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| Benedictus PP. XIV Observance of oriental rites IntraText CT - Text |
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9. There are many documents of this kind from the thirteenth century. For instance the letter of Innocent IV to Daniel, King of Russia, praises the particular devotion of the king to the Catholic Church and allows to be preserved in his kingdom rites which are not at variance with the faith of the Catholic Church. He writes: "Therefore, dearest son in Christ, We are moved by your prayer and grant by the authority of this letter to the bishops and other priests of Russia permission to consecrate leavened bread in accordance with their custom and to observe their other rites which are not opposed to the Catholic faith held by the Church of Rome." (Raynaldus, 1247, no. 29.) Such is the tenor, too, of the same Pope's letter to Cardinal Otho of Tusculum, Legate of the Holy See on the Island of Cyprus, whom he had entrusted with the authority to settle some disputes which had arisen between Greeks and Latins: "But since some of the Greeks are at last returning to their devotion to the Apostolic See, and obey it with reverence and respect, We may and should tolerate and preserve their customs and rites as far as God and their obedience to the Roman Church permits. However, We ought not - nor do We wish to - yield to them in the slightest matter which could produce danger for souls or lessen the honor of the Church" (in veteri Bullario, vol. 1, no. 14, constitution Sub Catholicae). But in the same letter after he laid down what the Greeks had to do, he listed the practices which he thought they should be allowed to observe and ends with the following words: "But on Our authority, order the aforesaid Archbishop of Nicosia together with his Latin suffragans not to disturb or harass the Greeks contrary to Our decision in these matters." The same Pope Innocent IV appointed his confessor Laurentius Minorita as Apostolic Legate and gave him full authority over all the Greeks who lived in the kingdom of Cyprus and the patriarchates of Antioch and Jerusalem, as well as over the Jacobites, Maronites and Nestorians. He commanded him especially to protect by his authority all the Greeks from harassment from the Latins: "As regards the Greeks of those regions, whatever their affiliation, We command you to protect them by apostolic authority, and to prevent their being disturbed by acts of violence or any harassment by fully correcting all wrongs and offenses done by Latins and by strictly commanding the Latins to give up such acts for the future" (Raynaldus, 1546, no. 30).
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