[3] As Cyril was a prominent pro-Westerner, the Orthodox Patriarch Jeremias III of Constantinople felt his authority was challenged.
[6][9] The sultan Ahmed III withdrew the recognition initially conferred on Cyril, who was forced to flee as emissaries of Sylvester arrived from Constantinople with a mandate for his arrest.
This persecution strengthened the faith of the Catholic Melkites who, even without a formal hierarchy, continued to increase in number meeting in secret places and celebrating the Divine Liturgy in homes at night.
However, Sylvester exacerbated divisions with his heavy-handed rule of the church, and many Melkites chose to acknowledge Cyril VI as patriarch instead.
The pallium, formal recognition of the patriarchal authority, was granted by Rome to Cyril only on February 3, 1744, about twenty years after the 1724 election.