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Rh schism had reappeared in the community. For one thing, their national feeling encouraged this; for another, there was a continual influx of Greeks from the Levant, who brought with them all the ideas of the Orthodox Church at that time. So the people were again, in the majority, schismatics at heart. The Council of Ten approved of Facéa's election; so far, outwardly at least, he was a Uniate.

But now he begins to play a double game. He tries to satisfy both the Orthodox at Constantinople and the Catholics at Rome; he hedges with both, and, as one might expect, ends by being excommunicated by both the Pope and the Œcumenical Patriarch. First he went to Kerkyra and was there ordained by two Orthodox bishops, Chrysanthos of Leukas and Sophronios of Zakynthos and Kephallenia. It would seem as if this meant so definite a breach with Rome that he had better frankly throw in his lot with the Orthodox and take his chance of the inevitable quarrel with the Pope and the Venetian Government. However, Facéa now begins to hedge. Ioannikios II of Constantinople, delighted to hear of his ordination by Orthodox bishops, sent him an Orthodox profession of faith to sign. But Facéa refused to do so, saying that he was a Catholic. Now come a series of fulminations on Facéa from both sides. The Pope then was Clement XIII (1758-1769). He wrote three Briefs; in the first he says that Facéa is a schismatic, unlawfully ordained, who has received the imposition of hands outside the Church; in the second, the Pope forbids all Catholic Greeks to communicate with "the Pseudo-bishop Facéa"; in the third, he repeats that he is a schismatic, and orders that he be expelled from the Church of St George.

Meanwhile the Œcumenical Patriarch was just as angry. He, too, wrote three synodical letters against Facéa. In the first, he complains that Facéa was ordained without having received the Patriarchal and Synodal Bull, and without having made a profession of the Orthodox faith. So the Patriarch also deposes him, forbids all the Orthodox to attend his services, and excommunicates all who "shall kiss his not-sacred hand." In the second letter the Patriarch excommunicates the two Orthodox bishops who had ordained him. In the third, he explains, justifies, and repeats the excommunication of "the monk George Facéa." Eventually the Venetian Government persuaded Facéa to make up his mind one way or the other. It seemed simpler to be reconciled with Rome. So he submitted, made profuse apologies and explanations of his conduct