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
Quadragesima or the first Sunday day in Lent they call it also the Sunday of Orthodoxy celebrating upon it the memory of Orthodox Kings and Patriarchs Upon the same day also they excommunicate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such as deny the worship of Images in compliance with the second Nicene Council wherein that strange doctrine which was afterwards opposed and confounded by the Bishops assembled at Francford by the command of the Emperour Charlemaine was established under the penalty of an Anathema The second Sunday in Lent The third Sunday in Lent is called the Sunday of the precious and life-producing Cross as they speak or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Codinus because on this day and the week following they kiss the Cross more frequently then at other times and pay a respect to it which falls little or nothing short of Adoration The fourth Mid-lent Sunday The fifth Sunday in Lent The Saturday following the Saturday of S. Lazarus raised from the dead The sixth Palm-Sunday so called from their carrying branches of Palms in their hands in imitation of what we reade S. Mark 11. Chap. The week following is called the Week of the holy and salutary Passion or the great and holy Week Every day of which has the same title and denomination given to it as Monday is called the great and holy second day and so of the rest in the order of their number for the Greeks have no proper and peculiar names for them derived from the Planets Sunday they always call the Lord's day the five next the second third fourth fifth sixth though they call this latter commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Preparation as Thursday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day before the Preparation following the Jewish custom and in allusion to them Saint John chap. 10. 31. and in stead of the seventh they generally say the Sabbath On Thursday in the evening in the Patriarchal Church at Constantinople is the Ceremony of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or washing the feet of twelve Kaloirs or other Officers belonging to that Church performed by the Patriarch in imitation of that wonderfull act of condescension in our Blessed Saviour who in this demonstrative instance took on him the form of a Servant according to the Custome of those Eastern Countries Each of the twelve bears the name of the Apostle whom he represents And though as they make it it be but a meer mock-show and soon over to prevail with one to stand for the Traitour Judas is no small difficulty this reproachfull and infamous name for the most part sticking by him as long as he lives But this being a necessary part the Patriarch is forced to bribe some one or other with the promise of preferment or else to interpose his Authority that they decide it by lot All things thus prepared and the Prayers and the Hymns sung which are prescribed in the Office the Patriarch having put off his Robe girds himself about with a Towell according to the direction of the Gospell which is then read by pauses by him of the number who represents Saint John and pours warm water into the Laver and as soon as he hears those words read S. John chap. 13. v. 5. Then he began to wash the disciples feet he falls to his work Advancing towards Judas who throws out his Legs with some kind of hast and disorder in a very foolish and indiscreet manner the Patriarch both by his look and behaviour in the action shews a manifest dislike which causes laughter and sport among the people present at the solemnity who hitherto are usually grave and serious He who represents S. Peter is usually the chief person in dignity among them and is the last who has his feet washt He upon seeing the Patriarch approach him contests it for a time and deprecates it in the words of S. Peter vers 8. and so on they discourse it in the words of the Gospell The Ceremony being over the other persons being present dip their Handkerchiefs in the Wash-pot believing that there is a great deal of virtue in the Water which has been used in the Solemnity This Custome is not confined to Constantinople but is performed elsewhere in their Monasteries and by Bishops and Priests in their respective Churches where there is a considerable number of Christians such sights signifying little and losing much of their splendour except there be crouds of spectatours Good Friday the great and holy Preparation the Passover of the Crucifixion but most commonly the most holy Passion-day The Vigil of Good Friday is spent in fasting and mortification and prayer and reading the history of and meditating on our Lord's Passion and the dolorous and shamefull circumstances of it The Women submit very readily to these rigours and Boys of six or seven years of age endure as much as they are able and care not to be exempt from these bodily exercises in which they place a great part of their Religion herein keeping up the practice of the Primitive Christians who were wont to afflict themselves at this solemn time and shew an extraordinary Devotion as Eusebius relates of the Therapeutae mentioned by Philo whom he fansies to have been Christians and Disciples of S. Mark But whether that be a truth or a mistake he says the same severities were used in his time Great numbers watch all night in the Church the neighbouring streets in the night-time are full of such as pass to and again Those who are weak and sickly are allowed a little bread and water to prevent swouning in the day-time but generally except in such like cases where an absolute necessity may justify the fact they abstain from all sort of food till after Sun-set the next day Others of a more vigorous and athletick temper and constitution fast four and twenty hours longer and eat nothing till Easter-Eve that is at night Toward the evening of Good Friday they carry an Image of our B. Saviour about the Church in procession with tapers and torches and then they represent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the manner of taking our Saviour down from the Crosse in which they betray a great deal of superstition and folly this being onely to gratify a childish and gross fancy On the Saturday they eat but once which is purely to sustain nature At three of the clock in the afternoon when their Vespers begin the devout people flock to Church some continue there all night and carry with them bread dates and figs and the like to make use of upon occasion of any fainting fit Toward break of day they sing the Hymn which begins Glory in the highest After which the Patriarch begins that excellent Hymn the Quire immediately following Christ is risen from the dead having by his death trampled upon death and given life to those who were in their graves Which they
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
Spain in the year of our Lord 381 Canon the third that any should presume to carry any of the Holy Bread away with him Upon the same reason several pieces of the consecrated Bread were reserved and kept by the Priests to distribute among Sick people and especially to Laps'd persons who through humane frailty had been guilty of some sinfull compliance in the times of Persecution and ipso facto were deprived in the way of penance and humiliation of the Sacrament till the hour of death who possibly otherwise could not have gone out of the world with peace and comfort A famous instance of this we have in a Letter of Dionysius Bishop of Alexandria to Fabius Bishop of Antioch concerning Serapion who had miscarried under Decius He being in these circumstances and at the point of death in the night-time was in great disorder and trouble of mind for want of a Priest to absolve him and give him the Communion whereupon a Messenger was sent immediately to fetch the Priest to administer comfort to the dying Penitent But the Priest happened to be sick himself He following the orders and direction of his Bishop the Relater of this story in such like cases that the dying persons might not despair but depart with good hope of their Salvation gave 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a little piece of the Sacramentall bread to the youth commanding him to dip it in water and convey it into the mouth of the poor old man who was just upon the point of yielding up his Soul into the hands of God This shews us that they had such an high esteem and reverence of the Sacrament in ancient times as to judge it almost absolutely necessary in articulo mortis which was the effect of their great Piety which deserves the highest commendation and encouragement I cannot here forbear my wonder at the odde fancies of a late learned Writer concerning the Blessed Sacrament in which as in many other arguments of Religion he chose to be singular presuming too much upon the strength and nimbleness of his wit to make out plausibly any Paradox he to run counter to the Times unluckily pitcht upon And I think the Publisher of these Posthumous Remains was not aware of the ill effects that such Notions whereby the Blessed Sacrament is so horribly slighted may produce to the cooling those ardours of Devotion and zeal which all truly devout persons have to this Holy Institution of our Saviour No person certainly whatever can receive the Symbols of our Blessed Saviour's Passion and Death too often so he come with that due preparation of mind which these pure and tremendous Mysteries require and the time of one's last Sickness especially is very proper Our Church indeed has declared that a frequent and consciencious use of the Sacrament in the time of Health is sufficient and that such devout and religious persons in case of sudden Sickness have less cause to be disquieted for the lack of the same Our Salvation does not necessarily depend upon nor is restrained to an externall and oral Communion whether there be or be not an opportunity God accepts the will and desire of a contrite and devout heart in stead of this commemorative Sacrifice Nor do we attribute so much efficacy to the Sacramentall Sign as to the internal Grace for fear we should detract from the perfection of the Sacrifice of the real and natural Body of our Saviour once offered upon the Cross of which this is a Type and a Representation though not onely so I urge it no farther but that it is very convenient for sick persons when they foresee that their Sickness may prove mortal to receive and undoubtedly they would find the great benefit of it I put an end to this Digression with reference to the present practice of the Greek and Roman Churches as to the Reservation of the Blessed Sacrament that the reason which held formerly has ceas'd long since For there are Priests enough at hand even in Greece it self to consecrate the Sacrament in the presence of the sick man if he desires to communicate and this may be done I mean as to what is onely necessary and essential the Ceremonies being omitted which are used at the publick Communion in the Church where a greater regard is had to splendour and decorum with less trouble and sooner then taking the Sacramental Bread out of the Ciborium and carrying it in Procession to the houses of dying persons The ten Particles which are placed in the Patin with the Holy Bread become sanctified relatively and in a way of participation as Gabriel Philadelphiensis speaks because they are blessed at the same time with the Holy Bread that is to be consecrated just after the great Offertory The Priest is to take care that he does not give one of these Particles through a mistake to any of the Communicants in stead of a consecrated one as the same Authour does advise Whence it follows that those who assert so many Hosts to be offered up as there are Particles are mistaken for they are onely close joyned to the Body and Bloud of our Lord and are not consecrated but are reckoned to be of the same nature with the unconsecrated blessed Bread After the celebration of the Sacrament upon great Festivals there is usually an entertainment for the people then present in the Church which is called by them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the oblation of the Colyba that is a heap of boiled Wheat and Pulse Raisins Nuts Almonds and the like For the Priest having a Charger full of this confused mass goes about the Church and distributes more or less of it to the men women and children that are in his way which they receive very readily and gratefully kissing either his hand or vest By this Ceremony they pretend to make out their belief of the general Resurrection of the dead at the last day of which they suppose this to be a symbol deriving the occasion of it from the words of our B. Saviour S. John 12. 24. Verily verily I say unto you Except a corn of wheat fall into the ground and die it abideth alone but if it dies it bringeth forth much fruit and of S. Paul 1 Cor. 15. 36 37 38. Thou fool that which thou sowest is not quickned except it die and that which thou sowest thou sowest not that body which shall be but bare grain it may chance of wheat or of some other grain But God giveth it a body as it hath pleased him and to every seed his own body Nothing indeed does represent more clearly to the eye or render more probable to our belief the great mystery of the Resurrection of the body then the stupendous raising and growth of seeds of Corn hid and buried in the furrows into â—ull ears Gabriel Philadelphiensis finds a Mystery in the addition and mixture of the other things without
or Hypothesis and have dealt impartially in the case without the least tincture of Affection or Prejudice To which purpose I have studiously endeavoured to couch things in a plain close style without enlarging upon them unnecessarily being more ambitious in a subject of this nature of the reputation of being accounted an honest and carefull then spruce and elegant Writer I have sometimes indeed referred to the judgment of Antiquity but it was wholly in order to the better understanding the present practice of the Greeks and I can say most conscientiously that those few reflexions which I have made are wholly owing to a just zeal and love for the honour of truth and the advancement of strict and discreet Piety whereby my my Reader may not onely be bettered in his judgment but in his life too You will here clearly see with what great difficulties the poor Eastern Christians struggle against what mighty opposition they still maintain the profession of Christianity and how the Cross of Christ triumphs notwithstanding the cruel mockings and insultings of the profest Enemies of it though it must be most sadly confessed that several corruptions and errours in point of Doctrin and Superstitious Rites and Practices in Worship have crept in among them to the great disadvantage scandal and dishonour of our Holy Religion which is hereby continually exposed to the censure and contempt of the Mahometans who dull and stupid as they are do not pretend to examine the grounds and reasons of the Christian Belief but judge of the whole by such odd phantastick misrepresentations and fortify their old prejudices every day more and more with fresh matter of dislike The common people among the Greeks doe as they are directed without the least examination or demurr and depend altogether upon their Teachers and Spiritual Guides in matters of Religion being wholly ignorant of and unacquainted with the Scriptures few having the leisure and fewer ability to reade them It was the pious design of that great man Cyrillus Lucaris of whom more at large hereafter in causing the New Testament to be translated into vulgar Greek for the use and benefit of the meaner sort that they might be built up in the most Holy Faith and thence be fully instructed in the knowledge and Doctrin of God our Saviour But though they had curiosity and learning enough to consult these Sacred Writings the Copies are very rare and scarce to be met with and no care is taken to furnish out a new Edition and it is too too apparent not without design to keep them more in subjection and awe not to say ignorance They are bred up in the same perswasion as formerly and so zealously do they retain the outward Services of Religion in all its punctilio's and circumstances that even the Bishops themselves who would be content to relax somewhat of the severities of their Fasts dare not attempt to make any alteration in the least lest their people obstinate to excess should be offended at it and doubt of the truth of what they would have them still profess and believe And indeed considering the present state of things there is little sign or hope of a Reformation For the misery of it is that though it is manifest to all who understand Antiquity how much the present Greeks have in several points of Doctrin varied from the Belief of their Ancestours and have corrupted the simplicity and purity of Religion by a mixture of odd opinions and fancies they pretend notwithstanding that their Tenents are agreeable to the Fathers and that they follow the Traditions of the ancient Church But without looking back much beyond this last Century whoever will compare the answers of the Patriarch Jeremias to the Letters of the Divines of Wittenberg in the year 1576. with their Confession of Faith published in the year 1662. and with the Bethleemitick Synod held in the year 1671. will find such a vast difference between the modesty of that Patriarch and their bold determinations as will encline any sober and considering man to believe that they have of late more then ever been wrought upon by the sly artifices and insinuations and underhand dealing of the subtile Emissaries of Rome who watch continually over the poor Greeks and take advantage of their poverty and distress to bring them to a further compliance and in time to a down-right subjection I do not doubt but that time which is the great revealer of secrets will discover the mystery of the last Synod held by the Patriarch of Jerusalem who when I waited upon him at Constantinople not long before my departure knowing me to be a Priest of the Church of England and Chaplain to his Excellency the English Embassadour then at the Port entertained me very respectfully and acquainted me that he had several Papers against the Romanists which he would take care to transcribe and put into my hands to be printed in England but he did not I confess tell me the particular Subject and Argument of them nor thought fit afterward to send them as he had at first designed Reflecting upon this discourse I was the more amazed at the determinations of this Synod held by his Authority and perchance it would not be want either of good manners or charity to guess by what arguments they were prevailed upon and how they were influenced This design of the Romanists which has been carrying on for so many years was soon discovered by Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of Constantinople a man of great parts and of an extraordinary courage who was resolved to give a check and put a stop to it as much as in him lay and by degrees to reform those abuses and errours that had prevailed among the Greeks and introduce a stricter alliance and union of the Eastern Church with the reformed Churches of Christendome This drew upon him the indignation of Urban the Eighth then Pope and the Congregation of Cardinals de propagandâ fide as they speak at Rome who knew no good could be done while he sate upon the Patriarchall Throne and therefore finding after several attempts to bring him over by fair means to relinquish his pretensions that he was too stout and too honest to submit to their overtures and proposals they made use of several evil arts to dethrone him and in order thereunto blackened and defamed him with a thousand calumnies and pursued him with unwearied diligence and malice and never desisted till they had got him strangled Out of respect to the memory of this good man who suffered so much in his life-time by the Jesuits the great instruments made use of in his Persecution and Tragicall end and is still most unworthily treated by Monsieur Arnaud from a man of such excellent Learning and Piety so much disingenuity could scarce be expected in the height of his zeal for the Roman Doctrin of Transubstantiation and by the Latinizing Greeks who contrary to all laws of humanity return him hatred for
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
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
Bishoprick of Damalon Rhodus New Patras in Thessaly Aenus Drystra Tornobus under which are the Bishopricks of Lophitzus Tzernobus and Presilabe Joannina a City of Aetolia formerly called Cassiope under which the Bishopricks of Bothrontus Bella Chimarra and Drynopolis Euripus Arta the same with Ambracia a City of Epirus Monembasia the same with Epidaurus a City in Peloponnesus under it the Bishopricks of Elos and Marina Rheon and Andrusa Nauplium Phanarion and Neochorion Sophia Chios now called Scio. Paronaxia Tria Siphnus Samos Carpathus now Scarpanto Andros Leucas These eight are Islands in the Archipelago Varna near the Danube Old Patras under which the Bishopricks of Olene Methona and Corona Proconnesus Ganus and Chora In the same Paper that was put into my hands these Bishopricks were added Media towards the Euxine Sozopolis not far from Adrianople Praelabus somewhere toward the Danube Capha in the Cimmerian Bosphorus a City of Tartaria Praecopiensis Gotthia in the same Country Bindana near Sophia Didymotichum Litiza Bysia Selybria Zychnae in Macedonia Neurocopus Melenicus Beroea Pogogiana in Illyricum Chaldaea Pisidia Imbrus Myra Santorina an Island near Melos Aegina Walachia for this I suppose is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Moldavia are four Bishopricks as in Candia there were lately three under the Metropolitan of that Island Several of the Bishops mentioned in the Catalogue being freed from the Jurisdiction of the Metropolitans to which they formerly belonged and so become in respect of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free and independent and onely subject to the Patriarch are called by way of distinction Archbishops as he of Samos for instance who before was under Rhodes and so of the rest The Archbishops which have Suffragans under them still or had formerly at least being generally called Metropolites But of the Metropoliticall and Episcopal Sees thus much Considering the Poverty of the Greek Church and the scanty provisions made for such as enter into holy Orders there being no rich Livings to invite them to doe so it must onely be a principle of Conscience at first that makes them willing to take up that holy Calling which deprives them of all other ways and means of getting a subsistence For the Clergy must be content with their allowance and not think to better their condition by busying themselves in any Secular employment as being altogether inconsistent with their holy Profession But custome and long use make things most troublesom and difficult to be born easy at last It is accounted a good Preferment if in a Country-village the poor Priest can make in the whole year forty Crowns out of which he pays a proportion to his Bishop For there being no Lands belonging to the Church besides the small allowance agreed upon at first by him and the people they pay him so many Aspers for Christening their Children giving them the Sacrament upon extraordinary occasions Burying their dead and performing other Funeral rites and the like And on the great Festivals they present him with mony or what is mony-worth that he may expresly mention their names or their relations whether alive or dead when he comes to that part of the Liturgick-service in the celebration of the Sacrament where such Commemorations are used as believing such a Recommendation made by the Priest at that solemn time to be of great force and efficacy Marriage does not hinder any person if he be not otherwise unqualified from being put into holy Orders not in such a one obliged to live from his Wife But the general practice of the Church is against Marriage after Orders So that if any Priest once married should marry a second time much more if a Priest not before married should enter into this state they are liable to censures and as if the character imprinted upon them when they were made Priests were by this act rased out they are esteemed as meer Laicks and accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or flagitious persons and transgressours of the Laws and Canons of the Church They have a distinct Habit from the people which is black wearing a Cassock and having a Felt-cap upon their heads of the same colour over which they throw a kind of Veil which hangs down behind their back if they be Kaloirs and are permitted by the Turks to wear their Hair long and over their Shoulders Which the other Greeks of late years presuming to imitate the chief Vizir Achmet upon his return from Candia fearing that it might be of ill effect and consequence if this Innovation were any longer indulged commanded them under a grievous penalty to shave their heads as formerly which they with haste and trembling submitted to well knowing that such orders were not to be dallied with They are in great veneration among the people every-where who have a just opinion of the necessity of their Order and of the dignity of their Function that they are set apart by God for his more immediate Worship and Service and that without their Ministery the Christian Religion would soon be at an end in Turky and salute them always by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Father giving them Respect where-ever they meet them and oftentimes kissing their hands and then putting them to their foreheads which is one of the greatest signs of Reverence in that part of the world Next to the Priests are the Deacons of which there are great numbers belonging to the Bishops who are never advanced to the Priesthood and Subdeacons which assist in the service of the Church and Readers whose office is in the great Church to reade the Scripture to the people But of these inferiour Orders I shall have occasion to say somewhat hereafter I shall onely adde thus much of the superiour that they are never conferr'd together and at the same time but there is to be necessarily the interposition of a day at least And therefore if upon a Capriccio of the Grand Signor any simple Kaloir should be design'd to be Patriarch he is to be advanced by degrees and not immediately placed in the Patriarchal Chair till after some little time The strict and severe course of life which the Religious lead is greatly admired by the Greeks as the height of perfection in this world and what equals them to Angels Of which sort are great numbers in Greece and the Lesser Asia which follow the Rules and Constitutions of S. Basil the Great as those do of S. Antony who live upon Mount Sinai and Libanus and are dispersed up and down Aegypt from the Desart to the Red Sea The name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Kaloir the Greeks in their ordinary discourse mightily humouring this pronunciation was at first I suppose appropriated to the old men of the Order but now it lies in common among all and is the general name by which they are called They have their Convents in several By-places out of the publick roads or
Elements of Bread and Wine that they are sanctified and consecrated and become the Body and Bloud of our Saviour by the power and operation and descent of the Holy Spirit upon them can no more infer a substantial change in the one then in the other There is no mention made of a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in any Liturgy Creed or Prayer the word being wholly new and altogether unknown till the latter end of the last Century when it was first used as I hope I may pardonably conjecture by Gabriel Archbishop of Philadelphia in his Treatise of the Seven mysteries who though otherwise a zealous defender of the Rites of the Greek Church yet living at Venice and not unacquainted with the niceties and subtilties of the Latine School-men might easily be wrought upon to bring in this new word in a way of compliance with the Doctrine of Rome of which Jeremias Patriarch of Constantinople who made him Archbishop seems to be utterly ignorant For he far more agreeably to the rules of modesty and truth in his Declaration of the Faith of the Greek Church in the matter of the Sacrament in his Answer to the German Divines says onely thus much that the Catholick Church believes that after the Consecration the Bread is changed into the very Body of Christ and the Wine into his very Bloud by the Holy Spirit without defining more particularly the nature and manner of the Change Nor do I find that this word began to be of common use at least in the publick and authentick Writings of the Church for several years after For the two Synods that were held at Constantinople on purpose to condemn and anathematize the Confession of Faith published by that great man Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of that See the one under his immediate Successour Cyrillus of Berrhoea in the year 1638. the other under Parthenius in the year 1642. seemed to abstain religiously from the use of it each of them onely declaring that the Elements by the blessing of the Priest and the descent of the Holy Spirit upon them became the true Body and Bloud of Christ Afterward indeed in the year 1643. there was a Confession of Faith made in the name of the Eastern Church in the way of Question and Answer in the lesser Russia approved of by Parthenius and the three other Patriarchs and several Metropolitans though not published till the year 1662. wherein together with this new word they establisht the doctrine of Transubstantiation After these words the Prayers above mentioned there presently follows a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Transubstantiation and the Bread is changed into the true Body of Christ and the Wine into his true Bloud the Species which appear onely remain and this according to the Divine dispensation But if we reflect upon the state and condition of the Greek Church at that time and consider by what arts and by whose assistence Cyrillus Lucaris was first deposed by the Turks and afterwards strangled and his ingratefull Successour advanced into his throne it will cease to be a matter of wonder to us that this man who had studied Philosophy in his younger days under the Jesuits at Galata and was wholly governed by them whose end too was as dismall as his Predecessour's he being banisht to Tunis and there by order of the Port strangled and the rest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Latinizing Bishops should renounce the Faith of their Ancestours and determine thus boldly And how they have been wrought upon since in the Synodus Bethleemitica to come up more fully to this and several other Tenents of the Roman Church shall appear hereafter The Romanists are now aware that there is no hope and likelihood of reconciling Greece by blustring and force and therefore they betake themselves to closer arts and methods of subtlety the Greeks bred up in the College of that Nation at Rome especially after they have finished a course of study being sent into Turkie upon a design of working an Union and of reducing their Countrymen from the scandal and guilt of Schism and Heresy who are permitted to dissemble their Communion and oftentimes are advanced to great Dignities in the Church to whom being men of great eloquence and wit and learning and policy I believe these Alterations are chiefly to be ascribed In the mean time let the Zelots of the Roman Church triumph that the present Greeks declare absolutely for them we need not envy them a victory which they have gained by such base and treacherous Arts not to say Bribery But however this is one great argument that the opinion of Transubstantiation is wholly new among them that they have not much studied the point but heedlesly take it upon trust with an implicite faith For when their Bishops and Priests are urged with the horrid and monstrous consequences of it fully made out from Scripture and Philosophy they stand amazed and return no other answer but this that it is a great Mystery and not to be disputed 'T is certainly a great an holy a venerable Mystery this we most readily and heartily acknowledge but how much better had they consulted the honour of the Christian Religion and the peace of the Church had they not proceeded so boldly and blindly to such a peremptory definition The Greeks use Leavened bread in the Sacrament which practice of their Church they defend with great fierceness as if our B. Saviour had clearly and in express terms forbad the use of Azymes For so they interpret the words of the Institution that Christ said of Bread not of Azyme that it was his Body as if there could be no Bread truly and properly so called without a mixture of Leaven in it But that which they most rely upon is an imagination that our Saviour in the celebration of the Passeover anticipated the usual time of the Festival and kept it a day before which they think may be proved from S. John 18. chap. v. 28. and chap. 19. 14. that is Lunâ decimâ tertiâ or the thirteenth day of Nisan at the evening and consequently that he used leavened bread And some of the Greek Writers who managed this controversy formerly were so ridiculously impudent as to assert that there was a piece of that very leavened bread which our Saviour at his last Supper consecrated reserved among other Reliques in the Chappell belonging to the Emperour's palace in Constantinople at what time that City was taken by the Latines While they urge the necessity of using Leavened bread in the Sacrament with an intemperate not to say an unreasonable zeal against the Latines whom they therefore reproach with the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Azymites and aggravate as a horrid and grievous defect and fault the quality of the Bread whether leavened or unleavened being in it self a matter of small moment and meer indifference and no way essential to the Sacrament the Schism upon the
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
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
and Blasphemies of the Turks who being stupid and dull are guided wholly in their judgments of things by a gross fancy and reject with a brutish kind of pride and scorn whatever is raised though never so little above the reach of Sense it is no slight argument of the truth of the great Articles of the Christian Religion against the subtle contrivances of a party of men in Christendome who under a pretence of sober reason undermine the foundations of it that the Christians of the East do still retain with all imaginable constancy and firmness of assent the entire profession of the Mysteries of Faith as they were believed and acknowledged in the first Ages They retain exactly the Catholick Doctrine concerning the most Holy and undivided Trinity and the Incarnation of the eternal Son of God according to the Constantinopolitan Creed which they onely retain in their Liturgies and Catechisms this being but an Exposition of the Apostles Creed more at large which is the true reason why the Apostolicall form came anciently to be omitted among them As to that of S. Athanasius they are wholly strangers to it They are content with the profession of Faith as it is laid down there without troubling themselves with curious and nice distinctions which oftentimes in stead of explaining confound and obscure the Mystery Yet with a becoming zeal they condemn the madness and impiety of Arius Nestorius Paulus Samosatenus and the other Haeresiarchs whose Opinions if any one be known to favour in the least they presently excommunicate him and do not restore him to the Communion of the Church till he has renounced his Heresy with tears and given other ample satisfaction Indeed as to the manner of the subsistence of the Holy Spirit the Greeks vary from the Latines and from the Churches of the Reformation and by what we may judge from the reluctancy and unwillingness of the Bishops after all attempts of Reconciliation the difference herein is like to be perpetual They object with a great deal of bitter passion that the Bishops of the Roman Church have not dealt honestly in this matter for that without consulting them and without regard to the Canon of the Council of Ephesus which forbad such Additions under the penalty of an Anathema they have inserted the words Filióque into the Constantinopolitan Creed For the justification and proof of this Charge they appeal to the Writings of the ancient Fathers to Acts of Councils to Ecclesiasticall History to the faith of the best and most authentick Manuscript Copies nay to Rome it self where that Creed was engraven on two silver Tables hung up in S. Peter's Church by the command of Pope Leo the Third where this Addition is wanting This was hotly disputed by the Greeks in the Council held at Florence and no one argument or point of controversy have they maintained or do still maintain with greater variety of learning or subtilty At present I shall content my self with one or two irrefragable testimonies Cyrillus Lucaris who afterwards fell a sacrifice to the malice and revenge of the Jesuits in the Epistle he wrote to Vytenbogaert out of Walachia when he was Patriarch of Alexandria saith Ipsa i.e. Ecclesia Graeca Spiritum Sanctum à Filio essentialiter internè quoad esse procedere negat The Greek Church denies that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Son essentially and internally and as to his subsistence And so afterward when he was advanced to the Patriarchall throne of Constantinople in his Confession of Faith which brought upon him all that envy and mischief which afterwards befell him chap. 1. The Holy Spirit proceedeth from the Father by the Son Which form of words he very wisely and warily thought fit to use in compliance with the ancient Writers of his Church as it was proved in the Council of Florence by Isidorus Bishop of Russia and Bessarion of Nice and Marcus Eugenicus of Ephesus from the authorities of S. Maximus and S. John Damascen and several others This being so expresly asserted by Cyrillus I cannot sufficiently wonder at the rashness and disingenuity of the Assessors of the second Synod held against this good man at Constantinople under Parthenius who most unjustly censure and condemn him for maintaining against the Sentiments of the Catholick Church the eternal and substantial procession of the Holy Spirit as well from the Son as the Father Lastly they declare in their Confession that the Holy Spirit proceedeth eternally from the Father as the fountain and principle of the Deity according to what our Saviour teaches us saying When the Comforter is come whom I will send unto you from the Father even the Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father He shall testify of me S. John 15. 26. The great argument made use of by Phatius and other Writers both ancient and modern is briefly summ'd up by Cyrillus The Greek Church does therefore deny the procession of the Spirit from the Son quòd veretur nè dicendo à Filio ut à Patre duo asserat in Divinis principia existentiae Spiritûs Sancti quod esset impiissimum fearing lest they should assert and introduce two distinct Principles of the existence of the Spirit of God in the Deity which they look upon as an horrid impiety But to prevent all unjust suspicions as if they entertain'd any evil or heterodox Opinions about the Third Person of the glorious Trinity they declare fully against the Heresy of Macedonius and the rest of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and most readily acknowledge the Holy Spirit to be of the same substance with the Father and the Son to be God from eternity proceeding from the essence and nature of the Father without beginning and to be equally adored Likewise they acknowledge that He is the Spirit of the Son and that He is sent poured out and given by the Son But this they refer to the temporary mission of the Holy Ghost upon the Apostles and upon all the Faithfull So that they neither confound the Persons of the Holy Trinity nor take away the Personal Relations and Proprieties of the Son and Spirit forasmuch as the manner of Generation whereby the Son subsists is distinct from the manner of the Procession of the Holy Spirit From these premisses it will fully appear that the Greeks are most unjustly accused by some of the Roman Church in the height of their intemperate zeal as deserters of the Catholick Faith and as guilty of Heresy in a necessary Article of Faith for that the difference herein is rather verbal then real and lies not so much in the substance of the Article as in the way and manner of expressing themselves To justify this their imputation they with an equal rashness are not afraid to assert and that as boldly as if they had been admitted into the Secrets of God that the Holy Spirit has sufficiently shewed his anger from Heaven
against this supposed grievous and fundamentall Errour because Constantinople the chief Seat of the Grecian Empire and Religion was taken by the Turks on a Whitsun-Tuesday in the year 1453. But 't is ill arguing from such an accidental circumstance and they may as justly conclude that the people of Rhodes and particularly the Knights of Jerusalem were guilty of some grievous Errour concerning our Blessed Saviour because the chief City of that Island which they had so bravely defended was at last lost upon a Christmas-day As to the state of the vitâ functi they know not well what to determine for taking for granted that the Souls of the Righteous are not in Heaven where they shall be after the Resurrection of the body they know not where to fix them But whereever that place is which sometimes they call Paradise from the words of our Saviour to the Thief upon the Cross S. Luke 23. 43. sometimes Abraham's bosome from S. Luke 16. 22. sometimes the hand of God from that of Ecclesiasticus The Souls of the Just are in the hand of God it is certainly distinct according to them from the presence of God For thus they pray in their Liturgy Remember O Lord all that sleep in hope of the Resurrection and everlasting Life and grant that they may rest where the light of thy Countenance shines forth and so in the Office of Burial O God of Spirits and of all flesh who having trampled upon Death and vanquisht the Devil hast given life to the world Thou O Lord make the Soul of thy deceased Servant to rest in the glorious in the pleasant place in the place of refreshment whence grief trouble and sighing are banisht And yet at other times as it were compelled by the force and evidence of truth they retract at least colour over this Opinion with this acknowledgment in their late Confession By which of these three names above mentioned any shall call the Receptacle of righteous Souls he will not erre provided that he believes and understands thus much that they enjoy the favour of God and are in his heavenly Kingdom and as the Church-Hymns mention in Heaven But as for the Souls of the Wicked and Unrighteous they hold that they descend immediately into Hades or Hell the place of Condemnation and of God's Wrath. They reject in words at least the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory by fire as having no foundation in Scripture and teach their people accordingly in their Catecheticall Confession and thus argue ab absurdo against it If the Soul satisfies for Sins committed in this life in such a place then by parity of reason part of the Mystery or Sacrament of Penance might be performed there which is say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary to orthodox doctrine But notwithstanding this declaration they fansy the Souls of the departed detained and shut up in most secret and unknown recesses under ground and there to be perplexed and to suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or grievous things and to find ease and refreshment from the Prayers and Suffrages and Oblations and Sacrifices of the living Upon this account it is that in the celebration of the Sacrament the Priest standing at the Prothesis offers several Particles of Bread one in honour of the Virgin Mary which they place on the right side of the Bread that is to be consecrated the rest in honour of S. John the Baptist the Holy and glorious Apostles S. Basil S. Gregory the Divine S. John Chrysostome Athanasius Cyrillus Nicolas of Myra and all holy Bishops S. Stephen the first Martyr S. George Demetrius Theodorus and all other holy Martyrs S. Antony Euthymius Saba Onuphrius Arsenius Athanasius of Mount Athos and all holy Monks the holy Physicians Cosmus and Damianus Cyrus and John Pantaleon and Hermolaus Sampson and Diomedes Thallaleus and Trypho and the rest S. Joachim and Anna the Saint of the day and all Saints and for his particular Archbishop and all the Clergy and for the Founders of the Church or Monastery for the living and dead where he mentions their names and for all who sleep in hope of the Resurrection to everlasting life to whom O mercifull God give pardon These are placed in the Patin and are carried to the Altar of Consecration and by reason of their vicinity to the Bread that is to be consecrated and is afterward actually consecrated partake of that blessing and sanctification 'T is manifest that this practice of the Greeks differs vastly from the ancient Rite of the Christians of the Second and Third Centuries which they would seem to imitate For they imagining that the Souls of deceased persons were not admitted into the Divine Presence but did exspectare in candida diem Judicii as Tertullian speaks their surviving friends and relations fearing lest their present condition might require it at least to shew their love and care of them brought their Oblations but this was done onely once a year laborantibus animabus refrigerium quoddam adpostulantes but they were not particular and distinct but for all together nor were they esteemed by them in the nature of satisfactory or expiatory Oblations but onely to shew the honour they bare to the memory of the holy Apostles and Martyrs in this solemn kind of pomp and at the celebration of the Holy Sacrament at which time they onely prayed to God that He would be pleased to remember them And certainly no more can well be understood by the Commemoration which follows just after the Consecration of the Elements in their present Liturgies The present Greeks too account it a great piece of Piety and Religion to visit the Graves of their dead Friends upon a set day every year and there perform several Funeral rites and pray for their Souls and after that the Priest has performed his Office and the religious part of the Ceremony is over they cover the Grave with their Napkins and Handkerchiefs and make a festival entertainment made up with part of the Colyba or boiled Wheat with mixt Fruits before mentioned with a great deal of mirth and jollity very unbecoming the Solemnity But to return to the modern Greeks The reason of this their practice is thus assign'd by Gabriel Philadelphiensis We offer these Particles for our Fathers Brothers Friends and Kinsfolks who sleep in Christ The end and design is that God would place their Souls in a bright and pleasant place in a place of rest whence grief and lamentation are banisht and send them a relaxation and deliverance from those grievous things that at present seize upon them and give them freedom and redemption from the lamentation of Hades and from tears Cyrillus Lucaris was ashamed of this superstitious practice and the idle pretension commonly used for the defence of it and therefore adds another Esset hîc referendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
novem minimae particulae sunt panis decima B. Mariae Matris Domini quas post aquae vini in calice infusionem ab uno Pane oblato sumptas penès Eucharistiae Panem ponimus ad significandum jam beatam esse sortem Sanctorum qui ut Membra Capiti Christo conjuncta unà in coelesti gloria triumphant By which he supposes onely the Blessedness of the Saints to be designed that as the Particles are placed near the Bread that is consecrated so they as the Members of the Body Mysticall joyned to Christ as to the Head triumph together with Him in the Heavenly glory But besides this they say a particular Mass for the Dead which does not differ from the form used at other times but that there is a peculiar Epistle and Gospell and the dead persons for whose benefit it is intended are particularly mentioned each having a single Particle offered up in his behalf But a general Mass for the Dead is solemnized on the Saturday before Pentecost which day is sacred to the Memory of All Souls While they seem to reject with so much caution a Purgatory they are faln into the Errour of Origen about the Redemption of the Souls of the wicked from Hell For they thus boldly determine Certainly many Sinners are freed from the Chains of Hades not upon the account of any Repentance or Confession made in those infernal regions but for the good Works and Alms of the living for the Prayers of the Church made in their behalf and chiefly for the sake of the unbloudy Sacrifice which the Church daily offers up for the living and the dead Again The Sacrifices the Prayers and Alms which are perform'd by the living greatly comfort and benefit the Soul and free it at last from the bonds of Hades Though to salve this they say such persons as are freed went out of the world with good dispositions and were prevented by death from completing their Repentance and procuring the Favour of God So Patriarch Jeremias explains himself Three times that year their Friends die they celebrate their Exequies the third the ninth and the fortieth day and repeat the same Prayers for the peace and quiet of their Souls I omit the Howlings of the Women really concerned at the Funerals of their Husbands or of their Slaves and of persons hired to act their parts in this most extravagant scene of Grief This being a relique of an old Custom used in the days of their Heathenish Ancestours and not falling properly within the comprehension and compass of my design The Greeks have so great prejudice to all engraven Images and especially if they are emboss'd and prominent that they inveigh severely and fiercely against the Latines as little or less then Idolaters and symbolizing with the very Heathen applying that of the Psalmist Psal 135. v. 16 17 18. They have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not c. But as for the Pictures whether in colours or printed of our Saviour and of the Saints they account them sacred and venerable These they reverence and honour by bowing and kissing them and saying their prayers before them With these the Partition that separates the Bema or Chancell from the Body of the Church is adorned At set times the Priest before he enters into it makes three low Reverences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Image of Christ and as many before that of the Virgin Mary and he does the like in the time of Celebration and oftentimes perfumes them with his Incense-pot Upon some of the great Festivals they expose to the view of the people upon a Desk in the middle of the Quire a printed Picture of that day's Saint done in Christendom whither upon their approach they bow their body and kiss it with great devotion This practice they defend from the Authority of the Seventh general Synod which is the Second held at Nice and from this vain and idle pretence that they worship the Saint in the Image which represents him by the help of which they presently have an Idea of him in their mind and that they worship the figure and representation not with the worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relatively which is all they have to say for their gross and scandalous behaviour herein to the great prejudice of the Christian Religion among the Turks who are too gross and dull to understand these subtil and nice distinctions which they alledge in defence of this Worship But I intend onely a Narrative and not a Confutation A great part of their Worship consists in external Adoration which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which they make two sorts the greater which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bowing the body very low almost to the ground and the less with a little inclination of the head and knee This they doe when they come into the Church or when they are in sight of a Church or Chappell either upon land or sea repeating these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord or God be mercifull to me a Sinner or else onely these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes forty times sometimes a hundred times together out of an excess of Devotion crossing themselves all the while The custom of praying toward the East is still practised and held sacred and inviolable among them and of the two they had rather turn their backs upon the Church then upon that point of the Heavens when they are at their Devotions and because the Altar is in the Eastern-most part of the Church they worship toward that They seldome sit in the Church except when quite tired by their long standing there being no accommodation of Pews or Benches there except a few Stalls in their greater Churches And they do as seldom kneel except perchance on the day of Pentecost or some such solemn time herein being wholly swayed and governed by the custom and practice of the Country the frequent reverences and inclinations they make with their body serving in stead of Genuflexion They have a peculiar manner of crossing themselves which is with the two Fingers of their right hand and Thumb closed to denote as they tell you the mystery of the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity in one Essence They first sign their forehead then the lower part of their breast then their right shoulder and then their left saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy God holy and powerfull holy and immortal have mercy upon us or some such ejaculation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Lord Jesu Christ thou Son and Word of God have mercy upon me but more especially the short forms above mentioned They keep their Culpacs or Caps on their heads in the Church except at the
proper Vestments in which they are as fancifull as the Romanists and particularly the Priest when he consecrates always wears 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or a Stole To give a particular account of their Habits when they officiate would be too nice and perplext and of little use To advance the dignity of the Patriarchal Throne several both Churches and Monasteries were anciently exempt from the Jurisdiction of the Bishop of the Diocese in the nature of Peculiars and immediately subjected to the Patriarch of Constantinople This prerogative was taken away from Joannes Veccus Patriarch for his siding too much with the Bishop and Church of Rome by a Decree of Michael Palaeologus about the year 1279 recorded by Pachymeres who observes that it did intrench upon the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or power belonging to him as Oecumenicall Bishop But this held onely for a time and was made use of to serve a present turn the Privilege being afterward restored and still remaining The Monasteries which enjoy these Immunities are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 from the fixing of a Cross behind the Altar there by the Patriarch in person or by his Deputy at the request of the several Founders who by this Ceremony appropriated the whole power of it to himself An Account of the state of the Greek Church under the Government of Cyrillus Lucaris Patriarch of Constantinople with a relation of his Sufferings and Death CYrillus Lucaris was born in Candia the chief City of the Island to which it has given its name which when the neighbouring places became a Prey to the Ottoman arms for several years before and since kept up and maintained a well-establisht peace and quiet under the mild Government of the Venetians The Greeks there sensible of the great blessing and benefit of Liberty and of the full exercise of their Religion according to the Rites of their Church without the least disturbance or controll endeavoured to render themselves worthy of it They were stout and couragious and very faithfull to the State whose Subjects they were which gave them protection They cherished all inclinations to ingenuity in their Youth and sent them as their Nation did formerly to Athens to Venice and Padua to be educated and trained up in the exercises of Wit and Philosophy and in the Studies of all polite and solid Learning This happiness befell Cyrillus who at Venice was committed to the Care of Maximus Margunius afterwards Bishop of Cerigo an Island in the entrance into the Archipelago still in the possession of the Venetians who among other wrote a learned Discourse about the Procession of the Holy Spirit in the old Greek After he had finished his Studies here and had acquired a perfect knowledge of the Latine and Italian Tongues he travelled out of Italy into other parts of Christendome the better to fit himself for the service of his Country where he learned enough by discourse and conversation added to his own inquisitive genius and wise Observations of things to make him more and more disrelish the Tenents of the Roman Church and the Fopperies and Superstitions of their Worship and to pity the defects and miscarriages which his distressed Countrymen lay under by reason of their Ignorance and Oppression and to be more and more in love with the Reformation These Accomplishments and Qualifications gained him the favour of Meletius Pegus Patriarch of Alexandria a Candiot too by birth who had also studied in Italy whence he carried away with him a settled dislike of Rome which he afterwards in the whole course of his life declared with great zeal and fierceness By him he was made a Priest and afterwards Archimandrite or Prior of a Convent That this Meletius was a man of excellent Learning and Judgment those Books which he published sufficiently shew Such as his Book against the Jews written both in Greek and Latine and afterwards published in the year 1593. at Leopolis in the Greek and Ruthenick or Slavonian languages his Dialogue called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Orthodox Christian printed at Vilna 1596 and several Letters written in Greek printed at London about the year 1624 and others in Latine as that for instance which he wrote from Constantinople to Janus Douza in the year 1597 and that which he directed out of Aegypt in the year 1600 to Sigismund the third King of Poland and Sweden wherein he disputes very solidly and judiciously against the Supremacy and universal Headship of the Popes The occasion of this Letter which our Cyril carried and wherein he is so highly commended was this Several Bishops of Lithuania and Russia nigra who had hitherto continued in the Communion of the Greek Church wrought upon by several temporal advantages and honours which they proposed to gain in the Diet and Government of Poland sent two of their number to Rome in the year 1595. in order to their being reconciled to that Church and to offer their Submission and Obedience to Clement the eighth the Pope then reigning But their going thither and doing this in the name of all the Ruthenick Churches was protested against and a publick Act made of it by Constantine Duke of Ostorovia and Palatine of Kiovia at whose expense the Scriptures of the Old and New Testament were translated into the language of those Countreys and published 1581. and several others who utterly disliked this intended Union Upon the return of the two Messengers from Rome where they had been entertained with all sorts of caresses a Synod of the Bishops was summoned to meet at Bresta in October new style 1596. by the authority of King Sigismund who constituted three persons of the highest quality for title and office in Lithuania as Duke Radzivil the Chancellor and the Treasurer of that Dutchy his Ambassadours to fix and establish this affair which he desired with great earnestness to effect At this Synod the Duke of Ostorovia with the rest of his Party who were resolved to continue in the same Obedience which their Ancestours had profest and shewn to the Patriarchal Throne of Constantinople were commanded to appear which they did accordingly but thought fit to hold their meeting apart and after several contests and strugglings refused to submit to the Union proposed which several who had before retained the Rites and Doctrin of the Greek Church now so greedily embraced Our Cyril was of the number of the Non-uniti or Dissenters being sent thither by Meletius 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as Caryophilus speaks to break off and disturb the Vnion of the Russians with the Church of Rome whence he hardly escaped with his life whereas Nicephorus sent thither by the Patriarch of Constantinople for the same purpose was taken and strangled Afterwards those of the Greek Communion in order to their securing their civil interests and privileges the better against any attaque which might be made upon them had a meeting with several Protestant Nobles and Divines
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
from his not being preferred by him to the Archbishoprick of Thessalonica which he earnestly desired and now he was resolved in the way of revenge to step into his Seat for which advancement he was to pay no less then fifty thousand Dollers But not being able to make good his undertaking and satisfy for this great summ after seven days huffing and domineering the Turks banished him and the Bishop of Amasia his Confederate who died there to the Island of Tenedos whence writing penitential Letters to the Patriarch in which he acknowledged his guilt and the justice of his punishment he was by his favour restored to his former Diocese March 1634. Six months after this Anastasius Pattelari of Candia Archbishop of Thessalonica bought the Patriarchship at the price of sixty thousand Dollers and this by the instigation and with the assistence of the Romanists as Cyril writes in a Letter from Tenedos whither he was banished But this perfidious and ingratefull man whom Cyril had preferred to be a Bishop and had otherways obliged continued scarce a month in the dignity which he had gained by horrid Simony Cyrillus being restored in June following upon the hard condition of paying besides the summ which the sacrilegious Usurper had contracted for an overplus of ten thousand Dollers almost to the utter ruine of the poor Greeks of whom it was to be exacted and levied March 1635. Cyrillus Contari begins again to raise new troubles in the Greek Church to gratify his own ambition and pride and his Masters the Jesuits and bribing the Turks with fifty thousand Dollers invades once more the Patriarchall Throne which is now wholly influenced and governed by the Jesuits In the midst of his wine in April following not able to keep the secret he confesses that all was done by an agreement with the Pope to whom Cyril was to be sent whom they had got banished to Rhodes This man was every way fit for their turns being of a base mercenary temper and wholly depending upon Rome making frequent profession that if the Pope would but furnish him with mony enough he would not onely kiss his hands but his feet too and I suppose he would have been content to have styled himself Patriarch Imperatoris Turcarum Romani Pontificis gratiâ Cyril now an Exile in Rhodes gives an account by Letters to the Dutch Embassadour of his hard and cruel usage and of the designs of some of the Christian Corsayrs to have seised upon him in order to his transportation into Italy which being made known to the chief Officer who commanded the Souldiery in that Island was happily prevented by his removing him thence About eighteen months after July 1636. he was restored though not without the powerfull intercession of his friends and great sums of mony without which be the cause never so just and clear nothing is done in Turkey Cyril though restored had the same difficulties to encounter with as before the same enemies still remained who kept up their animosities and malice toward him those of Cyrillus of Beroea his party advanced during his usurpation to titles and dignities in the Church who were now disgraced and ran the same fortune with him endeavouring by all means possible to promote his interest and we cannot easily imagine that the Jesuits were now reconciled and become his Friends No they saw to their hearts grief how Cyril had still prevailed notwithstanding his frequent depositions and banishment and therefore they all were resolved to be rid of him one way or other and get him dispatcht For now they were grown furious and desperately mad against him and nothing less then his bloud would satisfy their revenge Which yet God would not suffer them to effect till about two years after The Tragical time drew nigh in which this excellent man was to be made a Sacrifice Of the manner of his Death I am able to give a particular relation as having received it from the mouth of the Reverend Doctour Pocock Prebendary of Christ Church Oxon a person of excellent judgment and incomparable learning in the Orientall Languages as those many usefull and curious Books which he has published fully declare who then lived at Constantinople when the bloudy fact was committed and of which he sent a large account to that excellent man Archbishop Laud of famous memory who was very inquisitive to know the minute circumstances of the Patriarch's Death little thinking at that time that his own sad fate was coming on so fast The copy of this Letter was unhappily lost in the time of the Civil Wars but this reverend and excellent Person has been pleased often in discourse to give me the summ of it Which very much confirms the relation of the same Murther written by Nathanael Conopius Protosyncellus of the Patriarchall Church under this Patriarch in Greek Cyril's Enemies not able to get any advantage over him during the Emperour's stay at Constantinople the chief Vizir being his Friend they foreseeing their departure from that City had with their mony gained an interest in Bairam Bassa then in great favour who undertook the business for them which he thus by a wile effected For the Grand Signor having resolved in the year 1638. upon a War upon the Persians in order to the recovering of Bagdat out of their hands into which it had faln not long before sent this Bairam Bassa before him to prepare the way and to make all necessary provisions for the intended Siege while he and the Vizir advanced in slow and easy marches with the gross of the Army then gathering from the most distant parts of the Empire though in two distinct Bodies and at some distance for the convenience of forrage and quarter The Emperour finding all things to his mind and agreeable to his expectation was hugely pleased and satisfied with his conduct He taking the advantage and being often admitted into the Emperour's presence assisted herein by Husain Bassa represented to him among other things relating to that conjuncture that Cyrillus had a great power over those of his Religion that by his instigation the Cossacks had but lately faln upon Azac a considerable Town upon the River Tanais not far from the great lake of Maeotis which they took and pillaged that he was a dangerous man and might stir up the Greeks which were so numerous in Constantinople to mutiny at that time especially when the Imperial City was left bare and defenseless most of the Janizaries being in the Camp and therefore that it was fitting and necessary to prevent such a mischief as might easily happen by putting him to death The jealous Emperour possessed with these plausible stories immediately in a rage signed an Hatte Sherif or Order for his being strangled and a Courier was dispatcht away with it in great hast to the Caimacam or Governour He pursuant to his Order forthwith sent his Officers to seize upon Cyrillus and sent him Prisoner to
one of the Castles upon the Bosphorus In the Evening June 27. they took him thence and put him into a Boat telling him that they were carrying him on board a Vessel lying at Santo Stephano a small Port upon the Propontis a little below the Seven Towers in order to his transportation But as soon as they had launched forth he perceiving their design to murther him fell upon his knees and prayed with great fervency and earnestness preparing himself for death After some revilings and buffettings they did not long delay to put the fatal string about his Neck and soon dispatcht him Having done the bloudy work they stript him and threw his naked Body into the Sea which was afterward taken up by Fishermen and by some of his Friends buried upon the Shore where it had lain exposed for some time But it soon appeared that the malice of his enemies was not yet satisfied for envying him the honour of a Grave they addrest to the Caimacam and got an Order from him to have his Body dug up and thrown into the Sea again and it was done accordingly But the Body was afterwards recovered and buried obscurely in one of the Islands that lie over against the Bay of Nicomedia Thus fell this great man Cyrillus Lucaris by the hands of violence whom both for his Piety and Sufferings which were wholly upon the account of Religion I shall not be afraid having just reason so to doe notwithstanding the passionate censure of Monsieur Arnaud to esteem a Saint and Martyr APPENDIX PRaeter ea quae de hac vetustissima juxtà ac piissimâ Doxologiâ superiùs annotavi paucula haec subnectere visum est Exstat Doxologia haec Graecè edita in fine Liturgiae S. Chrysostomi ab Ambrosio Pelargo Niddano ordinis Praedicatorum Wormatiae 4 o. an 1541. quem Symeon Syracusanus uti ille loquitur Popponem Trevirorum Archiepiscopum è Terrâ Sanctâ quam religionis fortè causâ inviserat redeuntem comitatus Treverim attulisse fertur Codicem autem hunc mirae vetustatis esse depraedicat ante mille annos descriptum fuisse ante octingentos plus minus annos Treverim allatum Pauculas variationes in margine apposui sub notâ Tr. Librum autem istum rarissimum quidem vix alibi reperiendum ex ipsius Bibliothecâ quantivis pretii ceimeliis refertissimâ utendum dedit vir consummatissimae eruditionis omni laude major D. Thomas Marshallus S. Theologiae Professor Collegii Lincolniensis Oxon. Rector perquam dignissimus Facilè quoque videbis formam istam quae in Libro Constitutionum Apostolicarum paulò amplior occurrit cum Codice Treverensi magis convenire quà m cum nostro Alexandrino Sed discrimen utriusque adeò leve nullius momenti est ut in caeteris mirifica consensio perplaceat invictissimum Catholicae veritatis argumentum contra nuperos Dogmatistas qui sub purioris Theologiae titulo antiquam Apostolicam de Sanctissimae Trinitatis divinitatis D. nostri Jesu Christi mysterio fidem subdolè impiè corruperunt meritò debeat aestimari Reperi quoque hunc divinissimum Hymnum ad finem duorum Psalteriorum Graecorum MSS. in Bibliothecâ Bodleianâ quorum alter num 15. in 8 o. inter Codices Baroccianos scriptus erat ante quingentos septuaginta plus minus annos ut ex circulis Paschalibus post Praefationem S. Basilii Theodoreti Cosmae Indico-pleustae illic descriptis abunde liquet Horum enim primus incipit ab anno Creationis 6613. sive Christi 1105. ultimus verò desinit anno ejusdem Epochae 6648. sive Christi 1140. Circa hujus intervalli initia codicem descriptum fuisse hae tabulae ad computum Ecclesiasticum spectantes quae futuris annis uti solent Ephemerides Calendaria prospicere meritò censendae sint liquidò testantur Alter verò in 4 o. manu quidem recentiori vix ante tria secula uti ex characteribus conjectari fas est exaratus Denique S. Notkeri Psalterium MS. in Archivis Seldenianis pulcherrimè additis notulis musicis descriptum monitu eruditissimi mei Amici D. Edvardi Bernardi S. T. B. Saviliani Professoris Astronomiae consului quo praeter versionem Latino Sermone expressam quam Ecclesia Anglicana juxta rituale in Ecclesiis Occidentalibus ferè ubivis locorum usu receptum ad amussim sequitur nisi quòd è Graeco paulò variatum sit Graecè quoque characteribus licèt Latinis exstat Variantes Lectiones literâ N. notatas habebis 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 juxta exemplar Alexandrinum sive uti illic inscribitur 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Hymnus Matutinus è Psalterio S. Notkeri Gloria in excelsis Deo Et in Terra Pax Hominibus bonae Voluntatis Laudamus Te Benedicimus Te Adoramus Te Glorificamus Te Gratias agimus Tibi Propter magnam gloriam Tuam Domine Deus Rex Coelestis Deus Pater Omnipotens Domine fili Vnigenite Jesu Christe Domine Deus Agnus Dei Filius Patris Qui tollis peccata mundi Miserere nobis Qui tollis peccata mundi Suscipe deprecationem nostram Qui sedes ad dextram Patris Miserere nobis Quoniam Tu solus Sanctus Tu solus Dominus Tu solus altissimus Jesu Christe Cum Sancto Spiritu In Gloriâ Dei Patris Amen Sequuntur in eodem venerandae Antiquitatis Codice hi Versiculi è Psalmis maximâ ex parte collecti tanquam Hymni pars â—isdem uncialibus characteribus planè 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 descripti neque dubitandum videtur quin simul ac eodem tempore olim recitarentur quod hodiè faciunt Graeci uti ex Horologiis manifestissimum est malè ergo Hymni Vespertini à Viro eruditissimo titulo insignitus est Variantes lectiones hîc quoque annexas habes 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
he should be by Clem. Ellis M. A. late Fellow of Qu. Coll. Oxâ—n The sixth Edition 1679. The Christian Sacrament and Sacrifice by way of discourse Meditation and Prayer upon the Nature Parts and Blessings of the Holy Communion by 〈…〉 D. D. The 3 d Edition at the Thea. 1679. A Nomenclator of such Tracts and Sermons as have been Printed or translated into English upon any place or book of the Holy-Scripture now to be had in the Publick Library in Oâ—on by John Vernevill Cross de Febre intermittente Pavâ—â—il Disputat Ethiâ—â— Paradoxa Hydrostatica per Rob. Boyle Origo formarumâ—â— Qualitation c. Cogitationes de S. 〈…〉 Tractatus Novem de Qualitat 〈…〉 c. Clementis Epistolae G. L. 1669. Theses 〈…〉 à Curolo Potter 〈…〉 Smith Element◠〈◊〉 Authorâ— Edvardo Brerewood Roberti Baroni◠〈◊〉 Theâ—log Ancillans De Peccato Mortali 〈…〉 Prolusienes 〈◊〉 in duas partes distribâ—â—â— 1. de Judiciis 2. de Origiâ—e Dominiiservititis c. Tho. Jonâ—â— L. I. D. 〈…〉 〈…〉 Institut Metaphyscae 1675. Bradshaw de Justificatiâ—â—e Issendoorâ—i Cursus Logicus Combachii Metaphysica Minutius Foelix 〈…〉 c. 〈◊〉 Galateus de Moribus Bartholini Enchiriâ—ion 〈◊〉 Q. Curtius Notis 〈◊〉 1672. Pembli Tractatus Tres de 〈…〉 c. 1669. Pharmaceutice Rationaâ—â—â—sive Diatriba de 〈…〉 in Human c. Corpore Authore Tho. Willis M. D. duo Vol. 1674. 1675. Rev. Patris Lanâ— Andrews Epise Winton Preces Privatae Graecè Latinè è Theatro Richardi Gardiner Herefordenâ—â—â— Aedis Christi Oxon. Canon Specimen Oratorium cum Supplemento 〈…〉 1675. M. Antonini Imperatoris de scipso ad seipsum libâ—i XII Gr. Lat. 〈◊〉 Notis illustrati è Theatro 1680. In 24. LIpsâ—â— de Constantica 〈◊〉 de Consolatione Phil â— FINIS a pag. 78. Fol. of the German Edition an 1555. though no place be mentioned in the title page Si Caesarem audirem cum omni suà classe in altum jam provectum cursum ad ipsam Turcarum Regiam Constantinopolim direxisse etsi omnia mihi pericula proponerentur nunquam quiescerem donec eum invenirem ac si jam Hellesponti fauces tenentem conspicerem ut primum conveniendi facultas daretur in haec verba prorumperem Caesar quid parâ—â— quid cogitas c. a pag. 79. b pag. 80. The Eastern Church what and why so called Governed by four Patriarchs a 3. Canon Concilii Constantinopolitani 28. canon Concilii Chalcedonensis Their Jurisdictions Limits and Titles b Histor Ecclesiastic lib. 5. cap. 8. a Vid. actionem 16. Concil Chalcedon 28. canon cjusdem Concil Patriarch of Constantinople b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Alexandria a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 b This Title of Oecumenical Judge Nicephorus Callistus Hist Eccles lib. 14. c. 34. says has belonged to the Bishops of this See from the time of Cyrillus who presided in the Council of Ephesus Pope Coelestine writing to him to supply his place there Which does not in the least suppose a Supremacy in the See of Rome but onely a Precedence or a Primacy of Order c V. Epist Cyrilli Lucaris tunc temporis Patriarchs Alexandrini ad Johannem Vytenbogaert in Epistol Ecclesiastic pag. 407. d 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Vide 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem Codini de officiis officialibus Curiae Ecclesiae C. P. Parisiâ—s 16. 18. pag. 411. 419. Antioch a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jerusalem b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a V. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 ad finem Codini pag. 419. Prayers made for them b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Histor 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 lib. 5. cap. 1. pag. 89. Colon. Allobiogum 1615. V. Phransen in histor lib. 1. cap. 6. This is called by Cardinal Bessarion 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in the letter he wrote to the Governour of the Sons of Prince Thomas Palaeologus in the vulgar Greek published by Meursius Patriarchs of other Sects Extent of the Greek Church Oppression of the Greeks How heightned and aggravated Collection of Christian children A Vnion of Christian Princes desired in order to the freeing the Greeks from the slavery of the Turks A Holy War The Greeks quite dispirited their temper low and mean Renegados The Turkish Empire how supplied by them The causes of the decay of Christianity in the Levant The preservation of the Christian Religion there owing to the strict and religious observation of the Festivals and Fasts of the Church Festivals a XIV The Greeks date this Festival from the times of Constantine and Helena and so seem to confound it with the invention and first discovery of it at Jerusalem by a miracle and derive the reason of its name from the Patriarch Macarius in placing and setting it on high above the Ambo or Pulpit 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that it might the better be seen and adored by the people But the Latines celebrate the Festival in memory of the Holy Cross brought back out of Persia to Jerusalem by Heraclius A. C. 628. after the victory he had gained over Cosroes which is the account given in the Roman Martyrology but 't is certain it was in use long before and might receive some additional honour from the triumphs and successes of that Emperour * 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 pag. 13. b 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Migratio Ita enim planius reddenda erat ista vox de Ecclesiae Graecae hod statu p. 16. licet idem innuebam per translationem nempe ex hâc vitâ in alteram In the Latin Edition I rendred this word by two Latine words translatio seu obitus alluding by the first to the opinion and fancy of several of the Brethren in the Apostle's time who from a mis-apprehension of our B. Saviour's words concerning this beloved Disciple to S. Peter in the 20. Chap. of S. John v. 22. If I will that he tarry till I come what is that to thee concluded that he was not to die 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Graecâ Venet. 1621. fl 24. b. which mistake he corrects himself v. 23. and in the Ages following as we learn from Tertullian in his book de Anima and several others Others fancied that when they opened his grave they found no body or relique of it p. 24. a. b. But that he died at Ephesus really and truely and was buried there Polycrates Bishop of that City discourses in a Letter to Victor Bishop of Rome which is preserved by Eusebius in his Church-history lib. 3. c. 31. not to mention other Authours who have confuted this errour about the translation of S. John who onely of all the Apostles survived the last destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem when Christ came to take Vengeance upon his Murtherers and lived to the times of Trajan sixty eight years after the Crucifixion of our Saviour according to S. Hierom de Scriptor Eccles in Joanne c 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 p. 71. b. a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 a