Lucaris, CYRIL

Lucaris, CYRIL, a Greek theologian, was born in Crete in 1572, studied at Venice and Padua, and subsequently in Geneva, where he became imbued with the Calvinist doctrines. Taking holy orders, he rose by 1621 to the highest dignity in the Greek Church, Patriarch of Constantinople. An outline of his public career will be found under GREEK CHURCH (Vol. V. p. 397). In June 1637 he was seized in Constantinople, hurried on board a vessel, and it was never properly ascertained what became of him. According to some he was strangled in the ship which bore him off; according to others, he suffered this fate in a castle on the shores of the Black Sea. His doctrines have been repeatedly condemned by Greek synods.