LISHED IN PURITY OF DOCTRINE, DECENCY, AND ORDER."

It had been a subject of debate long agitated between two Divines of the Roman and the Reformed Churches of France, Monsieur Arnauld Doctor of the Sorbonne, and Monsieur Claude Minister of Charenton, Whether the real presence and transubstantiation were, or were not, articles of belief in the Greek Church*. Mr. Wheler, even in his earlier years, was no inattentive observer of the state of religion in the countries through which he passed. "Whilst I was at the convent of St. Luke's, by Livadia in Boeotia (he says) there happened to come thither the Bishop of Salona, with whom I had frequent discourse upon that subject. He seemed desirous, when I told him that I was of England,' to know the faith of our Church; of which when I had given him the best account I could, he told me that it was the same with theirs.' For I informed him, that we believed the Holy Scriptures, the Apostle's Creed, the Nicene, and that of St. Athanasius; that our Church was governed by Bishops and Archbishops; that our faith was

* This dispute gave rise to Dr. Covel's Account of the Greek Church,' published in 1722.

In this publication the ignorance of the Greek ecclesiastics is represented as extremely deplorable. They have no other books to read, than their Hours of Prayer and common ChurchOffices, which are very numerous,' &c. (Biogr. Brit. p. 1488.)

6

conformable to the primitive Fathers, and the first General Councils until the first five or six centuries, and in fine that we were not of the Roman Church.' After this, I asked him their opinion concerning the Holy Sacrament, and what they held the bread and wine to be after consecration? He answered, the body and blood of Christ.' When I asked him, how that could be?' he gave me this explication: As the sun is in heaven, and yet gives light and heat to the whole earth; so Christ, although in heaven, yet was in the sacrament by his Divine Power and influence.' I told him, that was as we believed; which was, that Christ was in the sacrament after a spiritual manner.' He said, it was the same the Greek Church believed,' and was so obliging to me thereupon, that he would needs have ordained me priest the next day; which, as it is really the most honourable employment a Christian can be capable of, so among them it is most highly esteemed and I had much ado to excuse myself, by acknowledging my unworthiness of so great an honour. This was the general judgement of the whole convent, and of an hermit that liveth about a mile from thence in great austerity, and held by them to be a saint. There was a father, who was native of Zante, but came away thence so young, that he was not imbued with their principles there. When I asked him, 'whether they believed that the bread and wine

6

was changed into the body and blood of Christ? he answered me, Whether I thought them so much beasts, as to believe such an absurdity?' * The only thing they seemed most to dislike in us and our religion was, that I would not make any reverence to the pictures that are in their churches, which they always do when they come to their devotions. They never kneel in their worship, but bend their bodies down to the ground, making the sign of the Cross with their right-hand, first on their head, then on each side of their breasts, and then down to the ground as they bow. I believe that this convent, and the most inland parts of Greece, are yet free from that opinion of the Roman Church, and have not been tampered with by them." †

Soon after his arrival in England, from which he had been absent more than three years, he

* Whatever was the doctrine of the ancient Greek Church, it must be avowed that transubstantiation is the doctrine of the present Church of Russia; for, in the oath which every Bishop takes at his consecration, he absolutely swears, that He believes and understands that the transubstantiation of the body and blood of Christ in the holy supper, as taught by the Eastern and ancient Russian doctors, is effected by the influence and operation of the Holy Ghost,' when the Bishop or Priest invokes God the Father in these words; And make this bread the precious body of thy Christ.'

(Dr. King's Rites and Ceremonies of the Greek Church in Russia,' &c. 12. Ed. 1772. 4to.)

+ Travels, II. 198, 199.

married Grace, daughter of Sir Thomas Higgons*, by Bridget, eldest daughter of Sir Beril Granville, brother of Dr. Dennis Granville, at that time Prebendary and subsequently Dean of Durham. In the privacy of a country-retirement he arranged his papers, and having finished his book of Travels, presented a copy of it in 1682 to Charles II. who was pleased to bestow upon him the honour of knighthood †. This volume no sooner appeared, than it was admired by every reader of classical taste. Many of his learned countrymen occasionally consulted him upon subjects connected with the history and antiquities of Greece; and from the following extract of a letter written to him by Sir Edward Sher

* Sir Thomas Higgons, to whom Antony Wood gives the character of a loyal and accomplished person, and a great lover of the regular clergy,' was Envoy Extraordinary from the English Court at Venice, when Mr. Wheler was on his tour.

+ The map of Achaia, prefixed to the volume, was constructed by himself. With the help of a mariner's needle, he had made observations from several mountains and eminent places of the country, and thus easily reduced their positions into triangles, and gained an exact knowledge of their natural situations. The map was engraved by Mr. Joseph Moxon, a native of Wakefield in Yorkshire, hydrographer to Charles II. and a great improver of maps, spheres, and globes; with the title as proposed by Dr. Thomas Gale, Master of St. Paul's School (whom he had consulted upon the occasion) Achaia Vetus et Nova, cum Observationibus Geo. Wheler, Armigeri, Angli.' When we consider that he left England at the early age of twenty-three, and with

no

burn *, it appears that he had formed a design of publishing, in a Latin tractate, a geographical description of Attica."' From this and similar designs he was probably diverted by the attention with which he pursued his professional studies. 66 Being now master of some leisurable minutes, I offer to your favourable perusal what follows, just taking notice of your laudable design by you now laid aside: I mean your little geographical treatise of Attica in Latin; which if my entreaties might be any way persuasive, I would in a manner conjure you to reassume, that we might have something consummate

no very profound knowledge of classical architecture, spent only seventeen months in traversing Greece and several parts of Asia Minor, we cannot help feeling surprise that his transcripts from the various monuments of antiquity have so few inaccuracies. With the diffidence peculiar to merit, he acknowledges the superiority of those "ingenious and learned men, who have already obliged our nation and the world by their communications upon the subject on which he wrote, aided by parts and learning far excelling any thing he can pretend to." (Pref.)

*Well known for his translations of several of Seneca's Tragedies into English verse. His acquaintance with the Latin language was derived from his preceptor Farnaby, whose industry as an annotator of Lucan, Juvenal, Persius, and other Roman poets has been extremely useful to young students; his remarks being short, learned, and chiefly explanatory. In 1659, Sir Edward left England; and with his fellow-traveller, Sir John Coventry, continued abroad five years, visiting France, Italy, Germany, and other countries.