famous Constitution Demandatam cœlitus for the regulation of the Melkite Church (see pp. 34, 35).
But the Patriarch still had difficulties. He had opponents among his own Melkites; he also had trouble with the other Uniate Churches; notably the mutual dislike of Melkites and Maronites, so long a disturbance among the Catholics of Syria, already showed itself. The Latin missionaries, too, gave him trouble. He complained that they administered sacraments, baptized in the Roman rite, heard confessions, and collected money from his people without his authority. The Maronite Patriarch also, on the strength of an ancient Roman Constitution authorizing him to receive heretics and schismatics into the Church, began turning Melkites into Maronites. This so annoyed Cyril that he tore up certain pictures of St John Maro, declaring that he had been a Monothelete. The Maronites complained of this at Rome, and Benedict XIV wrote a stern letter, Inter cætera, in 1753.[1] At last, worn out with his troubles, Cyril VI made up his mind to resign his see. First he nominated the son of his nephew, Ignatius Ǵauhār, as his successor, and then abdicated in 1759. The next year he died.[2]
- 3. History to Maximos III (1759-1833).
Ignatius Ǵauhār assumed the name Athanasius V. There were then eleven Melkite bishops. Seven of them recognized him;[3] but the other four[4] protested against his nomination and appealed to Rome. As a matter of fact, Cyril had no right at all to nominate his successor, nor had he the right to resign without the Pope's consent; further, Ǵauhār was only twenty-seven years old, under the canonical age. So, in 1760, Clement XIII (1758-1769) quashed the resignation and nomination. But, as meanwhile Cyril was dead, the see was vacant. The Pope therefore himself appointed Maximos Ḥakīm Metropolitan of Aleppo. In doing so he declared that this was only the result of the special dispute then raging, that he did not intend to interfere with the right of the Metropolitans
- ↑ "Bullarium Ben. XIV," ed. cit., tom. iii, p. ii, pp. 135-138.
- ↑ For the Patriarchate of Cyril VI see Charon in Echos d'Orient, v, 18-25; 82-86.
- ↑ The Metropolitans of Tyre, Homs (Emessa), Acre, Baīas (or Bānīās?), Furzul, Cana, Ḳara.
- ↑ Maximos Ḥakīm of Aleppo, Athanasius Dahān of Beirut, and two others.
February 29, 1744 (ibid., i, 348-349). The pallium was conferred by the Latin Bishop of Babylon.
