GREEK CIIUKCII. 



405 



Among the most importantevents in the re- 

 cent history of the Greek Church belongs the 

 movement among the Bulgarians to free them- 

 selves from the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of 

 Constantinople, and to establish a National 

 Bulgarian Church. In April, 1860, a pam- 

 phlet appeared in Constantinople, in Bulgarian 

 and French, setting forth the grievances of the 

 Bulgarians, and denouncing in the most em- 

 phatic language the pretensions and encroach- 

 ments of the Holy Synod of Constantinople. 

 The Bulgarians, to support their claims, referred 

 to the former independence of the Bulgarian 

 Metropolitan- See of Achrida, to the equality 

 of rank which their Metropolitan had shared 

 with the Patriarch of Constantinople, through- 

 out the middle ages, and which had entitled 

 him to crown their kings. They asserted that 

 the patriarch Samuel, of Constantinople, had, 

 in 1Y67, illegally abolished the independence 

 of the Bulgarian Church, in order to Grecize 

 all Bulgaria, and the Ottoman Porte from po- 

 litical considerations had connived at these 

 endeavors. They complained that Greek bish- 

 ops had been appointed to Bulgarian dioceses ; 

 that many of the priests also were Greeks, and 

 that the Greek language, of which the people 

 do not understand a word, had been until late- 

 ly universally in use in the services. In many 

 places of Bulgaria, in Koumelia, even in Philip- 

 popel and Adrianople, the Greek priests were 

 expelled by the Bulgarian congregations, the 

 Slavic language introduced at divine ser- 

 vice, and the payment of the taxes annually 

 levied by the patriarchate of Constantinople, 

 refused. At the Easter festival in 1860, the 

 Bulgarian Bishop Hilarion, of Marianupolis, 

 the head of the Bulgarian Church of Constanti- 

 nople, even dared to omit the prayer for the 

 Patriarch of Constantinople, and the patriarch 

 who was present in the Bulgarian church was 

 hissed and insulted. Being summoned, on 

 April 14th, before the patriarchal council, he 

 declared that he could not and would not op- 

 pose the demands of his nation, and that he 

 could not promise a change of his views. Pa- 

 triarch Cyrillos, of Constantinople, was too 

 weak to oppose this movement efficiently, but 

 his successor, Joachim (elected October 16th, 

 1860), at once proceeded against the Bulgarian 

 secessionists with great energy. The bishops Hi- 

 larion and Auxentius were exiled for insubor- 

 dination against the orders of the patriarch of 

 Constantinople, and when the Bulgarians of 

 that city armed themselves to resist the execu- 

 tion of this order, the Turkish Government en- 

 forced it through its army. These measures, 

 however, did not put an end to the national 

 movements of the Bulgarians. Monster peti- 

 tions, covered with thousands of signatures, 

 appealed to the Ottoman Porte and the am- 

 bassadors of the European Powers for the re- 

 dress of their grievances, for the appointment 

 of Bulgarian priests to all the ecclesiastical offi- 

 ces in the national churches, and for either total 

 separation from the patriarchate or admission 

 VOL. in 30 A 



of at least six Bulgarian bishops to the holy 

 synod, and a sufficient representation of the 

 Bulgarians at the election of a patriarch. Dur- 

 ing the summer of 1861, a pamphlet of con- 

 siderable learning was put out by the secretary 

 of the Constantinopolitan Synod, reviewing 

 the history of the Bulgarian relation to the 

 Greek Church, and showing the groundless- 

 ness of their pretensions and complaints. The 

 writer urges that the Bulgarian formed but a 

 small part of the population of Western Ma- 

 cedonia. Ho says that many of the people are 

 only Greeks who speak Bulgarian ; and even 

 goes so far as to assert that the physical ap- 

 pearance and customs of the Bulgarians in 

 these parts show them to be originally Greek, 

 and not Bulgarian. Then addressing himself 

 to the "Wallachians and other inhabitants of 

 the district, with a view apparently to " divide 

 and conquer," he warns them that the Bulga- 

 rians are endeavoring to get the ecclesiastical 

 superiority over them, and that by submitting 

 they will bring about their " Bulgarization." 

 The Roman missionaries in Turkey endeavored 

 to avail themselves of this internal dissension 

 in the Greek Church, and to some extent they 

 were successful. (See ANNUAL CYCLOPAEDIA for 

 1862, art. ROMAN CATHOLIC CHUEOH.) 



In the Danubian Principalities a grave con- 

 test broke out between the State Government 

 and the Greek Church, in which even the great 

 Powers of Europe regarded themselves entitled 

 to interfere. The "Daily News" of London 

 gives the following explanation of this diffi- 

 culty : 



" Long ago the chiefs of the Greek, like those 

 of the Latin Church, established regulations 

 which they considered calculated to preserve 

 at once its unity and the supremacy of them- 

 selves and their successors. They insisted on 

 the ritual being in the Greek language, even 

 amongst nations which understood not a word 

 of Greek. They also outdid the Roman Pon- 

 tiff, in ordaining that the upper clergy should 

 invariably be of the Greek race and tongue. 

 They recognized, indeed, that purely Greek 

 clergymen or papas would be very useless as 

 parish priests amongst Slavonian or Roumain 

 tribes, for the people would not have heeded a 

 priest not speaking their tongue. But a line of 

 separation was drawn between the upper and 

 lower, the titled and the working clergy. The 

 latter, as parish priests, were confined to their 

 humble task, and allowed to marry and mingle 

 with the population. But the bishoprics, ab- 

 bacies, and all lucrative and authoritative posi- 

 tions, were reserved for the Greek clergy, who 

 were brought up in convents, especially in 

 those of Mount Athos, whence they issued to 

 become bishops and archimandrites at Bucha- 

 rest, at Jassy, and elsewhere. In order that 

 this foreign race of clergy might not be isolated 

 in the Principalities, convents were founded 

 there of Greek monks, and richly endowed. 

 This was done at a time when the Fanariot 

 Greeks were always the functionaries and hos- 





