so far, signed the decree of Florence, and so at the end was recognized by the Pope.[1]
But the harm he had done was not appeased thereby. By this time the majority of the Greek community was definitely schismatical. Facéa, after his lurid career, kept the allegiance of but few. He died not long after, and it seems that what was left of a Uniate party among the Greeks of Venice died with him. From now all the community is Orthodox. In 1781 they got the Orthodox Metropolitan of Kerkyra and Zakynthos to come and minister to them. He was the last Greek bishop at Venice. But the people ever since have been in union with the Œcumenical Patriarch. When Napoleon conquered Venice (1797) he proclaimed entire liberty of conscience for all the Orthodox in its territory. In 1808 he ordered that the Orthodox of Dalmatia should elect a bishop, and should have a chapter and a seminary for the education of their clergy. There was to be a synod to consider future arrangements. By the Treaty of Pressburg (1805) Austria obtained Venice. The Austrian Government also allowed full liberty to the Orthodox; so does the Italian Government (since 1866). There is still a flourishing Greek community in the city; but it is entirely Orthodox.[2] The Church of St George[3] is now an Orthodox church.[4]
In the sixteenth century there was also a community of Greek merchants and exiles at Ancona. They, too, on their arrival in Italy, professed to be Uniates in communion with the Pope. Probably, as in the case of all these Greeks in Italy, they did not really care much about the matter one way or the other; but they foresaw that it would be impossible to maintain a schismatical community in Italy (all the more since Ancona was in the Papal states), so they accepted union with Rome, caring only to keep their rite and
- ↑ The case of Facéa is told in full, with the documents (six excommunications, three by the Pope and three by the Œcumenical Patriarch), in a curious little work, M. J. F. le Bret, "Acta ecclesiæ græcæ annorum 1762 et 1763, siue de schismate recentissimo in eccl. gr. subnato commentatio," Stuttgard, 1764.
- ↑ Till 1904, or thereabouts, the official press which printed all Orthodox liturgical books was the τυπογραφία ὁ φοῖνιξ at Venice. Now it has been removed to Patras.
- ↑ "S Giorgio dei Greci," in the Rio dei Greci between St Mark and the Arsenal. It is a very fine specimen of a Byzantine church with a handsome Ikonostasion. It has a leaning tower.
- ↑ For the Greek community at Venice, besides the works quoted, see the history of Ἰωάννης Βελοῦδος (Giovanni Veludo): Ἑλλήνων ὀρθοδόξων ἀποικία ἐν Βενετίαις (Venice, 1872).
