222 



MOUNT ATHOS. 



dascaloi school-masters, and the higher orders of their clergy are 

 selected from this place. If it sometimes hides a culprit who has fled 

 from public justice, yet that criminal most probably reforms his 

 life in a residence so well calculated to bring his mind to reflection. 

 The oath of a person who becomes caloyer on Mount Athos is 

 very solemn and simple ; it implies an absolute renunciation of the 

 world, enjoining the person who makes it to consider himself as quite 

 dead to its concerns. Some are so conscientiously observant of this 

 vow, that they never afterwards use their family name, never corres- 

 pond with any of their relatives or former friends, and decline in- 

 forming strangers from what country or situation of life they have 

 retired. 



By the rules of the institution, every convent on Mount Athos, 

 and indeed throughout the whole Turkish Empire is ordered to show 

 hospitality to strangers who present themselves at their gate, whether 

 they be Greeks, heretics or infidels ; nor are they permitted to ask 

 for payment from any pilgrim or other visitor for the provisions 

 which they may give them. The reception we in general had 

 experienced was polite, and apparently disinterested. In convers- 

 ation with their prelates and some of the well-educated caloyers, I 

 so often found what I judged to be religious moderation, that I was 

 once induced to show them a Greek version of the English Liturgy ; 

 but when they saw that we kept Easter at the time affixed by the 

 Gregorian or Romish calendar, that we laid down no precise rules 

 about the mode of fasting, that our creed asserts the procession of 

 the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, I saw such a disposi- 

 tion for controversy arise, that I ever afterwards abstained from all 

 allusion to similar subjects. They admit the propriety of allowing the 

 parochial clergy to marry ; but a priest who has been married is never 

 advanced to any of the dignities of the Greek Church. The Pa- 

 triarchs and bishops must be i'epc; |noW^o< or celibataries. They ob- 

 serve a number of ceremonies in their public worship. At day- 

 break on the morning of Easter-day, they perform a sort of dramatic 



