MOUNT ATHOS. 209 



he is dethroned ; and seven or eight of the sallad-fed monks who 

 dined with us, appeared to be much pleased with their change of 

 diet. His conversation seemed to indicate that he looked forward 

 to be reinstated in his honors. We were told he had been 

 banished by a cabal of rich bishops, whom he commanded to leave 

 the luxuries and intrigues of Constantinople, and to reside in their 

 respective dioceses ; but their influence with the princely families in 

 the Fanal, and the Dragoman of the Porte had procured his exile, 

 and the appointment of a less rigid head of the Church. He told 

 us, he was born in Arcadia ; he appears to have made little progress 

 in ancient Greek literature or in modern science. 



Towards the close of dinner a stranger entered, who was received 

 with much respect. He was called Methodius, and belonged to the 

 order of caloyers, who were named Megaloschemi. A most re- 

 markable length of beard, irusyw which after unrolling a kind 

 of shawl, he discovered to us, has probably gained him more respect 

 from the superstitious Greeks, than if the talents and learning of a 

 Chrysostom, or a Basil had been conferred on him in its stead.* 

 • The library at Iveron was so large, and the printed books so 

 much mixed with manuscripts, that we were forced to spend two 

 fatiguing days in examining them and making a catalogue. Amidst 

 some hundred ecclesiastical manuscripts, we found parts of iEschylus, 

 Euripides, and Aristophanes ; the Electra and Ajax Mastigophorus 

 of Sophocles, Pindar, Hesiod, and Demosthenes ; selections from 

 Galen and Aristotle ; some imperfect Greek lexicons ; the works of 

 Libanius the Sophist, and Philo Judseus. None of these bear 

 marks of great antiquity ; and from the commentary which surrounds 

 the text, in a kind of Greek called Mixo-barbaros, they seem to 

 have belonged to some schoolmaster. 



As the road we were now about to take towards Santa Laura and 

 the hermitages would conduct us amongst crags and mountains, 



* Methodius with his ai-o^a vaiywvot /3a'0>j, was at Constantinople in the year 1806, 

 where we saw him. 



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