View PDF version of this page

BENEDICT OF PETERBOROUGH. NEOPHYTUÜ 9 Ralph son of Godfrey with the" Emperor of Cyprus to Tripoli. But before the king's departure from Cyprus the counts and barons and all the men of the island delivered up to the king the half of all their possessions in return for the laws and institutes which they had in the time of Manuel, Emperor of Constantinople. These the king granted to them, confirming tuie grant by a charter. In the same month of June Richard of Cainville, whom the king had appointed one of his justiciaries in Cyprus, fell sick, and without obtaining the lung's leave, came to the camp before Acre, where he died. After his death the Griffons and Herminians, who had not yet accepted the king's peace, set up for themselves a new Emperor in the person of a monk, who was kinsman of the Emperor Isaac. Then Robert of Toraham, who was now sole justiciar}* of the king in Cyprus, assembled a great army and joined battle with, the new Emperor, whose host he put to flight. The Emperor himself he look prisoner and hanged upon a gallows. In the same month died Ralph son of Godfrey, to whoso charge had been committed the Emperor of Cyprus. The king then put the Emperor in ward with Gamier of Nnblons, the Grand Master of the Hospital. NEOPHYTUS. The letter or tract of the monk Xeoplrytns Concerning the misfortunes of Cyprus, ascribed by Comte de Mae Latrie to the year 1196, was printed by Cotelier, E Cod. lieg. 2376, in his Ecclesia Grœcœ Monumenta, vol. IL 4to, Paris, 1681, p. 460, S. 19. The Greek text is here printed entire. There is an English version in the Bolls aeries, but it was not at hand, and our translation is new. The letter is mentioned by the Rev. F. E. Warren in his edition of Hie " Ritual Ordinance " of Neophytus (Arehceolagia, Vol. XL vu. 1881) to which is appended a nute by Mr E. Freshfield "On the Description of Cyprus, by Neojmytus, and the eanditiou of the Island in his time." The "Ritual Ordinance " was first printed at Venice, by N. GlykyR, in 1779, together with some sermons, \ayot tie την 'Εξαήμβμον. A sketch of the life of Neophytus, who must have been alive in 1205, is given by Mr Warren. In the monastery founded by Neophytus, the "Εγκλ^στ-μη, a picturesque spot near the village of Tsada, about six miles from Nea Paphos, arc still shown the rock-cut cell and chapel of the hermit. The "Εγκ\αστρα is a "peculiar" (called in Cyprus σταυραπηγα ν) independent of the bishop of the diocese (Paphos) in which it is situated: a privilege it is believed to have enjoyed since its foundation in the reign of the Emperor Isaac Angelus, cire. 1185. Tliere is a pleasant description and view of the site in Mr D. G. Hogarth's Devia Cyprìa, 1889 (pp. 21—23). The letter (it Is not known to whom it was addressed) is in itself an interesting document, and valuable as a contemporary account of one of many sodden crises in the history of Cyprus, though coloured no doubt by the hatred of an Orthodox monk to Christians of the Latin rite. If Salah-ed-din is an " abandoned wretch," Richard the Liouhearted is his fellow. The Moslem are dogs, the Latins wolves. It may be noted (from M. de Mas Latrie) that the one hundred thousand besants Sarrasins, promised by the knights Templar as the price of Cyprus, were gold hyzants of nine francs or nine and a half francs each. But the 950,000 francs of that day would be worth 7.600,000 of ours, /304,000, or say the sum of three years of the " Turkish Tribute." With νάκκα , long boats, cf. Germ. Nachen : not, I think, smacks or snacks. The castle of Marcappus is Marqab, on a lügh hill close to the sea, sooth of Laodicea (Lazaqiat el -Arab, or Latakia). It was the chief scat of the order of Hospitallers.

View PDF version of this page