328 



GREEK CHURCH. 



nationality, in 1856, again aroused the slum- 

 bering zeal of the Greeks, and the differences 

 between the two nationalities have continued 

 very active till the present time. The Porte 

 in 1862 named a mixed commission to investi- 

 gate and settle the difficulties. It proposed 

 two plans of adjustment. 



According to one of these plans, the Bulgarian 

 Church was to name the bishops of those dis- 

 tricts in which the Bulgarian population is in 

 the majority. The other plan accorded to the 

 Bulgarians the right to have a metropolitan in 

 every province, and a bishop in every dio- 

 cese where there is a strong Bulgarian popu- 

 lation. Both plans were rejected, and the 

 Turkish Government, having been to consider- 

 able pains for nothing, left the contentionists 

 to settle the controversy in their own way. 

 Accordingly, the Greek Patriarch, in 1869, pro- 

 posed a general council, and solicited the dif- 

 ferent churches of the Greek confession for 

 their opinions and advice on the subject. 

 Greece, Roumania, and Servia, declared them- 

 selves in favor of the council. On the other 

 hand, the Holy Synod of St. Petersburg, for the 

 Russian Church, declared the claims of the 

 Bulgarians to be excessive, and that, although 

 it considered a council the only lawful means 

 of settling the points at issue, it feared a schism 

 if the demands of the Bulgarians were not 

 contradicted, and was further afraid that the 

 fulfilment of the demands of the canons would 

 be refused, and advised the continuance of the 

 status quo. The real questions, of which the 

 settlement has been thus put off, are not eccle- 

 siastical, but national. The Bulgarians, how- 

 ever, irresolute as they may have been in for- 

 mer times in ecclesiastical concerns, are now 

 in earnest about them. They are not striving 

 for any change in the creed, but for a complete 

 separation from the jurisdiction of Constanti- 

 nople. The dissension between the Bulga- 

 rian nation and the Patriarch of Constantino- 

 ple has greatly favored the missionary efforts 

 of the Roman Catholic priests among them. 

 Several years ago the Pope appointed Mgr. So- 

 kolski the first bishop of those Bulgarians who 

 had entered the union with Rome, and who 

 constituted the nucleus of a united Bulgarian 

 Church, which, like the other united Oriental 

 Churches, accepts the doctrines of the Roman 

 Catholic Church, but is allowed to retain the 

 ancient customs of the national Church (mar- 

 riage of the priest, use of the Slavic language 

 at Divine service, etc.). Mgr. Sokolski was 

 quite on a sudden carried off from Constan- 

 tinople (as was commonly thought, by Russian 

 agents), and has never been heard of again. 

 In 1855 Raphael Popof was consecrated the 

 successor of Sokolski. He resides at Adrian- 

 ople, and under his administration the mem- 

 bership of the United Bulgarian Church in- 

 creased (up to 1869) to over 9,000 souls, of 

 vhom 3,000 live in Constantinople, 2,000 in 

 salomchi and Monastir, 1,000 in Adrianople, 

 and 3,000 m the vicinity of Adrianople. The 



clergy of this church consisted of ten secular 

 priests. 



Another difficulty arose in the Greek Church, 

 in the course of the year 1869, in consequence 

 of the excommunication of the new Patriarch 

 Nilos of Alexandria by the Patriarch of Con- 

 stantinople. The Patriarchs of Antioch and Je- 

 rusalem declared this measure to be entirely un- 

 justified. The Holy Synod of the Kingdom of 

 Greece sent the Archbishop of Phokis, one of 

 the most learned bishops of the Church, as 

 a special envoy to both parties, to prevent the 

 excommunication, but his mission was unsuc- 

 cessful. 



According to a summary which was furnished 

 to Prof. Seymour, of the General Theological 

 Seminary at New York, by the Rev. Charles 

 R. Hale, chaplain in the United States Navy, 

 the hierarchy of all the Russias consisted in 

 1868 of four metropolitans of Kiev and Ga- 

 licia, Novgorod and St. Petersburg, Moscow 

 and Kolomna, Lithuania and Yilna twenty- 

 one archbishops, thirty-two bishops, -twenty- 

 eight vicar-bishops, and sixteen bishops demis- 

 sionary. 



The Holy Governing Synod of all the Rus- 

 sias in that year was composed as follows : 

 Arsenius, Metropolitan of Kiev and Galicia; 

 Isidore, Metropolitan of Novgorod and St. 

 Petersburg; Innocent, Metropolitan of Moscow 

 and Kolomna; Joseph, Metropolitan of Li- 

 thuania and Yilna ; Eusebius, Exarch of Geor- 

 gia, Archbishop of Kartalenia and Cachetia ; 

 Eugene, Archbishop (Demissionary) of Jaroslav 

 and Rostov; Basil, Archbishop (Demissionary) 

 of Polotsk and Vitebsk; and the Archpriest 

 Basil Bajanoff, chaplain to their Majesties, and 

 Chaplain-General of the corps of Guards and 

 Grenadiers. Besides, the Archbishops of Nijni 

 Novgorod and Arsamas, and of Kharkov and 

 Aktyr, and the Archpriest John Rojdestvarsky, 

 the Ober-procurator and the Vice-procurator, 

 are entitled Prisoutsvouustchie, and take part 

 in the deliberations of the Holy Synod, but are 

 not, strictly speaking, members of it. 



The following statistics of the Russo-Greek 

 Church were compiled by the Countess Olga 

 Pontiatine for the year 1865 : monasteries, 393 ; 

 monks, 5,695; convents, 148; nuns, 3,069; 

 churches, 34,909; chapels, 130; parochial 

 clergy, 37,702; clerks and deacons, 76,587; 

 hospitals, etc., at monasteries and churches, 

 550; schools at monasteries and churches, 

 19,437; number of Orthodox, 55,000,000; num- 

 ber of converts: Roman Catholics, 49,000; 

 Armenians, 23 ; Protestants, 589 ; Rascolnicks, 

 1,407; Jews, 437; Mohammedans, 529'; heathen, 

 2,189; Edinowrtzi, 802. Total converts, 54,968. 

 There are no correct statistics as to convents 

 and nuns in the Crimea, Bessarabia, Ekateri- 

 noslav, Volhynia, Tomsk, and the Exarchate 

 of Georgia, nor concerning the churches and 

 clergy in Volhynia and Tomsk. In 1866, 519 

 churches were erected. 



The clergy of the Greek Orthodox Church 

 of Russia are divided into three classes : the 



