Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/344

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THE GREEK AND EASTERN CHURCHES

proper" has been said not to exclude the secondary intercession of saints.

Article ix. is as follows: "We believe that none can be saved without faith. By faith we mean that which justifies in Jesus Christ, which the life and death of our Lord Jesus Christ produced for us, and which the gospel preaches, and without which it is impossible to please God."

In treating of the doctrine of the Church, Cyril says: "The Church which is called Catholic containeth all the faithful in Christ," etc. Then he proceeds, "There are particular visible churches," etc. In Article xii. he distinctly affirms that the Church can err—a statement as abhorrent to an orthodox Greek as to a Roman Catholic. Article xiii. declares that, "We believe that man is justified by faith, without works. But when we speak of faith we mean the correlative of faith, which is the righteousness of Christ on which faith takes hold," etc.

If this is not Protestanism, what is Protestantism? It is not even Melanchthon's mild and tempered synergism; it is nearer to Calvinism than to Lutheranism. On the great dividing question, the fundamental question of the final authority, Cyril is decidedly Protestant. He says, "The authority of Holy Scripture is far greater than that of the Church, for it is a different thing to be taught by the Holy Spirit from being taught by man. Man may through ignorance err and deceive, and be deceived. But the Holy Spirit neither deceiveth nor is deceived, nor is subject to error, but is infallible." This reminds us of Chillingworth's doctrine—"The Bible the religion of Protestants."

In June 1627, Nicodemus Mentaxa, a native of Cephalonia and a monk, who had been to England, arrived at Constantinople with a printing press and a fount of Greek types. The English ambassador housed them; but the Jesuits tried to gain over Mentaxa. They plied him with threats; and at length they accused him of treason because he printed the royal arms of England at the beginning and end of his book. Mentaxa began the printing of Cyril's