Abu-Tauḳ,[1] the Wali of Damascus. The election was held on September 25, 1724. No bishop was present;[2] it was made by priests and lay "notables." Seraphim was then ordained Patriarch by Basil Fīnān, Metropolitan of Baïas,[3] Neophytos Naṣrī of Ṣaidnāiā, and a third bishop, Euthymios of Furzul, himself ordained for this occasion. According to custom, Seraphim changed his name as Patriarch and became Cyril VI. There were then fifteen sees in the Patriarchate; of these ten bishops adhered to Cyril VI.[4]
Meanwhile his rival, Silvester the Cypriote, did not remain idle. He went off to Jerusalem, and told that Patriarch of the alarming progress Popery was making in the neighbouring country. He presented his own claim, as nominee of the last Patriarch of Antioch, and explained that, if he were appointed, he would put down this tendency. So Jerusalem took his side and informed the Synod of Constantinople of what was happening. Constantinople and Jerusalem now declare for Silvester. He was then ordained at Constantinople. He succeeded also in alarming the Turks about the defections of so many Syrians to the Frank religion, and came back to Syria armed with laws against Catholics. All those who have joined the communion of the Pope are to return, no intercourse with the missionaries is tolerated, and they are to be expelled. The Government
- ↑ Abu-Tauḳ is the man's kunyah.
- ↑ Charon is mistaken in saying that the bishops elected Tānās (Ech. d'Or., v, 18); they confirmed the election later (see the discussion by Paul Bacel, Ech. d'Or., ix, 283, C. Bacha, ibid., x, 200-206; S. Vailhé, xi, 40-41).
- ↑ Baïas, near Aleppo, not Bānīās (Cæsarea Phil.), which was not restored as a diocese till 1886 (Charon, "Hist. des Melkites," iii, p. 295). But C. Bacha insists that all the documents call Basil Fīnān Metropolitan of Bānīās (Ech. d'Or., x, 206, n. 2).
- ↑ So the answer of Benedict XIV to the petition in his Consistory of February 3, 1744, "Cyril is head of a people which now includes a vast number of Catholics, governed by ten bishops who respect and honour him as lawful Patriarch" ("Bullarium Ben. XIV," ed. of Prato, 1845, tom. i, p. 643). The ten were the Metropolitans of Aleppo, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Ṣafad, Acre, Ba'albek, Baïas, Furzul, and Ṣaidnāiā.
and ordained him priest at his return. In 1711 he was brought to Damascus by the Patriarch Cyril V († 1720) and made Khūrī biskūbūs (chorepiskopos). He went to Rome to assure the Pope (Clement XI) of Cyril V's catholic sentiments, and in 1716 received a Brief for Cyril in which the Pope exhorts him to declare himself openly (see above, p. 194). Then, while Athanasius IV was persecuting the Catholics, Tānās was put in prison. His election in 1724 is the sign of definite wish for reunion among the electors (see Bacha in Echos d'Or., x, 202-203).
