ZACHARIAS GERGANOS: Theologian of the Eastern Church of the seventeenth century. What little is known of his life is gathered from the titles and prefaces to his writings. He came of a distinguished family of Ithaca, and probably studied as a monk at Mt. Athos. He intended to study at Rome, but was turned aside to Wittenberg, where he became a protkge of Elector Johann Georg I.,

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who furthered the prosecution of his studies. By 1622 he appears to have become metropolitan of Aria.

In the seventeenth century in the Eastern Church three tendencies were discernible. Such men as Dositheus of Jerusalem exalted the orthodox faith. Others, like Leo Allatius, strove for union with Rome. The third class, like Cyril Lucar, favored a protestantizing direction. To this third class belonged Zacharias, who was perhaps the pioneer, and his importance in this respect has been overlooked. His chief work was a "Christian Catechism" (Wittenberg, 1622), a volume of about 300 pages, of which only two copies are known to exist, one in the Barbarini library at Rome and the other at Hamburg. The Athanasian Creed comes first (omitting the filioque) after the introduction, then a new title. The catechism is modeled after well-known examples like that of Simeon of Thessar lonica, and it is in the Greek of ordinary speech, in eleven books (incorrectly numbered, since the sixth and seventh are both numbered six). The first deals with theology and anthropology, the next six deal with the person and work of Christ, two with the Church, one treats of the sacraments, and the last of eschatology. The Scriptures are given through the Holy Spirit, and teach the mystery of the Trinity and other divine mysteries and the will of God. It is its own interpreter, not the pope, and papal tradition is rejected. The laity are to read the Scriptures, in which is eternal life. God is the first cause; but angels are his intermediaries. Man's body is composed of four elements, the soul is God's creation; man was created immortal without sin; he could sin because he had free will, and sin came through the fall, whence came death. Had man not sinned, Christ would not have become flesh. God is not .the author of sin. The Spirit of God works faith in man, who is otherwise unable to believe; faith comes through hearing the Gospel and the illumination of the Spirit. But faith without works is dead; it may be lost, and also regained by repentance and the sacraments. The Christology contains nothing remarkable except that emphasis is laid on the proof of Christ's messiahship through messianic prophecy, miracles, and passion; the crucifixion took place that the predictions of the prophets might be fulfilled. In Christ's death the Logos took part. The Church is the aggregate of holy Christians; Christ, not the pope, is the head. The sacraments are not simply signs, but ass effective and necessary. Baptism is by water and the Spirit, not by water alone; rebaptisnr is rejected, heretic baptism recognized. In the Lord's Supper there are visible and invisible substances. Only two sacraments are explicitly recognized, though in this connection marriage is treated. The eschatology is very concrete. The ideas presented are a commingling of Greek orthodox and Lutheranizing doctrines, Lutheranism coming out particularly in the Christology and in the teaching concerning the sacrament.

Besides this catechism, Zacharias edited the New Testament in modern Greek (Wittenberg, 1622), using the Stephens-Beza text; but the edition did not gain currency.

(Philipp Meyer.)

Bibliography: M. LeQuien, Oriens Christianus, ii. 202, Paris, 1740; Fabricius-Harles, BiSliotheca Grteca, x. 837,

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xi. 722, Hamburg, 1807-08; E. Reuss, Bi6liotheca No vi Teetamenti Greeci, p. 100, Brunswick, 1872; E. Legrand, B%blioqraghie Hellenique, vol. i. passim and iv. 392, Paris, 1894-95.