equal right and share of her Husband's goods and possessions which upon a consummation of this Matrimonial contract are to become common to both Their Marriages are always performed publickly this being an express Law of their Church Let none presume to marry but before Witnesses If the Priest should transgress herein he is liable to Ecclesiasticall Censures provided in such like cases Be the persons of what quality or condition soever Crowns or Garlands made for the most part of Olive-branches stitcht over with white silk and interwoven with purple are a necessary and essential part of the Nuptial Solemnity hence 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is oftentimes used for Marriage and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 signify the same thing they being the Symbols not to say the complement of this mysticall Rite The Priest covering the head of the Bridegroom with one of these Garlands says The Servant of God such a one is crowned for that is marries the Servant of God such a one in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost Then he crowns the head of the Bride with the other Garland repeating the same words with their due alterations and then putting their hands across he blesses them in this form thrice O Lord God crown them with glory and honour After the Epistle and Gospell and several Prayers are read the new-married couple drink out of the same Cup which the Priest had blest in sign and token of Love Agreement and Joy and as a pledge of their mutual Conversation and of their right to one another's estates and fortunes After two or three short Hymns the Priest takes the Garlands from off their heads and they saluting each other are dismist with his Blessing They are not over-favourable to second Marriges following the rigour of the ancient times But as for 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or third Marriages they look upon them as forbidden by the Canons of the Church and arraign such persons as guilty of Incontinence and severely condemn the fourth as altogether unlawfull and sinfull making no allowances for temper or accidentall deaths This variety or change of Wives they most invidiously call by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Polygamy contrary to the primary signification of the word against which they so fiercely declaim as a thing hatefull to God to whose providence in taking away their first or second Wife by death they say every one should submit and curb his natural desires and inclinations and as unworthy of men governed by reason In this sense I find the word used by Photius who opposes it to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as that to 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and passes this severe Censure upon the thing that it is very base and detestable and onely proper to impure and lustfull irrational creatures To make the Marriage-vow the more binding and solemn the Bridegroom and Bride receive the Holy Sacrament He must be always above fourteen years of age and she above thirteen and the consent of their Parents Guardians or Tutors is esteemed so necessary that without it is accounted unlawfull and no other then Fornication Among other impediments of Marriage they reckon spiritual Affinity that is such as arises at the Font as for instance he who is a Godfather to any one and his Son cannot lawfully marry either the Mother or the Daughter Such two as have had the same Godfather are incapable of marrying each the other and if they do they are accounted incestuous The practice of the Greeks does horribly contradict their establisht doctrine of the Indissolubility of the bond of Matrimony for Divorces are easily and frequently obtained and granted upon several light and frivolous accounts besides that of Adultery as if it were left wholly to the idle and extravagant fancy of every lustfull and discontented person who is weary of his Wife to retain her or divorce himself from her as he pleases This evil seems past all remedy there being no other way left at present to satisfy a people who are so prone to revenge where they have conceived a grudge or to make new love after a dislike of the former match then by this most unjust and horriblyabused indulgence It is the proper work of the Priest who has a power to make and consecrate the Holy Oyl to anoint dying persons with it all other persons whatsoever being excluded Which practice they found upon the example of the Apostles who were sent out by Christ and anointed with oyl many that were sick and healed them and upon the Advice or Order of S. James chap. 5. v. 14. Is any sick among you let him call for the Elders or Presbyters of the Church and let them pray over him anointing him with oyl in the name of the Lord. And from this Text they pretend to conclude most strongly that several are necessary in order to the right performing of this last office The Office requires that they be no less then seven and assigns to every one of them their particular employment at that time But this number is not rigidly exacted and three oftentimes serve They onely anoint the forehead ears and hands of sick persons Severall Prayers are used at the time of Unction and this particularly among the rest O Holy Father Physician of Soul and body who hast sent thy onely-begotten Son our Lord Jesus Christ to cure all diseases and to redeem from death heal thy Servant of his infirmity both of body and Soul and quicken him by the grace of thy Christ for the intercession of our Lady the Mother of God the ever-Virgin Mary c. and here they recite the names of several Saints for Thou O Christ our God art the Fountain of all healing and we give the glory of it to Thee and to the Father and to the Holy Spirit now and for ever After this they give the sick person the Holy Sacrament as the last Viaticum The Houses of the sick persons are also anointed with the same Oyl the figure of a Cross being made with it upon the walls and posts at which Ceremony the Priest sings the 91. Psalm He that dwelleth in the secret place of the Most high shall abide under the shadow of the Almighty c. This Oyl is not onely used upon persons lying in extremis for the people believing that there is great virtue in it to heal the Distempers of the Body in case of any Sickness or Indisposition that does not bring in danger of Death use it almost in the nature of a remedy or medicine and think themselves also by it better enabled to resist the Assaults and Temptations of the great Enemy of their Souls the Devil But of the Seven Mysteries of the Greek Church hitherto In the midst of the sad Pressures which daily afflict the poor Greeks and the continual Scoffs
against this supposed grievous and fundamentall Errour because Constantinople the chief Seat of the Grecian Empire and Religion was taken by the Turks on a Whitsun-Tuesday in the year 1453. But 't is ill arguing from such an accidental circumstance and they may as justly conclude that the people of Rhodes and particularly the Knights of Jerusalem were guilty of some grievous Errour concerning our Blessed Saviour because the chief City of that Island which they had so bravely defended was at last lost upon a Christmas-day As to the state of the vitâ functi they know not well what to determine for taking for granted that the Souls of the Righteous are not in Heaven where they shall be after the Resurrection of the body they know not where to fix them But whereever that place is which sometimes they call Paradise from the words of our Saviour to the Thief upon the Cross S. Luke 23. 43. sometimes Abraham's bosome from S. Luke 16. 22. sometimes the hand of God from that of Ecclesiasticus The Souls of the Just are in the hand of God it is certainly distinct according to them from the presence of God For thus they pray in their Liturgy Remember O Lord all that sleep in hope of the Resurrection and everlasting Life and grant that they may rest where the light of thy Countenance shines forth and so in the Office of Burial O God of Spirits and of all flesh who having trampled upon Death and vanquisht the Devil hast given life to the world Thou O Lord make the Soul of thy deceased Servant to rest in the glorious in the pleasant place in the place of refreshment whence grief trouble and sighing are banisht And yet at other times as it were compelled by the force and evidence of truth they retract at least colour over this Opinion with this acknowledgment in their late Confession By which of these three names above mentioned any shall call the Receptacle of righteous Souls he will not erre provided that he believes and understands thus much that they enjoy the favour of God and are in his heavenly Kingdom and as the Church-Hymns mention in Heaven But as for the Souls of the Wicked and Unrighteous they hold that they descend immediately into Hades or Hell the place of Condemnation and of God's Wrath. They reject in words at least the Romish Doctrine of Purgatory by fire as having no foundation in Scripture and teach their people accordingly in their Catecheticall Confession and thus argue ab absurdo against it If the Soul satisfies for Sins committed in this life in such a place then by parity of reason part of the Mystery or Sacrament of Penance might be performed there which is say they 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 contrary to orthodox doctrine But notwithstanding this declaration they fansy the Souls of the departed detained and shut up in most secret and unknown recesses under ground and there to be perplexed and to suffer 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or grievous things and to find ease and refreshment from the Prayers and Suffrages and Oblations and Sacrifices of the living Upon this account it is that in the celebration of the Sacrament the Priest standing at the Prothesis offers several Particles of Bread one in honour of the Virgin Mary which they place on the right side of the Bread that is to be consecrated the rest in honour of S. John the Baptist the Holy and glorious Apostles S. Basil S. Gregory the Divine S. John Chrysostome Athanasius Cyrillus Nicolas of Myra and all holy Bishops S. Stephen the first Martyr S. George Demetrius Theodorus and all other holy Martyrs S. Antony Euthymius Saba Onuphrius Arsenius Athanasius of Mount Athos and all holy Monks the holy Physicians Cosmus and Damianus Cyrus and John Pantaleon and Hermolaus Sampson and Diomedes Thallaleus and Trypho and the rest S. Joachim and Anna the Saint of the day and all Saints and for his particular Archbishop and all the Clergy and for the Founders of the Church or Monastery for the living and dead where he mentions their names and for all who sleep in hope of the Resurrection to everlasting life to whom O mercifull God give pardon These are placed in the Patin and are carried to the Altar of Consecration and by reason of their vicinity to the Bread that is to be consecrated and is afterward actually consecrated partake of that blessing and sanctification 'T is manifest that this practice of the Greeks differs vastly from the ancient Rite of the Christians of the Second and Third Centuries which they would seem to imitate For they imagining that the Souls of deceased persons were not admitted into the Divine Presence but did exspectare in candida diem Judicii as Tertullian speaks their surviving friends and relations fearing lest their present condition might require it at least to shew their love and care of them brought their Oblations but this was done onely once a year laborantibus animabus refrigerium quoddam adpostulantes but they were not particular and distinct but for all together nor were they esteemed by them in the nature of satisfactory or expiatory Oblations but onely to shew the honour they bare to the memory of the holy Apostles and Martyrs in this solemn kind of pomp and at the celebration of the Holy Sacrament at which time they onely prayed to God that He would be pleased to remember them And certainly no more can well be understood by the Commemoration which follows just after the Consecration of the Elements in their present Liturgies The present Greeks too account it a great piece of Piety and Religion to visit the Graves of their dead Friends upon a set day every year and there perform several Funeral rites and pray for their Souls and after that the Priest has performed his Office and the religious part of the Ceremony is over they cover the Grave with their Napkins and Handkerchiefs and make a festival entertainment made up with part of the Colyba or boiled Wheat with mixt Fruits before mentioned with a great deal of mirth and jollity very unbecoming the Solemnity But to return to the modern Greeks The reason of this their practice is thus assign'd by Gabriel Philadelphiensis We offer these Particles for our Fathers Brothers Friends and Kinsfolks who sleep in Christ The end and design is that God would place their Souls in a bright and pleasant place in a place of rest whence grief and lamentation are banisht and send them a relaxation and deliverance from those grievous things that at present seize upon them and give them freedom and redemption from the lamentation of Hades and from tears Cyrillus Lucaris was ashamed of this superstitious practice and the idle pretension commonly used for the defence of it and therefore adds another Esset hîc referendum 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 quae 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉
novem minimae particulae sunt panis decima B. Mariae Matris Domini quas post aquae vini in calice infusionem ab uno Pane oblato sumptas penès Eucharistiae Panem ponimus ad significandum jam beatam esse sortem Sanctorum qui ut Membra Capiti Christo conjuncta unà in coelesti gloria triumphant By which he supposes onely the Blessedness of the Saints to be designed that as the Particles are placed near the Bread that is consecrated so they as the Members of the Body Mysticall joyned to Christ as to the Head triumph together with Him in the Heavenly glory But besides this they say a particular Mass for the Dead which does not differ from the form used at other times but that there is a peculiar Epistle and Gospell and the dead persons for whose benefit it is intended are particularly mentioned each having a single Particle offered up in his behalf But a general Mass for the Dead is solemnized on the Saturday before Pentecost which day is sacred to the Memory of All Souls While they seem to reject with so much caution a Purgatory they are faln into the Errour of Origen about the Redemption of the Souls of the wicked from Hell For they thus boldly determine Certainly many Sinners are freed from the Chains of Hades not upon the account of any Repentance or Confession made in those infernal regions but for the good Works and Alms of the living for the Prayers of the Church made in their behalf and chiefly for the sake of the unbloudy Sacrifice which the Church daily offers up for the living and the dead Again The Sacrifices the Prayers and Alms which are perform'd by the living greatly comfort and benefit the Soul and free it at last from the bonds of Hades Though to salve this they say such persons as are freed went out of the world with good dispositions and were prevented by death from completing their Repentance and procuring the Favour of God So Patriarch Jeremias explains himself Three times that year their Friends die they celebrate their Exequies the third the ninth and the fortieth day and repeat the same Prayers for the peace and quiet of their Souls I omit the Howlings of the Women really concerned at the Funerals of their Husbands or of their Slaves and of persons hired to act their parts in this most extravagant scene of Grief This being a relique of an old Custom used in the days of their Heathenish Ancestours and not falling properly within the comprehension and compass of my design The Greeks have so great prejudice to all engraven Images and especially if they are emboss'd and prominent that they inveigh severely and fiercely against the Latines as little or less then Idolaters and symbolizing with the very Heathen applying that of the Psalmist Psal 135. v. 16 17 18. They have mouths but they speak not eyes have they but they see not c. But as for the Pictures whether in colours or printed of our Saviour and of the Saints they account them sacred and venerable These they reverence and honour by bowing and kissing them and saying their prayers before them With these the Partition that separates the Bema or Chancell from the Body of the Church is adorned At set times the Priest before he enters into it makes three low Reverences 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 before the Image of Christ and as many before that of the Virgin Mary and he does the like in the time of Celebration and oftentimes perfumes them with his Incense-pot Upon some of the great Festivals they expose to the view of the people upon a Desk in the middle of the Quire a printed Picture of that day's Saint done in Christendom whither upon their approach they bow their body and kiss it with great devotion This practice they defend from the Authority of the Seventh general Synod which is the Second held at Nice and from this vain and idle pretence that they worship the Saint in the Image which represents him by the help of which they presently have an Idea of him in their mind and that they worship the figure and representation not with the worship of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 but of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and that onely 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 relatively which is all they have to say for their gross and scandalous behaviour herein to the great prejudice of the Christian Religion among the Turks who are too gross and dull to understand these subtil and nice distinctions which they alledge in defence of this Worship But I intend onely a Narrative and not a Confutation A great part of their Worship consists in external Adoration which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 of which they make two sorts the greater which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 bowing the body very low almost to the ground and the less with a little inclination of the head and knee This they doe when they come into the Church or when they are in sight of a Church or Chappell either upon land or sea repeating these words 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Lord or God be mercifull to me a Sinner or else onely these 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 sometimes forty times sometimes a hundred times together out of an excess of Devotion crossing themselves all the while The custom of praying toward the East is still practised and held sacred and inviolable among them and of the two they had rather turn their backs upon the Church then upon that point of the Heavens when they are at their Devotions and because the Altar is in the Eastern-most part of the Church they worship toward that They seldome sit in the Church except when quite tired by their long standing there being no accommodation of Pews or Benches there except a few Stalls in their greater Churches And they do as seldom kneel except perchance on the day of Pentecost or some such solemn time herein being wholly swayed and governed by the custom and practice of the Country the frequent reverences and inclinations they make with their body serving in stead of Genuflexion They have a peculiar manner of crossing themselves which is with the two Fingers of their right hand and Thumb closed to denote as they tell you the mystery of the Three Persons in the Holy Trinity in one Essence They first sign their forehead then the lower part of their breast then their right shoulder and then their left saying 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Holy God holy and powerfull holy and immortal have mercy upon us or some such ejaculation as 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 O Lord Jesu Christ thou Son and Word of God have mercy upon me but more especially the short forms above mentioned They keep their Culpacs or Caps on their heads in the Church except at the