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Jerusalem with the apocrisarius. Again the apocrisarius asked concerning the captives, who are from the land of Romania, that we should free them. and we, may your majesty know, that we had such an ancient custom concerning captives, that an exchange should take place, and we should release from those we have, and your 3.98 majesty again from the slaves it has of ours should send to us. However we ordered and this matter was also fulfilled, and we freed as many as the apocrisarius asked for, and he received them. Again the apocrisarius asked that there be safety for the merchants coming here from him, and we understood it, and an order was made, that they should receive such merchants, and guard them, as the apocrisarius asked. And with the most high order, and with the reply we sent back the apocrisarius, and may your majesty know this truly. And when you have a wish, let a message reach us, that we may fulfill the wish of your majesty. We previously learned how, as your majesty entered with the command of God, and with great strength into the city, you remembered no evils, but protected the son of the king, and you sympathized with your enemies, and we rejoiced much in this, and we praised your majesty. Now again we have learned this more broadly and more clearly both from the patriarch Lazarus and from the archon, the apocrisarius Manuel, and how you gave him your daughter, and made him your son and your son-in-law, and in this we rejoiced even more, and may God enlarge your heart, and make your country a hundredfold, and make your sword fearsome to your enemies. 3.99 may the most high God preserve you, and may you prosper from his mercy and from his beneficence. Yes, so be it, O high God. It was written on the fifteenth of Sha'ban, in the seven hundred and fiftieth year of Muhammad. It was written according to the high command. Glory to the great glory of the one God. Prayers and prostrations to that lord Muhammad, with his disciples the most honored creation of God. I thank God almighty in whom I hope.” And these things were from the Sultan. 15. But Gerasimos, since he was being driven from the thrones, rushed again, as if by coming to the Sultan, he would lie against the patriarch and persuade him to drive him from the throne. But on the third day of his departure from the holy city, he died along the way, God so judging, as if by a just death the just man might be delivered from unjust trials. Thus, then, the patriarch spent no small amount of time upon the thrones. And when that Sultan had died, another ruler was appointed, who for no apparent reason was moved to the persecution against the Christians, with a certain Seichoun, one of his most powerful arch-satraps, especially instigating the deed and being most harsh to all Christians, except for those of the heresy of Jacobus, there being many of them especially in the holy city and throughout Egypt and Syria and having their own archbishop of the same heresy. And he spared them not so much 3.100 for goodwill as for fear. For it is said that towards the passage of the Nile a great nation is settled which professes the heresy of Jacobus entirely, whom the Sultan of Egypt has need to court on account of their being able to divert the Nile to another land. Which if it should happen, all of Egypt utterly and the rest of Syria would be destroyed, being generously nourished by it. For which reason at that time also the barbarians were well-disposed only to the Jacobite heretics. But they attacked all the others so fiercely, as to send many to their end through martyrdom by various and different forms of punishments, and not a few to make them abandon the faith in Christ and to persuade them to hold to their own religion, which is especially worthy of tears, as many indeed as with the faith in Christ were also led away to the evil one through their works and of the

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Ἱεροσόλυμα μετὰ τοῦ ἀποκρισιαρίου. πάλιν ἐζήτησεν ὁ ἀποκρισιάριος διὰ τοὺς αἰχμαλώτους, οἵτινες εὑρίσκονται ἀπὸ τὴν χώραν τῆς Ῥωμανίας, ἵνα ἐλευθερώσωμεν αὐτούς. καὶ ἡμεῖς νὰ γνωρίσῃ ἡ βασιλεία σου, ὅτι τοιαύτην συνήθειαν ἀρχαίαν εἴχομεν διὰ τὰ αἰχμάλωτα, ὅτι νὰ γίνεται ἀνταλλαγὴ, καὶ νὰ ἀπολύωμεν ἡμεῖς ἐξ ὧν ἔχομεν, καὶ ἡ βασι 3.98 λεία σου πάλιν ἐξ ὧν ἔχει ἀφ' ἡμῶν σκλάβων νὰ πέμπῃ πρὸς ἡμᾶς. ὅμως ὡρίσαμεν καὶ ἐπληρώθη καὶ τὸ ζήτημα τοῦτο, καὶ ἠλευθερώσαμεν ὅσους ἐζήτησεν ὁ ἀποκρισιάριος, καὶ παρέλαβεν αὐτούς. πάλιν ἐζήτησεν ὁ ἀποκρισιάριος νὰ ἔναι ἀσφάλεια, εἰς τοὺς ἐρχομένους ἐδὼ ἀπ' αὐτοῦ πραγματευτὰς, καὶ ἐγροικίσαμέν το, καὶ ἐγένετο ὁρισμὸς, ἵνα ἀναδέχωνται τοὺς τοιούτους πραγματευτὰς, καὶ φυλάσσωσιν αὐτοὺς, καθὼς ἐζήτησεν ὁ ἀποκρισιάριος. καὶ μὲ τὸν ὑψηλότατον ὁρισμὸν, καὶ μὲ τὴν ἀπολογίαν ἐγυρίσαμεν τὸν ἀποκρισιάριον, καὶ ἃς γινώσκῃ τοῦτο ἀληθινὰ ἡ βασιλεία σου. καὶ ὅταν ἔχῃ θέλημα ἄς μας φθάνῃ μανδάτον, νὰ πληρώσωμεν τὸ θέλημα τῆς βασιλείας σου. ἡμεῖς πρότερον ἐγνωρίσαμεν ὅπως ὡς εἰσῆλθεν ἡ βασιλεία σου μὲ τὸν ὁρισμὸν τοῦ θεοῦ, καὶ μετὰ ἰσχύος μεγάλης εἰς τὴν πόλιν, οὐδὲν ἐμνήσθης κακῶν, ἀλλὰ ἐφύλαξες τὸν υἱὸν τοῦ βασιλέως, καὶ ἐσυνεπάθησες τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου, καὶ ἐχάρημεν εἰς τοῦτο πολλὰ, καὶ ἐπαινέσαμεν τὴν βασιλείαν σου. τῶρα πάλιν ἐμάθαμεν τοῦτο πλατύτερα καὶ καθαρώτερα καὶ ἀπὸ τὸν πατριάρχην τὸν Λάζαρον καὶ ἀπὸ τὸν ἄρχοντα τὸν ἀποκρισιάριον τὸν Μανουὴλ, καὶ τὸ πῶς τὸν ἔδωκες τὴν θυγατέρα σου, καὶ ἐποίησες αὐτὸν υἱόν σου καὶ γαμβρόν σου, καὶ εἰς αὐτὸ πλεώτερον ἐχάρημεν, καὶ ὁ θεὸς τὴν καρδίαν σου νὰ τὴν πλατύνῃ, καὶ τὴν χώραν σου εἰς τὸ ἓν ἑκατὸν νὰ τὴν ποιήσῃ, καὶ τὸ σπαθίν σου εἰς τοὺς ἐχθρούς σου φοβερὸν νὰ τὸ ποιήσῃ. 3.99 ὁ θεὸς ὁ ὕψιστος νά σε διακρατῇ, καὶ νὰ εὐτυχῇς ἀπὸ τοῦ ἐλέους του καὶ ἀπὸ τῆς εὐεργεσίας του. ναὶ ἄμποτε θεὲ ὑψηλέ. ἐγράφη εἰς τὰς δεκαπέντε τοῦ Σααπὰν, τῷ ἑπτακοσιοστῷ πεντηκοστῷ ἔτει τοῦ Μαχούμετ. ἐγράφη κατὰ τὸν ὁρισμὸν τὸν ὑψηλόν. δόξα τῇ μεγάλῃ δόξῃ τοῦ μόνου θεοῦ. εὐχαὶ καὶ προσκυνήματα εἰς τὸν αὐθέντην ἐκεῖνον τὸν Μαχούμετ, μετὰ τῶν μαθητῶν του τὸ ἐντιμότερον πλάσμα τοῦ θεοῦ. εὐχαριστῶ τὸν θεὸν παντοκράτορα ὁποῦ ἐλπίζω εἰς ἐκεῖνον.» καὶ ταῦτα μὲν τὰ τοῦ Σουλτάν. ιεʹ. Γεράσιμος δὲ ἐπεὶ ἐξηλαύνετο τῶν θρόνων, ὥρμητο μὲν αὖθις, ὡς ἐπὶ Σουλτὰν ἐλθὼν, καταψεύσοιτο τοῦ πατριάρχου καὶ πείσοι τοῦ θρόνου ἐξελαύνειν. μετὰ τρίτην δὲ ἡμέραν τῆς ἐκ τῆς ἁγίας πόλεως ἀποδημίας ἐτελεύτα κατὰ τὴν ὁδὸν, οὕτω τοῦ θεοῦ δικάσαντος, ὡς ἂν δικαίῳ θανάτῳ πειρασμῶν ἀδίκων ὁ δίκαιος ἀπαλλαγείη. χρόνον μὲν οὖν οὕτως οὐ μικρόν τινα ὁ πατριάρχης διήγαγεν ἐπὶ τῶν θρόνων. τοῦ δὲ Σουλτὰν ἐκείνου τετελευτηκότος, ἄρχων ἕτερος ἀνεδείκνυτο, ὃς ὑπ' οὐδεμιᾶς αἰτίας προφανοῦς πρὸς τὸν κατὰ Χριστιανῶν κεκίνητο διωγμὸν, Σειχοῦν τινος τῶν παρ' αὐτῷ δυνατωτάτων ἀρχισατράπου πρὸς τὸ ἔργον μάλιστα ἐνάγοντος καὶ χαλεπωτάτου Χριστιανοῖς γεγενημένου πᾶσι, πλὴν τῶν ἐκ τῆς αἱρέσεως Ἰακώβου, πολλῶν ὄντων μάλιστα ἐν τῇ ἁγίᾳ πόλει καὶ κατ' Αἴγυπτον καὶ Συρίαν καὶ ἀρχιερέα ἰδίᾳ τῆς αὐτῆς αἱρέσεως ἐχόντων. ἐφείδετο δὲ αὐτῶν οὐ μᾶλλον 3.100 δι' εὐγνωμοσύνην ἢ δέος. λέγεται γὰρ, ὡς πρὸς τὴν Νείλου δίοδον μέγα ἔθνος ἐστὶ κατῳκισμένον τὴν Ἰακώβου πρεσβεῦον αἵρεσιν καθάπαξ, οὓς ἀνάγκην ἔχει θεραπεύειν ὁ Σουλτὰν Αἰγύπτου διὰ τὸ δύνασθαι τὸν Νεῖλον ἐπ' ἄλλην γῆν μετοχετεύειν. ὃ εἰ γένοιτο, σύμπασα ἄρδην Αἴγυπτος καὶ ἡ ἄλλη Συρία ἀπολοῦνται τρεφόμεναι ὑπ' ἐκείνου φιλοτίμως. δι' ἣν αἰτίαν καὶ τότε οἱ βάρβαροι τοῖς Ἰακώβου αἱρεσιώταις μόνοις ἦσαν εὐμενεῖς. τοῖς δ' ἄλλοις ἅπασιν οὕτως ἐπετέθησαν σφοδρῶς, ὡς πολλοὺς μὲν τῷ διὰ μαρτυρίου τέλει παραπέμψαι ποικίλαις καὶ διαφόροις κολάσεων ἰδέαις, οὐκ ὀλίγους δὲ καὶ τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν ἀποστῆσαι πίστεως καὶ τῆς σφετέρας πεῖσαι ἔχεσθαι θρησκείας, ὃ καὶ μάλιστα δακρύων ἄξιον, ὅσοι δῆτα καὶ μετὰ τῆς εἰς Χριστὸν πίστεως συναπήγοντο τῷ πονηρῷ διὰ τῶν ἔργων καὶ τῆς