Cyril III Ben Laklak

CIRILLO III BEN LAKLAK. - Patriarch of Alex-
andria, who lived in the thirteenth century; a priest named David,
who simoniacally obtained the Coptic patriarchate of Alex-
andria under the name of C. on 17 June 1235. He remained
notorious for his extortion and for his shameless simo-
ny, which provoked open struggles on the part of his clergy;
for this reason he was repeatedly arrested and fined by the Muslim
judicial authorities. In 1237 he ordained a metro-
politan for Constantinople, thus entering into conflict with
the patriarch of Antioch, Ignazio, who excommunicated
the metropolitan. The latter, however, with the aid of the Franks,
who occupied the Holy Land, succeeded in retaining
his post and became the first of the Coptic metropolitans of Je-
rusalem. He died in 1243, obscurely, despised
by all.