Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 9.djvu/449

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9* 8. IX. JUNE 7, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.


LONDON, SATURDAY, JUNE 7, 1902.


CONTENTS. No. 232.

NOTES :-Archbishops of Cyprus, 441 " Bucks " and "Good Fellows" in 1778, 443 Stepmother=Motber-in- Law Gender of Nouns in German and Russian Evolu- tion of a Nose, 445 Gavarni and Balloons" Hateful " William IV. " Upwards of "Shorthand in the Third Century, 446 Sir George Duckett " Artlandish" Ladv- day Day, 447.

QUERIES i-Baptismal Fonts - Kindon - Latin Verses Coat of Arms Capt. Arnold, 447 San Sebastian, Spain- Sir F. Wronghead Verses by O'Shaughnessy Bishop Sanderson's Descendants Waldby Arms ' History of Mansell ' Major Macdonald Cerney Manor Draper, M.P. Terin, 448 Spider Poison Dixon and Atkin Stray Leaves 'Jacobite Lines Shropshire Place-names ' Gulliver ' : Early Editions Deserter and Spy Sea Beggars Babington Box Harry, 449.

REPLIES: 'Aylwin,' 450 Knurr and Spell, 452 Whit- sunday, 1593 Boon for Bookworms Osorio Family- English Gladiators, 453 "England's darling" Tennis- Autograph Cottage- Greek Epigram, 454 Gordon Riots- Lady Nottingham "Duke" "Flapper": Anglo-Indian Slang Bishop Kennett's Father ' ' Comically "Pins and Pincushions, 455 Rudyerd The West Bourne, 456 General Fa wcett "Paschal" : " Pascua " " Only too thankful," 457 Portraits of Early Lord Mayors Brieht- walton, 458.

NOTES ON BOOKS: Lady Gregory's 'Cuchulain' Neilson's ' Huchown 'Reviews and Magazines.

Notices to Correspondents.


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ARCHBISHOPS OF CYPRUS.

"The ancient and autocephalous Orthodox Church of Cyprus sustained the loss of its Archbishop Sophronios. His Beatitude had been elected in 1866, when he was appointed under an Imperial Berat which conferred various privileges, and he had, therefore, served in his high office for more than thirty-five years. On the occasion of his funeral obsequies the ancient character of the Church was notably marked. According to ancient custom, the Archbishops are buried sitting in a chair and clasp- ing a copy of the Gospels. The corpse is brought into the church clothed in full pontifical robes, and before the corpse is borne the sceptre surmounted by an Imperial orb, as used by the Eastern Emperors, in right of the decree of the Emperor Zeno, who, about the year A.D. 480, conferred this privilege as well as that of signing all Ecclesiastical orders or communications in the Imperial purple. These and other marks of special distinction which are still continued, were conferred by the Emperor Zeno for the discovery of a copy of Saint Matthew's Gospel upon the breast of Saint Barnabas, the first Arch- bishop of Cyprus, in his own handwriting, tradition stating that the manuscript was placed there by Saint Mark himself. However these things may be, these ancient distinctions were conferred by the Imperial authority for the reasons so stated, and have continued for more than fifteen centuries in the unchanging Orthodox Church of Cyprus." 'Cyprus, Report for 1900-1901,' presented to Par- liament April, 1902, p. 59.


441


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The writer of the -preceding extract is Sir William Frederick Efcynee Smith, K.C.M.G , LL.D., High Commissioner of Cyprus As to tTie special privileges of the Arch-

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i" Anciently a very great contest happened in this island about jurisdiction: the Archbignbp pretended to be independent of any patriarch, wherew the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria no 2?^ ently insisted that this church was subordinate to them. The pretentions of the three contending parties were kid before the Grecian Emperor at Constantinople for hie decision. In the meantime

Sk Th ft aPPen i? d ^ hlch Oc 9 a i oned a great deal of talk. The monks of a certain convent, whether in building or repairing it, by accident found a coffin and in it a body with a leaden plate on it, signifying that in this coffin was deposited the body of thS apostle St. Barnabas. About the neck of the Saint was also a chain fastened to a leaden box, which was found to contain an Arabic copy of St. Mat- thew's Gospel, written by St. Barnabas himself on parchment. The clergy of Cyprus very d<-x terously availed themselves of this discovery, sending to the Emperor Zeno both the sacred relicks and the manu- script ; with which present that devout prince was so pleased that he gave a charter to the Church of Cyprus, declaring it independent of any patriarch -' T


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^hgidius van Egmont (Van der Nijenberg) and John Heyman, translated from the Low Dutch, and printed at London, 1759, vol. ii. chap, xviii.

It is probable that the authors' visit to Cyprus was within the first quarter of the eighteenth century.

" In the time of the latter Byzantine Emperors of Constantinople the church there having no authentic copy of the Gospel of S. Matthew issued orders for the seeking of one throughout the Empire. The priest of a convent near Famagosto dreamed that if he dug under his church in a spot pointed out, he should find it. Next day he obeyed the injunctions of the Angel who had appeared to him a vision O'c], and found the tomb of S. Barnabas, with the Gospel of S. Matthew laid on the bosom of the dead saint. The Arch- bishop wrote this to Constantinople, whence the royal galleys were immediately sent, on board of which he carried the treasure to the capital, and in return for his present, he was made independent, and presented with a red vest, which he still has the prerogative of wearing, and allowed the privi- lege of writing with red ink, which he has ever since continued. He has a third privilege, that of bearing the arms of the Greek Church (very like the Russian Eagle) on his chair, like a Patriarch. "- 'Journal of a Tour in the Levant,' by William Turner, Esquire, pub. by John Murray, London, 1820, vol. ii., under date 16 and 17 Oct., 1815. William Turner was attached in 1812 to the staff of Sir Robert Liston, H.M.'s Ambassador to the Porte. He obtained permission "to change his official labours for the pleasures of travelling." His two visits to Cyprus took place in 1815.