Photo by IJ. VV. Iddings. Copyright by Keystone View Co. 



mohamme;dan womkn: rustchuk, Bulgaria 



under an Exarch resident at Constanti- 

 nople (February 28, 1870). 



The creation of an autonomous Bul- 

 garian Church possessed important po- 

 litical significance. Not only was the ex- 

 istence of the Bulgarian nation recog- 

 nized, but its geographical limits were to 

 some extent defined, the right of ap- 

 pointment to dioceses (under Article 10) 

 extending as far south as Fiorina. Un- 

 daunted by its defeat, the Greek Patri- 

 archate continued to resist, and contrived 

 to delay the execution of the firman till 

 1872, when the first Bulgarian Exarch, 

 Mgr. Antim, was elected. It then shot 

 its last bolt by declaring the new church 

 schismatic and excommunicating all its 

 adherents. No doctrinal apostasy could 



be alleged against the Bulgarians, whose 

 aim was to reconstitute the old autoceph- 

 alous national church formerly repre- 

 sented by the patriarchates of Preslav, 

 Tirnovo, and Ochrida. But, while the an- 

 cient Patriarchates and the various non- 

 Greek autocephalous churches were es- 

 tablished in independent States, the new 

 Bulgarian Church was set up side by side 

 with the Greek Patriarchate in the Otto- 

 man Empire, the principality of Bul- 

 garia not being then in existence. The 

 indignation of the Greeks may therefore 

 be easily understood. 



The fulmination of the Patriarchate 

 has exercised a deterrent influence over 

 a certain portion of the Bulgarian popu- 

 lation, which, fearing the reproach of 



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