torments afflict the soul or make the least satisfaction for sin according to the sentence of the second Council of Constantinople which condemned the Opinion of Origen herein for the soul then becomes uncapable either by its sufferings or repentance to obtain pardon in its own behalf But whatsoever is to be done in this matter is to be performed by the Soul united with the Body in this life afterwards the Bridegroom being entered the Gate is shut and no Path or way is left to repentance only the Prayers of the Saints on Earth their Almes-deeds and Offertories of frequent Sacrifices without Blood with the intercession of the Blessed Martyrs and Church triumphant open the doors of Paradise to languishing and wishing Souls but this is not done until the Judgment of the last day in which interim the Greek Church holds That neither the Sentence of the four Patriarchs nor the Decrees of the Universal Synod nor all the Bishops of the whole World assembled are able by their Autority Bolles or Indulgences to prescribe a time for release of one Soul from the confines of Hell only the Mercies of God who vouchsafes to be moved by the Prayers of the Church can sign this release and delivery at what time he shall think fit And that as the Blessed receive not their repletions of Glory in Heaven until after the day of Judgment so neither shall the Damned their fullness of Torment in everlasting flames By which it appears that the Tenents of the Greek Church are in this point First that the Repository of longing Souls is not locally different from Hell it self Secondly that they endure no other punishment than only the sence of deprivation from God and Heaven and are not purged by Fire and Flames And thirdly that no Indulgences nor Pardons of all the Patriarchs or of the Universal Bishop can by their Autority remit one moment of detention to the imprisoned Souls farther than as they are Members of the Church Militant by whose Prayers and good works only those Souls find ease and benefit and this is the true and certain meaning of the Greek Church in this point against which and their Tenent about the Pontificial Authority the Romanists make their greatest exception CHAP. XV. Of the Fifth Mystery called Marriage MArriage in the Greek Church is called a Mystery being the Union of two Bodies into one Flesh which having a Spiritual Benefit as well as a Politick the Church under all Christian Governments hath taken upon it self the power of tying the Matrimonial Knot of blessing the Parties and of giving or granting rules and limits thereunto The Greek Church retaining unto these days many of the Precepts and Laws of ancient severity and mortification used in the Primitive times of Christianity forbids and declares unlawful the fourth Marriage for though they are subject to the Turks with whom Polygamie is allowable yet they do not only disapprove it as dissentaneous to the Christian Religion but likewise as a matter undecent and savouring too much of the Flesh and sensuality of Concupiscence For a man after he hath buried his first Wife and taken a second and being deprived of that also hath proceeded to the embraces of a third the Church is so far satisfied but gives a stop here judging that where death hath three times made a separation from the Matrimonial Bed there ought a limitation to be set unto farther proceedings that so the Widower may lament and condole the unhappiness of so many deprivements and having proved the troubles and importunities of the Flesh may find time and leisure for Prayer and Repentance The reason that the Greeks give why the fourth Marriage is unlawful is because it would come under the notion of Polygamie which hath been forbidden by the Civil and Ecclesiastical Laws of Christians for they understand Polygamie to be a Conjunction of divers Copulatives in number which is not understood until a person proceeds unto a fourth Wife which makes more than one Copulative in the rule of Marriage but this allegation is so frivolous and unsatisfactory that I cannot understand the nicety and therefore rather believe that this prohibition was grounded on the ancient Customs of the Church when mortifications were more in use and all luxurious indulgence to carnality generally condemned and out of fashion as appears by the Writings of S. Augustine lib. 3. cap. 18. de doct Christ. lib. 16. contra Faustâ—â—â— against which also S. Jerom in his Epistles so much inveighs that he stiles the second Marriage little better than Fornication what censure then is it likely that he would pass on the fourth or fifth Marriages and herein hath been great variety of Opinions in former Ages as Socrates Schol. saith lib. 5. c. 21. The Novatians in Phrygia allow not of a second Marriage such as inhabit Constantinople do neither receive nor reject it again such as are in the Western parts of the World admit it wholly the Original Authors of so great diversity were Bishops who governed the Churches at divers and at several times How strict soever this Church is esteemed in admitting many degrees of Marriage that is of proceeding farther than to the fourth Marriage yet through corruption and poverty of the Clergy the dissolution of that Knot is with much more facility obtained so that it is ordinary for a man to take out a Divorce from the Patriarch and to marry another Woman and the Patriarch afterwards to alter his Sentence and enjoyn the Party to reassume his first Wife leaving the ignorant soul as well confused in his love as in his Conscience The reason hereof is rather Ignorance in Government than the Authority of any Canon whereby such a liberty is dispensed for the Metropolites as well as the Priests being miserably poor their Divorces as well as Excommunications are made vendible from whence yearly accrues a considerable benefit to the Church and perhaps also this freedom may the more easily be indulged in imitation and complyance with the Government under which they live The Ceremonies used at their Marriages are some of them serious and significant and others too light and frivolous for so considerable and important a part of Religion for though their Prayers and Collects at this Service are holy and full of apt and Divine Expressions and the use of the Ring is very decent and becoming but the changing of Garlands from the Bridegroom to the Bride the giving them Wine and sugared Confects in a Spoon and tying them with a Garter and rocking them together are Ceremonies and Toys which seem too mean and low and not aptly fitted to an Institution so serious and and important as this The Greeks being a people of a merry and sanguine complexion are wanton and unconstant in their Amours so that it is usual as amongst other Nations for them to make Addresses to one Mistress and pass to the Marriage of another for which they commonly give their Sponsalia
mournings for the dead retain not only Ceremonies by us accounted superstitious but also savouring somewhat of ancient Gentilism If the headache or be ill-affected the Priest binds it with the Vail of the Sacramental Chalice and administers to the sick a draught of consecrated Water in which is Basil or Dittamon or some other odoriferous Herb blessed with the touch of a Crucifix or the Picture of our Lady and administred as a spiritual Medicine as well operative for the benefit of the Soul as conducing to the health of the Body But in case the indisposition increase the holy Oyl or extream Unction is applyed called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 mixed with some of that Water which was consecrated at the Sacrament of the Communion and some Prayers proper for that occasion are rehearsed together with such Chapters and Verses out of the new Testament which relate to the resurrection of the dead It is likewise usual amongst them as in the Roman Church to make Vows upon recovery and on the Altar to tender the form of a Leg Arm or Eyes or some other Member ill-affected in Silver or Gold in remembrance and gratitude for the late mercy of Almighty God But when the party dyes the lamentations which they make are most barbarous For after his eyes are shut his Corps are clothed in its best Apparel and being stretched on the Floor with a Taper at the head and another at the feet then begins the Scene of sorrow the Wife the Children and the rest of the Family and Friends entring with their Hair dishevelled their Garments loose and torn pulling their Locks and beating their Breasts and scratching their Faces with their Nails Faedantes unguibus ora make such deep sighs and sad cryes as might justly incur the reprehension of the Apostle who gave them that reasonable Counsel of Mourn not like those without hope 1 Thes. 4. v. 13. The Body thus dressed up with a Crucifix on the Breast attended by the Priests and Deacons is carried to burial and the Prayers solemnized with Incense that God would receive his Soul into the Region of the blessed the Wife follows her departed Husband with such passion to perform the last office of kindness as if she intended with violence of her shreeks to force out her own Soul and to bear company with the Corps of her Husband in his Cave of darkness And where passion is not found so vigorous and violent in its representation of sorrow by reason of the gentle and more even temper of some Wives there want not Women who are perfect Tragedians that are hired to follow the Corps of the dead and to act in behalf of the Relations all the distracted postures and motions of real grief and confused sorrow The Corps being placed in the Church and the Office for the dead being ended the Friends which accompany it first kiss the Crucifix on the Breast and then the Mouth and Forehead of the deceased and afterwards every one eats a piece of Bread and drinks a glass of Wine in the Church wishing rest to the Soul departed and consolation to the afflicted Relations which done they attend them home and so end the Ceremonies of Burial At the end of eight days after the Burial the friends of the deceased make their charitable Visits to condole with and comfort the nearer Relations and accompany them to the Church to joyn with them in the Prayers offered for the quiet and rest of the departed Soul at which time the men eat and drink again in the Church whilst the Women renew their barbarous lamentations with shreeks and cryes and with all other evidences of distraction and sorrow but such as can pay others to act this part of passion force not themselves with that violence but send them to lament and mourn over the Sepulcher for the space of eight days the third day after which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 on which Prayers are said for the Soul departed In like manner at the end of nine days of forty days and at the end of six months and at the conclusion of the year Prayers and Masses are said for repose of the Soul which being ended those then present are entertained with boiled Wheat and Rice Wine and dryed fruits and this is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is a custom esteemed by the Greeks of great Antiquity which they more devoutly solemnize on the Fryday before their entrance into the Lent of Advent Good-Fryday and the Fryday before the Feast of Pentecost which are special days observed for Commemoration of the dead as well such as dyed of violent as of natural deaths Now as to the Opinion which the Greek Church holds concerning the condition of Souls departed this life there is some diversity being a matter not clearly determined by Councils Howsoever the Anatolian Confession which is generally accepted and approved by the Greek Divines doth clearly and expresly maintain this Doctrine That the Souls so soon as they are cleared and loosed from the Fetters of the Body go either to Heaven or to Hell the first hath the name of Paradise Abraham's Bosom the Kingdom of Heaven where the Saints sit and intercede for those who are on Earth in honour of whom are daily sung Hymns of praise and glory Such as go to Hell called the Grave the eternal Fire the Bottomless Pit and the like are of two sorts The first are such who dye in the state of Divine anger on whom are immediately imposed Chains and Fetters which can never be taken off nor loosed to all Eternity The second are such who enter or are introduced into the Mansions of Hell without those Bonds Fetters Pains and Torments which for ever enslave and afflict the damned but departing this life with dispositions to Justice Repentance and a new life with the advantagious assistances of Confession and Absolution of the Priest though the work of Grace be not thoroughly perfected in them nor their resolution of godliness proceeded to action have yet their resolutions dispositions beginnings of Pietymade acceptable and brought to maturity esteem in the sight of God not by any works performed in the next World according to that of the Psalmist who shall praise thee in the Grave or shall the dead give thanks unto thee in the Pit but by the Offertories Oblations and Almes and Prayers of the Church made in behalf of the dead by the living on Earth and this is the meaning of those Prayers Tu autem Domine repone animam ejus in loco lucenti in loco quietis consolationis ex quo longe est omnis maestitia dolor suspirium condonans ei omne peccatum Do thou Lord repose his Soul in the Mansions of light of quietness and consolation from whence are banished all sadness grief and sighs But this place it seems they account no different Limbo from Hell and is no Purgatory whose flames purge and cleanse or whose
married they begin the Feast on Sonday Evening and continue it three or four Days with much jollity during which time the Bride is kept in her Chair and State and almost the whole time waking and the Bridegroom in like manner is obliged to keep his distance and not permitted to consummate the Matrimonial Duty until Wednesday night or Thursday morning when they expose the signs of Virginity in the same manner as the Greeks Turks and Jews do and all other Nations of the East CHAP. XI Their Opinion of Souls in the state of separation and their Ceremonies used towards the dead THEY believe that neither the Souls nor Bodies of any Saints or Prophets departed this life are in Heaven unless it be the Blessed Virgin and Elias the Prophet They believe that a person dying contrite goes not immediately to Heaven nor a Sinner unto Hell but are intercepted in the way and lodged together in the same place which they call Gayank which is the Eighth Heaven where the Stars are and have there no other joy or grief but what proceeds from a good or a bad Conscience Those which dye with the burden of minute sins such as the sins of evil thoughts or words go to the same place and are freed from Punishment by the Alms and good works of the Faithful They believe that until after the day of resurrection the souls of the Righteous shall not see the face of God or enjoy the Beatifical Vision but only be filled and replenished with certain beams of his glory and Divine illumination Notwithstanding which opinion That the Saints shall not enter into Heaven until the day of judgment yet by a certain imitation of the Greek and Latine Churches they invoke them with prayers reverence and adore their Pictures or Images and burn Lamps to them and Candles The Saints which are commonly invoked by them are all the Prophets and Apostles likewise S. Silvester S. Savorich c. As to the Ceremonies used towards their Dead they observe several particulars The Corps of their Bishops and Priests they anoint with confecrated Oyl before they are interred but the Bodies of the Laity are only washed after the manner of the Turks and fashion of the Eastern parts of the World When any dies under the Age of nine years the Parents or Kindred employ some Priest for the space of eight days to make Prayers for the Soul of the deceased who during that time have their entertainment of Meat and Drink defrayed at the charge of such Parents and on the ninth day a solemn Office is performed for the Soul of the Deceased But those who are rich and Religious do yearly at their expence appoint one day for Commemoration of their departed Relations and for performance of those Offices which are instituted and appointed for the same Easter Monday is the day ordained by Custom for visiting the Sepulchres of their deceased Relations where having lamented them a while with howlings and cryes after their manner and the Women with most barbarous Screeches they presently change the Scene and retiring under the shadow of some Tree they eat drink and forget their sorrow which their Wine soon chases away and then they become as dissolute in their Mirth as they were before undecent and extravagant in their Grief This Custom we may suppose to have been derived from those ancient Solemnities which were at first kept at the Tombs where Martyrs had been buried which usually were in the Caemeteria or the Church-yards distinct from the Church and in the Eastern parts are commonly at some distance without the City To these places the people annually resorted to celebrate the memory of Martyrs with Prayers Incense Psalms and Sermons which by the multitude of Martyrs became afterwards so common that the people began to think it their duty to perform this Office at the Graves of their Relations which time hath now made accustomary and is a great part of the service and pastime of Easter Monday CHAP. XII Of the manner how some Friars of the Roman Church perswaded the Armenian Patriarch and Bishops at Constantinople to subscribe a Confession agreeable to the Tenents of the Roman Faith THough the great Marshal Turenne as is credibly reported had alwayes inclinations towards the Roman Church which for many years he concealed for reasons best known to himself Yet being desirous at length to be owned as a Member thereof he suffered himself to be wrought upon by such arguments as were then suggested amongst which none seemed more convincing or forcible to him than that the Eastern Churches concurred with the Roman in all points wherein there was any difference between the Papists and the Protestants to prove which the Ambassadour Resident for his most Christian Majesty at Constantinople in the year 1674 assembled the Armenian Patriarch and some of his Bishops from whom without much difficulty he procured a certain Confession very agreeable to the sense of the Roman Church A Copy of this Confession I saw and read as it was delivered to me from the Martabet or Armenian Bishop wrote in the Armenian Language and Character the which was faithfully Translated for me which when I well considered it appeared plainly to me to be origiginally the invention form and contrivance of some Fryer of the Roman Church rather than the thoughts or Stile of an Armenian Author For first though I understand little of the Armenian Tongue yet I have some reasons to perswade me that there is nothing in the Idiom of that Language which corresponds with the word Sacrament agreeable to that definition whereby we would understand the notion of Sacramentum Secondly the professed Armenian Doctrine holds That there are no other Saints in Heaven but the blessed Virgin and Elias the Prophet and yet in this Confession they seem to place as many in Heaven it self as the Church of Rome Thirdly in another place one would believe that to avoid confusion they meant to set up the Pope for Head of the Universal Church which when they come to explicate a little farther they only condemn those who allow not the Government of the Church by Bishops and those who believe that one Preacher is sufficient and that one Priest can make another But who this latter sort of people is and where to be found they would have done well to have declared before they had taken so much pains to bestow the Anathema upon them This Confession which I here mention was in part the Occasion and Ground of the Report which in the year 1676 was spread at Constantinople of a new reconciliation which though it was some years after this Confession yet that and the Conversion of an Armenian Bishop to the Church of Rome was the cause of all the discourse but he being a person of no greater Revenue than of 200 Dollars yearly Rent the mistake soon appeared it being probable that the acquisition of a poor ignorant person could have no great influence on
supposed than real presumed gratis and not granted that Universal Jurisdiction becomes as empty and airy as those Titles which Popes give to those Patriarchs and Bishops whom they constitute over the several Diocesses of the Eastern Churches though they neither have a Revenue from thence nor Command over any of the Greek perswasion To evince which with more Evidence it will be pertinent to understand what Confession herein the Oriental Church makes and layes down for Orthodox viz. That as there is one Faith one Baptism one God and one Father of all so the Church of God is one Holy Catholick and Apostolick which denomination of Catholick they are the very words of the Confession the Church doth not take from one particular place or See predominant over all others as from Ephesus Philadelphia Laodicea Antioch Rome Jerusalem or the like but from an aggregation of all the Christian Churches in the World collected into one Body and united under one head Christ Jesus It is true saith this Confession that Jerusalem may properly be called the Mother Church of the World it having been the Stage whereon the Mystery of man's Redemption was represented and the place where the Gospel was first preached and the Fountain from whence were derived through the World the Streams of that Holy Doctrine which published the Passion and Resurrection of our Saviour and made known unto the World the glad Tidings of Repentance and remission of Sins but can betermed the Universal Mother with no more right than any other though if any particular Church can pretend thereunto that of Jerusalem might challenge an Authority and Priviledge above others having in the Infancy of Religion Acts II. v. 22. sent forth her Teachers and Pastors into all places and was famed for the glorious Blood of the Primitive Martyrs Whereby it is evident that the Greek Faith acknowledges no other Universal Head or Foundation than Jesus Christ himself under whom the Patriarchs Arch-bishops and Bishops of particular Churches subjected to different Powers of secular Government exercise their sway and jurisdiction over Human Souls Acts 20. v. 28. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Take heed unto your selves and to all the Flock over which the Holy Ghost hath made you Bishops By which it appears That the Greek Church doth not only not esteem the Church of Rome for the sole Catholick but also how absurd it is in reason to exclude the Greek the Armenian and many other Christan Churches from the pale of the Universal and consequently from the Benefits and Promises purchased by Christ for his Church And strange it is that none besides the Roman which is not of that extent as the vast Circumference of the other Christian Churches should yet have the sole Power of the Keys of the Divine Ordination and dispensing the Mysteries of the Holy Sacraments and that such who are excluded or are without her pale should be strangers to the Church of God and Aliens from his People Whilst in this manner the Oriental Churches believe no particular Church to have any other Universal Head than Jesus Christ they bear all obedience and respect to that Church of which they are members submitting to all its Orders and Censures Ecclesiastical for they believe that those words of our Saviour Matth. 18. 27. carry with them some force and authority and if he shall neglect to hear them tell it unto the Church and if he neglect to hear the Church let him be unto thee as a Heathen man or a Publican On this ground the Interpretation of Scripture made by the holy Synods and Councils and the judgments given by Patriarchs Bishops and other Priests according to Canonical Rites are established and esteemed of Divine Authority 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priests with them are the mouth of their Spiritual Law and the Guides of their Souls on their Doctrine they entrust and adventure their safe Pilotage to the everlasting Haven of happiness And believing that no Scripture is of private Interpretation they judge it rational to resign themselves intirely to the belief of those to whose conduct they are committed having that high esteem of obedience as that which contains an admirable Vertue and Efficacy to atone for the sins not only of a misled understanding but for Actions of irregular practices And that the people may better understand the Precepts and Rules of the Church the Oriental Confession hath reduced all the commands thereof unto these nine following The first is Prayer to God attending at the times of the Liturgy Morning and Evening on the Lords Day and holy Festivals of the Church The second is the observation of the Fasts and Feasts of the Church The third is Obedience and Honour towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers The fourth is Confession of sins four times a year to a Priest lawfully constituted and ordained The fifth forbids the Laity to read the Books of Hereticks or any other which may divert them from the Profession of the Christian Faith The sixth enjoyns them to pray for all Kings and Princes for their Patriarchs Metropolites Bishops and all the Clergy and for all Souls departed in the Catholick Faith and for all Hereticks and Schismaticks that they may return to the true Faith before their passage from this present life The seventh enjoins an Obedience to all extraordinary occasional Fasts besides the Common or General namely such as are appointed and ordained by the Bishops in their respective Diocesses on occasional Calamities such as Famine War Pestilence or the like The eighth forbids the Laity to invade the Rights or Spiritual Livings or Benefices of the Clergy or convert the Ornaments of the Priest or Altar to private and profane uses or sacrilegiously to rob the Poor's Box and abuse the charitable Contributions of well-disposed Christians by employing them contrary to the intention of the Donor The ninth forbids the celebration of Marriages in Lent or during the time of their other Fasts or to frequent Theaters or imitate the Customs of the Barbarians or Infidels that so those who profess the Gospel may be charged with nothing that is over-sensual undecent or of ill report CHAP. V. Of the Fasts of the Greek Church THE Principal Fasts or Lents are four The first begins the 15th day of November being forty days before Christmas The second is the great Lent before Easter beginning with ours according to the Old stile the which stile they observe through the whole year The third begins the Week after Pentecost or Whitsontide called The Fast of the Holy Apostles being the time in which they judge that the Apostles prayed and fasted when they prepared themselves to preach the Gospel Acts 13. v. 3. which ends the 29th of June being the Festival of St. Peter and the other Apostles so that of this Fast there is no fixed number of days but is some years more some less according as the Pentecost falls
Licenses to eat flesh is a scruple grounded on that Government which is agreeable to the present state of things rather than want of power in the Church to grant Dispensations for it CHAP. VI. Of Feasts observed in the Greek Church THE Greeks begin their Year in September observing the first day thereof with jollity and feasting esteeming a chearful spirit to be a good Omen that the succeeding year shall be prosperous though not being dedicated to the memory and honour of any Saint it is no point of Religion to abstain from labour yet it is esteemed undecent arguing either covetousness or a necessitous poverty The grand Feast of the Year as amongst all other Christians is Easter or the Festival of the Resurrection at which time the Greeks have this ancient and laudable Custom When they meet their acquaintance in the Morning or at any time within the three days of Easter they salute with these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Christ is risen and then the other answers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 he is risen indeed and so they kiss three times once on each Cheek and on the Mouth and so depart The second day of September is the Feast of S. John the abstemious not of Precept but of Devotion and therefore is only celebrated by Kaloires and other Religious in honour of the holy S. John Baptist who by his severe and abstemious life in the Wilderness set the first Example of holy Fasts to such as would be Disciples of the holy Jesus The twenty sixth is dedicated with great honour and devotion to the Translation of the Body of S. John the Evangelist into Heaven for they maintain that this S. John being banished by Trajan the Emperour into the Isle of Patmos and there having wrote the Apocalypse he passed over unto Ephesus where ending his glorious life he was interred but after some days burial his Disciples searching for his Body in the Grave found it not from whence immediately arose a belief that his Body was assumed into Heaven and placed in the Mansion of Enoch and Elias who in company together shall again return to converse on Earth before Antichrist is perfectly revealed and made known unto the World And this they partly ground on the words of our Saviour to S. Peter If I will that he stay till I come what is that to thee The Greeks as they delight in the Histories of their Saints and recount them with as much variety and fancy as the Latines do their Legends so I might in this place recite long and tedious Histories of them but because the lives of most of them are recorded in Holy Scripture and of the later of them in the Synaxarion of which Book we shall hereafter speak we shall only here mention Cosma and Damianus and St. George the Cappadocian which are persons who after the Apostles and immediate Disciples of Jesus with some Fathers of the Church such as St. Basil St. Chrysostom c. take up a principal place in the Greek Kalendar The first two are called the Holy Anargiri to whom I found a poor Oratory erected at Ephesus which was thrown up of late with a few loose stones encircling a little Altar without Roof in the place of a more ancient Church whither the Greeks resort on the first of November to say Mass and sing Hymns in praise and commemoration of these Saints whom they report to have been born in Asia their father a Gentile and their mother a Christian called Thedosa who educated these her two Sons in Religious Piety and laudable Sciences but they principally addicting themselves to the studies of Physick did by the Divine assistance cooperating with the means of Herbs and Medicines become such perfect Practitioners that they cured all Diseases incident to Man and Beast without Money or other consideration of Interest for which cause they were called the Anargiri or those that took no Money They farther report That Damianus was so strict in this point that he dissented greatly from his Brother Cosma for having only accepted of two Eggs from a poor Widow though employed on her self for an Unguent or Cataplasm for the Sciatica that he ever after avoided all society and converse with him and at his death gave order that his Brother should not be interred in the same Vault or Grave with him the which resolution of Damianus the Friends of both designed to perform but that carrying the Corps of Cosma to burial they were met by a Camel which opening his mouth as miraculously as Balaam's Ass admonished the Bearers to lay the Brothers in the same Tomb together for that neither the Crime of Cosma was so great nor the difference so lasting but that both their Bodies might be contained in the same Sepulchre whose Souls were already united in the same heavenly Mansion The Kaloires also farther boasting of the Miracles of these Saints tell us that at Athens there is a Well adjoining to the Porch of that Church which is dedicated to them which is dry the whole year excepting only on that day when their Festival is celebrated and begins to flow at the first words of the Mass which seem to have the same Efficacy on this Spring as Moses's Rod had upon the Rock to produce a Flood of sweet and delicious water not only pleasant to the taste but wholesom for the Body but dries up and fails with the Evening of the Festival St. George the Capadocian is in like manner highly reverenced by this People there being scarce a Town where are two Churches but one of them is dedicated to this Saint of whom they recount many and various stories and what is most strange they believe them all They say that he was born of noble Blood and lived in the time of Dioclesian the Emperour under whom arising a bloody persecution this Saint as a Champion of undaunted Courage publickly presented himself owning and avouching the Gospel to be the only true and saving Faith inveighing against Idolatry and superstitious Customs and belief of Gentilism This Christian boldness sharpened the Arms of persecution against the Saint so that the Executioner struck him into the Belly with a Lance which though a great effusion of Blood followed yet the Wound closed and immediately became whole They tell us of his being thrown into a Pit of Lime and his walking bare-foot on Planks studded with sharp Nails of his remaining unconsumed and untouched amidst the flames of his raising the dead of his slaying a Dragon on the Banks of Euphrates near a place now called by the Turks Barut which the Greeks and Christians of those parts show unto Travellers to this day by which variety of Miracles many were converted unto the Christian Faith amongst which was the Queen Alexandra Wife of Dioclesian At length the time being come that this Saint was to dye the power of his persecutors prevailed against him by whom his head being struck off his soul ascended into
than those who are Drones or unskilful in any Art or Trade Whether such men as these can read or not it matters not much for there is not one of a hundred of them so well learned it is sufficient if he can make his Cross and his Metagnia before the blessed Virgin which is a bowing on their Knees touching the ground with their Forehead which some will do 300 times together as I have already declared in the foregoing Chapter But the Fathers or Priests are of a Classis or Form above these for they can all read and write from the Prior to the lowest Deacon though very few of them understand the learned or School Greek in any perfection for it would puzzle the wisest heads amongst them to interpret every word in their Liturgy and yet they are so expert and ready therein that they can run from the beginning to the ending without stop or hesitation and gallop it over at that rate that one must have a good ear and some skill in the Greek Language to distinguish the different sound of the words which they utter besides which their chief study is of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Hymns of John Damascen and to find out and know the proper Lessons for the day and the Offices of the Church with all the Responses and Suffrages which is a Learning so intricate as requires some practice and application of the mind But such as have any Learning more than the rest it consists for the most in the knowledge they have of the Fathers and Councils of their own Church and in the Ecclesiastical Authors of the first Century after Constantine the Great The Latine and Hebrew Tongues and any besides the Greek they contemn and esteem as prophane Philosophy and Mathematicks being matters of Humane Learning they account as unnecessary for men who lead a mortified and spiritual life to whom also all Books are unlawful but such as treat of Divinity and a holy and devout way of living Every Monastery hath its Library of Books which are kept in a lofty Tower under the custody of one whom they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who also is their Steward receives their money and renders an account of all their Expences but we must not imagine that these Libraries are conserved in that order as ours are in the parts of Christendom that they are ranked and compiled in method on Shelves with Labels of the Contents or that they are brushed and kept clean like the Libraries of our Colleges but they are piled one on the other without order or method covered with dust and exposed to the Worm They have few Books amongst them but what treat of Divinity and as I have heard they have scarce any of much worth in regard that the Emissaries of France and other parts have by force of money deprived them of all the choicest Books in their Libraries Nor have they as I have been well inform'd one Book that varies in the least from the Doctrine of the Seventh Council for there is not one Book to be found of those which were wrote by those whom they call Hereticks esteeming that the easiest way to confute a Heretick and stop his Doctrine in its progress is to condemn the same and burn his Book In every Monastery they have Bells such as they daily use are small but those of greatest bigness are of about 4 or 500 weight which they ring at Festivals when they would make the greatest noise and rejoicing on these their Clocks strike which are fixed like those on our Churches in England which are not to be found as I remember in any other place in Turkey unless at Buda where I saw one of this sort For conclusion In this manner this Mountain of Athos is inhabited and this is the Government amongst these Religious men of the Greek Church who are for the most part good simple men of godly lives given greatly to devotion and acts of mortification for as out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaks so these men discoursing with a lively sense of God and of his Service we may without over-much credulity or easiness of belief conclude them not only to be real and moral good men but such also as are something touched with the Spirit of God whose devotion and affection to his Commands and Precepts shall carry them farther in their way to Heaven than the Wisdom of the most profound Philosophers or the wisest Clerks And that such people are found in the world endowed with such Priviledges in the Countries of the Grand Oppressour of Christendom to God's Name be Glory and Honour now and for ever Amen CHAP. XII Of Confession Contrition and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the sanctified Oyl practised in this Church BEfore we treat of this last Mystery which is the Oyl of Prayer let us premise something touching the Confession of sins which is to be performed four times in the year to a Priest lawfully Constituted and Ordained that is for such who have leisure and convenience of living Priests and others entred into holy Orders or into a life of Regular Devotion are obliged to a Confession once a Month. The labouring and common people are enjoined to a Confession but once a year and that before their entrance into the great Lent which is before Easter To sick and infirm people it is recommended as a Remedy against the Diseases of the Soul and ease of a burdened Conscience Repentance the Greeks call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and is by them defined to be A sorrow of heart for sin of which a man accuses himself before a Priest with a firm resolution to correct the errours of his past life by that which is to come and with intention to perform whatsoever shall be enjoined him by his Spiritual Pastor for his Penance By which definition it appears how necessary the Greeks esteem Confession to a Priest having these words in the Orthodox Doctrine of the Oriental Church 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Priest cannot release unless he enquire first what he is to release and likewise it is apparent by the foregoing Definition That the Priest hath power to enjoin Penance which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as Prayers extraordinary Alms Fastings visiting of holy Places and the like When the Penitent comes to Confession the Priest utters these words to him 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Behold the Angel of the Lord is at hand to take thy Confession see therefore that thou conceal no sin for fear of shame for I also am a man and a sinner as thou art To such Penitents who are sick and languishing and find their Consciences guilty of any mortal sin as Fornication Adultery or Pride which tends to the contempt of God is administred the Sacrament of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or The Oyl of Prayer which is performed by the Bishop or Arch-Bishop assisted by seven Priests and begins
with this Prayer O Lord who with the Oyl of thy Mercies hast healed the Wounds of our Souls and of our Bodies do thou sanctifie this Oyl in that manner that those who are anointed therewith may be freed from their Infirmities and from all Corporal and Spiritual Evils that the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost may be glorifyed therein This Sacrament as they call it of the Holy Oyl is by some said to be different from that which is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 which is administred unto healthful persons who are fallen into mortal sins which pollute the Body as well as the Soul and takes its Original from the parable of the good Samaritan in the Gospel who poured Oyl into the Wounds of him who fell amongst Thieves But this Unction is not applicable to those who are guilty of Rapine and Violence whose sins are only purged and expiated by Restitution and Satisfaction This Oyl of Prayer is pure and unmixed Oyl without any other composition a quantity whereof sufficient to serve for the whole year is consecrated on Wednesday in the holy Week by the Arch-Bishop or Bishop though it may be administred or application made thereof by three Priests This is the same with that which in the Roman Church is called Extreme Unction grounded on the words of St. James Cap. 5. 14. Is any sick amongst you let him call for the Elders the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with Oyl in the name of the Lord. In the administration of this Oyl of Prayer the Priest dips some Cotton at the end of a stick into the Oyl and therewith anoints the Penitent in the form of a Cross on the Fore-head on the Chin on each Cheek on the backs and palms of the Hands and then recites this Prayer Holy Father Physitian of Souls and Bodies who hast sent thine only Son Jesus Christ healing infirmities and sins to free us from death heal this thy Servant of corporal and spiritual infirmities and give him salvation and the grace of thy Christ through the Prayers of our more than holy Lady the Mother of God the Eternal Virgin through the assistance of the glorious celestial and incorporeal Powers through the Vertue of the life-giving Cross of the holy and glorious Prophet the fore-runner John the Baptist and of the holy and glorious Apostles and triumphant Martyrs of the holy and just Fathers and of the holy and life-giving Anargiri Amen Confession of Sins verbally and particularly to a Priest is esteemed a necessary duty for constituting a perfect Contrition though they do not deny but a person dying in a state of Regeneration that is to say with a Repentance proceeding from the love of God and having not opportunity by the suddenness of death or some other accident to confess and receive Absolution may yet through the mercies of God and bounty of the Saints have these necessary Sacraments conferred and mysteriously supplyed and the contrite Soul saved But yet that the omission thereof in a place where it may be obtained is a sin which as they say can no otherwise be pardoned in the next World than by the Prayers Intercessions of the Saints in Heaven and by the Alms and Oblations of good men on Earth of which Opinion of theirs we shall have occasion to speak more particularly hereafter CHAP. XIII Of the Power of Excommunication and upon what frivolous occasions it is made use of THE Third Command of the Church is Obedience towards their Spiritual Pastors and Teachers 1 Cor. 4. 1. Let a man so account of us as of the Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the Mysteries of God which is a Text that they often repeat in their Churches and raise consequences from thence of the sublimity of their Office and of the reverence and honour due from the people toward their Clergy so that though they want the advantages of Riches and Ornament to render them respected in the Eyes of the Vulgar yet their People being affected with their divine and separated Qualifications do not submit only in Spiritual matters but even in Temporals refer themselves to the determination of their Bishop or Metropolite according to that of S. Paul 1 Cor. 6. 1. Dare any of you having a matter against another go to Law before the unjust and not before the Saints But that which most enforces this Duty of Obedience is a sense of the Power of Excommunication which rests in the Church of which they so generally stand in fear that the most profligate and obdurate conscience in other matters startles at this sentence to which whilst any is subjected he is not only expelled the limits of the Church but his conversation is scandalous and his person denied the common benefits of Charity and assistance to which Christian or Humane duty doth oblige us In the Exercise of this censure of Excommunication the Greek Church is so ready and frequent that the common use of it might seem to render it the more contemptible but that the Sentence is pronounced with so much horrour and the sad effects which have ensued thereupon not only to the living but also to the Corps and Carcasses of such who have dyed under Excommunication are related with that evidence and certainty as still confirms in the people the efficacy of that Authority which the Church exercises therein The form of Excommunication is either expressive of the party with his name and condition secluding him from the use of Divine Ordinances or otherwise indefinite of any person who is guilty of such or such a Crime or Misdemeanour As for Example If any person is guilty of Theft which is not discovered an Excommunication is taken out against him whosoever he be that hath committed the Theft which is not to be remitted until Restitution is made and so the fault is published and repeated at a full Congregation and then follows the Sentence of Excommunication in this form If they restore not to him that which is his own and possess him peaceably of it but suffer him to remain injured and damnifyed let him be separated from the Lord God Creatour and be accursed and unpardoned and undissolvable after death in this World and in the other which is to come Let Wood Stones and Iron be dissolved but not they May they inherit the Leprosie of Gehazi and the Confusion of Judas may the Earth be divided and devour them like Dathan and Abiram may they sigh and tremble on earth like Cain and the wrath of God be upon their heads and Countenances may they see nothing of that for which they labour and beg their Bread all the days of their lives may their Works Possessions Labours and Services be accursed always without effect or success and blown away like dust may they have the Curses of the holy and righteous Patriarchs Abram Isaac and Jacob of the 318 Saints who were the Divine Fathers of
the Synod of Nice and of all other holy Synods and being without the Church of Christ let no man administer unto them the things of the Church or bless them or offer Sacrifice for them or give them the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the blessed Bread or eat or drink or work with them or converse with them and after death let no man bury them in penalty of being under the same state of Excommunication for so let them remain until they have performed what is here written The effect of this dreadful Sentence is reported by the Greek Priests to have been in several instances so evident that none doubts or disbelieves the consequences of all those maledictions repeated therein and particularly that the body of an excommunicated person is not capable of returning to its first Principles until the Sentence of Excommunication is taken off It would be esteemed no Curse amongst us to have our Bodies remain uncorrupted and entire in the Grave who endeavour by Art and Aromatick spices and Gums to preserve them from Corruption And it is also accounted amongst the Greeks themselves as a miracle and particular grace and favour of God to the Bodies of such whom they have Canonized for Saints to continue unconsumed and in the moist damps of a Vault to dry and desiccate like the Mummies in Egypt or in the Hot sands of Arabia But they believe that the Bodies of the Excommunicated are possessed in the Grave by some evil spirit which actuates and preserves them from Corruption in the same manner as the Soul informes and animates the living body and that they feed in the night walk digest and are nourished and have been found ruddy in Complexion and their Veins after forty days Burial extended with Blood which being opened with a Lancet have yielded a gore as plentiful fresh and quick as that which issues from the Vessels of young and sanguine persons This is so generally believed and discoursed of amongst the Greeks that there is scarce one of their Country Villages but what can witness and recount several instances of this nature both by the relation of their Parents and Nurses as well as of their own knowledge which they tell with as much variety as we do the Tales of Witches and Enchantments of which it is observed in Conversation that scarce one story is ended before another begins of like wonder But to let pass the common and various Reports of the Vulgar this one may suffice for all which was recounted to me with many asseverations of its truth by a grave Candiot Kaloir called Sofronio a Preacher and a person of no mean repute and learning at Smyrna I knew said he a certain person who for some misdemeanours committed in the Morea fled over to the Isle of Milo where though he avoided the hand of Justice yet could not avoid the Sentence of Excommunication from which he could no more fly than from the conviction of his own Conscience or the guilt which ever attended him for the fatal hour of his death being come and the Sentence of the Church not revoked the Body was carelesly and without Solemnity interred in some retired and unfrequented place In the mean time the Relations of the deceased were much afflicted and anxious for the sad estate of their dead Friend whilst the Paisants and Islanders were every night affrighted and disturbed with strange and unusual apparitions which they immediately concluded arose from the Grave of the accursed Excommunicant which according to their Custom they immediately opened and therein found the Body uncorrupted ruddy and the Veins replete with Blood The Coffin was furnished with Grapes Aples and Nuts and such fruit as the Season afforded Whereupon Consultation being made the Kaloires resolved to make use of the common Remedy in those cases which was to cut and dismember the Body into several parts and to boyl it in Wine as the approved means to dislodge the evil Spirit and dispose the body to a dissolution But the friends of the deceased being willing and desirous that the Corps should rest in peace and some ease given to the departed Soul obtained a Reprieve from the Clergy and hopes that for a sum of Money they being persons of a competent Estate a Release might be purchased from this Excommunication under the hand of the Patriarch In this manner the Corps were for a while freed from dissection and Letters thereupon sent to Constantinople with this direction That in case the Patriarch should condescend to take off the Excommunication that the day hour and minute that he signed the Remission should be inserted in the Date And now the Corps were taken into the Church the Country-people not being willing they should remain in the Field and Prayers and Masses daily said for its dissolution and pardon of the Offender When one day after many Prayers Supplications and Offerings as this Sofronio attested to me with many protestations and whilst he himself was performing Divine Service on a sudden was heard a rumbling noise in the Coffin of the dead party to the fear and astonishment of all persons then present which when they had opened they found the Body consumed and dissolved as far into its first Principles of Earth as if it had been seven years interred The hour and minute of this dissolution was immediately noted and precisely observed which being compared with the Date of the Patriarchs release when it was signed at Constantinople it was found exactly to agree with that moment in which the Body returned to its Ashes This story I should not have judged worth relating but that I heard it from the mouth of a grave person who says That his own eyes were Witnesses thereof and though notwithstanding I esteem it a matter not assured enough to be believed by me yet let it serve to evidence the esteem they entertain of the validity and force of Excommunication I had once the curiosity to be present at the opening of a Grave of one lately dead who as the people of the Village reported walked in the night and affrighted them with strange Phantasmes but it was not my fortune to see the Corps in that nature nor to find the Provisions with which the spirit nourishes it but only such a Spectacle as is usual after six or seven days Burial in the Grave howsoever Turks as well as Christians discourse of these matters with much confidence This high esteem and efficacy being put on Excommunication one would believe that the Priests should endeavour to conserve the reverence thereof being the Basis and main support of their Authority and that therefore they should not so easily make use thereof on every frivolous occasion that so familiarity might not render it contemptible and the salvation of mens Souls not seem to be played with on every slight and trivial Affair But such is the much to be lamented poverty in this Church that they are not only forced to sell Excommucations
not to be conferred as a spiritual happiness But if one desires a Faculty in singing dancing or agility of body if he desires beauty and modesty in a Wife wisdom sincerity of Friends or any thing else that is vertuous or commendable he shall be endued with a voice like a Seraphim be active as an Olympick Gamester have a Wife as chaste as Penelope be wife as Solomon and in fine obtain any one thing which he can desire being of good report But in case any one miss of these blessings as many do who go on these Errands as one may well believe and return as little improved as some of those do whom we send to Paris there is something in the way which interrupted this blessing and no doubt but the man was either not fitly prepared or had not Faith enough to receive the blessing They say farther that some of those Pythonick Spirits which formerly inhabited under the cavities of these three Rocks were permitted by Christ to keep their Stations with intention to make them slaves and drudges to the Monastery where now invisibly they wash the Dishes sweep the House and do all the Offices of good Servants so that the good Fathers take no care of those homely services for what is in the day fouled and disordered is by next morning found cleansed and well disposed by the ministry and diligence of those careful and officious Spirits All these things and much more is believed by the Armenians of Etchmeasin so easie it is to obtrude vain and superstitious fancies on ignorant and illiterate people In their Monasteries the whole Psalter of David is read over every 24 hours but in the Cities and Parochial Churches it is otherwise observed For the Psalter is divided into eight divisions and every division into eight parts at the end of every one of which is said the Gloria Patri Filio c. Their manner of Worship is performed after the Eastern fashion by prostrating their bodies and kissing the ground three times which the Turks likewise practise in their Prayers At their first entrance into the Church they uncover their heads and corss themselves three times but afterwards cover their heads and sit cross-leg'd on Carpets after the manner of the Turks The most part of their publick Divine Service they perform in the morning before day which is very commendable and I have been greatly pleased to meet hundreds of Armenians in a Summer morning about Sun-rising returning from their Devotions at the Church wherein perhaps they had spent two hours before not only on Festival but on ordinary days of work in like manner they are very devout on Vigils to Feasts and Saturday Evenings when they all go to Church and returning home perfume their Houses with Incense and adorn their little Pictures with Lamps CHAP. IV. The Confession of Faith in the Armenian Church THEY allow and accept the Articles of Faith according to the Council of Nice and are also acquainted with that which we call the Apostles Creed which likewise they have in use As to the Doctrine concerning the Trinity they accord with the Greeks acknowledging three Persons in one Divine Nature and that the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father I have read in many Books which treat of this Church an accusation against it that it admits but of one Person and one Nature in Christ according to the Doctrine of Eutyches of which I my self was once of opinion until I read and well considered of the Articles of their Faith They believe that Christ descended into Hell and that he freed the Souls of all the damned from thence by the grace and favour of his glorious presence but not for ever or by a plenary pardon or remission but only as reprieved until the end of the World at which time they shall again be returned unto Eternal Flames But that we may take a more clear view of their Faith I have thought fit to represent that which they call their Tavananck or Symbolum different from the Apostles and Nicene Creed which for those words follwing viz. where the Deity was mixed with the Humanity without spot seems to be calculated for maintenance of the Herisie of Eutyches and in opposition to the Catholick Doctrine as that of Athanasius is to the Heresie of Arrius But these words though they look ill at first yet if well considered and compared with the same expression which the Greeks use on the same subject it will amount unto no more than what the Greeks declare in the Anatolian Confession That the Body of Christ was a true not a fantastick Body that it was formed in the Womb of the blessed Virgin and was made a perfect man 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 i.e. his rational Soul mixed with the Divinity Now the words of their Creed are Verbatim as followeth I Consess that I believe with all my heart in God the Father uncreated and not begotten and that God the Father God the Son and God the Holy Ghost were from all Eternity the Son begotten of the Father and the Holy Ghost proceeds only from the Father I believe in God the Son increated and begotten from Eternity The Father is Eternal the Son is Eternal and equal to the Father whatsoever the Father contains the Son contains I believe in the Holy Ghost which was from Eternity not begotten of the Father but proceeding three Persons but one God Such as the Son as to the Deity such is the Holy Ghost I believe in the Holy Trinity not three Gods but one God one in Will in Government and in Judgment Creator both of visible and invisible I believe in the Holy Church in the remission of sins and the Communion of Saints I believe that of those three persons one was begotten of the Father before all eternity but descended in time from Heaven unto Mary of whom he took blood and was formed in her Womb where the Deity was mixed with the Humanity without spot or blemish He patiently remained in the Womb of Mary nine Months and was afterwards born as man with soul intellect judgment and body Having but one body and one countenance And of this mixture or union resulted one composition of Person God was made man without any change in himself born without Humane Generation his Mother remaining still a Virgin And as none knows his eternity so none can conceive his being or essence for as he was Jesus Christ from all eternity so he is to day and shall be for ever I believe in Jesus Christ who conversed in this world and after thirty years was baptized according to his own good will and pleasure his Father bearing witness of him and said This is my beloved Son in whom I am well pleased and the Holy Ghost in form of a Dove descended upon him he was tempted of the Devil and overcame was preached to the Gentiles was troubled in his body being wearied enduring hunger and thirst was crucified with
his own will dyed corporally and yet was alive as God was buried and his Deity was mixed with him in the Grave his soul descended into Hell and was always accompanied with his Deity he preached to the souls in Hell whom after he had released he arose again the third day and appeared to his Apostles I believe that our Lord Jesus Christ did with his body ascend into Heaven and sits at the right hand of God and that with the same body by the determination of His Father He shall come to judge both the quick and the dead And that all shall rise again such as have done good shall go into life eternal and such as have done evil into everlasting fire This is the sum of the Armenian Faith which they teach their Children and young Scholars and is repeated by them in the same manner as our Apostles Creed is in our Divine Service CHAP. V. Of Fasts in the Armenian Church THEIR Fasts are the most rigorous of any Nation in the World for as the Eastern people have always been more abstemious in their diet and less addicted to excess in their Tables and ordinary Banquets than the Western or Northern Nations so by this custom of living they support more easily the severe Institution of their Lents who in the time of their Feasts are not so free in their eating and drinking as we are in our times of Abstinence and Fasting for that which we call a Collation or Lenten-Table will serve an Armenian for an Easter Dinner For in the first place they observe the Great Lent before Easter beginning at the same time with the Greek Church following in this particular the Rule ordained by the Council of Nice which is observed by all the Christian World And in this Lent they eat not Fish with blood as do the Papists nor Shell-fish as do the Greeks nor yet so much as Oyl of Olives as being substantial and that which yields too much nourishment and pleasure to the Palate only they may eat the Dregs and Lees of the Oyl of Olives or the Oyl of Sousam which is pressed from a Seed so called in Turkish like our Rape-seed the smell of which is sufficient to overcome a tender stomach In which time of mortification they account it a sin to accompany with their Wives and perhaps they may not have much inclination thereunto in regard that at the beginning of Lent many of them pass three or four days without receiving any refreshment either of Bread or Water into their Stomachs and perform the like at the end thereof not breaking their Fasts until they eat and drink the Sacrament on Easter-day in the Morning Besides which they observe a continued Fast through all the days of Lent not eating until three of the Clock in the Afternoon which some call Cornelius his Fast and is a Custom of great Antiquity But Easter being come they make some recompence to the Body for this long abstinence by a permission to eat flesh till Ascension-day without accounting of Frydays or other days which the Greeks call days of abstinence The like indulgence they have for the whole week after Epiphany but excepting these Weeks aforesaid they keep Wednesdays and Frydays for days of abstinence through the whole year As to their other Fasts they observe a short Lent of nine days before the 15 th of August which is the Feast of our Ladies Assumption They have one which begins the Week after the Feast of Pentecost that is on Trinity Monday being performed in honour to the Holy Ghost two Weeks after which they fast one more on the same account then after two Weeks they fast one more then after four Weeks they fast one then after one Week they fast another then after seven Weeks they fast another then after two Weeks they fast one again after three Weeks they fast the fourth and seven days before the Epiphany they keep a severe Lent so that they always fast in our Christmas till Twelf-day In which manner they mix the whole course of the year with fasting but the times seem so confused and without rule that they can scarce be recounted unless by those who live amongst them and strictly observe them it being the chief care of the Priest whose Learning principally consists in knowing the appointed times of fasting and feasting the which they never omit on Sondays to publish unto the people CHAP. VI. Of the Feasts in the Armenian Church THE Feasts of Easter and Pentecost they celebrate according to the Custom of the Greek Church and with us who keep our account according to the Old Style But our Christmas Day they observe not but in lieu thereof they celebrate with great Solemnity and Commemoration the Birth Epiphany and Baptism of our Saviour on the sixth of January which is our Twelf-day the which day they keep with high devotion and more especially because they hold that one of the Wise-men of the East who came to offer his Gold and Incense was an Armenian Prince with whom they are so well acquainted that they know him by name to be Gaspar before which sixth day of January which is our Epiphany they observe as we have said seven days of Fast according to their usual severity and rigour All their other Feasts unless it be Easter which through all the Catholick Church is preceded by the grand Fast of Lent are ushered in but with five days of Fast. As to that of Epiphany it is certainly very ancient as Dr. Cave learnedly writes in the first part of his Primitive Christianity having these words Whether the Feast of Christmas was always observed on the same day that we keep it now that is on the 25th of December is uncertain for it seems probable that for a long time in the East it was kept in January under the name and at the general time of the Epiphania or Theophania until receiving more light in the case from the Churches of the West they changed it to this day The other Feasts of the Armenian Church are these which follow First of Surp Savorich which is celebrated in May or June according to the rule of their Canon which as I take it is herein governed by the Moon Vertevar or the Transfiguration of our Lord in June or July Asfasasin or the Assumption of our Lady in August Surp Chatch or the Holy Cross in September Surp Chevorich or S. Demetrio in October Surp Nicolo in November Surp Acop in December Surp Serchis or S. George in January or February These are the only Feasts in grand request or of precept amongst them the observance of which is strictly enjoined to the Laity which if reckoned with the grand Festivals will not amount to above ten in the whole year Howsoever the Clergy who have nothing more to do but to pray and read have many other days enjoyned them in commemoration of Saints which are so many that there is not one day in the whole year