that he was a most serious student of the Byzantine rite.[1] He will not allow the Greeks to be worried about their rites. Only in the matter of faith is he, of course, uncompromising. Their clergy must make a Catholic profession of faith. Yet even here he is tolerant. He says they are very ignorant; the best thing will be to get a learned man of their own race to explain the position to them. Then they are to be "warned mildly," "instructed gently," "invited kindly." Then there are to be "sermons, repeated warnings, and threats." If it is all no good, they are to be removed from the care of souls; and if they are still obstinate they are to be delated to the office of the Holy Inquisition. Santoro does not say what will happen to them after that; but I imagine it would be something excessively unpleasant.[2]
By the seventeenth century the Greeks of Messina had modified their rite into one of those curious mixtures that are sometimes called "Italo-Greek" rites (p. 178). In 1613 the Archbishop of Messina petitioned the Holy Office to abolish this mixed rite, on the plea that the clergy were so ignorant of the Greek language that they could not even pronounce the words properly: "Because of the crass ignorance of the Greek language which they ought to pronounce, they hesitate in reading, and do not understand a word of what they say." Once more Rome took up the defence of old custom, and refused to allow the Italo-Greeks to be latinized. The Holy Office merely answered that, if they are so ignorant, it is the business of the Archbishop to see that in future they should be better instructed.[3] Besides the Cattolica, Rodotà names four other Byzantine churches in Messina, dependent on it.[4] Since his time all have abandoned the Uniate Byzantine rite.[5]
Turning now to the other extreme corner of Italy, the land of Otranto, we find here, too, the Byzantine rite continued till after the sixteenth century. In the diocese of Otranto itself, a synod of the year 1583 was attended by 200 Byzantine priests.[6] But later the rite died out gradually; though in some villages of the diocese it lasted till far into the seventeenth century. At
- ↑ For Card. Santoro, see p. 113, n. 1.
- ↑ Lombardi's letter and Santoro's answer are printed in "Roma e l'Oriente," viii, 347-360.
- ↑ Rodotà, i, 459.
- ↑ For Messina, see Rodotà, i, 455-461.
- ↑ The old Uniate Church is now Orthodox (see p. 168). The Collegiate Chapter of the Cattolica at Messina was still flourishing in 1742, when Joseph Schirò wrote his report (Karalevsky, "Documenti inediti," i, 6-7).
- ↑ Rodotà, i, 378.
