The Eastern Confession of the Christian Faith
A confession in eighteen chapters and four questions, issued in the name of Cyril Lucaris, patriarch of Constantinople, which teaches several doctrines of the Reformed churches. The Synod of Jerusalem denied that he wrote it and answered it chapter by chapter.
The text opens in the name of “Cyril, Patriarch of Constantinople” and closes “Given at Constantinople in the month of January 1631”. It sets the witness of Scripture above that of the church, teaches predestination without regard to works and justification by faith, counts two sacraments delivered by the Lord in the Gospel, rejects transubstantiation and, in its fourth question, rejects the worship and service of icons while allowing pictures of Christ and the saints.
The Synod of Jerusalem and the Confession of Dositheus held that Cyril did not write it and said that he had himself many times denied the chapters on oath. The record gives the text as it was printed, under the name it bears.
Cited in
- 16 March 1672, firm date