TURKISH
101
TURKISH
setting of the sun). Islam is going through a crisis by
contact with the Western world, and under the influ-
ence of Christianity many of the enlightened Turks
dream of reforming its morals. On the other hand
there has always been a certain opposition between
the Arabs, who pretend to represent the pure Mussul-
man tradition, and the Turks. The pan-Islamic policy
of Abdul-Hamid ha<l weakened this opposition, and
he had availed himself of his title of caliph to form
relations with Mussulmans of the entire world.
To-day the pan-Islamist movement, of which the University of El-.\zhar at Cairo is one of the principal centres, and which has numerous journals at its com- mand, seems to be unfavourable to the Turkish Cali- phate. The society "Al Da' wat wal Irchad" is about to create in Egypt a new university destined to form Mussulman missionaries.
(2) Greek Orthodox Church. — The principal indige- nous Christian community is the Greek Church, which is the survival of the religious organization of the Byzantine Empire. Its head, the "(Ecumenical Patriarch of the Romans" (such is his official title), resides at Constantinople, in the Phanar quarter. He presides over a Holy Synod formed of twelve metro- politans and a "mi.\ed council", composed of four metropolitans and eight laymen. Two million souls obey him. The cccumenical territory is divided into 100 eparchies or dioceses (83 metropoHtans and 17 bishops). Since the schisms of Photius (S67) and of Michael Cserularius (1054), the Greek Church has been separated from Rome by a succession of ritual and disciplinary observances rather than by dogmatic differences. The tendency of the Greek Church to autonomy has brought about the crumbling of patri- archal authority and the forming of autocephalous churches; outside of the Ottoman Empire may be found the Russian Church, the Church of the King- dom of Greece, the Servian Church, the Church of Cyprus: in the empire, even since the firman of Abdul- .\ziz (11 March, 1870), the Bulgarians have organized an independent church under the name of "Exarch- ate". The Bulgarian Exarch resides at Orta-Keui on the Bosporus and governs 3,000,000 souls; Thrace and Macedonia are divided into 21 Bulgarian eparchies, but a Holy Synod resides at Sofia. The Arabic- speaking Syrians, or Melchites who are attached to the Orthodox Church, are under the authority of the Patriarch of Antioch, who resides at Damascus, of the Patriarchs of Jerusalem and of Alexandria, and of the .Archbishop of Sinai, all independent of Constanti- nople.
The Greek Church has two divisions of clergy, one consisting of the popes or papas, who marry before they take orders and cannot become bishops; the other, called the upper clergy, chosen from among the monks. The monasteries are quite numerous. Those of Mount Athos form a veritable independent repub- lic composed of twenty convents governed by the Council of the Holy Epistasia; its head, the prolc- pislates, is chosen in turn from the monasteries of the great Laura, Iviron, Vatopedi, Khilandariou, and Dyonisiou. The Greek Church has no organized missions, but the Hellenic propaganda is maintained at least in the schools throughout Macedonia, where there is antagonism between the Greeks and Bul- garians: the latter have had often to defend their re- ligious and national independence against the former.
(3) Dissentinq Churche.i. — \ certain number of re- ligious communities represent the early and schismat- ical heretical sects who have remained .separate from the Greek Church; a portion of the.se Christians have, however, returned to the Catholic Church. The Gregorian .Xrmenians (who connect themselves with St. Gregory the Illuminator) have been separated since the Council of Chalcedon (4.51). They have many beads, the Catholicos of I>t.schmiadzin in Ru.ssian terri- tory, the Catholicos of Sis (200,000 faithful in Cilicia
and Syria), and the Armenian Patriarch of Constan-
tinople, who is assisted by a national assembly of
400 members and two councils, civil and ecclesiastical
(SOO.OOO faithful, divided among 51 dioce-ses); finally,
the .\rnienian Patriarch of Jeru.salem, in communion
with Constantinople. On the Turco-Per^ian frontier
may be fountl about 100,000 Nestorians, whose patri-
arch resides at Kotchanes; his dignity is hereditary
from uncle to nephew; many have been reunited to
the Roman Church. The Monophysites, or Jacobites,
to the number of 80,000 in Syria, Mesopotamia, and
Kurdistan, represent the remnants of a church that
was once powerful; its head, who calls himself Patri-
arch of Antioch, resides at the Monastery of Dar-uz-
Zafaran, between Diarbekir and Mardin.
(4) The Catholic Church in the Turkish Empire com- prises two classes of faithful: those of the Latin Rite, and those who preserve their traditional rites, and are united to the Holy See, whence the name Greek- Uniats, Armenian-Uniats, etc. Turkey, a missionary country, depends directly on the Congregation of the Propaganda, which has as representatives three apostolic delegates, at Constantinople, Beirut, and B.agdad ; assisting them are vicars and prefects Apo.s- tolic, heads of the mission and provided with episco- pal powers (except the power of conferring major orders). The Latin Catholics are scattered over the entire empire, although 148,000 .Albanians form an important grouji under the Archliishn]5s of Durazzo, Uskub, Scut:iri, and the Abbot of St. Alexander of Orochifor tlir Minlites.
The Uiiials ((iTiiprise many distinct groups: (a) the Greeks, whose unioii was proclaimed by the Council of Florence in 1438, live in Italy and Corsica (Alba- nian colony of Cargese). In the Turkish Empire there are only some hundred or so placed under the au- thority of the Apostolic delegate of Constantinople. Among the popes who have striven most to bring about a union with the Greeks Benedict XIV must be remembered, and Leo XIII (Encvclical "Orientalium dignitas", 30 Nov., 1894). (b) The Melchite Greeks (liO,000), in Syria, Palestine, Egypt; their patriarch resides at Damascus, and has under his jurisdiction three vicariates (Tarsus, Damietta, and Palmyra) and eleven bishops, (c) The Bulgarian-Uniats, con- verted about 1860 to escape from the Phanariot des- potism. There remain 13,000 directed by the vicars- Apostolic of Adrianople and Salonica. (d) The Ar- menian Uniats, organized since 1724 under the Patriarch of Cilicia and Little Armenia, who reside at Zmar in the Lebanon. In 1857 Pius IX conferred this title on the .Armenian .Archbishop of Constantinople (70,000 faithful, 2 archbi.^hops, of Aleppo and Sivas, 12 bishops, the most of whom are in Persia and Egypt), (e) The Syrian Uniats, converted by Latin missionaries in 1665; a firman of 1830 has recog- nized its autonomy (40,000 faithful, a patriarch re- .siding at Beirut, and 12 dioceses), (f) The Chaldsean Uniats, Nestorians converted to Catholicism in 1552. Their Patriarch of Babylon resides at Mossoul (80,000 faithfid). (g) The Maronites of the ancient Lebanon, a Monothelite community which abjured its heresy entirely in 1182. Its head. Patriarch of .Anti- och, resides at Bekerkey, near Beirut ; he has 7 arch- bishops under his jurisiliction. The 300,000 faithful have remained particularly attached to Catholicism.
V. Catholic .and Protk.stant Missions. — The Christian propaganda has been carried on in the Turkish Empire by means of the missions, the oldest of which date back to the time of the Crusades. As early as 122!) Franciscan and Dominican missions were established in Palestine and as far as Damascus. In 1328 the Franciscans received the "custody" of the Holy Places, and constructed their convents of the Mount of Sion, of the Holy Sepulchre, and of Bethlehem. To-day the Franciscan custody of the Holy Land numbers 338 religious. The missionaries
