he finds every courteous thing that can be said to them. He begins by remembering that "from the East salvation came and spread over the world," he remembers the antiquity and splendid history of their sees, he mentions the Greeks who sat on St. Peter's throne, and who brought honour to it by their virtue. "And no great gulf separates us; except for a few smaller points we agree so entirely with you that it is from your teaching, your customs and rites that we often take proofs for Catholic dogma." He assures them that no Roman Pope ever wishes to lessen the rights and dignity of the other great Patriarchs; and for all their customs "we will provide without any narrowness." He rejoices "that in our days the Easterns have become much more friendly to Catholics, and that they show kind and generous feeling towards us." And so he makes only the gentlest and warmest appeal to them to come back to union with us. One cannot understand how any one could answer such words except respectfully and courteously. Did the Orthodox bishops think it necessary to refuse the Pope's invitation, at least they might have done so without offensive words, with the respect they owe to St. Peter's successor, and in something of a like spirit of conciliation. At that time Lord Anthimos VII reigned at Constantinople, and he, together with twelve of his metropolitans, signed an answer to the Pope's encyclical.[1] Nothing can be more striking than the different tones of the two letters, nor more offensive than Anthimos's answer. The Pope had studiously avoided making any accusation against the Orthodox. Anthimos in return has nothing to say but the old list of accusations against us—the Filioque, our baptism, Azyme bread, the Epiklesis question, communion under one kind. Purgatory, the Immaculate Conception, &c. On each of these points the Patriarch repeats the arguments that their theologians have made and ours have refuted for centuries. He has nothing new to say on the subjects; it is
- ↑ The text was published in the Ἐκκλησιαστικὴ Ἀλήθεια for September 29, 1895. It was composed by Germanos Karavangelis, then Chorepiscopus of Pera. This person since got into trouble with his own authorities (p. 427), was made Metropolitan of Kastoria, and is now one of the leaders of the Bulgarian atrocities (p. 344).
