astical disputes between these two parties as ludicrous to the outsider as they are degrading to the Orthodox Church.[1] But now it seems that the Vlachs are going to get what they want. On May 23, 1905, Abdurrahman Pasha, Minister of Justice and Religion, sent to the Œcumenical Patriarch a copy of the Teskereh, by which the Sultan has constituted a Roumanian Church in Macedonia. "The Government," says this inimitable person, "treats all the different nations who live under the paternal care of His Imperial Majesty the Sultan on a footing of perfect equality." Therefore it decrees that the Vlachs "are not to be prevented from having their own priests and their own language in the liturgy, they may teach their own language in their schools, choose their own moukhtars (village headmen), and be admitted to the election for local municipal councils." "But," continues this Canonical Lawgiver, "they shall still be dependent from the Œcumenical Patriarch." "This decision has been submitted to H.I.M. your august sovereign, and has received his imperial sanction. Wherefore I have to inform Your Holiness of what is above." Having laid down so much Canon Law, Abdurrahman proceeds to date his decree, 18 Rabi‘ al-awwal, 1323.[2] The latest news from Constantinople is that the Phanar is indignantly
- ↑ Here is one example for many: "In 1904 a Vlach died at Monastir. His relations wanted to bury him in Roumanian, the Greeks insisted on Greek. The Bishop (a Greek) forbade a Roumanian funeral, the relations would not have a Greek one. As usual, both sides appealed to the judge of ecclesiastical affairs, the Turkish Kaimakam. The Kaimakam, as usual, could do nothing without instructions from Constantinople, and the Porte, as usual, could not make up its mind. So there came a preliminary order to put off the funeral till the Government had considered the case. Meanwhile, as it was becoming quite time to do something, the wretched man was embalmed. Time passed and nothing was settled. Then both sides began fighting over the body, the market-place was shut up, and two charges of cavalry could not disperse the mob. The Wali, desperate and helpless, at last telegraphed direct to the Sultan imploring him to let the man be buried somehow before the mob had pulled the town down. At last the decision came. The Government could not afford to gratify either side, so the man was to be just put in the ground without any burial service at all. See the newspaper report in Brailsford: Macedonia, pp. 189–190. "Nothing," adds Mr. Brailsford, "could be more Turkish, and nothing could be more Greek."
- ↑ E. d'Or. viii. pp. 302, 303.
