66 



BULGARIA. 



goris, when the royal court became the center 

 of a certain degree of culture. The kingdom 

 was afterward conquered by the Constantmo- 

 politan Emperors, but became again indepen- 

 dent in 1186; and during the reign of King 

 John II., 1218 to 1248, it attained such an ex- 

 tent that its boundaries touched the Adriatic, 

 ^Egean, and Black Seas. It then declined till, af- 

 ter the battle of Kosovo, in 1389, it was easily 

 overcome by the Turks. The ecclesiastical sys- 

 tem of the Greek Church having been extended 

 over Bulgaria, its churches fell under the juris- 

 diction of the Patriarchs of Constantinople. 

 Their authority was exercised in a despotic 

 manner, discriminating against the Bulgarians. 

 The services were conducted in Greek, the use 

 of the Bulgarian language on public occasions 

 was discontinued, and the people were deprived 

 of facilities for education beyond those afforded 

 by a few priestly schools. At the beginning 

 of the present century the Bulgarians were 

 among the most miserable and backward of 

 the inhabitants of the Turkish Empire. About 

 fifty years ago an awakening was begun, which 

 has resulted in the revival of a strong national 

 -spirit, the organization of popular schools in 

 the Bulgarian language throughout the country, 

 the establishment of the independence of the 

 Church, and the growth of a small but promis- 

 ing literature. 



The lessons taught in the gymnasium at Phil- 

 ippopolis comprise the Turkish, Greek, and 

 French languages, elementary mathematics, ge- 

 ography, Bulgarian and Turkish history, mental 

 and moral philosophy, religious and moral in- 

 struction, and church music. The larger schools 

 are provided with fine, spacious edifices, many 

 of which were specially erected for them. In- 

 struction is given free of cost in all the branch- 

 es of a common-school education. Until 1860 

 the schools were dependent entirely upon sub- 

 scriptions and charitable bequests. After the 

 Church was separated from the jurisdiction 

 of the patriarchate of Constantinople, a reap- 

 propriation of the ecclesiastical revenues was 

 made, and a part of them were set aside for 

 the purposes of education. At a later period 

 the local authorities of some places, as Philip- 

 popolis, were induced to allow a special tax to 

 be laid upon the Bulgarians for the benefit of 

 the schools. 



In 1876 fifty-one newspapers had been start- 

 ed, of which fourteen were established in 1875. 

 Most of these, however, were printed outside 

 of the limits of the present principality. Two 

 of them were literary, one was theological, 

 and three were technical. 



The autonomy of the Bulgarian Church as 

 an independent exarchate was secured in 1870, 

 after a hard and extraordinarily bitter con- 

 test of about thirty years with the Greek 

 clergy and the Patriarch of Constantinople. 

 In 1833 the people of Samokov and Scopie 

 asked for the appointment of Bulgarian bish- 

 ops instead of two Greek bishops who had 

 been removed, but the request was denied. 



A Bulgarian was appointed Bishop of Widin 

 in 1840, but he died while on a visit to Con- 

 stantinople, and it was charged that he was 

 poisoned. An insurrection broke out in Widin 

 ten years later, in view of which the Patriarch 

 was requested to consecrate a Bulgarian bish- 

 op. He obeyed, but left the bishop without 

 a see. When a National Assembly was called 

 to consider the question of reforms in 1858, 

 affairs were mananged so that the Bulgarians 

 should not be represented in it, and their re- 

 quests were again denied. Concerted measures 

 were instituted against the Phanariot (or 

 Greek) ecclesiastics in 1860, when the bishops 

 were driven away from several cities, and na- 

 tive bishops were appointed in their places. 

 The prayer for the Patriarch was omitted from 

 the services of the churches, the name of the 

 Sultan being substituted for his, and recognition 

 was refused about the same time to the elec- 

 tion of a new Patriarch. Finally, the Turkish 

 Government, after it had again failed twice to 

 gain the assent of the Patriarch to its propo- 

 sitions for the reform of the Bulgarian Church, 

 determined to act without regard to him, and 

 granted a firman on February 28, 1870, con- 

 stituting it a separate and independent juris- 

 diction. Bishop Anthrim, of Widin, was chosen 

 Exarch on the refusal of Ilaxion to accept the 

 office, and was consecrated by the command 

 of the Sultan. 



Manufacturing and business enterprises were 

 largely developed during the ten years preced- 

 ing the Russo-Turkish war of 1877, and many 

 towns on the northern and southern slopes of 

 the Balkans became prosperous and growing 

 industrial centers. Among them was Gabrova, 

 distinguished for its manufactures and schools; 

 Travna, where carvings in wood and pictures 

 were made ; Vratza, the seat of a varied trade, 

 and of leather, silk, and filigree works ; Sliv- 

 mia, Calofer, and Carlova, the seats of cloth and 

 woolen factories; Yamboli, a busy railway 

 station ; Batak, in a lumbering district of the 

 Rhodope Mountains ; and Kezanlik, on the 

 southern slope of the Balkans, the chief cen- 

 ter of the production of attar of roses. Most 

 of these places were destroyed or greatly in- 

 jured during the course of the war. 



The treaty of San Stefano defined the boun- 

 daries of Bulgaria so as to constitute a state, 

 which, including all the predominantly Bulga- 

 rian districts of European Turkey, both north 

 and south of the Balkans, should have an 

 area of about 79,400 square miles, and an 

 estimated population of between five and five 

 and a half millions. The included territory 

 extended from the boundaries of Servia and 

 Albania to the Black Sea, and from the Dan- 

 ube nearly to the ^Egean Sea, and took in 

 about fifty miles of the JEgean coast. Of the 

 coast lands, a small strip on either side of the 

 Salonican peninsula, and a district in eastern 

 Thrace, bounded on the west and north by a 

 line extending from Buruguel around Adrian- 

 ople and thence to Hakim Tobiasi, were left 



