and Religion are chiefly supported the Renegado Christians being to be met with every where the natural Turks not having such numerous issues as in the Ages past whether this happens by their laying restraints upon themselves as to the number of women to avoid expence and charge or by some other natural or supernatural cause I know not would sensibly diminish but for these supplies and that of Christian slaves most of which change their Religion who are yearly brought into their Country by the Tartars or taken as prize by themselves in the time of War And indeed considering the great confusion in which the Lay-Christians are especially the poorer sort how destitute of all helps of Learning there being no publick Schools among them how ignorant of the grounds of Religion to what grievous temptations their Poverty and Persecution do continually expose them how unacquainted with the Holy Scripture how little instructed in the doctrine of Christianity not one in twenty being able to reade and Sermons being very rarely preach'd and oftentimes in the learned Greek and those onely in the Patriarchal Church at Constantinople or where the Metropolitans or Bishops make their residence and at particular times as at Christmas or Lent c. the povidence of God is to be admired that there is yet any Christianity left in the East and that the number of Apostates is not greater and that Mahometanism has not yet prevailed in these Countries as absolutely as it has done all along the coasts of Africk and up the Main land from the Syrtes beyond Tripoli Eastward to the furthermost points of Barbary West where a Christian is not to be found unless in the English or Spanish Garrisons or Slaves seiz'd upon by the Pirats the very refuse and dregs of all mankind and carried into their Ports to the great scandal and shame of Christendom which suffers those Canaglia not onely to live but to live in triumph Next to the miraculous and gracious providence of God I ascribe the preservation of Christianity among them to the strict and religious observation of the Festivals and Fasts of the Church this being the happy and blessed effects of those antient and pious Institutions the total neglect of which would soon introduce ignorance and a sensible decay of Piety and Religion in other Countries besides those of the Levant This certainly is the chiefest preservative of Religion in those Eastern Countries against the poison of the Mahometan superstition For Children and those of the most ordinary capacities know the meaning of these holy Solemnities at which times they flock to Church in great companies and thereby retain the memory of our Blessed Saviour's Birth dying upon the Cross Resurrection and Ascension and keep up the constant profession of their acknowledgment of the necessary and fundamental points of Faith as of the doctrine of the Blessed Trinity and the like And while they celebrate the sufferings and martyrdoms of the Apostles of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ and other great Saints who laid down their lives most joyfully for his name and underwent with unwearied and invincible patience all the Torments and Cruelties of their Heathen Persecutors they take courage from such glorious examples and are the better enabled to endure with less trouble and regret the miseries and hardships they daily struggle with The chief sixt and unmoveable Festivals are placed in this order in their Menology or Calendar SEPTEMBER They begin their year the first day of this month VIII The Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary Mother of God XIV The Exaltation of the Holy Cross XXVI The migration or death of S. John the Evangelist OCTOBER VI. S. Thomas Apostle IX S. James the Son of Alphaeus Apostle XVIII S. Luke Evangelist XXIII S. James the Brother of our Lord and Bishop of Jerusalem XXVI S. Demetrius Proconsul and Martyr pierced through with lances at Thessalonica by the command of Maximian NOVEMBER VIII Archangels Michael and Gabriel and all Angels XIII S. John Chrysostome XIV S. Philip Apostle XVI S. Matthew Apostle XXI The Entrance of the Blessed Virgin into the Temple at Jerusalem S. Luke Chap. 2. XXX S. Andrew Apostle DECEMBER VI. S. Nicolas Bishop of Myra in Lycia and Confessor under Dioclesian and Maximian XII S. Spiridion Bishop and Confessor under Maximian having had his right
of imminent danger of death grounding their belief of an absolute necessity of this Sacrament also upon the words of our B. Saviour S. John ch 6. v. 53. Verily verily I say unto you Except you eat the flesh of the Son of man and drink his bloud you have no life in you If it be objected against them that these words are not to be understood of a Sacramental manducation and that the custom which they retain seems to be so far from being necessary that it is scarce proper and justifiable Children not possibly having any actual Faith or understanding of these Mysteries they will appeal for their justification to the universal practice of the Church in the Primitive times for several Ages wherein the communicating of Infants was lookt upon as a necessary and essential point of the Christian Religion That there may be a provision made at all times for the necessities of Sick and Dying persons that they may not depart out of this world without the comfort and support of this heavenly Viaticum they take care that a sufficient quantity of Bread be consecrated for this purpose on the Thursday of the Holy week which being broken into little Particles and sufficiently tinged and moistned in the consecrated Wine they take out of the Chalice and dry them in a small dish put under a pan of coals and then put them into a Pix or Box to be reserved This Box whether of silver or wood is put up into a silken case the better to defend what is inclosed from cobwebs or any thing that may defile it and is hung up usually behind the Altar against the wall with a Lamp or two for the most part burning before it Upon occasion the Priest taking out one or more of the Margaritae carries them to the houses of such as are sick who desire to communicate but they are first dipt and moistned in common Wine which is done upon a double account either that by this vehicle the little Particles may the better pass into the stomach or else that the Particles of the consecrated Wine which were dried up and condensed by the heat of the fire may this way be excited I hope it will not be unacceptable to the pious Reader if I make a little Digression and shew the antiquity and original of this practice So great was the Faith and Zeal and Piety of the first Christians that they in all probability every day received the Blessed Sacrament which evidently set forth before their eyes Christ crucified in the chiefest and most remarkable passages and circumstances of his Death They continued stedfastly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 diligent and assiduous in the Apostles doctrine and in communication perchance of the several gifts of Bread and Wine among other things especially for the uses of the Sacrament and the Agapae or Love-feasts which followed and in breaking of bread and prayer that is in receiving the Sacrament and in joint and publick devotion This was done partly out of the great love and affection which they bare to our B. Lord and Saviour who shed his dearest Heart-bloud for us and partly out of obedience to his blessed will who therefore was pleased to institute and command it that it might be a perpetual Memorial of his precious Death untill his coming again for they did not think it a meer matter of indifferency whether they received the Sacrament or no as many in this degenerous Age are apt to deceive and flatter themselves and partly out of a deep sense they had of the many Benefits flowing from a worthy Participation of it For being convinced by the most satisfactory way of proof experience that the Sacrament was a most effectual instrument of conveying Grace into their Souls that hereby they were strengthened in Grace and Vertue that hereby they held a close Communion with Christ and became one with him and were fulfilled with the Divine Grace and heavenly Benediction and lastly were more and more confirmed and encouraged to undergo all the troubles and torments either of life or death for his Name they were frequent and assiduous in their approaches to the Altar At that time it was made death by the law for the Christians to have their Religious meetings an horrible Persecution raged every-where throughout the Empire they were dragged before Tribunals and sentenced to be burned or crucified or tormented worse All this they beheld with their eyes without shedding a tear without a sigh without regret and trouble of mind rejoycing greatly that they were counted worthy to suffer reproach and death it self for the Name of Christ and that they were thus made conformable to the image of their Saviour and partakers of his Sufferings It was altogether uncertain whether their lives were not to end before the day they therefore daily contemplated Christ in the holy Elements this inspired them with new courage and their zeal became more ardent and vigourous then the flames that consumed them They were indeed oftentimes prevented by the malicious industry of their Idolatrous enemies and pursued to the very Grotta's and Caves and continually hunted out by the Heathen Officers from whose violence nothing could be safe and thus deprived of these happy opportunities In such perplexity of affairs what was to be done They would joyfully lay down their lives for Christ so that they might but first receive Christ in the Sacrament Hereupon it was permitted them to carry away with them some part of the consecrated Bread and reserve it either about them or in their houses that if they were discovered and seized upon and hurried before a Judge and immediately sentenced and dragg'd to execution they might have wherewithall to comfort and strengthen them in their last Agonies This was afterward indulged to Hermites who had retired to the Woods or Mountains and other solitary places scarce accessible to enjoy themselves and their Devotion without the least molestation from company With which kind of life frequent journeyings to Cities and places of resort did no way suit and comport Very few of them being dignified with the Priesthood it seemed very hard and severe that they should be deprived of so comfortable a repast as the Body of Christ is in their recesses and solitudes A mass of consecrated Bread was either sent to them accordingly or else when they thought fit to come and converse with the World for a few hours they carried it away with them upon their quick and speedy return When this custom of reserving the Sacramentall Bread in private hands began it cannot I suppose be exactly stated it is most probable that it might be about the beginning of the Third Century But however this is certain that there being not onely just suspicion but just and full proof that the Holy Bread which was reserved was abused to very evil purposes it was forbid by the Council held at Saragosa the chief City of the Province of Tarragona in
under these powerfull Temptations and might have made his peace upon very advantageous terms and in all probability have died in his bed for any crime the Turks had to lay to his charge but through their false suggestions By this let the world judge whether there be the least degree of probability in the charge of Grotius that he framed this modell of his Faith pretio inductus merely out of considerations of gain For what Collections were ever made in England or Holland for his support or to induce him to defend the doctrine of the Reformation who were they that furnished him with mony to bring him to this compliance The violent persecutions under which he lay forced him upon making applications to the English and Dutch Embassadours for their assistence that he might not be run down by the power of his enemies and these publick persons though both justly zealous for the Religion and Doctrine of Protestants scorned to doe any thing unworthy of Gentlemen or inconsistent with the strictest point of honour His opposition of Rome bore a much ancienter date then his acquaintance with them and without doubt was founded upon a just and clear conviction of his understanding So that this Imputation of his being bribed to doe what he did is wholly groundless and fictitious and proceeded from an excessive courtship and civility in that great and incomparable Scholar to the Jesuits of whose good opinion and friendship he seem'd at that time very ambitious The Invectives of Monsieur Arnaud are equally unjust and groundless who fetches all his proofs from Allatius but certainly the passion and partiality of that Writer which are both so notorious ought to have rendred his Testimony suspected which is now invalidated and confounded by the attestation of two publick Ministers then living upon the place which I am confident no Roman Catholick if he be a person of quality or sense will scruple to preferr notwithstanding their being Protestants before that of a hungry Greek who lived at Rome and wrote for bread And whereas Monsieur Arnaud makes Cyrillus an Hypocrite in communicating with his Greeks still and using such Ceremonies as he esteemed superstitious I shall onely make this Appeal to himself whether there are not in the Church of Rome several rites of Worship and other religious Ceremonies practised by himself and especially in the service of the Mass which he in his Conscience knows to be vain and idle and wishes were altered or abolished and onely thinks fit to practice in compliance with the present custom and establishment and yet I presume he would take it in great scorn to be accused of Hypocrisy for so doing But it is not my business at this time to answer the objections of Monsieur Arnaud but shall refer the Reader to his learned and eloquent Antagonist my very worthy and honoured Friend Monsieur Claud. What the Assessors of the Bethleemitick Synod or writer of the book in their name prefixed to their determinations have said of Cyrillus is so ridiculously idle and scandalously false that whosoever is but a little acquainted with the history and transactions of those times he must be amazed at the strange confidence and boldness of these men who dare thus contradict plain and notorious matter of fact as for instance when they say that Cyrillus said nothing of what goes under his name either in publick or private that none of his friends and acquaintance say any thing of him like this that his Confession was not under his hand that they have a thousand witnesses of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 I suppose they mean of his being pious and orthodox in the doctrine contrary to that in his Confession and that they have a great book of his 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Sermons preached on Sundays and Holy-days in Constantinople containing things repugnant to his Confession But with their good leave there is nothing in all those 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or excerpta which they have printed except perchance one citation if they have not injured him in it by inserting a word or two not extant in the Original which contradicts in the least his Confession or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 those Articles or Chapters which as they idly pretend falsly go under his name The bare recital of these fooleries is a sufficient confutation And whereas they object often that the Eastern Church never received or acknowledged this Confession of Faith and that it was his private fancy and done by his own sole Authority which is also objected by Grotius I shall by way of answer communicate what I find in the close of the Sieur Van Haghe's Letter where he says that there was scarce any one among the Metropolitans of which a great number were then present at Constantinople who would not adventure his estate life and person in the defence of the said Patriarch and his Confession But of this more hereafter if they who have a power and right of command over me shall think fit and necessary Not long after the arrival of the French Embassadour there came from Rome to Constantinople two fugitive Greek Bishops the one having been Metropolite of Sophia the other of Acrida sent thither by the Pope and the College of Cardinals de propaganda fide to give the Patriarch further disturbance and to get him displaced in order to the advancing any one of their Caball otherwise never so unqualified either for life or learning These two recommended to the French Embassadour had lodgings assigned them in his Palace and were fully assured of his protection To shew their zeal to the cause which they came to advance they fell upon the Patriarch with most reviling language calling him Heretick Lutheran and Infidel and threatned the Metropolitans that they would give a great summ of mony to the Grand Signor for the Patriarchship and take it to farm and this they would doe as soon as they received new instructions and orders from Rome The French Embassadour appearing so much in their behalf the Patriarch together with the Bishops and chief of the secular Greeks who readily and jealously joyned with him thought that it highly concerned them and the peace of their Church to inform the Emperour Vizir and the principal Ministers of the designs of the Pope and his adherents It was not long after that the Metropolites of Adrianople Larissa Chalcedon Cyzicum and Naupactus entred into a conspiracy against the Patriarch but by the help of friends and a Present of ten thousand Dollers the tempest was allayed October 1633. Cyrillus Contari Metropolite of Beroea who had been formerly a Scholar of the Jesuits made use of the mony which by virtue of Letters commendatory from the Patriarch he had collected in several Provinces for the uses and necessities of the Church to dethrone his Patron who had employed him The occasion of his disgust and hatred of the Patriarch proceeded