Quadragesima or the first Sunday day in Lent they call it also the Sunday of Orthodoxy celebrating upon it the memory of Orthodox Kings and Patriarchs Upon the same day also they excommunicate the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or such as deny the worship of Images in compliance with the second Nicene Council wherein that strange doctrine which was afterwards opposed and confounded by the Bishops assembled at Francford by the command of the Emperour Charlemaine was established under the penalty of an Anathema The second Sunday in Lent The third Sunday in Lent is called the Sunday of the precious and life-producing Cross as they speak or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 according to Codinus because on this day and the week following they kiss the Cross more frequently then at other times and pay a respect to it which falls little or nothing short of Adoration The fourth Mid-lent Sunday The fifth Sunday in Lent The Saturday following the Saturday of S. Lazarus raised from the dead The sixth Palm-Sunday so called from their carrying branches of Palms in their hands in imitation of what we reade S. Mark 11. Chap. The week following is called the Week of the holy and salutary Passion or the great and holy Week Every day of which has the same title and denomination given to it as Monday is called the great and holy second day and so of the rest in the order of their number for the Greeks have no proper and peculiar names for them derived from the Planets Sunday they always call the Lord's day the five next the second third fourth fifth sixth though they call this latter commonly 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Preparation as Thursday 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the day before the Preparation following the Jewish custom and in allusion to them Saint John chap. 10. 31. and in stead of the seventh they generally say the Sabbath On Thursday in the evening in the Patriarchal Church at Constantinople is the Ceremony of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or washing the feet of twelve Kaloirs or other Officers belonging to that Church performed by the Patriarch in imitation of that wonderfull act of condescension in our Blessed Saviour who in this demonstrative instance took on him the form of a Servant according to the Custome of those Eastern Countries Each of the twelve bears the name of the Apostle whom he represents And though as they make it it be but a meer mock-show and soon over to prevail with one to stand for the Traitour Judas is no small difficulty this reproachfull and infamous name for the most part sticking by him as long as he lives But this being a necessary part the Patriarch is forced to bribe some one or other with the promise of preferment or else to interpose his Authority that they decide it by lot All things thus prepared and the Prayers and the Hymns sung which are prescribed in the Office the Patriarch having put off his Robe girds himself about with a Towell according to the direction of the Gospell which is then read by pauses by him of the number who represents Saint John and pours warm water into the Laver and as soon as he hears those words read S. John chap. 13. v. 5. Then he began to wash the disciples feet he falls to his work Advancing towards Judas who throws out his Legs with some kind of hast and disorder in a very foolish and indiscreet manner the Patriarch both by his look and behaviour in the action shews a manifest dislike which causes laughter and sport among the people present at the solemnity who hitherto are usually grave and serious He who represents S. Peter is usually the chief person in dignity among them and is the last who has his feet washt He upon seeing the Patriarch approach him contests it for a time and deprecates it in the words of S. Peter vers 8. and so on they discourse it in the words of the Gospell The Ceremony being over the other persons being present dip their Handkerchiefs in the Wash-pot believing that there is a great deal of virtue in the Water which has been used in the Solemnity This Custome is not confined to Constantinople but is performed elsewhere in their Monasteries and by Bishops and Priests in their respective Churches where there is a considerable number of Christians such sights signifying little and losing much of their splendour except there be crouds of spectatours Good Friday the great and holy Preparation the Passover of the Crucifixion but most commonly the most holy Passion-day The Vigil of Good Friday is spent in fasting and mortification and prayer and reading the history of and meditating on our Lord's Passion and the dolorous and shamefull circumstances of it The Women submit very readily to these rigours and Boys of six or seven years of age endure as much as they are able and care not to be exempt from these bodily exercises in which they place a great part of their Religion herein keeping up the practice of the Primitive Christians who were wont to afflict themselves at this solemn time and shew an extraordinary Devotion as Eusebius relates of the Therapeutae mentioned by Philo whom he fansies to have been Christians and Disciples of S. Mark But whether that be a truth or a mistake he says the same severities were used in his time Great numbers watch all night in the Church the neighbouring streets in the night-time are full of such as pass to and again Those who are weak and sickly are allowed a little bread and water to prevent swouning in the day-time but generally except in such like cases where an absolute necessity may justify the fact they abstain from all sort of food till after Sun-set the next day Others of a more vigorous and athletick temper and constitution fast four and twenty hours longer and eat nothing till Easter-Eve that is at night Toward the evening of Good Friday they carry an Image of our B. Saviour about the Church in procession with tapers and torches and then they represent the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the manner of taking our Saviour down from the Crosse in which they betray a great deal of superstition and folly this being onely to gratify a childish and gross fancy On the Saturday they eat but once which is purely to sustain nature At three of the clock in the afternoon when their Vespers begin the devout people flock to Church some continue there all night and carry with them bread dates and figs and the like to make use of upon occasion of any fainting fit Toward break of day they sing the Hymn which begins Glory in the highest After which the Patriarch begins that excellent Hymn the Quire immediately following Christ is risen from the dead having by his death trampled upon death and given life to those who were in their graves Which they
were anciently deposited being before of Wood was pulled down and rebuilt of Marble by the Empress Theodora the Wife of Justinian incited by his example to doe something worthy of her to make her name known to and admired by posterity This Church according to the tradition of the Greeks was first granted by the Emperour Mahomet upon his taking the City to the Patriarch Gennadius Scholarius but he soon revoked his Grant and turned it into the Mosch which now bears his name The Patrïarchal Church formerly belonged to a Convent of Nuns where the Patriarch has a convenient dwelling It is situated upon the rising of a hill near the Lantern-Gate toward the Haven of an ordinary bigness and without any great Ornament for the reason above mentioned The Emperour Alexius Comnenus here lies interred They shewed me here also the Reliques of S. Euphemia and of some other Martyrs lockt up in Chests which they open with great solemnity to gratify the curiosity of Strangers who reward the civility sufficiently But that which they most esteem is a piece of black Marble as they pretend part of that Pillar which formerly stood in the Praetorium or Hall of Pontius Pilate to which our Blessed Saviour was tied when he was whipped about two foot long and three or four inches over if my memory serves me right for I did not think it worth my pains though never so small to take the exact dimensions of it inclosed in brass lattice Grates that it may not receive prejudice either from devout or sacrilegious persons For they have a strong imagination that the dust rased from it and put into wine or any way conveyed into the stomach cures Agues and Fevers almost infallibly In a brass Plate under it I found these six Verses engraven alluding to the tradition I just now mentioned which they believe as undoubtedly as if it were Gospell 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Near hereunto the Emperour Selim emulous of the glory of his Ancestours once intended to have built a Mosch for the advantage of the situation The Greeks fearing lest their Church should be demolisht for the enlargement of the Area of it play'd a master-game of cunning by bribing the Vizir and the other Bassa's who had a mighty Ascendent over him They accordingly diverted him from his purpose and perswaded him to build it at Adrianople to the great joy of the poor Christians who were thus happily delivered from their fears The Churches are of different figures some rising up with Cuppola's in the midst as Sancta Sophia others are built Cross-wise like our Cathedralls others square and oblong That the Rites and Ceremonies which I shall have occasion to mention hereafter may be the better understood I will briefly describe the make and fashion of one of their Churches with the several parts of it for where any of them is wanting it is wholly for want of room or some other convenience referring the curious Reader to the Latine Copy In the first fabrick and constitution they had regard to the threefold condition and order of persons admitted within the Church-doors which are Ecclesiastical persons or Priests and other inferiour Ministers belonging to them Lay-persons which lie under no Church-censure but enjoy the privileges of their Baptism and have the liberty of serving God in the publick Congregation or the Faithfull Penitents and Excommunicated persons deprived of the use of the holy Sacrament in the way of a spiritual Punishment among whom anciently the Catechumeni and persons possessed with Evil Spirits were placed Accordingly every compleat Church consists of an Entrance Nave and Chancell distinguisht by the several uses to which they peculiarly belong and appropriated to particular persons Before you enter the Church is a covered Porch usually arch'd running out at each side the Portall with Seats against the wall upon which are painted several Images as of our Blessed Saviour the Virgin Mary S. John S. George and the like these two last being the great Saints of the East and of that Saint particularly to whose memory the Church is consecrated but very wretchedly and without beauty or proportion Painting as well as the other ingenious and polite Arts having been long since banisht Greece and the Lesser Asia The outward Gate which they call the great or Silver Gate opens into a long narrow space which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 distinct from the Body of the Church and separated by a half partition In the innermost part stood the Penitents to hear the holy Scriptures read next to the Gate were the Candidates of Baptism and between both those who were possessed this being their proper place beyond which it was not lawfull to advance one step forward But these uses long since ceasing the rooms are taken up by the Women who never sit promiscuously with Men there being Lattices at the farther end through which they look into the Church without being seen themselves Here they leave the Coffin of the person who is to be interred unless he be a Church-man and then they carry it in farther while they perform some Funeral offices in the Church which ended they carry it into the Church-yard In this place the Font is placed of which I shall speak more distinctly when I come to shew the Ceremonies which they use in Baptism The middle Gate which they call the Beautifull Gate opens into the Nave or Body of the Church which lies open unless almost toward the upper part where there are some few Stalls as in the Patriarchal Church where is one higher then the rest for the Patriarch and others for the Princes of Walachia and Moldavia or for the Metropolitans and Bishops when any happen to be present Above which but more toward the Wall in little oblong Squares those who belong to the Quire have their station and a little higher in the middle is the Desk where they reade the Holy Scripture to the People In the great Churches a Pulpit is usually placed in the middle but which they very seldome make use of You advance onely from a single step to the wooden Partition Which intervall I suppose to be the Soleas about the meaning and right placing of which several learned men have contested at large This reaches almost from the roof to the pavement and takes up the breadth of the Church It is full of Pictures done at large especially those lately mentioned sometime daubed over with Gilt as I have observed in their Monasteries which being either in the Islands or in the Country in by-places out of the sight of the Turks are better and more richly adorned Three Doors open out of it whereof the middlemost called the
Bishoprick of Damalon Rhodus New Patras in Thessaly Aenus Drystra Tornobus under which are the Bishopricks of Lophitzus Tzernobus and Presilabe Joannina a City of Aetolia formerly called Cassiope under which the Bishopricks of Bothrontus Bella Chimarra and Drynopolis Euripus Arta the same with Ambracia a City of Epirus Monembasia the same with Epidaurus a City in Peloponnesus under it the Bishopricks of Elos and Marina Rheon and Andrusa Nauplium Phanarion and Neochorion Sophia Chios now called Scio. Paronaxia Tria Siphnus Samos Carpathus now Scarpanto Andros Leucas These eight are Islands in the Archipelago Varna near the Danube Old Patras under which the Bishopricks of Olene Methona and Corona Proconnesus Ganus and Chora In the same Paper that was put into my hands these Bishopricks were added Media towards the Euxine Sozopolis not far from Adrianople Praelabus somewhere toward the Danube Capha in the Cimmerian Bosphorus a City of Tartaria Praecopiensis Gotthia in the same Country Bindana near Sophia Didymotichum Litiza Bysia Selybria Zychnae in Macedonia Neurocopus Melenicus Beroea Pogogiana in Illyricum Chaldaea Pisidia Imbrus Myra Santorina an Island near Melos Aegina Walachia for this I suppose is meant by 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 In Moldavia are four Bishopricks as in Candia there were lately three under the Metropolitan of that Island Several of the Bishops mentioned in the Catalogue being freed from the Jurisdiction of the Metropolitans to which they formerly belonged and so become in respect of them 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 free and independent and onely subject to the Patriarch are called by way of distinction Archbishops as he of Samos for instance who before was under Rhodes and so of the rest The Archbishops which have Suffragans under them still or had formerly at least being generally called Metropolites But of the Metropoliticall and Episcopal Sees thus much Considering the Poverty of the Greek Church and the scanty provisions made for such as enter into holy Orders there being no rich Livings to invite them to doe so it must onely be a principle of Conscience at first that makes them willing to take up that holy Calling which deprives them of all other ways and means of getting a subsistence For the Clergy must be content with their allowance and not think to better their condition by busying themselves in any Secular employment as being altogether inconsistent with their holy Profession But custome and long use make things most troublesom and difficult to be born easy at last It is accounted a good Preferment if in a Country-village the poor Priest can make in the whole year forty Crowns out of which he pays a proportion to his Bishop For there being no Lands belonging to the Church besides the small allowance agreed upon at first by him and the people they pay him so many Aspers for Christening their Children giving them the Sacrament upon extraordinary occasions Burying their dead and performing other Funeral rites and the like And on the great Festivals they present him with mony or what is mony-worth that he may expresly mention their names or their relations whether alive or dead when he comes to that part of the Liturgick-service in the celebration of the Sacrament where such Commemorations are used as believing such a Recommendation made by the Priest at that solemn time to be of great force and efficacy Marriage does not hinder any person if he be not otherwise unqualified from being put into holy Orders not in such a one obliged to live from his Wife But the general practice of the Church is against Marriage after Orders So that if any Priest once married should marry a second time much more if a Priest not before married should enter into this state they are liable to censures and as if the character imprinted upon them when they were made Priests were by this act rased out they are esteemed as meer Laicks and accounted 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or flagitious persons and transgressours of the Laws and Canons of the Church They have a distinct Habit from the people which is black wearing a Cassock and having a Felt-cap upon their heads of the same colour over which they throw a kind of Veil which hangs down behind their back if they be Kaloirs and are permitted by the Turks to wear their Hair long and over their Shoulders Which the other Greeks of late years presuming to imitate the chief Vizir Achmet upon his return from Candia fearing that it might be of ill effect and consequence if this Innovation were any longer indulged commanded them under a grievous penalty to shave their heads as formerly which they with haste and trembling submitted to well knowing that such orders were not to be dallied with They are in great veneration among the people every-where who have a just opinion of the necessity of their Order and of the dignity of their Function that they are set apart by God for his more immediate Worship and Service and that without their Ministery the Christian Religion would soon be at an end in Turky and salute them always by the name of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Father giving them Respect where-ever they meet them and oftentimes kissing their hands and then putting them to their foreheads which is one of the greatest signs of Reverence in that part of the world Next to the Priests are the Deacons of which there are great numbers belonging to the Bishops who are never advanced to the Priesthood and Subdeacons which assist in the service of the Church and Readers whose office is in the great Church to reade the Scripture to the people But of these inferiour Orders I shall have occasion to say somewhat hereafter I shall onely adde thus much of the superiour that they are never conferr'd together and at the same time but there is to be necessarily the interposition of a day at least And therefore if upon a Capriccio of the Grand Signor any simple Kaloir should be design'd to be Patriarch he is to be advanced by degrees and not immediately placed in the Patriarchal Chair till after some little time The strict and severe course of life which the Religious lead is greatly admired by the Greeks as the height of perfection in this world and what equals them to Angels Of which sort are great numbers in Greece and the Lesser Asia which follow the Rules and Constitutions of S. Basil the Great as those do of S. Antony who live upon Mount Sinai and Libanus and are dispersed up and down Aegypt from the Desart to the Red Sea The name 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Kaloir the Greeks in their ordinary discourse mightily humouring this pronunciation was at first I suppose appropriated to the old men of the Order but now it lies in common among all and is the general name by which they are called They have their Convents in several By-places out of the publick roads or
〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Minister of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the most solemn Rites of the Christian Worship These Liturgick Books or Offices are onely three for though there be Liturgies that go under the names of S. Peter S. Mark S. Matth. and S. James c. they being confessedly spurious are rejected by the Greeks as well as by some of the sober Romanists The pretended one of S. Peter was scarce heard of for fifteen hundred years and more it is stuffed up with Intercessions and Prayers to the Virgin Mary who is there called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and other Saints Where is also the Ave Maria the Gloria Patri and other notorious and manifest proofs of its late invention the Forger having contrived it to agree in many things with the Roman Canon of the Mass S. Mark 's Liturgy is equally supposititious there being mention in it of the inferiour Ecclesiastick Orders of the Trisagion of the Nicene Creed of the title and appellation of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 deservedly given to the B. Virgin of the Diptychs and of the Imperial City of Constantinople 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 and the like signs of its noveltie If it be said that these are onely insertions and interpolations but the body and contexture of the Liturgies may be justly referred to the Apostles as to their Authours they cannot expect either wisely or civilly that this should be yielded to them meerly upon the strength of their fancy for they have not the Authority of any ancient Writer to countenance it that every Apostle made a distinct Liturgy for this does not suit with the simplicity of the celebration of it in the Apostles times and in the second and third Century according to the account we find of it in Justin Martyr More indeed may be said for the pretended Liturgy of S. James as being mentioned in the 32. Canon of the Council in Trullo and by Proclus but it was not received among them as appears from Balsamon's first answer to Marcus Patriarch of Alexandria and from Jeremias Patriarch of Constantinople who lived in the last Century in his answer to the Divines of Wittenberg Nor could I ever learn that it is at any time used by any of the Christians of the East though Allatius tells us it is one day in the year recited at Jerusalem out of respect to the memory of S. James the first Bishop of that City that is I suppose on the twenty third day of October which is the day of his Commemoration The three Liturgies I was mentioning are those of S. Basil S. Chrysostome and S. Gregory Bishop of Rome whom they distinguish from the rest of that name by the additional title of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Dialogist from the Books he wrote in that form and style For he is commonly supposed to be the Author of the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Liturgia Praesanctificatorum though I think it ought to be ascribed to Germanus Patriarch of Constantinople as shall be proved elsewhere his Junior by some hundreds of years All of which but especially the two first by the cunning contrivance of those who governed the Church to advance the superstitious fancies of their Times under a pretence of ancient Piety recommended by those holy men whose names they have in great veneration seem horribly altered and corrupted from what they were anciently as is demonstrable from those many and various interpolations which plainly savour of Novelty and from that great variety of manuscript copies two of which scarce agree unless in some of the most solemn Prayers For the better establishment of decency and order in the Worship and Service of God and for prevention of all confusion there is a certain and fixt rule appointed to be observed every-where in the reading of these Liturgies at set times it not being left to the liberty and humour of any Priest to make use of which he thinks fit The Liturgy of S. Basil is read onely ten times in a year that is on the five Sundays of the great Lent from Quadragesima to Palm-Sunday exclusively on Thursday and Saturday in the Holy week on the Eves of Christmas and Epiphany and on the first day of January which day is devoted to the memory of the great Saint The Liturgy of S. Chrysostome which is more contracted then that of S. Basil is recited on all other Sundays and Festivals and other days when they celebrate the Sacrament except in Lent at which time except Saturdays and Sundays and the feast of the Annunciation they use the Liturgy of the Praesanctificata But of this I shall speak more distinctly hereafter The Sacrament of the holy Eucharist is performed after this manner The Priests and Deacons having washt their hands by which Ceremony they design to shew with what Purity of Soul and Body they ought to approach these holy Mysteries carry the gifts of Bread and Wine presented by the people to the Altar of the Prothesis by this oblation which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 separating them from profane and common use Which being pierced in several places is at last cut and divided from the rest into various Particles by a Knife set apart for this purpose which they call 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the holy Launce alluding to the Launce which pierced our Saviour's side With this Launce he makes a Cross upon the Seal saying thrice in memory of our Lord God and Saviour Jesus Christ Then he strikes his Launce upon the right side of it and cuts it saying He was led as a sheep to the slaughter afterward upon the left saying and as an innocent sheep before the shearer is dumb so He opened not his mouth then upon the upper part saying His judgment was taken away in his humiliation and upon the lower saying But who shall declare his generation After this he lifts up the Bread thus cut off saying For his life is taken from the earth and lays it in the Patin saying The Lamb of God which takes away the sin of the world is offered for the life and sin of the world Then thrusting his Launce into it he says And one of the souldiers pierced his side with a launce and straitway there issued forth bloud and water upon which the Deacon pours wine and water into the Chalice This blessed Bread is onely design'd to be consecrated Afterward the Priest out of the same or another Loaf for it is indifferent several being offered by the people for these purposes takes a small piece saying In honour and memory of our most Blessed and glorious Lady the Mother of God the ever-Virgin Mary by whose intercession receive O Lord this Sacrifice upon thy supercelestial Altar Then he elevates the Particle and lays it
in the Islands of the Arches that they may the better enjoy their solitude and devotion and are indeed not onely in their Retirements but manner of life divided and separated from the rest of the world And indeed their innocency and strictness of life have procured them such an esteem among the Turks otherwise barbarous and insolent as that they seldome give these poor men any trouble who abandoning all secular business give up themselves wholly to the severe exercises of Religion and having neither will nor power to doe the least injury to others deserve well of all by their incessant prayers for the peace and prosperity of mankind There are three degrees of them according to their age and standing and the progress they have made in the Ascetick discipline to the highest of which they advance and proceed in due order The Novices upon their first admission into the Monastery are immediately shaven and oblige themselves by vow to continue in this state of Religion all their lives long to lead a chast life and to be obedient to their Superiours and to all the rest of their Brethren in Christ and willingly and chearfully to undergo all the mortifications and severities of a Monastick life for the Kingdom of Heaven After they have compleated their Novitiate in stead of the course Hair-cloath they have worn hitherto they put on the 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or Coat which they call the lesser Habit and hereby become compleat Monks But the holy and Angelicall or Divine habit as they variously word it is reserved for such as are more eminent in piety and austerity of life Hence they are called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such as are admitted to put on the great Habit which is onely a Hood thrown over their heads and shoulders Some of these I have observed to have a little square piece of cloath sewed in the inward side of their Caps or else worn next to their hearts under their woollen Shirts upon which is the figure of a Cross with these letters at each side IC XC N. K. that is 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Jesus Christ overcomes which they look upon as an holy Amulet to preserve them from evil and mischief At the time of their being Profest new names are usually given them examples of which we have frequently in the Writers of the Byzantine History Thus the Emperour Manuel Comnenus upon his receiving the Habit was called Matthew and so his Wife the Emperess Mary when she became a Nun was called Xene and so Joannes Paleologus was called afterward Joasaph The chief Seat of these Religious is upon Mount Athos which is indeed the principal Seminary of the Greek Church which is hence usually supplied with fit persons to succeed in the vacant places and Dignities to the acceptance of which some have been forced out of their Cells I am most assured that Kaloirs bred up here have a greater fame and reputation for piety and learning then any others throughout the Empire Upon which account it is known by no other name among the Greeks then that of 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or the Holy Mountain and the Turks in way of compliance with the fame that passes generally of that place call it Sheicher dâg or the Mountain of Priests or Religious Here are about one and twenty or two and twenty Monasteries whereof several belong to the Bulgarians and one peculiarly to the Russians They who speak most moderately say there may be in the whole about four thousand constantly resident no Woman of what quality soever being permitted to come among them or indeed to set her foot within sight of any of these Religious houses whereof such as are near the Sea-shore are fortified to prevent the Robberies of the Pirates who sometime land and doe mischief But not having been my self upon Mount Athos for reasons mentioned in other Papers I forbear writing any thing upon hear-say but refer the Reader to the description of it written by the Archbishop of Samos who lived severall years there in the vulgar Greek and translated into French at Paris and published in English almost two years since at London The behaviour and employment of the Kaloirs is generally the same in all Monasteries They are exceeding industrious painfull and severe in their lives and seem to keep up the credit of the first Institution and fall not short of the great examples of some of their Predecessours so much admired in the Ages past They are strict and diligent in their publick Devotions at the appointed hours both of day and night The spare time from their Devotion they employ in the necessary business of the Convent each according to his quality for every one has his employment The Monks who are not in holy Orders are some of them Mechanicks and understand Iron-work or Building others look to the Fields and Vineyards that are about their houses others make their Cloaths and the like Such Convents which lie toward either of the Bays at the end of the Isthmus of Mount Athos or are upon the Bosphorus or in any of the Islands maintain Boats which they put to Sea in to take Fish Though sometimes for want of fit persons in the lesser Monasteries especially they provide themselves with such things as they want with their money but with some kind of regret scarce caring to be at any expence for any thing that may be procured by labour and industry The Priests and Deacons among them are by reason of their character and function exempt from all such servile employments and by way of distinction from such Ecclesiasticks as are not profest and so not under the obligation of any Rule or Vow are called the former 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the latter 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The leisure-time they enjoy after they have performed their Offices is spent in reading or collating or transcribing old Greek books or else in visits according as their Superiour shall direct and as civility or business shall require Notwithstanding this good husbandry and parsimonious way of life in an ill year when their corn and vines are blited they are not able to subsist and are forced to send out some of their number to beg the charity of others in order to their relief But this is done very seldome and onely when a real necessity urges We may justly suppose those who have renounced the pleasures and delicacies and vanities of the world not to be over-curious and nice in their Diet. They never touch any kind of Flesh or Fish that has bloud in it Their chief food is Shell-fish Olives Beans and Pulse Onions Melons Raisins and what their Fields and Gardens afford With this dry diet they make hearty meals and enjoy good health and find the happy effect of moderate and thin feeding in a lasting vigorous old age Their Bread is course and hard being