Calendar: 1927-1928 Page 479

χ SOME DEBTS TO BYZANTINISM Nubians which Bishop Longinus subsequently completed The king and people of the Nobatae received baptism and the king of the neigh- bouring Alodae followed his example From this time the Nubian Church continued in closest touch with the Monophysite Patriarch of Alexandria Nor should we English forget that it was Greek of the Byzantine Empire Theodore of Tarsus appointed Archbishop of Canterbury by the Pope in 668 who really laid the foundations of the English ecclesiastical system and changed the Church from collection of mission stations to series of well-ordered dioceses grouped round the see of Canterbury He was the first Archbishop says Bede 'י whom all the English Church obeyed Theodora wife of the Emperor Theophilus in the ninth century really organized the great missions which were later to carry the gospel amongst the Khazars the Moravians and the Bulgarians The Orthodox Church therefore did something more than conduct barren controversies and her influence is still living force to-day amongst millions in the Nearer East Greece Russia Roumania Bulgaria and Jugoslavia all bear witness to the creeds and ceremonies which have appealed to the faith of masses of simple men Another great debt is owed to the Byzantine Empire as the con- server of ancient Greek literature It may be allowed that there is little creative force in Byzantine literature but it is too often forgotten that the Empire was storehouse of ancient learning and that the study of the Greek Classics never really ceased there work like the Alexiad of Anna Comnena in the twelfth century despite all its defects of an exaggerated style shows how thoroughly the Greek Classics were studied Encyclopaedists like Photius and Psellus corresponded in sense to the great Alexandrian encyclopaedists and Photius in par- ticular has preserved much that would otherwise have been lost in his Bibliotheca and by his Lexicon he laid the foundation of the Greek etymological lexicons and this work was carried on by Suidas Manu- scripts of the Classics were multiplied in monastery like that of Studion at Constantinople Thus without creating much herself Constantinople prepared the way for the revival of Greek learning in Europe The study of Greek had been pursued in Italy in the fourteenth century by men like Petrarch and Boccaccio and the collecting of Greek manuscripts had been begun by Guarino and Poggio The Sicilian Aurispa had in 1417 collected some Greek manuscripts from the East and during residence at Constantinople in 1422-3 gathered no fewer than 238 manuscripts of Greek Classics In 1427 Francesco Filelfo Secretary to the Venetian Legation at Constantinople brought back further valuable collection Cyriacus of Ancona 1391-1450 learned Greek at Constantinople and not only collected manuscripts but travelled widely in Greek lands and brought back many copies of inscriptions But the personal contact of Greeks contributed most powerfully to the diffusion of Greek in the West Emmanuel Chrysoloras former ambassador of Constantinople to the Western Powers for the purpose of