pressed it. In this he was encouraged by an absurd person named John Baptist Catanziriti, who in Latin called himself Catumsyritus. Although himself an Albanian of Reggio, he was a bitter enemy of the Byzantine rite. Jealous of Peter Arcudius' famous book on the Sacraments,[1] in 1632 he published a foolish rival work, in which he made a violent attack on the Byzantine manner of administering them.[2] According to him Byzantine rites are gravely defective and mostly invalid.[3] Because of its impudent attack on venerable forms always approved by the Church this book was promptly put on the Index. The Orthodox in the East were much surprised to see the Pope thus defend their rite. Their surprise was superfluous. The Holy See is as concerned to defend all Catholic rites as its own.[4] By the year 1628 it appears from the report of d'Afflitto's visitation that "the Greek rite had breathed its last breath in the lands of the diocese of Reggio."[5] In that year Adam Flocari, the last Byzantine priest of the diocese, obtained leave to pass to the Roman rite; so that he "completes and crowns the number of Greek priests."[6]
Yet a great dispute arose later as a remnant of the old rite. The Protopapa of Reggio, though he was now a Latin, still kept his old title; and he wanted still to keep his old state of exemption and to use the jurisdiction his Greek predecessor had enjoyed. There was a lawsuit before the courts of Naples[7] about this in 1726. The "Cappellano maggiore" of the King of Naples heard the case. Rodotà, who was living at the time, notes its "strepito forense."[8] Sentence was pronounced in favour of the Protopapa, and all his rights were confirmed.
- ↑ P. Arcudius, "Libri VII de Concordia ecclesiæ occid. et orient. in VII Sacramentorum administratione" (Paris, 1626).
- ↑ J. B. Catumsyritus, "Vera utriusque ecclesiæ Sacramentorum concordia" (Venice, 1632).
- ↑ He thinks all Byzantine ordinations invalid! This was at a time when scores of Byzantinely ordained Catholic priests were celebrating the holy Mysteries all round him. See Goar, "Euchologion" (2nd edition, Venice, 1730), p. 246.
- ↑ Rodotà, i, 408-409; Morisani, de Protopapis," pp. 291-293.
- ↑ Ibid., i, 410.
- ↑ Ibid. Rodotà's statement is, no doubt, true of the older Byzantine element at Reggio. But we know now that there was an Albanian colony in the diocese which kept the rite later than 1628.
- ↑ To understand how it was that so many ecclesiastical questions in the kingdom of Naples and the two Sicilies came before the civil courts, we must remember that the king always claimed to be Legatus of the Holy See, as successor of Roger II of Sicily (p. 64). This would give him ecclesiastical jurisdiction.
- ↑ Rodotà, i, 407.
