the chief feature is that they absolutely deny that Lukaris wrote the Confession, quote sentences which they say various people had heard him speak in his sermons, and which are Orthodox on the points on which the Confession is Protestant, and anathematize any one who shall ever say that he was its author.[1] The Acts of the synod were published under the heading: "Christ guides. A Shield of the Orthodox Faith, or an Apology and confutation against those who slanderously say that the Eastern Church thinks heretically concerning God and Divine things, as the Calvinists falsely state, drawn up by the synod held at Jerusalem under Dositheos, Patriarch of Jerusalem."[2] As an appendix to the Acts follows a long "Confession of Dositheos." The Acts of Jerusalem and Dositheos's Confession are printed by the Orthodox in all their collections of Symbols, and are considered one of the most important as well as the last of the official pronouncements of their Church. And in all the proceedings of this synod there is not a single word against the Azymite Creed-tampering Latins. They were so busy with these new enemies, the Calvinists, that they quite forgot us. As this is the only occasion in history on which Greek bishops met without letting us know what they think of us, the fact deserves to be noted. After the Synod of Jerusalem one hears no more of Protestantism within the Orthodox Church.
Summary.
There was, then, a certain amount of theological activity among the Orthodox after the fall of Constantinople, although it chiefly took the form of polemics against the Latins. The chief theologians are Maximos III of Constantinople in the 15th century, Meletios Pegas in the 16th, Cyril Lukaris, Metrophanes Kritopoulos, Peter Mogilas, and Eugenios Bulgaris
- ↑ This denial of his authorship is a piece of palpable bad faith. In spite of the anathema of Jerusalem every Western scholar at least now knows for certain that Lukaris did write it. R. Hofmann (art. Jerusalem Synode, in the Realenz. viii. p. 704, 1900) says: "Although the falsehood of this statement is quite obvious, it is repeated by the latest Greek dogmatist, Prof. Mesoloras of Athens." We have seen that it is also repeated by Prof. Kyriakos of Athens.
- ↑ The Acts in Kimmel, pp. 325–488, Michalcescu, pp. 123–182.
