the Greek Church therein notwithstanding the Oppression and Contempt put upon it by the Turk and the Allurements and Pleasures of this World is a Confirmation no less convincing than the Miracles and Power which attended its first beginnings For indeed it is admirable to see and consider with what Constancy Resolution and Simplicity ignorant and poor men keep their Faith and that the proffer of Worldly Preferments and the priviledge which they enjoy by becoming Turks the Mode and Fashion of that Country which they inhabit should not decoy or debauch such silly Souls who can offer little more of Argument in defence of their perswasion than the Doctrine of their Forefathers and the common profession of those who in many places especially in the Morea and all Romagnia use the same Customs and speak the same Language of Greek with them Nor can I attribute this Constancy to the meer force of Education for Turks intermingle with them inhabit in the same Street and sometimes under the same Roof their Children play and are bred up together and have almost the same Manners and Customs with them and have little different besides their Religion and something of Briskness and Spirit in the Children of Turks which seems naturally to usurp an Authority over their Greek Play-Fellows So that if Education were the sole motive and principle Turcism might sooner take root than Christianity having the opportunity equal and in the easiness of things naturally to be believed and other specious and fair offers the advantage before the mysterious Doctrine of our Faith and the exact severity of our lives which is neither revealed nor performed by the meer motion of flesh and blood But certainly much is to be attributed herein to the Grace of God and the Promises of the Gospel and if any Art or Polity can be said to have place over the affection of the People none seems more efficacious than the strict observation of the Fasts and Feasts of their Church by which the people are taught as in a visible Catechism the History of Christianity more I dare say than by their ill-composed Sermons or repetition of the Scripture in the Vulgar Tongue for being severely imposed and observed with much solemnity they affect the Vulgar with an awe of something divine and extraordinary in them The fear also and apprehension of some Authority in the Church as the power of the Keys Excommunications and other Ecclesiastical Censures work a reverence in the people towards their Clergy which is indeed the main Pillar and Basis which supports a Church For as Tacitus speaks of the Jewish Nation when under the Roman Power That Honâ—â— Sacerdotii firmamentum Potentiae eorum the Honour which they gave to their Priesthood was the foundation of their Regimen for that which commands the conscience reduces the body will and affections to obedience so more particularly in Ecclesiastical Polity it is the Fence and Hedge of the Sheepfold This being broken down the Sheep stray and Satan enters with his seed of Heresie and Schism for what can hinder men from running into Prodigies of Fansie and wild Opinions where every man is his own Pastor and his own Bishop This apprehension of Power which attends the Keys is available in a double capacity for besides the energy it hath in Spiritual Matters it supplies amongst the Greeks the defect of a Temporal Authority in regard that they though Subjects of the Turk do yet oftentimes in Controversies about matters of Right follow the advice of the Apostle by referring the determination of their Cause to the arbitrement of spiritual men and chief of their Saints who are their Bishop or Patriarch and other Chiefs of their Clergy rather than to stand to the Judicature of Infidels But this the Church presumes not to bind on mens Consciences left it should seem to usurp that Right which others hold by the Sword and contradict that saying of our Saviour My Kingdom is not of this world Howsoever such as are religious and devout amongst them esteem it a Crime highly scandalous and savouring of a bad intention to have recourse rather to a Mahometan Divan than a Christian Sentence as if those who can judge of the inward Conscience were not yet sufficient to Umpire in a Temporal Cause Secondly This Reverence to the Church produces a firm belief and strict adherence to the Articles of it and to all the Ceremonies and matters the most minute and indifferent not suffering the least change or alteration in them which in this conjuncture and state of things seems very convenient if not necessary in the Greek Church For though they are sensible as many of their Priests have confessed to me of the inconvenient length of their Liturgies concerning which we shall speak in another Chapter and of many superstitious Customs and Ceremonies derived to them from the times of Gentilism which are now ingrafted into and as it were grown up with their Religion and many other Rites of which the wiser men are ashamed and wish they were amended yet they fear to correct and alter them Nay as they have assured me the very alteration of the Old to the New Stile would be highly hazardous lest the People observing their Guides to vary in the least point from their ancient and as they imagine their Canonical Profession should begin to suspect the truth of all and from a doubt dispute themselves into an indifference and thence into an entire desertion of the Faith Though the Christian Religion profess'd in the Ottoman Dominions lies under a Cloud and a sad discouragement yet thanks be to God there is a free and publick exercise thereof allowed in most parts and something of respect given to the Clergy even by the Mahometans themselves who esteem honour due to all persons of what Profession soever who are set apart and consecrated to Gods service For it is evident that the Turks entertain something of a good opinion of the sanctity of the Christian Religion and a belief that God hears their Prayers because that in the time of common Pestilence or Calamity both the Greek and Armenian Patriarchs are enjoined by the Turks to assemble their People and pray against it This permission of the Christian Religion indulged by the Turks is both agreeable to Mahomet's Doctrine and the Priviledges granted by the Sultans who in their Conquests of the Grecian Empire judged that a toleration of Religion would much facilitate the entire subjection of that People The greatest burden that is laid upon them by the Turk is their Haratch or Poll-money for which every man who is arrived to 20 years of age pays Four Lyon Dollars per Annum and Youths between 15 to 20 pay half so much but Women are exempt from this burden Also Greeks who have Lands and Houses are taxed pro rato for extraordinary Expences for entertaining a Pasha or some great Person whose charges they are obliged to defray in his
who are most signal for their Piety and Learning The Patriarch of Constantinople besides the extent of his Jurisdiction is of greater power by reason of his Vicinity to the Court but the Alexandrian is of greater Authority in his Ecclesiastical Censures and Civil Regimen stiling himself with the Title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Judge of the world And the Patriarchs of Antiochia and Jerusalem by reason of their poverty not having sufficient to subsist are little reverenced by the Turks or their own People The Patriarch of Constantinople who was so great and opulent under the Christian Emperours is now reduced to a narrow Fortune being deprived of his certain and setled Revenue by the violence and sacriledge of the common Enemy to the Church of Christ so that the chief income is accidental arising from the death of Bishops Arch-Bishops and ordinary Priests and from such as are consecrated and admitted into their Diocesses and Parishes What a deceased Priest leaves not having Children accrues to the Patriarch as to the common Father and Heir of them all from which arises a considerable Revenue every year The other Patriarchal Sees by reason of the paucity and poverty of the Christians are worse provided but yet being far from the Court have not so many nccessities to satisfie The chief subsistence of the secular Priests is from the charity of the People but they being cold in that Vertue as well as in their Devotion contribute faintly on the days of Offering so that the Clergy who are the Guardians of the Holy Mysteries are forced to sell the Ordinances of the Church for their own subsistence none being able to receive Absolution or be admitted to Confession or procure Baptism for their Children or enter into a state of Matrimony or divorce his Wife or obtain Excommunication against another or Communion for the sick without an agreement first for the price which the Priests hold up as they discover the Zeal and Abilities of the party who cheapens them When the Holy Church triumphed in the days of Constantine the Great the Bishops of Rome and Constantinople were independent each of other and afterwards they were also made of equal honour and power but in regard that for better order and distinction it was necessary they two being to meet and concur in the same Council that the precedency of place should first be determined The priority of Order not of Authority was adjudged to the Pope lest old Rome which was the ancient Mistress of the World should lose her honour in yielding to the new which was Constantinople and had no greater Dignity or Fame than that which she challenged and borrowed from the presence and brightness of the others Emperours and so much Socrates Scholasticus affirms in these words In the Council of Constantinople Anno 385. in the Reign of Theodosius the Emperour when Nectanius was chosen Bishop it was decreed That the Bishop of Constantinople should possess the next place and prerogative after the Bishop of Rome And likewise it was determined in the Council of Chalcedon Can. 28. That the Bishops Seat of new Rome that is Constantinople should enjoy equal priviledges with old Rome and in all Ecclesiastical matters to be extolled and magnified as that of Rome being the second in order after her the words are these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Nor did the Bishop of Rome ever preside in the first six General Councils which only are received by the whole Church either by himself or his Legates This and such-like honour of precedency the Church of Greece may yield unto the Church of Rome and perhaps now rather in these times of Oppression wherein being humbled by the hand of God they seek not worldly Honours nor swelling Titles nor Dominions but are desirous only to govern in the Hearts and Affections of their people Ambitio cupido gloriae faelicium hominum sunt affectus saith Tacitus However the Oriental Confession doth not seem to condescend so far in that it declares That notwithstanding the priority of Honour and Antiquity which was formerly given to Jerusalem and other Churches before that of Constantinople yet afterwards the Council of Constantinople and Chalcedon did give the primacy of honour unto new Rome and to the Clergy thereof by reason of the Imperial Power whose Seat was there But let us not only hear what the Greeks themselves do utter in this point but observe the words of that famous Venetian Father Paul Sarpus who in the 25th Chapter of his History of the Inquisition hath these pertinent and impartial words The Eastern and Western Churches continued both in Communion and Christian Charity for the space of nine hundred years and more in which time the Pope of Rome was reverenced and esteemed no less by the Greeks than by the Latines He was acknowledged for the Successor of St. Peter and chief of all the Eastern Catholick Bishops In the Persecutions raised by Hereticks they implored his Aid and of other Bishops of Italy and this Peace was easily kept because the Supreme Power was in the Canons to which both parts acknowledged themselves subject Ecclesiastical Discipline was severely maintained in each Country by the Prelates of it not arbitrarily but absolutely according to Order and Canonical Rigour none putting his hand into the Government of another but advised one the other to the observance of the Canons In those days never any Pope of Rome did pretend to confer Benefices in the Diocesses of other Bishops neither was the custome yet introduced of getting mony out of others by way of Dispensations or Bulls But as soon as the Court of Rome began to pretend that it was not subject to Canons and that she might according to her own discretion alter any Order of the Fathers Councils and of the Apostles themselves and that she attempted instead of the ancient Primacy of the Apostolical See to bring in an absolute Dominion not ruled by any Law or Canon then the division grew And as this division grew between the Eastern and Western Churches for the causes aforesaid so the same Reasons were the causes of division and separation in the Western Church it self for as to considering men nothing seemed more absurd than the Usurpation of Rome over other Churches independent thereon in secular Government so to the people who lived under its Dominion nothing could be more Tyrannical and oppressive CHAP. IV. The Opinion of the Greek Church concerning that Article in the Nicene Creed I believe one Holy Catholick and Apostolick Church and what Authority and Power is given by them thereunto THE See of Rome taking it for granted that she is the head of the Catholick Church would seem to deduce from that Principle undeniable consequences of Infallibility of Priviledges Power and Jurisdiction as ample and as extensive as the absolute and supreme Authority of our Lord and Master Jesus But this being a Foundation rather
of the Turk hoping that this Argument might be sufficient to procure the bannishment of all the Roman Clergy and that others of the same Sect terrifyed with the thoughts of loosing their Estates and the Country in which they were born might be forced to an adherence to this Church and to an acknowledgment of the Metropolite's Jurisdiction To effect which Design the better the Bishop associated to himself a Greek Priest a man of no mean Capacity and well practised in the Turkish Law and Language and so well acquainted with the great men amongst the Turks that the Latines gave him the Nick-name of Papas Mustapha To help which design forward the Greek Church at Scio happened at that time to be indebted to certain great men about the Court to whom speedy payment was promised with an unconscionable Interest if the Revenue of the Latine Diocess were annexed to the Greek Jurisdiction with which benefit these Unbelievers being moved and valuing more the advantage of the Money than the justice of the Cause obtained by their power and interest at Court a Command to this effect First That the Latine Bishop at Scio for the future should have no farther Jurisdiction over those of the Latine Church but that all should depend in that Island on the Metropolite 2. That no Matrimony or other Ecclesiastical Rite should be celebrated without particular License of the Greek Metropolite 3. That no Priest of the Latine Church should be ordained without his License 4. That the Metropolite by vertue of his Command should take possession of the greatest part of the Churches which belonged to the Latines 5. That the Latine Bishop should render an Account to the Metropolite of all the Proffits that he hath made since his entry into that Diocess and having surrendred and made satisfaction he should depart and commit the Charge of his Flock to the Government of the Greek Metropolite These matters being of high concernment and seeming intollerable to the Latines at Scio they with great Fury unanimously resolved to loose or hazard all rather than to subject themselves to the Tyranny of another Church Wherefore the Bishop with ten others appointed by publick Election to attend him departed towards Adrianople venting many menacing Speeches and flourishes of their Power to be revenged on the Greek Metropolite These took their Journey by way of Constantinople to consult with others of the same Religion and to try in what manner the Patriarch stood affected to these Practices The Metropolite on the other side thought it not time to sit longer quiet and therefore speedily hastned to Adrianople well knowing that the first complaint hath the advantage and commonly takes the best impression with the Turks to obtain which he proceeds directly and arrives before his Adversaries during which time he so dexterously represented the evil inclinations of the Latine Church to the Welfare of the Ottoman Empire their Correspondence with Rome and Venice their Designs to extirpate the Greek Church from Scio and make the whole Island Latine towards which by force of great Collections of Money from several parts of Christendom they had made so considerable a progress that by reason of the poverty of the Greeks they had bought the best part of those Churches which for many years and Ages had been appropriated to their Rites and Religion To which Insinuations and others of the like nature the Turks lent an Ear with singular attention who have always found That the differences amongst Christians have ever concluded with gain and benefit unto them especially to the Chimacam called Kara-Mustapha Pasha a person well qualified to manage an Intrigue of this kind to the best advantage blessed and welcomed the opportunity designing to improve the business to the best that he was able And therefore as if the Accusation and Crime had been no less than Treasonable on the side of the Latines he dispatched Commands in a Turkish Fury to bring them to Constantinople The Bishop being advertised hereof whilest he was on his way to the Court made the more haste in By-ways lest he should fall into the hands of the Turkish Officers Howsoever as soon as they arrived at Adrianople as men already convicted were committed to a severe Imprisonment lying for the space of fifteen days and nights with one Leg in the Stocks and the other in Chains But this rigour was not exercised on the Latines in favour to the Greek Cause but only as the most expedite means to extort Money that so they might both buy their Liberty and obtain that the Tryal of their Cause might be referred to the legal and ordinary course of Justice The Chimacam had likewise well squeezed the Greeks and extracted from them no less than 4000 Dollars on promise of favour to their Cause and Interest by punishing their Adversaries in which conceiving that he had already moderately complyed and well deserved the Money from the Greeks he proceeded to exact other 7000 Dollars from the Latines and so being by this time indifferently disposed towards both Parties he appointed a day for judgment of the Cause in the Method of which Proceedings and in Conclusion of this business we shall find him to act with the same equallity as he hath done in all Affairs since he hath been promoted to the charge of Supreme Vizier The day being come and both sides appearing the Greek Papas inveighed furiously against the disaffection of the Latines to the Ottoman Empire and that for his own part though he wore the Cross yet he could fight under the Half-moon with suchlike terms of flattery and dissimulation Those on the other side vindicated themselves of those Aspersions making professions of their quietness and obedience to the Power under which they lived and next proved the ancient possessions of their Churches most of which they enjoyed by vertue of their Capitulations and the rest by Title of purchase confirmed by a long tract of time beyond the term of any prescription The Chimacam having been mollified by both parties gladly carried an even and moderate hand towards both and therefore as inclining to neither party adjudged some of those Churches to the Latines and as if the Title to the others had been more intricate and different he referred the determination thereof to the Pasha and Kadi of Scio giving the Greeks a Command under-hand and privately that what Churches had not remained in the possession of the Latines for above 60 years should notwithstanding all Reasons to the contrary be adjudged again to the right of the Greeks And in this manner both parties setting forward on their Journey as contented and victorius to Scio with equal hopes of success being there arrived soon appeared and joyned issue together before the Pasha But the Metropolite producing his Command of which his Adversaries had no knowledge or suspition Sentence was given according thereunto whereby the Latines were deprived of above 60 Churches And this was the issue for that time
Imprimatur Hic Liber cui Titulus The Present State c. Car. Trumball Rev. in Christo Pat. ac Dom. Dom. Gul. Archiep. Cant. a Sac. Dom. THE PRESENT STATE OF THE GREEK AND ARMENIAN Churches Anno Christi 1678. Written at the Command of his Majesty By PAUL RICAUT Esquire Late Consul at Smyrna and Fellow of the Royal Society LONDON Printed for John Starkey at the Mitre in Fleet-street near Temple-Bar 1679. THE EPISTLE DEDICATORY TO THE KING'S Most Excellent MAJESTY DREAD SOVERAIGN THESE following Treatises which contain the Articles of Faith and Customs of the Greek and Armenian Churches are a Task which some Years past Your Royal Self was pleased to impose upon me which though it be a Work more proper and fit to be undertaken by some Learned Divine rather than by a Person of my Profession yet being moved thereunto by Command of Your Majesty I esteemed the Incumbence thereof to be a Duty as obligatory as any other Act of Obedience which I owe unto your Majesty from which nothing but Death or Sickness or some other violent disappointment could absolve me But that I have been thus tardy in the Execution of Your Royal Command was occasioned by my Attendance on Your Majesties Affairs in Turky which being protracted beyond my expectation I deferred the payment of this Debt until I could make tender of it with my own hands and personally on my Knees at the same time beg a remission for the defect Being now therefore by God's Providence returned to my own Country behold me Great Sir at the Foot-stool of Your Throne to pay this my Vow which I always esteemed both Sacred and Religious and therefore tender it with a fear and trembling agreeable to that vast distance and disproportion which is between Your Sublime Majesty and the humblest of your Servants For Your Majesty who transcends in Wisdom is able to penetrate into the deepest Points of these Discourses and make more judicious Reflections thereon than the ablest Clerks and Criticks of the Schools to which when I add that admirable Spirit which God often-times bestowes on Kings illuminating them like Prophets and bestowing on them supereminent Graces I cannot but with profound reverence and awe expose this little Work to the judicious and perspicatious Eye of Your Majesty and with the same care and caution offer nothing but what is sincere and approved by the Confession of the Oriental Faith and allowed by the ablest Divines of the Greek Church to be consentaneous to their Doctrine having therein offered nothing out of partiallity to the Cause of the Reformed Churches or prejudice to the Papal Interest If this Treatise may find acceptance with Your Majesty I shall account my self extremely happy and be encouraged to dedicate all my vacant hours and recesses from more necessary and publick Services to Studies grateful to Your Majesty and useful to my Country For being the Son of that Father who by his Services and Sufferings hath set a fair Example to his Posterity of Loyalty and Obedience to Your Majesty and of Conformity to the Church of England I have in the largest Characters Copied out that Lesson and thereby delight my self in nothing so much as when I am performing my Duty and Services towards God and Your Majesty who am with all Allacrity and Devotion Your Majesty's Most obedient most loyal most humble Subject and meanest of your Servants PAUL RICAUT THE PREFACE THESE following Treatises of the Greek and Armenian Churches contain a perfect Compendium as I may report of those Principles which they call the Articles of an Orthodox Faith deduced as they profess from the purer times of Christianity and conserved uncorrupt from the Tainture and Contagion of Heresie in all succeeding Ages I have not pretended in these ensuing Discourses to discover which are Ancient and which are Modern Positions but clearly to lay down the matter of Fact how they are held and how maintained Not have I undertaken to confute those Tenents which I find to oppugne the Articles of the Reformed Religion being of a temper naturally averse to all Disputations and rather inclinable to reconcile Differences than to widen them that so by a favourable interpretation of all that is not plain Heresie or open Blasphemy I might as it were throw a Covering over the smaller Blots or Blemishes of Humane Errours whereby all the Christian World if possible might agree in Charity to bear each others Infirmities and entertain no other Emulations and Contests than those which tend to out-vy one the other in excesses of Piety and a vertuous Religion For besides the uneasiness I find in my self on all occasions of Wranglings and Debates as well as an unsufficiency for Polemick Learning I have observed That very few have yielded the Fort of their Understanding to the force or violence of Disputations or Arguments though Marshaled in all the Warlike Exercitations of the Schools For the Defendants as Pride Interest Zeal and the Troops of other Passions which are the common Souldiers of Reason are so well fortified and obstinate within that they fear no storm or assault from without nor can they be constrained to surrender by a long Siege and Famine for their nourishments consisting only of Notions and Air are never to be reduced until that Pabulum be intercepted and our Appetites breath their last and then when Death comes and we enter into the Regions of Light and our Intellects become free and manumised from the slavery and usurpations of our Passions we shall then and not till then discover the sophistry of our Reasons whereby those Clouds and Mists will vanish which vain jangling about Words Interest Pride and the rest have exhaled and therewith obscured and almost extinguished the true Lamp of the Soul Witness those Volumes and Folios of Disputation between the Reformed and Roman Churches what Kingdoms or Provinces have they convertted or what Universities by plain demonstration of Argument have they confuted and caused to recant their Errour Nay what single person almost hath yielded to the conviction of a Syllogism without having first been prepossessed by an affection to a side or Party on score of some Relation or something of Example which they fancy admire and would imitate It is very easie as an ingenuous Country-man of ours saith without growing to the extream impudence of palpable lying by leaving out the bad on one side and good on the other by enforcing and flourishing all Circumstances and Accidents which are in our favour and by elevating and disgracing the contrary by sprinkling the terms of Honour wholly on the one side and of Hatred and Ignominy on the other to make the Tale turn which way it shall please the Teller And herein too many Protestants as well as the Papists seem to blame who being both over-passionate towards their Party and Interest have for the most part in the Relation of their Stories done injury to Truth abused the present Age and injured
year are Dionysius of Constantinople Paisios of Alexandria Theositios of Jerusalem and Macarios of Antioch which names they take upon themselves when they first enter into Monasteries or a Religious life The Patriarch of Constantinople is elected by the Metropolites or Bishops according to the plurality of Voices but afterwards constituted and confirmed by the G. Signor before whom after his Election he presents himself with all humility and the G. Signor after the ancient Custom of the Greek Emperours presents him with a white Horse a Manto or black Coole a pastoral staff with a Costan or figured Vest and being mounted on his Horse with a Train of the Clergy and principal Persons of the Greek Nation and accompanied with a great Number of Turkish Officers he returns with all solemnity to the Patriarchal Seat at the entry into which he is met and received by the chief Metropolites and others with wax Tapers burning in their hands and by them conducted into the Church and there before the Altar is consecrated by the Arch-Bishop of Heraclea who habited in his Pontifical Garments takes the Patriarch by the hand and seats him in the Patriarchal Chair sets the Mitre on his Head and commits the Crosier to his hand which being performed and the Offices sung the whole Ceremony is ended The Contention between the Greek Clergy for the Patriarchal Power at Constantinople hath begotten many troubles in the Church for such whom Ambition and Covetousness excite with a desire of this Ecclesiastical Preferment and having some Riches of their own and Credit to make up the rest at Interest seldom or never miss the prize they pursue for the Arguments of Gifts and Benefits are so prevalent with the G. Vizier and the other Turkish Officers that they can afford easie admittance to the most frivolous Accusation that may be objected against the present Incumbent by which means the Patriarch is often changed and the Debts of the Church increased and the Election rather in the hands of the Turk than the Bishops the one being guided by Bribes and the other by Faction by which means the Debts of the Church in the year 1672 as I was informed by the Bishop of Smyrna amounted unto 700 Purses of Mony which makes 350 thousand Dollars the Interest of which increasing daily and rigorously extorted by the Power of the most covetous and considerable Turkish Officers who lend or supply the Money is the reason and occasion that the Patriarch often summons all his Archbishops and Bishops to appear at Constantinople that so they may consult and agree on an expedient to ease in some measure the present Burden and Pressure of their Debts the payment of which is often the occasion of new Demands For the Turks finding this Fountain the fresher and more plentifully flowing for being drained continually suck from this Stream which is to them more sweet for being the Blood of the Poor and the life of Christians It is a remarkable Story and very pertinent to this place which the Bishop of Smyrna when he once did me the honour to make me a Visit recounted to me That not long since certain Principal Officers amongst the Turks perswaded or rather forced a poor simple Kaloir to stand Candidate for the Patriarchal Office and to cheapen it at the price of 25000 Dollars which offer the Turks signified to the Patriarch that so he might either pay the Money himself and thereby purchase his Confirmation or prepare to give way to a new Successor The whole Assembly of the Greek Clergy were greatly perplexed hereat yet knew not which way to resolve For to accept of this Kaloir for Patriarch who was poor and brought nothing with him besides his contemptible Person and Debt which they must at length pay would bring a scandal and scorn on the Church besides the bad Bargain they should make in exchange of their Patriarch Wherefore at length applying themselves with great Humility to the Vizier they obtained a remission of 5000 Dollars of the price demanded and on payment of 20000 procured the continuance of their old Patriarch which matter being thus accommodated the Clergy desired that the Kaloir might be delivered into their hands to receive punishment according to the Canons of their Church but this would not be granted lest such an Example should deter Men from the like designs and thereby prejudice the Musselmin Cause and Interest Nor can the Laws and Canons in the Church against Simony prevail for the Clergy are tender to assert their power of Excommunication in this point or any other part of their Spiritual Authority which the Temporal Power of the Turk in those Cases where his Interest commands over-awes and frustrates usurping a power more Ecclesiastical Supreme and Pontifical than that of the Patriarch But to evidence the turbulent State of the Greek Church we shall not need to fetch Examples farther back than from the year of our Lord 1670 when one Mythodius was Patriarch at Constantinople in which Office he had not been long seated before he was forced by one Parthenius to retire and hastily to take up his Bag and Baggage and be gone and flye for Sanctuary into the House of the English Ambassadour it being usual for the new Patriarch to seize on the person of his Predecessor with his Goods and Estate for paying the Debts of the Church and part of that price for which the Patriarchate was bought by him for which seldom wants some just Cause or at least a seeming pretence in regard that not only the real necessity of the Church Debts forces the Patriarchs to extort Money from the People but likewise a provident care for their future subsistence prompts them to make Friendship with the Mammon of Unrighteousness against that time that they shall be necessitated to surrender an account of their Stewardship And I have heard some say that this change of Patriarchs is so necessary for the maintenance of their Metropolites or Bishops that without it they might starve unless they had this pretence for frequent Taxes For levying Money in this manner on the people some of it sticks to their Fingers providing not only sufficient to pay the proportion expected from their respective Diocesses but also for their own support Mythodius having no sooner as is said quitted the place but Parthenius entered a person not only of a considerable Estate but well acquainted and respected in the Turkish Court Howsoever he continued not above a year before he was forced to give way to Dionysius Metropolite of Larissa who being a monied Man carryed his business with a high hand and entered into the Patriarchal Seat with all the Ceremonies usual at the Instalment to that Dignity procuring not only the Banishment of Parthenius unto Rhodes but caused him also to be Anathematized and the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 to be pronounced with a loud Voice in a full Synod or Convocation of all the Metropolites then
of this Quarrel between Christians who in matters of Religious and Ecclesiastical Concernments sought Justice from the determination of Turks Besides this difference others have arisen of later standing and date but we shall only instance in that one which is very remarkable happening at Jerusalem about the time of Easter in the year 1674. when Monsieur de Nointel Ambassador for his most Christian Majesty to the Grand Signor had a curiosity in his other Travels to make a Pilgrimage to the Holy Sepulchre which having been anciently in the hands of the Latines at least in equal possession of both one and the other was now demanded by the Greeks as their right and as the true and only lawful Guardians of that place the which Title they took the boldness to assert not only by words but by force and violence For some days before Easter when the Latines were making their usual preparations to adorn the Sepulchre the Greek Priests assaulted them with Clubs with which the Latines being equally provided there followed such a skirmish in the Church maintained with zeal and fury that several both of one side and the other were grievously wounded and one of the Greeks killed but as one of the Fryars of Jerusalem then present told me that he received not his mortal wound from them but that he starved himself obstinately refusing all sustenance for no other Reason than that his blood might be required of the Latines which he imagined to have been of so great import as would cause the Latines to be expelled the Holy Land being desirous in this good Cause to suffer death which he esteemed a Martyrdom for revenge of his Religion and Country The cause which moved the Greeks to revive their pretence to the custody of the Holy Sepulchre with so much resolution and fervour is diversly reported Some say that Panaioti the Viziers Interpreter a Christian of the Greek Church had through the favour of the Vizier obtained a Hattersheriff for investing the Greeks solely in possession of the Sepulchre the which he concealed and laid by him during his life time well considering the opposition and trouble he should encounter by putting it into execution from the union of all the Representatives of the Christian Princes against him and how far a Contention of this nature might proceed to the ruine of his life and fortune at least of his quiet he was too prudent and cautious to make the Experiment but rather chose to conceal it until the time of his death when he bequeathed it for a Legacy to the honour and benefit of his Church Others say That Sultan Morat had granted this Hattersheriff which at the intercession of all the Christian Ambassadours had until now been suspended and lay dormant being only revived by this Quarrel between the Latin Fathers and the Greek Kaloirs for the Vizier to correct as is judged the insolence and presumption of the Latines upon the great Complaints of the Greeks renewed the rigour of the ancient Hattersheriff the which Dositheus Patriarch of Jerusalem an active bold and stiring man put into execution with that briskness and zeal as highly provoked the Latins to an extreme heat of indignation but their passion was little available in the Case whilest they wanted force to right and revenge themselves For notwithstanding all the applications they could make to the G. Vizier enforced by the strong and prevailing Arguments of Money and by the Instances of most of the Christian Ambassadors at the Court the Vizier remained inexorable and not to be moved with any Intreaty or Sollicitation whatsoever And when the English Ambassador about August 1675. designed to make experience how successful and powerful his Interest might prove at Court above the Addresses of other Ministers he was privately advised by a person of nearest intimacy to the Publick Counsels not to move in a matter which was so ungrateful and which would force the Vizier against his Will to give him the first denyal of what he had demanded from him In this manner for some years this business remained in which interim Addresses were made to the Pope at Rome and to the Courts of Christian Princes for a Remedy but no Interest of Money or Favour could incline the Vizier Ahmet Pasha during his Life and Government to alter his Sentence or Judgment in the Case but now Kara-Mustapha Pasha succeeding to the Government a recovery may probably be expected in case those Arguments of Money and Presents be applyed which had little power on the resolution and integrity of the Vizier deceased The Greeks of the Islands are men of robustious and well-proportioned Bodies strong and fit for War for which reason the Turks employ them for Levents or Souldiers for Sea-service but being Christians they deny them the priviledge of exercising Arms at Land They are a people extremely well contented with their condition and would not change their Possessions on their little Rocks and Isles for all the Antick Glory of the Grecian Empire where they pipe and dance promiscuously Men and Women together in despight of Enemies or the double Duty and Tax which they paid in time of War to the Venenetians on one side and to the Turks on the other But since Peace between the G. Signor and the Venetian is concluded all the Isles of the Arche-pelago are solely allotted to the Dominion of the Turk except the Isle of Tino as we have said before which by Articles is reserved to the Venetians who have there a Proveditor and Castle to defend it The other Isles are open having no other Fortresses than their little Chappels and Oratories for which cause they are much infested by Corsaires or Free-booters under the Colours of Ligorn Malta Mayorca c. to whom these Islanders are so perfectly subject in all duty and service that their goods are liable to their rapine and the bodies of their Wives and Daughters to their lusts Notwithstanding which these poor people rejoice in their homes and can dispense with all inconveniences rather than abandon their beloved rocks so powerful is that affection which every one bears to his own Country But the entertainment which these Islands afford the Corsaires hath so far moved the indignation of the Turk that as we have said before he hath more than once taken a resolution entirely to depopulate all the open or unfortified Islands by transporting the people to some places on the Continent where their industry and labours might bring them more profit and advantage but as yet the design hath not succeeded though greatly feared and sadly expected by that miserable people But in no place of the Turks Dominions do Christians enjoy more freedom in their Religion and Estates than on the Isle of Xio or Scio to which they are entituled by an ancient Capitulation made with Sultan Mahomet the Second to whom they surrender'd themselves on Composition and Articles of liberty and enjoyment of their Estates which to
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
the Church and might have the same effect as if a Country Curate in England were brought over to the Roman Faith This Confession is the Cause also that upon every small accident of complyance a new reconciliation is presently divulged and so it happened in the year 1678. when at Rome for six Months together it was generally reported That the Armenian Patriarch with six and thirty Bishops was on their way thither to submit unto and to acknowledge the Apostolical See Howsoever I perswade my self that were the particulars wherein there is any Controversie between the Church of England and that of Rome well stated according to the Capacity of the Armenians it would not be difficult to procure another Confession at least an Explication of their Doctrine with little variety from that of the Church of England so little Understanding have these People of Controversies the which perhaps would be the sense of most good Christians in the World who laid aside all prepossessions to a Party or Tenent Howsoever I am sure it ought to be the Desire and Prayer of every good Christian that God would be pleased to lessen and close the Differences in the Church of Christ that we may have one God one Faith one Baptism and one Head the Lord Jesus Amen FINIS Histories and other Curious Discourses Printed for and sold by John Starkey in Fleet-Street 1. THE Voyages and Travels of the Duke of Holstein's Ambassadours into Muscovy Tartary and Persia begun in the year 1633. and finished in the year 1639. containing a compleat History of those Countreys Whereunto are added the Travels of Mandâ—lslo from Persia into the East Indies begun in 1638. and finished in 1640. The whole illustrated with divers accurate Maps and Figures Written originally by Adam Olâ—arius Secretary to the Embassie Englished by J. Davis The second Edition In Folio Price bound 20s 2. The Works of the famous Nicholas Machiavel Citizen and Secretary of Florence containing the History of Florence the Prince the Original of the Guâ—lf and Guibilin the Life of Câ—struccio Castraccani the Murder of Viâ—elli c. by Duke Valentine the State of France the State of Germany the Discourses on Titus Livius the Art of War the Marriage of Bâ—lphâ—gâ—r All from the true Original newly and faithfully translated into English In Folio Price bound 20s 3. The History of Barbadoes St. Christopher's Mevis St. Vincent's Antegâ— Martinicâ— Monserrat and the rest of the Caribby Islands in all twenty eight In two Books containing the Natural and Moral History of those Islands illustrated with divers Pieces of Sculpture representing the most considerable Rarities therein described In Folio Price bound 10 s. 4. The History of the Affairs of Europe in this present Age but more particularly of the Republick of Venice Written in Italia by Battista Naâ—â— Cavalier and Procurator of St. Mark Englished by Sir Robert Honywâ—â—d Kt. In Folio Price bound 14 s. 5. The Present State of the Ottomaâ— Empire in three Books containing the Maxims of the Turkish Polite their Religion and Military Discipline Illustrated with divers Figures Written by Paul Ricâ—â—â— Esq Patâ— Secretary to the English Ambassador there now Consul of Smyrâ—â— The fourth Edition In Octavo Price bound 6 s. 6. The Memoirs of Philip de Comines Lord of Agâ—â—â—â—â— containing the History of Lewis XI and Charles VIII Kings of France with the most remarkable Occurrences in their particular Reigns from the year 1464. to 1498. Revised and Corrected from divers Manuscripts and ancient Impressions By Denis Godfrey Counsellor and Historiographer to the French King and from his Edition lately Printed at Paris Newly Translated into English In Octavo Price bound 6 s. 7. A Relation of three Embassies from His Majesty Charles II. to the great Duke of Muscovy the King of Sweden and the King of Denmark Performed by the Right Honourable the Earl of Carlisle in the year 1663. and 1664. By an Attendant on the Embassies In Octavo Price bound 4 s. 8. A Relation of the Siege of Candia from the first Expedition of the French Forces to its surrender the 27th of September 1669. Written in French by a Gentleman who was a Volunteer in that service and faithfully Englished In Octavo Price bound 1 s. 9. An Historical and Geographical Description of the great Country and River of the Amazones in America with an exact Map thereof Translated out of French In Octavo Price bound 1 s. 6 d. 10. The Secret History of the Court of the Emperour Justinian Written by Procopius of Caesareâ— Faithfully rendred into English In Octavo Price bound 1 s. 6 d. 11. The History of the late Revolutions of the Empire of the great Mogul together with the most considerable Passages for five years following in that Empire with a new Map of it to which is added an account of the extent of Indostan the Circulation of the Gold and Silver of the World to discharge it self there as also the Riches Forces and Justice of the same and the principal cause of the decay of the States of Asia By Monsieur F. Bernier Physitian of the Faculty of Montpelier Englished out of French by H. O. Secretary to the Royal Society In two Parts In Octavo Price bound 7 s. 12. The History of France under the Ministry of Cardinal Mazarine viz. from the death of King Lewis XIII to the year 1654. Wherein all the Affairs of State to that time are exactly related By Benjâ—â—â—â— Priolo and faithfully Englished by Christopher Wase Gent. In Octavo Price bound 4 s. 13. The History of the twelve Caesars Emperours of Rome Written in Latin by C. Suetonius Tranquillus Newly Translated into English and illustrated with all the Caesars Heads in Copper Plates In Octavo Price bound 5 s. 14. The compleat Gentleman or Directions for the Education of Youth as to their Breeding at Home and travelling Abroad In two Treatises By J. Gailbard Gent. Who hath been Tutor Abroad to several of the Nobility and Gentry In Octavo Price bound 3 s. 6 d. 15. The Present State of Egypt or a new Relation of a late Voyage into that Kingdom Performed in the years 1672 and 1673. by F. Vanâ—â—eb R. D. Wherein you have an exact and true Account of many rare and wonderful Particulars of that Ancient Kingdom Englished by M. D. B. D. In Octavo Price bound 3 s. 16. A New Voyage into the Northern Countries Being a Description of the Manners Customs Superstition Buildings and Habits of the Norwegians Laplanders Kilops Berandians Siberians Samopedes Zembâ—â—ns and Islanders In Twelves Price bound 1 s. 17. The Present State of the United Provinces of the Loâ— Countries as to the Government Laws Forces Riches Manners Customs Revenue and Territory of the Dutch Collected out of divers Authors by W. A. Fellow of the Royal Society The second Edition In Twelves Price bound 2 s. 6 d. 18. The Present State of the Princes and Republicks of Italy The second Edition enlarged with the manner of Election of Popes and