civilized Government is known to every one and may easily be verified by a visit to Sarajevo. The Austrians have made no attempt to interfere in any religious questions, they impartially protect and support all the sects they found, they pay Catholic, Orthodox, and True Believing religious bodies equally, and you may see there the astonishing sight of Mohammedan Turks, delivered at last from the tyranny of their own Government, going on Friday afternoon to offer most sincere prayers for their protector, Francis Joseph II.[1]
This ends the long story of the constitution of the sixteen independent Churches that make up the Orthodox Communion. It is unfortunate that it is almost entirely a story of internecine quarrels and mutual race-hatred. These quarrels certainly do not prevent the fact that thousands of simple Orthodox priests lead admirable lives in the service of Christ and work zealously for his cause among their people. The quarrels, as a rule, affect only the higher orders of the hierarchy, and they are the result, not of the Orthodox faith, but almost always of the hopeless confusion of races and violent national feelings among the members of this great body. But one conclusion seems inevitable. Catholics are also citizens of many States, and are still more divided among different nations. We have at least as many mutual race-antagonisms as the Orthodox; there are Polish and Russian Catholics, there are Greeks, Armenians,
- ↑ For Hercegovina and Bosnia see Silbernagl, pp. 63–65, and Echos d'Orient, ii. pp. 243–244; viii. pp. 35–40. The Russian official papers carry on a campaign of libel against the Austrian administration of these lands. When the governor, Baron von Kallay, whose indefatigable care for the good of the provinces was admired throughout civilized Europe, died in 1903, a Russian paper, inspired by its Government, wrote a scurrilous attack on him beginning: "Yesterday millions of hearts breathed again freely … at the death of Kallay a whole people as one man cried out: Glory to God in heaven! " &c. Really Kallay was the man who had built roads, established courts of law that every one had to respect, put down brigandage and religious persecution, and had taught these wretched people for the first time after four centuries of martyrdom what it is to sleep in safety without fear of having their throats cut in the night. But Austria is Catholic, and so the Russians like to pretend that she persecutes the Orthodox. The irony of Russians accusing another State of intolerance is really unique. J. V. Asboth: Bosnien und die Herzegowina (Vienna, 1888) gives an account of the enormous benefits wrought in these provinces by the Austrians since they have administered them.
