tament, and the Greek Text of the New, written, as he believed, by the hand of Thecla, a noble Egyptian woman, near fourteen hundred years ago; at the end of which manuscript is also the admirable Epistle of St. Clemens Romanus to the Corinthians, as old as some parts of the New Testament itself, and antiently read in churches, but in vain sought for by the learned men of Europe, for many ages. Mr. Pocock, who could not but earnestly desire such a privilege, doubtless had the use of any books which this vene rable person had the command of; the esteem and affection of that patriarch being very great for the reformed in general, and the people and Church of England in particular, of which, per haps, a short account will not be thought too great a digression.

This great man had travelled, when young, in several places of Europe, and understood, besides Latin, several modern languages *. And as he had occasion particularly to enquire into the state of religion in those countries, so he was abundantly convinced, that the true difference between protestancy and popery is, that the first is Christianity purged from many corruptions, whereas the latter is Christianity loaded and polluted with

* Vide Narrationem de Vita, &c. Cyrilli. Autore Viro Rev. D. Tho. Smith.

them.

them. This was very manifest to him from the writings of the fathers, and in a great measure

+

too, from the present sense and belief of the Church wherein he presided; which he well knew to have been always a perfect stranger to several of those opinions, which the Church of Rome would impose upon the world for Catholic doctrines. And as he had, upon these accounts, a just value for the Reformation; so the like reflections produced in him a peculiar regard for it, as it was established in the Church of England. For knowing the constitution of this Church very well, he could not but discern, that as it cast out all the errors and superstitions of the Church of Rome; so no intemperate zeal, nor any necessity of affairs, caused it to throw out, together with them, that apostolical government, and those rites, which had been of constant use with the whole Church of Christ, in all places and times. When, therefore, this great man first composed his Confession of the Faith and Doctrines of the Greek Church, which hath been printed more than opce here in the west, he dedicated it to King James I. and designed to get it printed in England; and afterward, when he ventured upon that bold attempt of ordering Nicodemus Metaxa to set about printing it at Constantinople itself, in the Greek press which he had brought thither from London, it had a dedication prefixed to King Charles I. E And

VOL. I.

And the satisfaction that patriarch had, in owning communion with the English, as a sound and excellent part of the Catholic Church, he sometimes expressed by his presence at the worship of God in the ambassador's chapel, according to our established Liturgy. Particularly, as Mr. Pocock would often remember, upon an extraordinary occasion, when he was present, which was, the baptising a son of the Ambassador, born at Constantinople. At which time, the most reverend Cyril was not only of the congregation, and joined in the service with much devotion, but also undertaking to be a godfather, gave his own name to the child, who was afterward the Honourable Sir Cyril Wich, one of the trustees appointed by parliament, some years ago, for the forfeited, estates in Ireland.

But of how much comfort, and use soever the favour of this most reverend and learned man was to Mr. Pocock; alas! he enjoyed it not long. For before he had been a full year at Constantinople, the good old patriarch, being caught in the shares his enemies had laid for him, was hurried, to what the world calls a miserable end, but indeed to a crown of martyrdom. Of the oceasion and circumstances of his murder, Mr. Pocock sent a large account to Archbishop Laud,, soon after it was acted; keepin leo a copy of what he wrote, for his own remembrance. But,

A

as

as the former, I believe, did not escape the fury of Mr. Prynne, when he scattered and destroyed that archbishop's papers; so the latter, as Mr. Pocock would often complain, was casually lost. What I shall therefore here add, of this great man's death, is chiefly taken from a letter of Mr. Pocock's, written to Mr. Thomas Greaves, in the year 1659, to satisfy the desire of Dr. Morton, Lord Bishop of Durham, then ninety-six years old, and residing in the house of Sir Henry Yelverton, and which agrees with the larger account, which the Rev. Dr. Smith published many years after, from Dr. Pocock's own mouth, in his Latin narrative of the life and actions of that great patriarch.

His boldly asserting the doctrines of true and genuine Christianity, in opposition to the corruptions of Rome, exposed him to the rage of those busy factors for that church, the Jesuits. Several of which order, at Constantinople, under the protection of the French ambassador, continually persecuted him almost twenty years; for near so long it was from his first coming to that throne, to the time of his martyrdom. They had, more than once, by their interest in the ministers of state, gotten him deposed; they had also caused him to be banished; and to obtain their wicked purposes, they suggested such things against him, as any that pretend to the name of Christ, one would think,

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think, should be utterly ashamed of: representing the arguments he made use of, for the divinity of our Blessed Lord, against Jews and infidels, as blasphemy against Mahomet; and the Greek press, which he had provided to print Catechisms, and other useful books, for the instruction of the Christians under his care, as a seditious design against the government; but by the zeal and diligence of the English ambassadors, first Sir Thomas Rowe, and afterward Sir Peter Wich, together with the assistance of the Dutch resident, who heartily espoused his cause, he not only disappointed the wicked designs of those men, but obtained such an interest in the Prine Vizier, as seemed a sufficient fence against all future trouble. However, a jesuitical malice, though baffled, is not ended, and a hellish contrivance at length prevailed. A bargain is struck up with a great Basha, to take the opportunity of the Vizier's absence, and fill the ears of the Grand Seignior, Sultan Morad, then on the borders of Persia, in order to the siege of Bagdad, with the great danger that his empire was in, from the patriarch Cyril, a popular man of a vast interest, and that kept, as this informer pretended to be well assured, a close correspondence with Christian princes. This succeeded according to their hopes, and a written order was immediately dispatched for the taking away his life; which was presently executed, with a barbarity natural to

such