RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Cyril of Alexandria Cyril liucar
in rather a popular than a scientific manner, full of a warm pastoral love and care for the catechumens to whom they were delivered. Each lecture is based upon a text of Scripture, and there is an abundance of Scriptural quotation throughout.
After a general introduction, eighteen Catechet- lectures follow for the competentes, and ical Lec- the remaining five are addressed to tures. the newly baptized, in preparation for the reception of the communion. Parallel with the exposition of the creed as it was then received in the church of Jerusalem are vigorous polemics against pagan, Jewish, and heretical errors. They are of great importance for the light which they throw on the method of instruction usual in that age, as well as upon the liturgical practises of the period, of which they give the fullest account extant. (T. FoRSTERf.)
Bibliogkaphy: The Opera of Cyril were edited by A. A. Toutt^e, Paris, 1720, in MPG, xxxiii., and by G. C. Reischl and J. Rupp, 2 vols., Munich, 1848-60. A translation of selected works is in NPNF, 2d series, vii. 1- 183, with valuable introduction. The " Catechetical Lectures " were translated for the Library of the Fathers, Oxford, 1838. Five Lectures on the Mysteries, in Greek and Eng. and Lat. and Eng., ed. H. de Romestin, appeared, Oxford, 1887. Sources for a life are in Socrates, Hist, eccl, ii. 28, 40; Sozomen, Hist, ecd., iv. 25 (both in NPNF, 2d series, vol. ii.). Consult: ASB, March, ii. 625-633; * G. Delacroix, S. Cyrille de Jerusalem, sa vie ei ses ceuvres, Paris, 1865; J. Mader, Der heilige Cyrillus . . in seinem Leben und seinen Schriften, Einsiedeln, 1891; Schaff, Christian Church, iii. 923-925.
CYRIL LUCAR.
Early Life (§ 1).
Patriarch of Alexandria and Constantinople (§ 2). Efforts for Protestantism (§ 3).
Cyril Lucar (Gk. Kyrillos Loukaris), patriarch of Constantinople 1620-38, was born at Candia, Crete, Nov. 13, 1572; d. at Constantinople June 26, 1638. After studying in his native island, he went to Venice and Padua, where he doubtless heard Cremonini and Piccolomini, and came under the influence of Maximos Margunios, whom he had met while living in Crete as a monk, and who was an enthusiastic advocate of the union of the Greek and Roman Churches. Through Margunios, Cyril became acquainted with such Western scholars as David Hoschel and Friedrich Sylburg, yet he never came wholly under the sway of Occi-
I. Early dental views. His training was phil- Life. osophical and logical, rather than theological. He completed his studies in 1594, and in May, 1595, was syncellus at the court of Meletios Pegas, patriarch of Alexandria. From 1595 to 1602 he resided abroad, and in 1596 was rector of the Russian academy at Vilna. During this period he took part in the numerous conferences for union in Poland and Lithuania as the representative of the patriarch of Alexandria, but the statement that he visited Geneva and Wittenberg, and for a sum of money embraced Protestantism, is apocryphal, as is his alleged acceptance of Roman Catholicism.
Meletios Pegas died at latest a few months before May, 1602, and with Cyril's appointment as ™ successor the first period of the latter's life closes. As yet there was no trace of Protestant
influence. The second part of Cyril's career is marked by a gradual break with Roman Catholicism and an approximation to Prot-
2. Patri- estantism, together with an ever-inarch of creasing desire to reform his own
Alexandria Church. He was energetic in his adand Con- ministration and did not shrink from stantinople. a conflict with the ecumenical patriarchs. During his frequent tours he preached many sermons, but unfortunately few of them are accessible, although a large number are extant in the manuscripts of the library of the priory of the Holy Sepulcher at Constantinople. According to his own statement, he became a convert to Protestant doctrines after three years of study, but the exact date is uncertain. In 1611 he was characterized by an English traveler as " a friend of the Reformed Church, " and two years later, shortly after declining the ecumenical patriarchate because he was unwilling to pay the price demanded for it, he was obliged publicly to defend himself against the charge of Lutheranism (June 4, 1613). It is not improbable, therefore, that this was the period of his conversion, especially as he was then receiving Protestant books, and made special mention of one by Arminius, with whose teachings he expressed much sympathy, especially with regard to the doctrine of the Holy Ghost, baptism, and the Eucharist; he avoided the tenets on free will, justification by faith, and predestination. On the other hand, his correspondence with the Dutch statesman David Le Leu de Wilhem shows his lack of knowledge of the principles of the Reformation, an ignorance doubtless due in great measure to the fact that hitherto he had been practically restricted to the writings of the Arminians. His hopes of reform within the Greek Church had now been abandoned. To this same period belong several brief polemics against the Roman Catholics, one of which is interesting as showing that Cyril sought to appeal solely to the Bible in defense of his position. As patriarch of Alexandria, moreover, he published a " Pragmatic Compend against the Jews" (Constantinople, 1627). On Nov. 4, 1620, he became patriarch of Constantinople, and in this position was still more courted by the Protestant powers, especially the Dutch, while Jesuit dislike of him increased. In 1623 he was banished for the first time, though not until after his official status had obliged him to canonize Gerasius the Younger in 1622. It should also be noted that he set up in Constantinople the press imported from England by Nikodemos Metaxas about 1527, but it was destroyed by the Turks.
The third period of Cyril's life began with the arrival of the Calvinistic Antoine Leger of Piedmont, who was sent by the clergy of Geneva m 1628. At that time the patriarch seems to have felt the need of strengthening his po-
3. Efforts sition with the Protestants. As early for Protes- as 1616 he had entered into corre-
tantism. spondence with George Abbot, archbishop of Canterbury, and later sent him the famous Codex Alexandrinus, possibly as a means of gaining English sympathy. _ Instead o contenting himself with giving instruction to Oyru
Cyril Lucar
Cyril and Methodius