says he did all this in the hope of being made a Cardinal.[1] On the other hand, the Catholic Rodotà is charmed with him. The regularity of his life, his wisdom in the most difficult questions, his learning both sacred and profane, and his love of the truth made him the object of universal admiration. Admitted to the Pontifical rank he became the model of prelates; nor was a more exemplary ecclesiastic known among the Greeks."[2] At his death Pope Clement XI (1700-1720) wrote a letter of condolence to the Doge, full of his praise.
After the death of Typaldos, the Government would not allow the Greek community to elect a successor for forty-four years.[3] The reason of this was, partly that it still feared that a bishop might the more easily lead the people again into schism, partly that it feared lest the Greeks of Illyricum might also want a bishop of their own, and then, under him, make difficulties. The Venetian Greeks were allowed to choose an episcopal Vicar, who was to be a priest with some episcopal rights; he must make a Catholic profession of faith and guarantee that all the clergy be Catholics too. One of these vicars, Gerasimos Phokas, was openly a schismatic. He removed the Pope's name from the liturgical diptychs and inserted that of the Patriarch of Constantinople. So he was removed by the Government, which declared that the Greeks must pray for the Pope. Now it began to take severe measures against schism. Two Catholic vicars followed, an Archimandrite Moazzo in 1751, then a man named Milia[4] in 1760. At last, in 1762, the Chapter of St George had leave to proceed to the election of a bishop. He must be a native of the Venetian state, a Catholic, and must profess the faith of the Council of Florence. The man so chosen was the monk George Facéa.[5] But meanwhile all the old tendency towards
- ↑ "Christl. Kirchengesch.," ix, p. 44.
- ↑ "del Rito greco," iii, 224.
- ↑ Altogether there were eight bishops from Seberos to Typaldos (1582-1718). A list of them is given by Rodotà, iii, 223-225, and by Pisani, loc. cit., p. 209.
- ↑ That is how Rodotà spells their names. Presumably Muʿāzz (="cherished") an Arab, and Μηλιάς (or some such name), a Greek.
- ↑ The Italians call him Facéa, the Greeks φατσέας. In the case of the later Italo-Greeks it is often difficult to say which form of their name is original. Probably they used both themselves. But here "Facéa" seems obviously the original form. The Greeks' documents call him sometimes George and sometimes Gregory, the Latin ones always George. I suppose he was baptized George, and became Gregory as a monk.
