be formed. As the Phanar would not hear of such a thing, the Russians then turned to the Porte, and made it set up a new millet—the Orthodox Bulgarian nation. Since the Sultan had agreed, it did not matter in the least what the Patriarch did, so the millet was duly constituted, and the Bulgarian Church was born. To stop the Catholic movement the Russians then kidnapped Sokolski, and shut him up in Kiev till he apostatized and turned Orthodox again.[1] Religious motives count for nothing in this story,[2] the only thing the Bulgars wanted was to be a nation, and as soon as they found they could be one without the Pope, they gave up the idea of being Catholic.[3] What has made this quarrel specially bitter is that the Bulgars are not content with a local autocephalous Church covering a certain area. That is bad enough, but the Phanar has so often had to accept such an arrangement that it would without doubt have done so in this case, too. But the Bulgars have taken more than that. Like the Armenians, they want all their people to belong to their Church wherever they may live; and so they measure the jurisdiction of their hierarchy, not by area, but by nationality and language. As head of their Church they set up a bishop with the title of Exarch in Constantinople, and he and his suffragans, with the consent of the Porte, have jurisdiction over Bulgars all over Turkey. This the Phanar cannot forgive. In 1872, Anthimos VI of Constantinople[4] held a great synod, in which he excommunicated the Bulgarian Exarch and all his followers, and declared them guilty, not only of schism, but of the new heresy of Philetism, which means national feeling in Church matters. The Acts of this synod were signed by Anthimos, by the four ex- Patriarchs of Constantinople who were then waiting for a chance of re-election, by the other Patriarchs, except Cyril of Jerusalem, who dared not offend the
- ↑ E. d'Or. vii. p. 36. There is no doubt about the kidnapping. See Brailsford, Macedonia, p. 73.
- ↑ How little religion matters is shown by the fact that when, in 1903, they found that Russia would not help them, they all wanted to turn Catholic or Protestant, to get the sympathy of either Austria or England. Brailsford, o.c. p. 74.
- ↑ There is, however, still a small Uniate Bulgarian Church.
- ↑ 1845–1848, restored 1853–1855, and again 1871–1873.
