GREEK CHURCH. 



347 



the widest sense of the word a state Church. 

 The Holy Synod in 1880 caused a manifesto to 

 be read in the western and central provinces, 

 solemnly consigning the revolutionists to eter- 

 nal punishment. " Russia being ruled by the 

 anointed of the Lord," says the manifesto, " it 

 is the sacred duty of every subject to obey the 

 behests of the sovereign, and to contribute to 

 the extermination of the rebels." An official 

 list of the Russian episcopate for the year 1880 

 gives the following statistics : Of the prelates in 

 active service, there are in Russia proper three 

 metropolitans, thirteen archbishops, thirty-six 

 bishops in charge of dioceses, and twenty-two 

 assistant bishops (entitled vicar-bishops). The 

 Exarchate of Georgia has one archbishop, two 

 bishops, and three vicar-bishops. In America 

 there is the bishop of the Aleutian Islands and 

 Alaska. These, then, number in all eighty-one. 

 There are retired, two archbishops and eleven 

 bishops. The entire number of Russian bishops 

 is therefore ninety -four. In Russia, with very 

 few exceptions, the bishops, on their first en- 

 trance upon the episcopal office, serve for a 

 few years as vicar-bishops, and are then trans- 

 ferred to the charge of a diocese very rarely 

 being, in case of survival, the successors of the 

 bishops to whom they were assistants. The Or- 

 thodox Missionary Society for Russia, of which 

 the Metropolitan of Russia is president, has had 

 for years a special missionary paper, called 

 " The Missioner." It has now been deemed best 



suspend for the present the publication of 



special missionary journal, and "The Mis- 

 ioner" has been joined to the "Moscow Dio- 



san Gazette." 



The " Golos " of Moscow stated in January, 

 that in the prison of Suzealya there were at 

 that time an archbishop and two bishops of the 

 Starolbryatsi, or Old Believers, their only crime 

 being that of having held to their faith and per- 

 formed their office accordingly. One had been 

 in prison twenty-six years, another twenty- 

 two, and the third seventeen years. 



In Turkey, the Patriarchate of Constantino- 

 ple has suffered a considerable loss in its ordi- 

 nary revenues in consequence of the troubled 

 times; and the Patriarch, who is trying to 

 improve the education of the clergy, finds 

 himself straitened in his designs for lack of 

 means. The Greek community in London, 

 therefore, sent the Patriarch in 1880 a volun- 

 tary contribution of 104, that of Manchester 

 40, that of Marseilles 1,810 francs, and that 

 of Vienna 1,077 francs. In Asia Minor, also, 

 several persons have determined to pay for the 

 education, at the Theological School of Chalce, 

 of theological students from their own part of 

 the country. 



The Bulgarians endeavor to carry through 

 the nationality principle in the organization of 

 a national church as well as in the building up 

 of a state embracing all Bulgarian districts of 

 the Balkan Peninsula. They desire every Bul- 

 garian, wherever he lives, to be under the ju- 

 risdiction of the Bulgarian Exarch, so that in 



one and the same city there could be two Or- 

 thodox bishops, a thing quite contrary to the 

 canons of the Orthodox Church. The Greek 

 ecclesiastics think that a Bulgarian priest living 

 at Constantinople ought not to be subject to 

 any other than the oecumenical Patriarch, just 

 as a Greek priest, living in St. Petersburg, 

 would be subject to the Metropolitan of St. 

 Petersburg. The Bulgarians do not want any 

 fellowship with the Greeks, and the Greeks 

 bitterly complain of the hostilities displayed 

 by the Bulgarians toward them. In March, 

 1880, the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople 

 directed the attention of the Porte to the out- 

 rages committed by the Bulgarian population 

 of Eastern Roumelia toward the Greek popu- 

 lation. 



The Bishops of Bosnia and Herzegovina were 

 officially notified by the Patriarch of Constan- 

 tinople of a convention concluded between the 

 Patriarch and the Government of Austro-Hun- 

 gary. The convention was signed on April 

 6th at the Patriarchate in the Fanar, between 

 the Patriarch and Count Dubski, the Austrian 

 representative. Some difficulties were raised 

 at first by the Porte, on account of the unde- 

 termined character of the occupation; but 

 these were between the Porte and the Patri- 

 arch, and not between the former and the Aus- 

 trian Government, and were finally overcome. 



As the population connected with the Greek 

 Church of Bosnia and Herzegovina belongs to 

 the Servian nationality, the occupation of the 

 two provinces by Austria naturally awakened 

 a wish among the Servians of Hungary for the 

 consolidation of all the churches of the Servian 

 nationality under the jurisdiction of the Patri- 

 arch of Carlovitz.* The Servian nationalists 

 hoped in this way to obtain a strong reinforce- 

 ment in their struggle against the Magyars. 

 The central Government of Austro-Hungary 

 was urged to avail itself of the advantages 

 which the submission of the churches of the 

 two provinces would have for the confirma- 

 tion of the Austrian rule, and for the exten- 

 sion of Austrian influence on the Balkan Penin- 

 sula. The Hungarian Government of Buda- 

 Pesth did not ignore the dangers which an in- 

 crease of the Servian element of the monarchy 

 might involve for the predominance of the 

 Magyars, and therefore made greater efforts 

 than ever before to secure for the highest of- 

 fices in the Servian Church men devoted to the 

 Hungarian interests. On December 11, 1879, 

 the Patriarch of Carlovitz, Iratchkovits, was 

 relieved " at his own request " from the ad- 

 ministration of the Servian patriarchate, and 

 in his place the Bishop of Bacz (German And- 

 jelits) was appointed " administrator of the 

 Servian patriarchate." Bishop Andjelits was 

 regarded by the Servian nationalists as the 

 most devoted partisan of the Magyar Govern- 

 ment, and it was expected that the Servian 

 Congress would not elect him Patriarch. Many 



* See "Annual Cyclopaedia " of 1879 for an historical sketch 

 of the Servian Church. 



