De Dominis, &c. He was already known abroad as "a friend of the Reformed Church."[1] His idea seems to have been, not to join any form of Protestantism already set up, but to bring about a reformation of the Orthodox Church, just as the Western Protestants had reformed the Catholic Church. In 1620 he was made Patriarch of Constantinople. His reign there is one of the very worst examples of the way in which the Porte deposes and reappoints patriarchs. He was Cyril I of Constantinople, was deposed and then reappointed no less than four times, so that there are five separate periods during which he was Patriarch, with other bishops in between (1620–1623, 1623–1630, 1630–1634, 1634–1635, 1637–1638: in 1630 one, and in 1634 two other patriarchs had a few months between). In 1628 Lukaris, still very friendly with Abbot of Canterbury, sent as a present to King Charles I of England what is now one of the chief treasures of the British Museum, the Codex Alexandrinus.[2] While he was intermittently Patriarch the Catholic missions in the East were very flourishing, the Jesuits had great influence, protected by the French Ambassador, while Venice held Crete and other islands.[3] At that time, then, great efforts were being made to convert the Orthodox to the Catholic Church, and there was a considerable Latinizing party among them. Of these Latinizers, of the Jesuits and France, Lukaris was the uncompromising enemy. His friends were the ambassadors of the two chief Protestant Powers,[4] England and Holland. In 1628 Anton Leger arrived as preacher at the Hollandish Embassy, and then he and Lukaris spoilt everything by trying to go too fast. They wanted to make all the people Protestants straight away. They set up a Protestant school at Constantinople, and published a modern
- ↑ Sandy, quoted ibid.
- ↑ The Codex Alexandrinus is an uncial Greek Bible of the 5th century, the third oldest Bible known (the Codices Vaticanus and Sinaiticus are 4th century). Lukaris took it from the Patriarchal library at Alexandria. A volume of it is exhibited in the British Museum MS. Department, Case G. 1.
- ↑ Venice had held Crete ever since 1204; the Turks took it in 1641–1669—their last conquest.
- ↑ In spite of ail the German Protestants the Empire was always a Catholic Power.
