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bound and loosed in heaven: and this divine grace having passed from them to us in regular succession, pardons his spiritual son . . . . . in whatever, as a man, he has sinned, and against God done evil in word, or in deed, or in thought, voluntarily or involuntarily, and in all his feelings, and if he has been under the curse or excommunication of a high-priest, or priest, or if he has fallen under the anathema of his father or mother, or his own, or vio lated an oath, or if with any other sins, as a man, has been pierced, these also, if he confessed them to the spiritual fathers, and from the heart received the penance imposed by them, and performed it with a ready mind,—from the guilt and crime of all these, we loose him, and have him free and par

doned, by the almighty power and grace of the all-holy Ghost. And as many as he, through forgetfulness, left unconfessed, all those also, may the merciful God forgive him, by (his) Own philanthropy and goodness, through the intercessions of our most blessed Lady, the mother of God, and ever-virgin Mary, of the holy, glorious, and altogether praiseworthy Apostle James, the brother of God, and first Hierarch of Jerusalem, and of all the Saints. Amen.

ATHANASIUS, Patriarch of Jerusalem, and in Christ Supplicator.

The above Pardon, given by the Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem, and of which the above is a translation, I

procured through a Greek friend at Athens.

The possessor of it was unwilling to part with it, but was finally persuaded to let my friend have it.

He paid for it, my friend thought, one thousand or fifteen hundred piastres. The piastre, when I was at Jerusalem forty years ago, was worth about one eighth of a Spanish dollar.

I

For such a pardon, some paid more,

suppose, and some less, according to their ability.

An old woman in Athens told me that her godfather obtained for himself this writing of Pardon, without going to Jerusalem in person, and by paying about four hundred dollars of Cheap enough, if it

our money.

would procure, as he supposed, a safe entrance into heaven.

This document I found it very difficult to procure, as it is very highly valued by those who possess it, and they wish to keep it through life. Having this, they can, as I was told, partake of the Communion, without going to confess; and when they die, it is placed upon their bosom in the coffin, and buried with them, as, I suppose, a kind of passport to heaven.

It is on this account, no doubt, that it is so difficult for any one to procure a copy of it. So a Professor in the University at Athens told me, and I never saw more than two or three copies of it.

Having procured the one of which the above is a translation, I brought a

lithographer to my house, and had it lithographed, leaving out the name of the person to whom it was given, and leaving out, also, the pictures of the saints and angels with which it was surrounded. This I now regret. But I left them out, in part in order to save expense.

As they were left out, it is necessary to give a short description of them.

At the four corners of the document are the four Evangelists. On the left side, and above Mark, is the picture of St. Athanasius; and above that, and under Matthew, is the picture of Christ on the Cross, and near by, his mother Mary, and his beloved disciple John.

On the other side, and above Luke, is the picture of James, called the holy brother of God. Above this, and un

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