748 



ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH. 



pilgrims." If it really was proposed, the bish- 

 op says, it had to be rejected, because the 

 church cannot express a preference for any 

 form of society. The bishops had no opportu- 

 nity to examine the address before signing it, 

 but as the bishop of Montauban says, they felt no 

 hesitation, because they knew what its general 

 character would be, and that it had received 

 the approval of the Pope. Nearly every coun- 

 try of the world was represented at the council, 

 only the governments of Italy and Portugal had 

 forbidden their bishops to take part in it. All, 

 or nearly all of the bishops of these two coun- 

 tries, as well as such bishops of other countries 

 as had been absent, signed an address to the 

 Pope, expressing their concurrence with this 

 declaration of the council. It may therefore 

 be said, that the episcopate of the Roman Cath- 

 olic church, with almost perfect unanimity, has 

 declared in favor of maintaining the temporal 

 power. 



The Italian parliament replied immediately 

 to the declaration of the episcopate, by pledg- 

 ing unwavering fidelity to the principle of 

 Italian unity, involving, as it does, the abolition 

 of the temporal power, for which also a num- 

 ber of the lowe^r clergy declared themselves. 

 One of the leading men of this party among 

 the clergy, Father Passaglia, drew up an ad- 

 dress to the Pope, requesting him to abandon 

 voluntarily the temporal power, and he claimed 

 to have obtained for this address the signatures 

 of about ten thousand priests, whose names he 

 published in his journal, II Mediatore. The 

 correctness of this list was denied by the or- 

 gans of the other party, although it was gener- 

 ally admitted that there were associations of 

 priests in Milan, Florence, Naples, and else- 

 where, who sympathized with Passaglia, and a 

 part of whom demanded, besides the abolition 

 of the temporal power, the introduction of 

 other changes. 



Outside of Italy this movement found but 

 little support. In Paris, two papers are pub- 

 lished, D Observateur Catholique and V Unite 

 Chretienne, which, while claiming to remain 

 Catholic, strongly reject the temporal power, 

 the infallibility of the Pope, the doctrine of the . 

 immaculate conception, and other doctrines 

 and views generally held by the church, and 

 advocate a union with other churches holding 

 the apostolical succession of bishops ; but it 

 does not seem that they represent a consider- 

 able party. 



The Roman Catholic church has for some 

 time made considerable progress among the 

 eastern churches of Turkey, and during the 

 past year large accessions have been again re- 

 ported to each of the united eastern churches, 

 which, while retaining the language and rites 

 of their former communions, have adopted the 

 doctrines of the Roman Catholic church. Of 

 the most recent origin among these united 

 churches is the United Bulgarian church, which 

 originated in 1859, and received in 1860 the 

 first bishop, Sokolski. This bishop, after some 



time, suddenly and mysteriously disappeared, 

 and it was asserted that he had been carried 

 off from Constantinople against his will by the 

 Russians, and was now retained by them in a 

 Russian convent. The United Bulgarian church 

 has since received from the Pope a patriarch 

 at Constantinople, and an archbishop at Phil- 

 ippopolis. They have been recognized by the 

 Turkish Government as a political community, 

 but they, cannot take with them to the new 

 church the edifices in which they formerly 

 worshipped. These remain to the Greek church, 

 and the Bulgarian congregations that wish to 

 join the new United Bulgarian church have to 

 build new chapels. On Dec. 9th, 1862, the 

 Bulgarian archbishop of Sophia applied for ad- 

 mission to the communion of the Roman Cath- 

 olic church, and the same application was made 

 a few days after by the assistant bishop of 

 Adrianople, but according to the statement of 

 Roman Catholic papers, both applications were 

 refused because it was found out that they had 

 been made from mercenary motives. The 

 United Bulgarians are chiefly numerous in the 

 province of Adrianople, where their total num- 

 ber in April, 1862, was stated to be 2,612 fam- 

 ilies. 



It is also reported that numerous congrega- 

 tions of the Greek church have entered during 

 the year 1862 into communion with the Roman 

 Catholic church in the plain of Damascus, and 

 in the country between Lebanon and Balbeck. 

 At the head of this movement is the former 

 Greek bishop of the town of Holms. He lias 

 solemnly joined the Roman Catholic church, 

 and as he is a man of great influence in Syria, 

 it is believed that many will follow his e'xam- 

 ple. A particular zeal for the interests of the 

 Roman Catholic church in Syria is displayed 

 by the Paris " Association for establishing 

 Christian schools in the East." The bulletin of 

 this society claims that more than four thou- 

 sand schismatics, among whom were several 

 priests, have already joined the communion of 

 Rome, and that many others are on the point 

 of following them. 



While thus, according to all accounts, the 

 Roman Catholic church is making considerable 

 progress among the Bulgarians, Greeks, Arme- 

 nians, and other Eastern churches, it is reported 

 by a missionary of the English church mission- 

 ary society, that nearly the whole United Syr- 

 ian church in Travancore, India, has seceded 

 from the communion of the Roman Catholic 

 church. This body, which counts about 97 

 churches and a population of 96,000 souls, is 

 reported to have sent a deputation to the Jaco- 

 bites (Monophysites) of Syria. The bishops of 

 the latter sect consecrated one of the delegates 

 a bishop, who on his return to Travancore de- 

 clared for a separation from Rome. "With but 

 few exceptions, writes the English missionary, 

 the members of the Syrian church gave in 

 their adherence to the new bishop, and the 

 Roman Catholic bishop was left with no more 

 than 10 or 12 parishes. No account of this 



