BOOK VI

SECTION VII

BIRTH OF CYRIL LUCAR.

 

We are now entering on the most interesting part of Alexandrian History : the rise, progress, and final rejection of those Calvinian tenets which had for some time infested so large a portion of Europe. And the difficulty of the task is equal to its interest. No attempt has yet been made, in our own country, to give a general view of the controversy from its beginning to its close, the accounts on which we have principally to depend are the ex parte statements of advocates; Cyril Lucar, the principal mover in the whole business, is alternately presented to us in the light of a fiend and a Martyr : nay, in two several councils of his own Church is delivered over to an anathema; and declared to be one of whose holiness there can be no doubt.

Furthermore, several documents, important for the right understanding of several momentous matters, now no longer exist; and the authenticity of some that have come down to us is, and has been questioned. It will be our business to keep clear from the unfounded assumptions of both Genevans and Jesuits, and to judge the whole subject by the Canons and Creed of the Eastern Church.

Joachim, whose great age we have already mentioned, was succeeded by Silvester. Of the earlier period of his Patriarchate we know nothing : he appears, however, to have kept up a friendly intorcourse with the learned men of the West; and possibly, ignorant of the actuating principles of the foreign Reformation, might have viewed it the more favourably from a resentment of the injustice which his own Church had recently received at the hands of her Roman Sister. Whether he were himself possessed of much learning, we have no means of judging : he had at all events the faculty of discerning and
rewarding it in others. It was probably about the year 1574 that Meletius Piga, a Cretan by birth, came to Alexandria, where he was soon afterwards ordained Priest by Silvester, and in due time raised to the dignity of Protosyncellus.

While Greece and the neighbouring islands were groaning under Mahometan tyranny, Crete, under the government of the Venetians, enjoyed the profoundest repose. The merchant republic did not interfere with the Eastern Church; the Greeks were protected, and not plundered; and it was natural that the acquisition of learning should here be more eagerly sought, and more highly valued, than in any other portion of the Oriental Church : for knowledge, equally with every other possession, exposed its owner to the dislike and suspicion of the Infidels. Again, the learning of the Roman Prelates, of whom there were at least ten in the island, under the Archbishop of Candia, must have at once rendered necessary, and by emulation given rise to, diligent study on the part of the Greek Prelates. How many of the ancient Sees of Crete still existed in the time of Silveslter, we know not; but, in the flourishing times of the Church, there were at the lowest estimate thirteen, under the metropolitan of Gortyna. The intercourse with Venice led many of the islanders, who were in course of education for Priests, to avail themselves of the Italian Universities, and Padua was that which offered most attractions. Hence, however, the unfortunate consequence arose, that even in the bosom of the Oriental Church were trained some, who were seduced, by her more learned and more powerful Sister, from the allegiance due to their own Mother, or were at least disposed to introduce scholastic novelties
into her simpler Creed.

Meletius Piga, however, was not drawn aside in this way : his fault seems to have been that of too great prejudice against the Western Church. His works were numerous, and chiefly controversial. We find him in communication with the Russians and Slavonians on the subjects of the Procession, and of the Roman Primacy : he wrote a Catechism for the use of the Greek Church, and a treatise addressed to Gabriel of Philadelphia, whom we shall have cause to mention again, on the points in dispute between the two Churches.

Shortly before the time that Meletius left Crete for Alexandria, that is, in the year 1572, the family of the Lucari, connected with him by blood, and inhabitants of the city of Candia, were gratifled by the birth of a son, who was called Cyril. Silvester, in the meantime, presided at two synods, that of Jerusalem, where Germanus, Patriarch of that city, resigned his dignity, and another, in which Jeremiah of Constantinople was restored to the Ecumenical Throne, unjustly occupied by Pachomius. The absence of Silvester must have increased the influence of Meletius Piga, and whether at his invitation, or from the hope of securing his favor, Cyril Lucar, when quite a youth, sailed to Alexandria. There it would appear that Meletius advised his young relative to pursue the same method of study which he himself had followed; for Cyril, after returning to Crete, went to Venice in the twelfth year of his age, and there commenced those studies, which he afterwards completed at Padua.

Shortly afterwards, Meletius Piga was chosen to fill the Chair of S. Mark. It appears that at the time of his election, he was Exarch of the Church of Constantinople, and the dissensions by which it was torn called for his frequent presence after his promotion. His election must have taken place subsequently to the year 1591, because in that year it is expressly said that the See of Alexandria was vacant, while the three other Patriarchs assisted at a Council in Constantinople, on an affair of deep importance to the Eastern Church. The Russians had long been desirous of obtain a Patriarch of their own; and the downfal of the Eastern Empire, while it elevated that of Russia, also rendered it a task of no small difficulty to obtain a free and constant communication with the Patriarch of Constantinople. Jeremiah, who then filled that post, happening to be in Moscow, was prevailed on by the Emperor to declare Russia absolutely free from himself and his successors, and to erect Moscow into a fifth Patriarchate, Job, Archbishop of Rostov, being the first who was elevated to the newly erected Throne. But doubts subsequently arose as to the power which Jeremiah possessed of making, by his own authority, so important a change in the discipline of the Eastern Church; and the ancient Patriarchs met at Constantinople to discuss and to decide the question. By them it was determined that the step was right and necessary : Moscow was ranked immediately after Jerusalem; and the Patriarchal dignity remained in that See for more than a hundred years, till Peter, generally called the Great, abolished it, and substituted in its place the Erastian device of a Holy governing Synod.

Piga, on his return to Alexandria, continued his studies, and published one or two controversial writings for the use of the Slavonic Church, which, as we shall presently see, was exposed to the intrusion of Romanism. Cyril Lucar was pursuing his studies, under the tuition of Maximus Margunius, afterwards Bishop of Cythera, a learned man, and a good poet : his two Epistles, the one, on Divine permission of evil; the other, on the Procession of the Holy Ghost, prove his claim to the first character : his Anacreontic Hymns, to the latter. Cyril became not only acquainted with Latin, but also with Italian ; and, on the completion of his academical career, resolved to visit several of the most famous European cities, and, more especially, to inquire for himself into the real condition and character of the Reformed communities, of which so much was heard, and so little known, in Egypt.

It were much to be wished that we had any history of his wanderings : we should then be enabled more clearly to trace the gradual steps by which, from a sincere desire for the elevation and purification of his Church, he was led to assimilate fearfully with Calvinian Doctrine. But we only know, that he visited Geneva, Holland, and it would seem, England; and thence returned to his own country.