Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 23:91 (Jul 1866)
Article: Life Of The Patriarch Cyril
Author: A. G. Paspati

BSac 23:91 (July 1866) p. 452

Life Of The Patriarch Cyril

Dr. A. G. Paspati

[Note. —This Essay was forwarded for publication in the Bibliotheca Sacra by Dr. Hamlin, of Constantinople. It is interesting as the production of a foreigner, writing in a language foreign to him, and containing various intimations in regard to the history of the Greek church; its relations to the Catholic and Protestant churches; the advantages which it has enjoyed, as well as the disadvantages which it has suffered, for attaining a correct faith, etc. The Essay was originally read, in March 1864, before the Literary Society of Bebek; and, contrary to our usual practice, we have retained its original form of direct address. We have chosen to publish it precisely as it was delivered, with the exception of a slight verbal change made here and there, in order to remove some obscurity resulting from the author’s foreign idiom.]

It was with a feeling of reluctance that I accepted the invitation to address an English and American audience. As the proposition, however, came from Dr. Hamlin, a friend endeared to me by an intercourse of many years, I felt it a duty to accede to his wishes. Knowing that I was to address you in a language foreign to me, it seemed very natural that I should choose a subject familiar to me, so as to compensate for the uncouthness of my style and diction.

I intend this evening to invite your attention to an episode in the history of the Greek church of Constantinople at the beginning of the seventeenth century, when a battle was fought in this city between Catholics, Greeks, and Protes-

BSac 23:91 (July 1866) p. 453

tants, and sustained for many years, until the disappearance of the hero of the battle. It was a mighty struggle, which would have been full of eventful consequences for the Greek church had the champion been permitted to live.

Why have I chosen a subject of this nature? Why talk on ecclesiastical matters, and ecclesiastical strifes, that have marred the beauty and embittered the sweetness of the Christian faith! It is because Constantinople has been, from the earliest ages, one of the great nursery-places of Christianity. Even in a political point of view it has been acting a prominent part in the history of the world for the space of sixteen hundred years. First, an insignificant city, it became the capital of a Christian and Turkish empire. Rome and Athens are revered for what they were; but Constantinople is still full of life. No traveller passes its solitary streets to look at decayed monuments or vestiges of past glory. It still lives a life of bloom, a life of its former days. Can the same be said of its sister cities, Rome and Athens?

Those of you who have visited the heights of C...