BOOK VI

SECTION VIII

CYRIL LUCAR AS PRIEST.

 

On the return of Cyril to Alexandria, Meletius Piga, finding opposed as ever to the Roman Church, seems never to have inquired whether his principles might not have been warped by his close connection with several of the Reformers, but in a short time raised him to the Priesthood, and finding that he continued to deserve promotion, made him Archimandrite.

Cyril had not been long promoted to this dignity when he was sent,—it does not appear on what business,—to Constantinople. It is not impossible that he accompanied Piga thither, when, on the vacancy that occurred in the Ecumenical Throne, after the death of Theophanes II, that Patriarch administered its affairs. The sermons which he delivered, during that period, in the great church, are still extant, although they have never been published. After a year's residence in Constantinople, Cyril was dispatched into Poland on a difficult and delicate mission.

Sigismund the Third, king of Poland, was a member of the Roman Church, whereas his predecessors had constantly adhered to the Oriental Faith : and, as such, he was naturally desirous of bringing back his subjects into Communion with the Chair of S. Peter. His principal adviser was one Peter Scarga, a Jesuit : and it was in compliance with his request, that the king declared the Bishops of Lithuania and Black Russia, who should adhere to the Greek Rite, incapable of a seat in the public council of the nation. These Prelates, or rather the greater number of them, annoyed at this privation, and wearied with the continued importunities of their monarch, at length consented to submit to Rome; and dispatched two of their number to Clement the Eighth, the then reigning Pontiff, to request that the Slavonic Churches might be received into the Communion of Rome. Constantine, Duke of Ostrog, and Palatine of Kiev, met this act by a public protest, in which he declared his attachment to the Greek Church, and his repudiation of the measures employed to force Lithuania into the Communion of Rome. The matter became serious; the Oriental Church would not, with patience, see herself dismembered of so flourishing a branch; and Matthew, then just raised to the Throne of Constantinople, dispatched Nicephorus as his legate into Poland, Meletius Piga also sending Cyril Lucar (a.d. 1596).

They arrived just in time to be present at a synod which was summoned by Sigismund at Brzesc, on the return of the Bishops from Rome. Constantine, with the Prelates who still remained attached to the Greek faith, and the legates, used their utmost endeavours to prevent the proposed union with the Western Church; they were, however, not only out-voted by a large majority, but party spirit ran so high that the legates were in some danger.

The Catholic Greeks next held a Synod at Wilna, in which they were met by several Lutheran nobles and divines; the object being, if possible, to bring about an union between the Reformed bodies and the Oriental Church. This conference, happily for the latter, proved abortive; and Sigismund continued to press on his measures with more zeal than knowledge. He forbade, under severe penalties, the propagation of Greek doctrines throughout his dominions; and he carried his views still further, and determined on endeavouring to bring about a general union between the Eastern and Western Churches. Meletius Piga was now, by the common consent of friends and foes, the most influential Prelate in the former; and him Sigismund resolved to win to his views. Cyril, who had gained his livelihood by teaching Greek at Wilna, was now sent back again to Cairo, with a letter from the King of Poland to the Patriarch, exhorting him to revere the primacy of S. Peter, and to acknowledge Clement VIII as his successor and Ecumenical Bishop. To this epistle Meletius Piga returned a respcctful but firm answer : he constituted Cyril his Exarch in Slavonia, and dispatched him with the strongest recommendations to the King. But Sigismund was engaged in a violent
persecution; and the Uniates,—for so the schismatical Greeks were called, not only were put in possession of all the honors and emoluments of the Sees, but were guilty of the greatest cruelty towards the Catholics. Nicephorus opposed himself violently to these proceedings; and, having excited the anger of the schismatics by his plain speaking, was seized and strangled. It needed all the prudence of Cyril Lucar to escape the same fate : he did not dare to exhibit an epistle with which he was charged from Piga to the Protestant Divines; and though in private he never ceased to oppose Rome, he thought fit to withdraw from all open share in the matter.

His silence gave rise to a calunniy which his adversaries, and especially the Jesuit Scarga, were active in circulating against him. It was said that he had written to the Archbishop of Lowenberg, professing his own adherence to the Church of Rome. The letter was a forgery.

Finding his efforts unavailing, Cyril returned to Alexandria, with considerable increase of reputation, and a high character for political talent as well as learning. He found his services required in another way, and was dispatched into Crete, to collect the usual contributions for the Patriarchate. He went by way of Constantinople and Paros; and it was at the former place that he formed an intimacy with M. von Haga, then travelling in the Levant, which also exerted a powerful influence on his future views. Nor need we wonder at this. Cyril could not but see that his Church stood in need of reformation; the doctrines then controverted in the West had received no elucidation nor decision, as they since have, in an Oriental Synod; the views of Lucar were probably indistinct and ill-defined, and rendered, perhaps, more obscure both by his intercourse with Romanists and with Protestants. In this state of things, a compact, clear, well-defined, and logical system was set before him by the teachers and disciples of Calvinism : they seem to have worked their way gradually, to have shrunk from sudden disclosures, and open attacks; and as Cyril seems to have been possessed but of moderate though highly respectable talents, and certainly had no knowledge of the Calvinistic controversy beyond that which Calvinists were pleased to give, we cannot wonder that he fell into their snare. Haga's character stood high; and one great object of his life seems to have been the bringing about an union between Geneva and Constantinople.

On his return to Egypt, he found his benefactor and relation, Meletius Piga, on his death-bed, and closed his eyes.

The greater part of the Clergy turned their eyes on Cyril Lucar; but there Avas a faction which endeavoured to promote the election of Gerasimus Spartaliotes. However, Cyril was duly chosen and consecrated, in the year 1602; and immediately entered on the active duties of his office.