fact which he relates it is not to be thought strange that Gulielmus Tyrius hath fallen into the same mistakes Eutychius says M. Nairon affirms that Maron the Monothelite lived in the time of the Emperour Mauritius and nevertheless Monothelism was not as yet known at that time But if the Authority of the Arabian Historians be rejected because of their not being exact in Chronology there is not one of them but must be wholly laid aside The Authority of Gulielmus Tyrius is not so much made use of in the matter in hand for what he relates out of the Annals of Eutychius as for his own Testimony speaking of a thing that happened in his own time under Aymeric Patriarch of Antioch who made the Maronites of that Countrey abjure their pretended Errours There is no likelyhood of truth in the story that M. Nairon alledges and which hath been already mentioned by (1) Quaresm in dilucid Terrae sanctae Quaresmius to wit that Maron went from Antioch to Rome with a Legat or Envoy of Pope Honorius who created the same Maron Patriarch of Antioch because of his Orthodox faith I pass over some other Acts of this nature which are not to be found but in Arabick Books written since the Reconciliation of the Maronites to the Church of Rome The least knowledge in Ecclesiastical History is enough to convince us that these Histories have no ground in Antiquity and that the Maronites and other Eastern People who are unskilfull Criticks in Historical Learning have referred to Ancient times what hath been onely in use amongst them for some latter Ages According to this Principle we must not easily give credit to the Authority of Johannes Maron whose (2) Joan. Maro Comm. in Liturg St. Jacobi Commentary upon the Liturgy of St. James is not so very Ancient as some would have it seeing it contains matters of fact that are Posteriour to it by many Ages After all the Maronites who pretend to have always preserved the Purity of their Faith cast the errours that are to he found in the works of their own undoubted Authours upon their Neighbours who were Hereticks that had sown these errours amongst them and who had even won over to their Sect some of the Maronites themselves And so though the Maronites pretend that they have always preserved the true Faith yet they cannot deny but that some of their Nation have entertained the Sentiments of the Jacobites (1) Petr. in Epist Arab. ad Card. Caraff Anno 1578. Peter Patriarch of the Maronites in a Letter which he wrote to Cardinal Carraffa says that the errours which occur in their Books ought to be imputed to their Neighbours but the (2) Steph. Petr. in Epist ad Faust Naw Ann. 1674. present Patriarch writing to M. Nairon affirms that they have preserved many Books that are free from all these errours and gives us hopes of a Volume of Oriental Liturgies which he pretends to reconcile with the Latin Mass That must needs be a very usefull Work and will clear to us a great many matters of Fact concerning that affair which lye as yet wrapt up in obscurity CHAP. XV. Of the Religion and Customs of the Mahometans THE Religion of the Mahometans being for most part but a medly of the Christian and Jewish Religions we have thought it pertinent to give an Abridgment thereof in this place to the end that they who travell into the Levant may lay aside a great many prejudices that they have conceived against that Religion and that they may consider that it is indebted to the Jews and Christians for all the good that is in it especially in relation to Morality Mahomet who was perswaded that all Religion ought to be founded on the word of God and not upon the Dictates of Men was obliged to take to himself the Title of God's Messenger and the more to impose upon Christians he feigned himself to be that Paraclet or Comforter promised in the Gospel Nay he hath borrowed part of their Maximes and acknowledg'd Our Lord to be a great Prophet inspired by the Spirit of God On the other hand being willing also to gain the Jews and of these two to make but one more perfect Religion he hath brought into his pretended Reformation a great part of Judaism and that makes the Mahometans pretend that the two Laws aswell that of Moses as that of Our Saviour are at present abolished and that so Men are obliged to embrace Mahometanism if they would be true Believers They consess that both these Laws have been grounded upon the word of God but still add that they are no longer in force since he hath empowered Mahomet to reform Religion There are even some Mahometans who affirm that neither the Jews nor Christians can have certain and infallible Principles of their Religion because their Sacred writings have been corrupted The Jews say they lost their Law and all their Holy Books during the time of the Captivity in Babylon and what they call Canonical Books are not so indeed but onely some scraps of those Ancient Books which the Jews have pieced together as well as they could after their Captivity As for the Christians they say that the Books of the New Testament have been corrupted by the different Sects that have arisen amongst the same Christians Mahomet then feigned that during the space of 23 Years God sent him by the Ministery of the Angel Gabriel a certain Number of Pieces of Writing whereof he composed the Book which is called the Alcoran and that Book is to them the Holy Scripture being the chief ground-work of their Religion But as among the Jews besides the 24 Books of Scriture there is also the Talmud which contains their Traditions so the Mahometans have their Assonna that declares to them the Traditions which they are to follow They have likewise Expositions on those Books to which they submit and besides they distinguish aswell as we that which is of Precept from that which is onely Advice The Chief Article of their Belief is founded upon the Unity of God and therefore it is their ordinary saying There is no other God but God God is one and they call those Idolaters who acknowledge any Number in the Deity thereby condemning the Trinity of Persons which the Christians acknowledge to be in God The second Fundamental Article of their Religion consists in these words Mahomet is the Messenger of God By that they pretend to exclude all other Religions because they say that Mahomet is the most excellent and last of all the Prophets whom God was to send to Mankind And as the Jewish Religion was abrogated by the coming of Jesus Christ so in their Opinion the Christian Religion was not to subsist any longer after the appearance of their Prophet Mahomet They who introduce a new Religion ought to shew some Miracles that so their words may be the better believed And therefore the Mahometans attribute some to
Belief and Customs of the Modern Greeks SEEING all the Sects that are at present in the Eastern Countries have sprung from the Greeks and that excepting some particular Points for which they have separated from them they agree in the rest of their Belief and Ceremonies it is necessary that we treat first of the Religion of the Greeks before we come to those others that depend upon it The Greek Church subject to the Patriarch of Constantinople was not always of that vast extent to which it attained after that it pleased the Eastern Emperours to lessen other Patriarchates for greatening that of Constantinople which they could the more easily do because their Power as to things of that Nature hath been far greater than that of the Emperours of the VVest and that for erecting of new Bishopricks or granting new Rights and Jurisdictions they stood but very little on the consent of Patriarchs whereas in the Western Church the Popes by Degrees have become Supreme in these Affairs and Princes must now have their recourse to them There are several Lists of Churches which are subject to that of Constantinople but because they are ancient and do not sufficiently inform us of the Extent to which that Church pretends we shall produce two that are later one made by a Greek not much known called Nilus Doxapatrius (1) See the Lists that are at the End of the Book A. and related by Leo Allatius And the other mentioned in the Letter of Mr. Smith (2) In the same Place B. concerning the Present State of the Greek Church which he assures us he had from some Greeks of Constantinople Both these Lists are in Greek and Latin subjoined to the end of this Treatise Let it now suffice us to observe here that most of the Greek Metropolitans still retain certain Dignities or Titles of Honour which distinguish them one from another so that when the Patriarch of Constantinople writes to the Archbishops nay and to some Bishops he never fails to give them their Titles even in the miserable State to which they are at present reduced The Greeks in all times have been nice in distinguishing themselves by Titles of Honour and by lofty and magnificent Names which by many is attributed to an Oriental vanity whilst they who are more sparing in Censure will attribute it to their Politeness and Civility Though the Church of Constantinople hath lost the great Splendour which it enjoyed under Christian Emperours yet the Churchmen still take to themselves Titles of Honour and Pompous Names of which they are proud Nor are the Monks and Religious free from that Ambition And that 's the reason why Modern Greek VVriters attribute commonly to themselves such kinds of Titles and prefix them to their Books as for instance Doctour of the Great Church and the like which do not always excuse them from the ignorance wherein they are plunged But let us now speak of their Belief Since the Greek Church hath been reduced to the sad State wherein we see it at present the Latins have imposed many things upon them without cause and the Emissaries have often called them Hereticks without any ground But at length some Learned Men at Rome under Pope Urban VIII perceived the ignorance of the Latin Divines that condemned for Heresie what ever they had not learnt in their Schools This hath been already observed by an Authour who published his Travels to Mount Libanus with some pretty large Remarks wherein he explains the Theology of the Eastern Churches That Authour alledges that the Latins often accuse the Greeks of Innovation without any reason and that if Theology were traced to its source it would be found that the Greeks have stuck closer to Antiquity than the Latins have done We have of late some learned VVorks on that Subject which seem to have been composed by an Authour that hath solidly refuted what the ablest Protestants of France alledged in that matter However I think the Authour of the Notes upon Gabriel of Philadelphia hath come nearest the Truth by keeping a mean betwixt both Parties and distinguishing the new Greeks who have read the Books of the Latins or have studied in their Schools from those who have had no Commerce with them he confesses that the former agree more with the Latins than the other at least as to the manner of Expression The Authour of the Remarks on the Voyage to Mount Libanus hath gone farther for the affirms that the Modern Greeks do for most part but Copy the Books of the Latins not following in all things the Sentiments of their Forefathers and besides that their minds being raised but little above Popular traditions they take no pains to search for Divinity in its Original Nay he adds that the VVorks of Gabriel Archbishop of Philadelphia though he be in the Number of those who are not reunited to the Latin Church are no more but a medly of the Theology of the Greeks and Latins which is chiefly to be understood of the method and expressions P. Morin was also of that opinion when in his VVorks of Penance and Ordinations he speaks of the Archbishop of Philadelphia If we follow that Principle which is very well grounded in these two Authours we shall more easily discover what the Belief of the Greeks is and it will be no hard matter to reconcile the different Opinions of those who have written on that Subject I could not in my Judgment make the Belief of the Modern Greeks more apparent than by inserting the Catalogue which Caucus Archbishop of Corfou hath made of the Errours which he imputes to them and by adding at the same time some necessary Reflexions for distinguishing what is true from what is false in that matter which hath been variously treated by different Authours (1) Caucus in Hist de Graec. recentiorum Haeresibus Caucus a Noble Venetian and Archbishop of Corfou in the Book that he wrote concerning the Errours of the New Greeks dedicated to Pope Gregory XIII observes the following Errours I. They re-baptise all the Latins that embrace their Communion II. They delay the Baptism of Children untill the third fourth fifth sixth tenth and eighteenth Year of their Age. III. Of the seven Sacraments of the Roman Church they admit not Confirmation nor Extreme Unction IV. They deny Purgatory though they pray for the Dead V. They acknowledge not absolutely the Primacy of the Pope VI. They deny that the Church of Rome is the true Catholick Church and that she is Mistress of all other Churches They even prefer their own Church before the Latin Church and on Holy Thursday excommunicate the Pope and all the Latin Bishops as Hereticks and Schismaticks VII They deny that the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Father and the Son VIII They refuse to adore the Holy Sacrament in the Mass of Latin Priests who consecrate in unleavened bread according to the ancient Custome of the Roman Church confirmed by the Council of
miserably poor that having nothing to purchase a piece of Land with are obliged to work and labour for the Monastery and to apply themselves to the basest employments These do all for the profit of the Convent and therefore the Convent supplies them with Necessaries and if they have any spare time after their work is done they employ it in Prayers There is a third Order of these Monks who goe by the Name of Anchorites These not being able to work nor support the other Duties of the Monastery have notwithstanding a mind to live in the repose of solitude They buy a Cell out of the Monastery with a little piece of Land on which they may live and never goe to the Monastery but on Holy days to assist at the Office after which they return to their Cells where they mind their own Affairs having no hours appointed them for Prayers There are nevertheless some of these Anchorites who have left their Monastery with the Consent of their Abbot that they may lead a more retired life and apply themselves more to Meditation and Prayer The Monastery sends them once a month Provisions to live on because they possess neither Lands nor Vineyards but those who will not depend upon the Abbot hire some Vineyard near to their Cell of which they eat the Grapes others live on Cherries or such like Fruit. They also sow Beans in the Season of the year and some gain their living by transcribing Books Besides the Monks there are Nuns also who live in Community and are shut up in Monasteries under the Institution of St. Basil They are no less strict than the Monks as to Fasting Praying and the other Offices of the Monastick Life They chuse one of the Ancientest and most virtuous of their Community to supply the place of Abbess and these Abbesses are the same with them as the Abbots are with the Monks Nevertheless that Monastery of Women depends always on an Abbot who assigns them one of the oldest and most virtuous Monks to confess and administer the Sacraments to them This Monk lives near their Monastery that he may be at hand to assist them readily in their occasions He says likewise Mass for them and orders the other Offices These Nuns wear all the same Habit and a Cloak of the same colour Their Arms and Hands are covered to their Fingers ends and their Habit is of plain Woollen Cloth Their Heads besides are shaven and every one hath a Cell apart where they lodge conveniently The richer sort have a Maid and sometimes they bring up in their Houses young Girles whom they bring up in the Duties of Piety and Devotion When they have performed their ordinary Duties they work with their Needle and the Turks who bear a respect towards these Nuns come to their Monasteries to buy Girdles of their making The Abbesses willingly open the Doors of their Convent to the Turks who come to buy the Manufacture of these good Nuns who return to their Appartment so soon as they have sold their Wares I have read a Manuscript Relation that speaks not so much to the advantage of these Nuns The Authour of that Relation observes that the Nuns called Caloyeres who live at Constantinople are Widows some of which have had several Husbands and that they embrace not that Profession but when they are well stricken in years Then he adds that they make no Vows that all their Sanctity consists in wearing a Black Veil upon their Head and declaring that they will Marry no more that after all they live most commonly at home where they mind their House-wifery their Children and Relations He confesses nevertheless that there are some of them who live in Community but that these are more miserable than the former that both go about wheresoever they please and that in fine they have more Liberty under that Religious Habit than they had before The Fasts of the Greeks are different enough from those of the Latins for the Fasts of the latter would be Festival Days and Days of good Cheer amongst the Orientals in regard they not onely abstain from Flesh and all that comes from it as Butter and Cheese but they eat not so much as Fish contenting themselves with Fruits and Pulse with some small portion of Oil and drink very little Wine The Monks are more strict in their Fasting because they never taste Wine nor Oil unless on Saturdays and Sundays Yet the Moscovites are allowed to eat Fish because they have neither Wine nor Oil. Wednesdays and Fridays they abstain from Flesh and all that comes of it but on these days they are allowed to eat Fish I shall say nothing of their Lent nor private Fasts onely must observe that the Greeks and other Eastern Nations exceedingly blame the Saturdays Fast of the Latins because they say that Day is a Festival as well as Sunday which they prove by the Ancient Canons and the practice of the first Ages In fine as to their Ceremonies it may be said in general that no Nation in Christendom hath so many Their Euchology or Ritual with the Notes of P. Goar may be consulted as to that point So excessive is the Worship they render to Images that in a Manuscript which I have read concerning the Errours of the Latins they upbraid them (1) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 MS. Biblioth Bodlei Oxon. Tit. 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 with want of respect to Images which cannot well be understood unless it be that the Latins omit an infinite number of Ceremonies before their Images which are observed by the Greeks On the Festival day of a Saint (2) Metroph Critop they place his Image in the middle of the Church and that Image or Picture represents the History of the Festival that is Celebrated for instance of the Nativity or Resurrection of our Lord Then they that are present kiss the Image which in their Language is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and in Latin Adorare That Adoration is not performed by Kneeling Bowing or any other Gesture of Body but onely by kissing the Image If it be the Image of our Lord they commonly kiss the Feet if an Image of the Virgin they kiss the Hands and in a word if it be the Image of some Saint they kiss the Face These and many other Ceremonies which the Greeks observe in the Adoration of their Images have been much augmented since the second Council of Nice where the Patrons of Images obtained a great Victory over the Iconoclasts And it is chiefly since that time that the Greeks have published the Miraculous Histories of their Images of which their Books are full and as if they had not had enough amongst themselves at home they have searched at Rome and other places for Miracles that have been wrought by virtue of Images After all the Greeks ground most of their Ceremonies upon their Traditions They take no great care to examine whether these Traditions be Ancient or
Constantinople against the Jesuits and Court of Rome was chosen Patriarch and for the space of five or six Months after made nothing appear in his Actions that might give any sign of Defection from the Religion of his fore-Fathers But seeing he had the Jesuits for Enemies he thought himself obliged to declare for the Hollanders that he might be seconded by them he engaged also in his party a considerable Number of Bishops and Churchmen who relished his opinions and were in the same Disposition as he was to introduce Novelties into the Greek Church But they were not the Stronger because the Jesuits who have a College at Constantinople where they teach the Youth Gratis easily gained the People who made an Insurrection against Cyrill The Greeks held an Assembly in the year 1622. wherein he was deposed from his Patriarchate and banished to the Isle of Rhodes Another Patriarch was chosen in his Place who by Letters submitted himself to the court of Rome that had forwarded his Election But seeing Cyrill still entertained a Party in Constantinople and that the Dutch supplied him with great Summs of Money it was not long before he was restored to his Patriarchate Then it was that he revenged himself on the Jesuits and those who had espoused the Interests of the Court of Rome and that Calvinism reigned at Constantinople This brought great Disorders into that Church for Cyrill set every thing to sale that he might pay the Money which he had borrowed of the Dutch The Jesuits and Court of Rome finding that Cyrill had absolutely got the better on 't endeavoured to gain him by proposing terms of accommodation and representing to him the danger of his Church if he continued those Intrigues with the Calvinists He seemed to be very willing to embrace an accommodation but seeing he still continued his Practices with the Dutch the Court of Rome made a fresh attempt to turn him out of his Chair which succeeded but for a very short time because the Dutch Money soon recalled him again to his Patriarchate The Court of Rome doubling their efforts against Cyrill sent one to Constantinople in Quality of Vicar of the Patriarch for maintaining the Orthodox Faith in that Church which seemed to be upon the brink of Ruine Cyrill's Party failed not to lay hold on that occasion to render the Jesuits and their Party odious to the Turks who were jealous of that Envoy of Rome Insomuch that he was very ill used by the Turks and Cyrill cruelly revenged himself on all the Greeks whom he thought to be his Enemies Nevertheless he rendered himself so odious by his great vexations and had so powerfull a Party as the Jesuits of Constantinople seconded by the Court of Rome to deal with that he at length fell and was strangled by express Orders from the Grand Signior This is the History of the Patriarch Cyrillus Lucaris in whose Name the Huguenots Printed a Confession of Faith boasting that they agreed in Opinions with the Greek Church But with the glance of an Eye one may judge what kind of a Confession of Faith it is It is true it was written by a Patriarch of Constantinople with the Title of The Belief of the Eastern Church but it was not written in name of that Church nor hath it any publick approbation Cyrill gave it privately to the Dutch Ambassadour whose assistance he needed to defend him against the Jesuits of Constantinople That work of Cyrill's is much like the Book that is said to have been made by William Postel for a Nun whom he perswaded that he might squeeze a little Money from her that the Messiah came into the world onely for Men and that she Lady Jean was to be the Messiess of the Women There is as much likelyhood of truth in that Confession of Cyrill's that went under the name of the Greek Church as there is in the Impostures of that famous Normand William Postel and I wonder that Protestants should still dare to object to Catholicks that pretended Confession Grotius gave a better Judgment of it in a Book that he published some time after that Confession came abroad in the word wherein he frankly says (1) Nuper Constantinopoli Cyrillus sine Patriarchis sine Metropolitis sine Episcopis novum nobis propinavit Symbolum Grot. de Antichrist that Cyrill forged a new Symbol without the assistance of any Patriarchs Archbishops or Bishops Now after all I have related the History of this Cyrill with all the exactness I could without any regard to what the Dutch have written of him nor to what Leo Allatius hath said who also exceeds the bounds of moderation I have scarcely mentioned any thing but what is agreed upon by both the opposite Parties Besides Cyrill there are other Greeks of less note who have written in favour of the Protestants and amongst others one Gergan a Bishop who hath published a Catechism wherein he openly denies Transubstantiation but with this difference from Cyrill that he follows not the Confession of Geneva but that of Ausbourg If we compare the Doctrine of this Catechism with that of the Greek Church we shall find it almost different in every Point that it may be accommodated to the Sentiments of Protestants as when it saith that Scripture alone is sufficient without the help of Tradition to prove the Articles of our Creed That the Scripture is plain and clear as to the Points of Faith and that Scripture ought to be interpreted by Scripture In a word Gergan is a Protestant and onely a Greek in Language and that too a base Vulgar Greek Nevertheless he dares boast that he is none of those false Brethren (2) 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 who have been poisoned at Rome But it is generally known that the Greeks themselves who have no Commerce with Rome confirm neither the Confession of Ausbourg nor of Geneva in their Books Protestants may also reckon amongst the Greeks of their Communion Nathanael of Crete who promised some time agoe to the Dutch that he would translate Calvin's Institutions into Greek and teach his Countrey-men Calvinism provided they gave him the Summ of Money which he demanded Mr. Claude adds to all these Greek Calvinists the Testimony of one Meletius Metropolitan of Ephesus in an answer he made about thirty Years agoe to the Divines of Leyden as to several Questions that had been put to him Father Simon made answer to Mr. Claude that he doubted not but that that was the Act of some Greek gained by the Dutch Divines who answered their Questions as they themselves would have him and that to judge of that answer it would be proper to publish it in the Authours Language I procured by means of one of Mr. Claude's Friends whom he could not deny a Copy of that answer and having read it I found that Father Simon 's conjecture was a real truth For Meletius who in that Letter takes the Title of Archbishop of Ephesus not onely