DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.9840#0371
316
the greek and roman churches.
[chap.
this drunken fellow knew that, by his excess, he had
committed an offence against the precepts of his own
religion; and the monstrous dogma of transubstantia-
tion, held by the Greek church as well as by the
Roman Catholic28, doubtless suggested to him the
Mohammedans drink wine, and consider it as an old and peculiar custom,
yet their women never suffer it to pass their lips, and their drinking it would
be regarded, both by themselves and the men, as a great crime. Thus,
wine was expressly forbidden to the women in ancient Rome and Italy:
see Athenaetjs, x. pp.440—441., as well as at Massilia and Miletos:
Athenaeus, x. p. 429.
28 The Oriental church keeps pace with her sister of Rome in almost
all her extravagances, and (if I may revert to a subject which has been
already frequently alluded to) most of all in the facility with which she adopts
old Heathen legends, and clothes them in a Christian garb. Probably there
are few Heathen superstitions patronized by the Pope of Rome which are not
equally petted by the Patriarch of Constantinople. As the Pagan legend,
that a statue of Apollo, on the approach of a great public calamity, wept
three days and three nights successively, has been adopted at Rome (see
Livy, xliii. 13, and Middleton's Letter from Rome, p. 204), so when
Constantinople was entered by the victorious troops of Mohammed II.
a voice came from Heaven to the priests, who were officiating in the temple
of Haghia Sophia, ($a)!/); toi/s rjpff eg ovpavou dyyeXwv 'tto to aTopa'
Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Grece moderne, Tom. n. p. 338.) telling
them to cease from their psalmody, and,
SaV T aKovaev rj Aecnroiva, SaKpv^ovv al eiKovev,
When this the Virgin heard, her pictures wept.'
The same voice, however, consoled her, by saying,
StoTra, Ki/pta Ae<77TOLva, p.i}v /cXaips ,utj oaKpuanj1;'
TlaXi p.6 'Xfiovou's, pie Kaipoi/s ttixXl Sued crov elvaL.
Be still, O Lady Virgin, shed no tears!
Again, in time, these things shall be thy own!
In respect of reliques also, a melancholy rivalry has long existed between
members of the churches of Rome and Constantinople, and it seems almost diffi-
cult to decide which of the two parties are the more deserving of reprobation
and contempt. When they were pitted together, to argue the great question
between the Eastern and Western churches, respecting the use of leavened
or unleavened bread for the consecrated wafer, the Greek seems to have
used some of his reliques as an unanswerable argument against the Romanist:
he exhibited a piece of the very loaf of which Christ spoke the celebrated
words during the last supper! It was found to be leavened, and the
Romanists could make no reply ! ! They could not doubt respecting the
uncorrupted preservation of a piece of bread for any number of centuries;
for the Greek believes, that the consecrated elements, on becoming the very
body
the greek and roman churches.
[chap.
this drunken fellow knew that, by his excess, he had
committed an offence against the precepts of his own
religion; and the monstrous dogma of transubstantia-
tion, held by the Greek church as well as by the
Roman Catholic28, doubtless suggested to him the
Mohammedans drink wine, and consider it as an old and peculiar custom,
yet their women never suffer it to pass their lips, and their drinking it would
be regarded, both by themselves and the men, as a great crime. Thus,
wine was expressly forbidden to the women in ancient Rome and Italy:
see Athenaetjs, x. pp.440—441., as well as at Massilia and Miletos:
Athenaeus, x. p. 429.
28 The Oriental church keeps pace with her sister of Rome in almost
all her extravagances, and (if I may revert to a subject which has been
already frequently alluded to) most of all in the facility with which she adopts
old Heathen legends, and clothes them in a Christian garb. Probably there
are few Heathen superstitions patronized by the Pope of Rome which are not
equally petted by the Patriarch of Constantinople. As the Pagan legend,
that a statue of Apollo, on the approach of a great public calamity, wept
three days and three nights successively, has been adopted at Rome (see
Livy, xliii. 13, and Middleton's Letter from Rome, p. 204), so when
Constantinople was entered by the victorious troops of Mohammed II.
a voice came from Heaven to the priests, who were officiating in the temple
of Haghia Sophia, ($a)!/); toi/s rjpff eg ovpavou dyyeXwv 'tto to aTopa'
Fauriel, Chants populaires de la Grece moderne, Tom. n. p. 338.) telling
them to cease from their psalmody, and,
SaV T aKovaev rj Aecnroiva, SaKpv^ovv al eiKovev,
When this the Virgin heard, her pictures wept.'
The same voice, however, consoled her, by saying,
StoTra, Ki/pta Ae<77TOLva, p.i}v /cXaips ,utj oaKpuanj1;'
TlaXi p.6 'Xfiovou's, pie Kaipoi/s ttixXl Sued crov elvaL.
Be still, O Lady Virgin, shed no tears!
Again, in time, these things shall be thy own!
In respect of reliques also, a melancholy rivalry has long existed between
members of the churches of Rome and Constantinople, and it seems almost diffi-
cult to decide which of the two parties are the more deserving of reprobation
and contempt. When they were pitted together, to argue the great question
between the Eastern and Western churches, respecting the use of leavened
or unleavened bread for the consecrated wafer, the Greek seems to have
used some of his reliques as an unanswerable argument against the Romanist:
he exhibited a piece of the very loaf of which Christ spoke the celebrated
words during the last supper! It was found to be leavened, and the
Romanists could make no reply ! ! They could not doubt respecting the
uncorrupted preservation of a piece of bread for any number of centuries;
for the Greek believes, that the consecrated elements, on becoming the very
body