The Protestant Patriarch of Constantinople

The Eastern Schism certainly has no sympathizers among the editors of this publication. That said, we take a moment to appreciate something its adherents did right. The Greek Orthodox never held the heresies on grace, revelation, the sacraments, the Mass, and certain other doctrinal points peculiar to Protestantism. This fact makes the story of Cyril Lucar stand out in odd relief.

Lucar (1572-1637) was a real Cretan; that is, he was born in Crete, then in the possession of Venice. Father Cyril (for he was a Greek priest) had studied at Venice and Padua and was eventually chosen to be Patriarch of Alexandria (1602-20). It was apparently during his time in Egypt that Lucar came to embrace the tenets of Protestantism, thanks to a Dutchman named Cornelius van Haga, who introduced him to the writings of Protestant theologians. Lucar set out to reform Orthodoxy by fusing it with Protestantism. Having intrigued his way into the Patriarchate of Constantinople in 1620, he wrote a confession of faith that affirmed, among other things, that there were only two sacraments. This 1629 work of Lucar’s alarmed the Greek church, and the reformer was exiled in 1634. Bribing his way back into the Patriarchate three years later, he was strangled to death soon thereafter — this, because he had been accused to the Turkish Sultan of favoring a Cossack invasion of his Empire. A synod of bishops who met at Constantinople in September of 1638 posthumously condemned and anathematized him.

Half a century earlier, Cyril’s predecessor in the see of Constantinople, Jeremias, had received an invitation from Martin Crusius and Jacob Andreae to join the Protestant Revolt. In 1573, these Lutheran divines from the faculty of Tubingen received a courteous but negative reply. Testifying to the antiquity of the Faith in seven sacraments — something Lucar would later reject — Patriarch Jeremias wrote the Lutherans thus: “We solemnly affirm that the holy Fathers have handed down to us seven divine Sacraments, viz.: Baptism, Anointment with Sacred Chrism [Confirmation], Holy Communion, Order, Matrimony, Penance, and the Oil of the last Unction, neither more nor less. And all these means of our salvation have been handed down to us by Christ Himself, our Lord God, and His Apostles.” When the reformers wrote again in 1581, Jeremias brusquely dismissed them.

While these stories have no moral to them for believers — schism, heresy, and Islam are all displeasing to God — they do illustrate a truth of apologetical interest. Despite their schism, the Greek church, and all the schismatic communions of the East, provide valuable historical arguments proving the utter novelty of the major tenets of Protestantism.