Turkey
Turkey is the largest Mohammedan empire of the world, containing extensive possessions in Eastern Europe, Western Asia, and Northern Africa. Including the provinces in Europe and Africa, which are virtually independent, and only pay an annual tribute to the Turkish government, the Turkish Empire, in 1880, had an area of 2,302,000 square miles, and 47,000,000 inhabitants. In consequence of the treaty of Berlin in 1878, Turkey had to recognize the entire independence of Roumania and Servia, and to consent to the occupation of Bosnia and Herzegovina by the government of Austria. Moreover, Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia have become virtually independent of Turkish rule, leaving to the Turkish government only a small territory in Europe which is fully under its control. In Africa, Egypt and Tunis are likewise independent in point of administration. Deducting the dependencies, the Turkish government at present rules over a territory of 1,043,000 square miles, with a population of 23,500,000. In June, 1880, the Supplementary Conference at Berlin declared that in order to carry out the provisions of the treaty of Berlin concerning the rectification of the frontier between Turkey and Greece, Turkey ought to cede to Greece a territory containing about 8292 square miles and 400,000 inhabitants.
Note by the Editor. — For the purpose of enabling our readers to understand more fully the present complicated boundaries of Turkey, we insert a map based upon the one recently issued by Stanford, of Charing Cross, London. It will be perceived that, in consequence of the late Russo- Turkish war, Turkey has lost far more than half her European possessions, which are to be bounded henceforth by the Balkan Mountains instead of the River Save and the eastern Carpathian chain. Romania, Bulgaria, Servia, Bosnia, and Montenegro are wholly severed from her. Bulgaria has lost a slice of her territory on the west, given to Servia, and another on the north-east, given to Romania. Montenegro has gained a piece on the north- west from Bosnia, and another on the south-east from Turkey. Bosnia, including the part of Croatia formerly in Turkey, together with Herzegovina, has been occupied by Austria, and is not likely to be restored to Turkey. Greece gains a part of Albania and Thessaly and Russia that part of Romania (bounded by the Pruth and the Danube) adjoining Bessarabia (which she already held). In Asia Russia also acquires a district of Armenia adjoining Batum. Besides, there is created a quasi-independent district of Eastern Romania, within the above narrowed limits of Turkey. Turkey in Europe virtually now consists merely of am part of Romania and a part of Albania. The interior changes ill territory and population made by the Berlin treaty are stated as follows in the London Athenmeum. Estimates of other statisticians vary considerably from these figures tants, to Russia. If we exclude the provinces "indefinitely" to be occupied by Austria, and Eastern Romania, there remain to Turkey in Europe only 74,790 square miles, with 4,779,000 inhabitants, of whom 1,521,500 are Mohammedans. In Armenia Russia takes 10,000 square miles, with about 350,000 inhabitants. Cyprus, entrusted to the keeping of England, has an area of 2288 square miles, and about 150,000 inhabitants. Many of these accessions, however, are already the fruitful source of contention, and some of them will probably have to be taken possession of by force of arms. Greece is at the present moment (Aug. 1880) preparing to do so for her share. It is impossible now to predict what the issue will be.]
The former volumes of this Cyclopaedia have special articles on SEE BULGARIA, SEE EGYPT, SEE ROUMANIA, SEE SERVIA; and on some of the Eastern Churches which are wholly or chiefly found in Turkey, as the JACOBITES, NESTORIANS, and MARONITES. In the present article, after giving such preliminary information of a general character as the intense interest at present prevailing on the Oriental question seems to demand, we treat, more particularly, of the religions of Turkey proper, so far as they have not yet been discussed in the special articles which have just been referred to.
I. Geographical and Ethnological Features. — The geographical position of the Turkish empire is peculiar, and would, under a strong government, be most advantageous. It connects Europe with Asia, Asia with Africa, the East with the West the Mohammedan with the Christian world. It has an extensive seacoast, which is indented by numerous gulfs and bays, and embraces many excellent harbors; Some parts of this coast were in former times the seat of a very flourishing commerce, which would undoubtedly be revived under favorable circumstances. Almost the entire territory which is subject to direct Turkish rule is noted for its fertility; but Turkish misrule has not only arrested, but diminished, its productiveness. By far the greater portion of the Turkish possessions is situated in Asia. The European possessions have always been much smaller, but as they contained the capital and seat of government, they have hitherto been of much greater political importance. This importance has, however, of late been greatly reduced by the territorial losses which Turkey has sustained by the last Eastern war and the treaty of Berlin. The African part of the Turkish empire consists almost wholly of tributary states; and the farther the territory of one of these states, Egypt, is extended, the smaller becomes the hold the Turkish government has on it. Although ruling over portions of Europe, Asia, and Africa, Turkey is really an Asiatic power.
While the Turks are the ruling race of the empire, they constitute a majority of the total population only in the Asiatic possessions. Even Asiatic Turkey can hardly be said to be an Ottoman land, for the bulk of the people are descendants of the old Seljukian Turks who have been subjected by the Ottoman Turks. In the African dependencies the Turks are hardly represented at all, and in Europe they are almost everywhere in a minority. According to an elaborate article on the ethnographical relations of Turkey in Petermann's Geographische Mittheilungen, 1876, No. 7, the Turks are to be found as a compact population only in three sanjaks, those of Rustchuk, Tulcha, and Varna. These three sanjaks formed part of the vilayet of the Danube. They are less numerous in the Rhodope Mountains. On the shores of the AEgean Sea and the Sea of Marmora, and on the south-east shore of the Black Sea, they are greatly outnumbered by the Greeks, especially in the direction of Constantinople. It is a remarkable fact that all the sanjaks which contain the most compact Turkish population are now subject to the semi-independent prince of Christian Bulgaria and to the Christian governor of the autonomous province of Eastern Romania. The aggregate number of the Osmanli Turks in Europe, including Bulgaria, Eastern Romania, Bosnia, and Herzegovina, is estimated at about 2,000,000. Exclusive of these provinces, over which the authority of the sultan is not likely to be ever restored, the number of Osmanlis will barely reach 1,000,000 in a total population of about 5,000,000. In Asia the Turkish race is supposed to number more than 8,500,000 of a total population of 17,000,000; but this number embraces many old tribes who have been totally absorbed and merged in the Turks. The Turcomans, who live chiefly in Northern Mesopotamia, and number about 100,000, belong to the same race as the Turks.
Up to the time of the late Eastern war, the bulk of the population in the European dominions of Turkey was made up of five non-Turkish tribes — Roumanians, Servians, Bulgarians, Greeks, and Albanians. The Roumaians, who chiefly inhabit the principality of Roumania, where they number about 5,000,000, have long been semi-independent of Turkey, and became entirely independent by the treaty of Berlin. Only about' 200,000 remain subject to Turkish rule. Outside of Roumania and Turkey, Austria has a Roumanian population exceeding three millions. West and south of the Roumanians we find two branches of the Slavic race, the Servians and the Bulgarians. The Servians embrace the inhabitants of the principalities of Servia and Montenegro, and of Bosnia and Herzegovina. Both Montenegro (q.v.) and Servia (q.v.) are now independent states; Bosnia and Herzegovina have been placed under Austrian administration, and are likely to become soon a part of the Austrian empire. In Bosnia, the landed aristocracy, after the conquest of the country by the Turks, became Mohammedans, in order to save their property and their privileges, but they continue to speak the Servian language. Outside of the present and former dominions of the sultan, Austria has a Servian population of about 4.500,000, called Croatians, Slavonians; Dalmatians, and Slovenians. The large majority of the Servians belong to the Greek Oriental Church; but in Austria and in Bosnia there is also a large Roman Catholic element. According to a recent work by Klaic on Bosnia (Agram, 1878), written in the Croatian language, the population of Bosnia is divided, as regards the religious denominations, into Orthodox Greek Church, 646,678, or 48.4 percent; Mohammedans. 480,596, or 35.9 percent; Roman Catholics, 207,119, or 15.5 percent; and Jews, 3000, or 2 percent; but in regard to race, 1,291,393 of this population are Slaves, only 2000 Osmanli Turks, 30,000 Albanians, and 11,000 gypsies. Tie Servians of all the different denominations in Austria and the former Turkish dominions are only' now awakening to the full significance of the fact that their common language makes them joint members of one nationality, and a strong movement towards uniting at some future time all these members into one state has set in. Although the Mohammedan Bosnians are strongly opposed to this union movement, as well as to the annexation of their province to Austria, the rule of the Osmanli Turks over the Servian nationality may be said to be at an end.
The second Slavic race of European Turkey is the Bulgarians. They occupy the country south of the Danube, their southern ethnic boundary being a line passing through the towns of Nissa, Prisrend, Ochrida, Kastoria, Niagostos, Salonica, Adrianople, and Burgas, on the Black Sea. The number of Bulgarians is estimated at from three to four millions. After four centuries and a half of oppression, they were considered at the beginning of the 19th century the most wretched people of Europe. Then a marvelous awakening began. SEE BULGARIA. In spite of all oppression, they laid the foundation of a national system of education, and re-established the independence of their national Church. The treaty of San Stefano, March 3, 1878, between Russia and Turkey, provided for the establishment' of' Bulgaria as a tributary Ottoman principality and a national militia. The principality thus constituted would have extended from the boundaries of Servia and Albania to the Black Sea, and from the Danube nearly to the AEgean Sea, taking in about fifty miles of the AEgean coast. It would have included all the predominantly Bulgarian districts, both north and south of the Balkans, containing an aggregate of 79,400 square miles and an estimated population of between five and five and a half millions. But although the Bulgarians would have been the dominant race, a considerable number of Turks, Servians, and Greeks would have been merged in the Bulgarian majority. The treaty of Berlin of July 13, 1878, greatly modified this plan. The tributary principality of Bulgaria, as constituted by it, contains only 33,000 square miles and about 1,860,000 inhabitants. The Bulgarian districts south of the Balkans were constituted as the autonomous province of Eastern Roumelia, the governor of which must be a Christian, but is appointed by the Turkish government with the consent of the treaty powers. Eastern Roumelia ,has about 13,664 square miles and 850,000 inhabitants, of whom about 600,000 are Bulgarians, 150,000 Greeks, and 70,000 Turks. The aggregate population of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia reaches about 3,000,000, of whom fully 2,500,000 are Bulgarians, and the remainder mostly Turks and Greeks. The Mohammedan population is estimated at from 800,000 to 950,000, but fully two thirds of them are of Bulgarian descent. The Bulgarians, generally, were greatly dissatisfied with the provisions of the treaty of Berlin, and a strong movement began at once for a reunion of Bulgaria and Eastern Roumelia, which can hardly fail to be ere long successful, and result in the emancipation of the entire Bulgarian population from Turkish rule.
The Greeks, or Hellenes, have a numerical preponderance in the southern part of European Turkey, especially in Thessaly, Epirus, Southern Macedonia, and the islands, the most important of which is Crete. They are the most civilized among the Christian races of Turkey. Their number is estimated at about 1,000,000 in European and 1,000,000 in Asiatic Turkey. The people of the predominantly Greek districts expressed during the late civil war a desire to be annexed to the kingdom of Greece, and the government of that kingdom made in January, 1879, an attempt to occupy these districts. The attempt had, however, to be abandoned at the request of the great powers. The Congress of Berlin expressed a desire that the frontier between Greece and Turkey should be rectified to the advantage of the former power, and offered the mediation of the great powers in case Turkey and Greece should be unable to agree. As this agreement was not reached, the supplementary congress held in Berlin in June, 1880, designated the new frontier between the two states. In Asia, the Greeks are fast occupying the seaports and coast of Asia Minor, from which the Turks are steadily retiring before them, and it is believed by many that a vigorous Greek kingdom in Europe would soon find a legitimate field of expansion along the coast of Asia no less than that of Europe.
The Albanians occupy the country south of the Servians and Bulgarians, and north of the Greeks. Their number is estimated at from 1,200;000 to 2,000,000. More than one half of them have embraced Islam, though it is said that many of the Mohammedan Albanians remain secretly Christian. They are divided into a number of tribes. Some of the most warlike mountain tribes are Roman Catholics. In the frontier districts the Albanians are greatly mixed with Servians in the north and with Greeks in the south. They opposed with great vigor the cession to Montenegro by the Turkish government of some districts largely inhabited by Albanians, and declared an intention to oppose no less vigorously the cession of some of their southern districts to Greece. The Albanians are the only one of the five non-Turkish nationalities of European Turkey which shows some kind of attachment to the Ottoman government. This must partly be explained by the predominance among them of Mohammedanism, and partly by their determination not to be absorbed by Servians and Greeks. The increasing consolidation of Servians, Bulgarians, and Greeks will, however, cut them off from Constantinople, and make it impossible for them to remain a Turkish province.
A curious fact in the relation of the different races that people European Turkey is the irregular manner in which they are distinguished and mingled. "No locality," says Baker, in his Turkey, "can be found where the population is exclusively of the same nationality; but a rival race crops up here and there, and jostles its neighbors. We find, for instance, a quarter where the majority of the population are Bulgarians; but among them in considerable numbers are Turks, Greeks, Circassians, and gypsies. In another quarter the majority are Albanians, but they again have to bear the friction of Bulgarians, Wallachians, Greeks, and Turks; and so on all over the country. Each of these nations has its own language, religion, and customs; and it therefore follows that the difficulty of governing the mass lies in a direct ratio to the number of races represented in it." This irregular distribution of races has, however, been considerably affected by the close of the Eastern war, when, especially, large numbers of Turks and Bulgarians left their endangered homes, and emigrated to districts predominantly inhabited by coreligionists. The Austrian consul Sax (in Oesterreichische Monatsschruffür den Orient, 1878) estimates the number of those who from the spring of 1877 to the close of, 1878 changed their residence at more than one million.
II. Origin and Political History. — The Turks are first heard of in history when they emerged from the regions of Central Asia, and emigrated, early in the Christian sera, to the neighborhood of the Aral and Caspian seas. In the 6th century they formed an alliance with the Roman emperor Justin II; in the 7th they began to learn the Mohammedan religion at the hands of the Saracens. After their conversion to Mohammedanism they rapidly rose in power and influence. One branch, which, after its leader, Seljuk, received the name of Seljukian Turks, subjugated a large portion of Persia, and thence spread into Syria, Armenia, Georgia, and Lower Egypt. Under Malek Shah, the grandson of Seljuk, the dynasty of the Seljukian Turks was in the 11th century the greatest power in Asia. They gradually pressed their conquests to the West, and from this time a more special and crying persecution of the Christians began. After Malek's death, the empire was divided into smaller states, which became rivals, and were finally extinguished in the 13th century by the irruption of the Moguls under Genghis Khan. . Then the history (of the Ottoman Turks begins. The first mention of them is made at the beginning of the 13th century, when they emigrated, under the name of Oghuze Turks, from the main body in Khorassan, Persia, to the mountains in Armenia, whence a part removed and settled near Angora, still acknowledging the suzerainty of the Seljukian sultan of Iconium. Partly at the expense of the Greeks, partly at that of other Turkish emirs or princes, the leaders of this band, Ertoghrul and his son Othman, or Osman, gradually grew in power. Othman became the most powerful prince in Western Asia and from him his followers took the name by which this branch of the Turks has ever since been designated, that of Ottoman, or Osmanli. Shortly before the death of Othman, in 1326, his armies took Brousa, which became the Asiatic capital of the Ottomans. With Othman's son, Orkhan the Ottoman empire begins. He made himself entirely independent of the Seljukian sultan, though he continued to bear the inferior title of emir. During his reign Gallipoli, in the Thracian Chersonesus, the first acquisition of the Turks in Europe, was conquered, in 1357, and all of Western Asia occupied. He imposed upon the conquered Christian nations the tribute of children, who were brought up in the Mohammedan faith, and out of whom was formed the famous force of the Janizaries, who for three centuries constituted the strength of the Ottoman armies in the reign of Murad I, the successor of Orkhan, Adrianople was taken, which became the European capital of the Ottomans till they captured Constantinople. When the Turks entered Europe, the territory of the Greek empire was almost limited to a quadrangle extending from Constantinople to Adrianople, and from the Black Sea to the Archipelago, to a small part of the coast near Thessalonica, and the larger portion of the Peloponnesus. The bulk of what subsequently became European Turkey consisted of the empire of Servia, extending from the Danube to the Peloponnesus, and bounded on the west by Bosnia and the Adriatic Sea; and of the kingdom of Bulgaria, extending from the Danube to Adrianople bounded on the east by the Black Sea. The frontier between Bulgaria and Servia was constantly changing. When the Turks began to get a foothold, Widdin and Sophia were the nearest Bulgarian towns to the frontier. At this time the power of Servia began to go down after the death of Stephen Dushan, its greatest ruler, and Bulgaria began to split up into three separate kingdoms. Thus both were unable to resist the advancing Turks. In 1363 the Bulgarian city of Philippopolis was taken. About 1371 the chief of the three Bulgarian kingdoms, that of Tirnova, became tributary. For a while a Slavic confederation, under the Bosnian king Stephen, won some successes; but in the great battle of Kossova, in 1389, the confederate Bosnians, Servians, Bulgarians, and Wallachians were utterly defeated. Two or three years later, Servia and Wallachia became tributary, and the greater part of Bulgaria was conquered. Murad's son, Bajazet I, was the first to exchange the humbler title of emir for that of sultan, and also the first who attacked Constantinople. The progress of the Turks was arrested by the stunning defeat which they suffered in 1402 at Angora, at the hand of Timur, the famous Tamerlane; but they recovered their power under Bajazet's grandson, Murad II (1421-51), who conquered Thessalonica, Corinth, Patras, and a part of Albania, which was heroically defended by the great Scanderbeg. His son, Mohammed II (1451-81), conquered Constantinople, and thereby destroyed the Greek empire. He reduced, in 1459, Servia from a tributary principality to an Ottoman province; in 1463 Bosnia was annexed; in 1461, the Christian empire of Trebizond, in Asia; in 1466, Caramania; in 1479, the Peloponnesus, which at that time belonged to the Venetians. In 1480 Otranto, in Italy, was captured; and the design was openly avowed to conquer all of Western Europe and to exterminate Christianity. But Mohammed's death, in 1481, put an end to these schemes; Otranto was soon abandoned, and no further progress was ever made west of the Adriatic. The conquests of Mohammed gave to the Turkish empire about the same extent it had before the late Eastern war. In the whole of the Balkan peninsula only the small mountain district of Montenegro has kept its independence to our own times. Selim the Inflexible (1512-19) warred against Mohammedan enemies, and annexed Syria and Egypt to his dominions. From the last of a line of nominal caliphs Selim obtained a cession of his rights, and ever since the Ottoman sultans have been acknowledged as chiefs of their religion by all Mussulmans of the Sunnite sect. During the reign of Suleiman II (1519-66) the empire attained the greatest extent it has ever had. The larger portion of Hungary was annexed; a Turkish pasha ruled at Buda; and the princes of Transylvania, Moldavia, and Wallachia became vassals of the sultan. Rhodes was taken from the Knights of St. John, and a large tract of land in Asia from the Persians. With the death of Suleiman the decline of Turkish power began. The reign of Selim II, the Drunkard (1566-74), was marked by the first great reverse of the Ottoman arms-the overthrow of the Turkish fleet by the fleets of Spain and Venice at the battle of Lepanto, in 1571. No lasting conquests of importance were made from this time, except the islands of Cyprus and Crete. The frontier on the north towards Hungary, and in later times towards Russia, went steadily back. The succession of great rulers was stopped. The powers of the sultan became less, the power of the pashas greater. In 1622 a sultan was, for the first time, murdered. In the latter half of the 17th century the Turks began to lose their hold on Hungary. The battle of St. Gotthard, in 1664, was the first great overthrow of the Turks by land. At the end of the 17th century the Turks had been at war with all their Christian neighbors, and they had lost territory at all points except one. In a war against Poland they had gained Podolia; they had lost, besides Hungary, the Peloponnesus, and Azof. All of these territories, inclusive of Podolia, were given up by the treaties in 1699 and 1700. The peace of Carlowitz, in 1699, marks a point in the decline of the Ottoman power, and the Turks were for the first time compelled to treat with the Christian powers of Europe on equal terms. The wars against Austria, which, with breaks from time to time, had gone on since the battle of Mohacz, 1526, by which the Turks established their rule over Hungary, were ended by the peace of Sistova in 1791. The result was that Hungary was freed from the Turk, but that Servia and Bosnia were left in his clutches. The frontier established by that peace has remained almost unchanged. The most dangerous of all the foreign enemies of Turkey proved to be Russia. The wars between Russia and the Turks began in the middle of the 17th century, and the two countries have ever since appeared as irreconcilable hereditary foes whose interminable conflict could only be ended by the destruction of the one or the other. The wars between Russia and Turkey put oil a very distinctive character when Peter the Great, in 1696, took Azof, the key of the Black Sea. From the time that Mohammed the Conqueror took the Genoese possessions in the Crimea, the Black Sea had been wholly under the power of the Turks. When Azof fell into the hands of the Russians, it remained for a great time the point of contention between the two countries. A new stage in the history of these wars is marked by the famous treaty of Kainarji of 1774, which ended the first war of Catherine II against the Turks. This treaty for the first time. brought the Ottoman power into some measure of dependence. It gave Russia a firm foothold on the Black Sea, and the important right to remonstrate in behalf of Wallachia and Moldavia, in case of any breach of their privileges by the Turks.
The most prominent feature in the Turkish history of the 19th century is the successful revolt of the subject Christian nations against the Ottoman power. This war of independence began in Servia in the first years of the new century. It was at first a rising against local tyrants who defied the authority of the sultan, but it soon became a war of independence. In 1826 the independence of the country was recognised by Turkey, which was only to receive an annual tribute, and for some time retained the right of keeping garrisons in certain fortresses. The Greek war of independence began in 1821. Finding himself unable to subdue both Greece and Servia, the sultan had to apply for help to his rebellious vassal, pasha Mehemet Ali of Egypt; but the outrages of the Egyptians led to an interference by England, France, and Russia, who, in 1827, in the treaty of London, agreed to make Greece free; destroyed, in November, 1827, at the battle of Navarino, the Turkish and Egyptian fleet, and compelled the sultan to agree to the treaty of London. In the treaty of Adrianople (1829), Turkey had not only to acknowledge the independence of Greece, but the almost complete independence of Moldavia and Wallachia, whose hospodars thereafter held office for lifetime, and to cede several fortresses on the coast of the Black Sea to Russia. Mahmud II (1808-40) was desirous of introducing important reforms, and in 1826 exterminated the Janizaries; but while his reforms did little good to the Christians, they set his Mohammedan subjects against him. There were Mohammedan revolts in Albania and Bosnia, which were put down in 1831 and 1832; but more important was the rebellion of Mehemet Ali of Egypt, who conquered Syria and other Asiatic possessions of the sultan, and seemed to threaten the very existence of the empire, when (1840) four of the great Christian powers of Europe concluded the treaty of Buda-Pest, and compelled Mehemet Ali to give up his Asiatic conquests. In the Crimean war (1853- 55), Turkey would probably have been crushed by Russia but for the interference of England, France, and Sardinia in its behalf. By the treaty of peace in 1856, the powers which signed it-France, Austria, Great Britain, Prussia, Russia, and Sardinia-declared that the Sublime Porte was admitted to partake in the advantages of public law and the European concert. This concession was made to the Porte in recognition of the hatti-hamayum
(Feb. 18, 1856), a proclamation which promised to the Christians equal civil rights, but which the Porte found itself no more able to carry out than a preceding reformatory edict, the hatti-sherif of Gulhane of 1853. The approaching collapse of Turkey became more and more apparent. Terrible massacres of Christians in Damascus and Mount Lebanon led, in 1860, to a French intervention. In 1861 Moldavia and Wallachia united themselves, in spite of the treaty of Paris and of the protest of the Porte, into one state, called Roumania. A powerful impulse was given to the aspiration of the Christians for freedom by the complete victory of the nationality principle in Italy and Germany. As the Italians and Germans had re-established an Italian kingdom and a German empire, thus the Greeks of Turkey expressed a wish for a union with Greece, the Servians began to dream of the re-establishment of a large Servian empire, the Bulgarians of a Bulgarian kingdom, the Roumanians of severing the last tie of connection with Turkey. The first movement in this direction was the insurrection in Crete in 1866, which was suppressed in 1869. The powers which had signed the treaty of Paris held a special conference and recognised the demands of the Porte as just. In 1867 the demand of Servia that the Turkish garrisons be withdrawn from all the Servian fortresses was granted. In 1872 the sultan conceded to the khedive of Egypt two important attributes of sovereignty, the direct hereditary succession and the authorization to make loans. On July 6, 1875, an insurrection broke out in Herzegovina, which gradually kindled the great Eastern war. A series of joint steps were taken by the great powers of Europe to induce the Porte to concede the reform demanded by the Christian insurgents. The most important were, the note of count Andrassy of Dec. 30,1875; the Berlin Memorandum of May 14, 1876; the Constantinople Conference from December, 1876, to January, 1877; and the London Protocol of March 21,1877. On April 24 Russia declared war, and at the beginning of 1878 Turkey was utterly crushed. In the peace of San Stefano of March 3,1878, Turkey had to recognize the entire independence of Roumania, Servia, and Montenegro, to cede some additional territory to Servia and Montenegro, and to consent to the establishment of an independent principality of Bulgaria. In the case of Bulgaria, these stipulations were considerably modified by the treaty of Berlin of July 13, 1878, as has already been stated. Bosnia and Herzegovina were placed under Austrian administration, and to Greece the annexation of some Greek districts in Southern Turkey was promised. The introduction of the reforms formally demanded by the great powers of Europe was again promised, and their execution placed under the guarantee of the great powers. A few weeks before (June 4, 1878), Turkey had concluded a secret treaty with England, which assumed a protectorate over the Asiatic dominions of the sultan as long as Russia would not return its conquests in Armenia. In return, Cyprus was placed under English administration, and the Porte pledged itself to carry through administrative reforms in the Asiatic possessions. Thus Turkey appeared in an entirely helpless condition, and, so far as its European possessions were concerned, in a state of total decay. Among the European powers, only one-the Tory government of England-occasionally used its influence in behalf of the Turkish government. The fall of the Tory ministry in 1880, and the access to power of the Liberal party, which, during the war, had openly expressed its sympathy with the Christian nationalities of the Balkan peninsula, especially with the Greeks, deprived the Mohammedan government of its last hope. As the Turks had been unable to agree with the Greek government about the promised rectification of frontier, the powers which had signed the treaty of Berlin held another special conference at Berlin in June, 1880, and designated the districts which, in their opinion, should be ceded to Greece. The vital power of Turkey appears to be exhausted. A constitution drawn up by Midhat Pasha, and proclaimed Dec. 23, 1876, which promised to the population very extensive rights, failed to make any impression either at home or abroad. The Parliament which met in March, 1877, attracted more attention by its novelty than by its work.
III. National Characteristics and Governmental Policy. — Comparing Turkey with the other states of Europe, we are struck with one very remarkable distinction. In all the other countries of Europe the bulk of the people have learned that they have a common country, and that, however widely their opinions may differ, and however much they may dislike the existing government, they have important interests in common. The Turks have never become a nation. After subjecting many tribes of different race and religion, the exclusive aim of the sultans has been to keep them in subjection, and to extort from them as high a tribute as possible. The effect of Turkey's rule has therefore been most blighting upon every interest of her subjects. Morally, socially, economically, and politically, her dependencies have sunk, under the combined influence of a false, fanatical, and sensual religion, a bigoted, selfish, and imbecile regime, and an ignorant, fatalistic, and effete philosophy, to the lowest possible point of civilized communities. Corruption reigns in every department of state, and superstition in every form of society. The ruling class, being Turks and Moslems, feel no sympathy with the natives, who are largely Christian and of different races from themselves. Extortion, bribery, chicanery, and treachery have for ages characterized the government, until it has become a festering ulcer and a burning shame upon the face of Europe. But for the intrigues and jealousies among the other European powers, each of which has been anxious to outwit the rest in seizing upon the spoils of "the Sick Man's estate," Turkey would have been dismembered long ago by foreign interference, or have collapsed in utter ruin by its internal rottenness. England has been largely chargeable for maintaining, by her diplomatic policy, this eyesore and blot upon the map of the world.
Several large territories are but very loosely connected with the empire. Tunis, in Africa, considers itself as a vassal state of the sultan, but without any definite obligation, not even that of paying an annual tribute. Formerly there were two other states of this class, Algeria and Tripoli; but the former has been conquered by France, and the latter has recently come under the direct authority of the sultan. The vassal states which had only to pay an annual tribute, and were otherwise autonomous, were, in 1878, Roumania and Servia, in Europe; Samos, in Asia; and Egypt, in Africa. In 1878 Roumania and Servia became entirely independent, and Bulgaria was erected into a tributary vassal state. In the autonomous province of Eastern Roumelia, the power of the sultan has been almost reduced to the right of appointing a governor.
By the old law of succession, which has been left unchanged by the constitution of 1876, the crown is inherited, according to seniority, by the male descendants of Othman, sprung from the imperial harem. The harem is considered a permanent State institution. All children born in the harem, whether offspring of free women or of slaves, are legitimate and of equal lineage; but the sultan is succeeded by his eldest son only when there are no uncles or cousins of greater age. It has not been the custom of the sultans for some centuries to contract regular marriages. A special feature attending the accession of new sultans to the throne has been the slaughter of brothers and other near kinsfolk who were feared as rivals. Until very recently the will of the sultan was not limited by any law. The precepts of the Koran were regarded as the fundamental law of the empire. The legislative and the executive authority were exercised in the name of the sultan by the grand vizier as head of the temporal government, and the Sheik el-Islam as the head of the Church. The constitution of 1876
pretended to make the sultan a constitutional monarch and to provide for the exercise of the legislative and judicial powers after the model of the West European states; but the constitution thus far (1880) is almost a dead letter. Several Christians, however, have of late held the position of Minister of State. The financial affairs of the government are in a condition of thorough and hopeless disorganization, and the time of the empire's complete dissolution cannot be distant.
IV. Mohammedanism. — The Turks have been a Mohammedan people from the 10th century, and have ever since been the banner-bearer among the Mohammedan states. The sultan is regarded as the head of the Sunnite Mohammedans, SEE SUNNITES not only in Turkey, but as far' as the Sunnite form of Mohammedanism extends. Church and State are so intimately united in Turkey that the judicial and the priestly power are vested in the same officer, the Ulema, who regards the Koran as the sole authority for the decision of ecclesiastical as well as civil causes. "The administration of justice in Turkey is now divided into two parts — that of the Sheri, wherein all judges are Mussulmans, and that of the Nizamiyeh, composed of both Christians and Mussulmans. The head of all the courts of the Sheri is the Sheik el-Islam, who sanctions all their judgments. The judicatory of the Sheri is composed of a high court of appeal (Arzodacy), divided into two chambers (Sudur), one for Turkey in Europe, and one for Asia. At the head of each is a cazi-asker, literally military judge. The cazi- asker is assisted by fourteen honorary chief justices. In the hierarchy of the Ulema the mollahs rank next to the cazi-asker, and after them the cadis. The first in rank are the mollahs of Constantinople, nine in number, and who sit in the court Sheri, at the capital, for a year, being taken in turn from the body of the mollahs. At its head is the mollah of Stamboul. The second in rank is the Mevlevizet, which numbers fifty-seven titularies. The mollah, when on duty, serves for only a year, and then returns to the roll" (Baker, Turkey). Turkish education, until recently, was also in close connection with the State religion. It was organized by sultan, Mohammed I (1451-81), the greatest soldier statesman that the Ottoman empire has produced. He established elementary schools called mektebs, scattered over his empire in every town and in almost every Mohammedan village, and numerous public-schools or colleges of the higher order, which were called medresses, in distinction from the mektebs, or elementary schools. The mediesses went through ten regular courses of grammar, syntax, logic, metaphysics, philology, the science of tropes, the science of style, rhetoric, geometry, and astronomy. The taker of a degree in these subjects received the title of danishmend, which, has now been replaced by the term sofia. The degree entitles him to the mastership of one of the minor public schools; but in that case he renounces the prospect of becoming a member of the 'Ulema, or of any of the higher educational appointments. For this it is necessary to go through a still further course of study, and to pass several examinations. Incentives to work are given in the honors and endowments, which are conferred. The Ulema supplies all the professors of the high-schools, who are called muderris, and from the; same order are chosen all the ministers of justice, including the cazi-askers, the mollahs, and the cadis. The actual priesthood of Turkey takes a very inferior position in the State. The ministers of public worship are called imaums, who officiate at public prayers, and sheiks, or preachers. But the fact that the appointments to the priesthood are allotted to the holders of minor degrees does not mark, on the part of the Turks, any want of respect for their faith. It only arises in consequence of the legal profession being so intimately connected with the Church as expounders of the law of the Koran that they, in fact, form the senior branch of the hierarchy. Dervishes, or Mohammedan monks, are very numerous and are divided into a number of sects. SEE DERVISH. The Vacouf, or Church property, which belongs to the mosques and other religious institutions and to benevolent foundations, is administered by a special department of the State called the Evkaf, and consists of two classes: 1st Property or its produce actually belonging to such ecclesiastical establishments, and held and received on their account by the Evkaf; and 2nd. Property owned by private persons, but lapsing, in default of direct heirs of the owner, to the Evkaf, and subject, in the meantime, to a small yearly contribution payable to that department; but an owner of Vacouf property having no direct.heirs is not debarred from selling it to a person having such heirs, and so preventing it, for the time, from falling into the Evkaf. By a recent law a private person holding Vacouf property can, on payment of certain fees to the government, have it converted into what is called mulkieh, a title which gives the holder the fee simple of the land, to do with it as he pleases, to leave it by will, and, in default of his doing so, it passes to his next heir. Trustworthy statistics on the religious denominations of Turkey cannot yet be obtained. E.G. Ravenstein, in an article on the population of Russia and Turkey in the Journal of the Statistical Society (Lond. 1877), estimates the total population of European Turkey, exclusive of Roumania and Servia, but inclusive of Bosnia and Bulgaria, at 9,661,000, which he distributes-as follows among the religious denominations:
Turkish Mohammedans Mohammedans of other nationalities EUROPE.
1,767,500
2, 479,500
Total Mohammedans 4, 247,000 Greek Church 4,705,450 Armenians 89,000 Roman Catholics 426,000 Protestants 10,000 Total Christians 5,230,450 Jews 78,000 Gypsies 104,750 Total 9,660,200
ASIA.
Turks 6,973,500 Other Mohammedans 6,299,850 Total Mohammedans 13,273,350 Greek Church 1,484,868 Armenians 735,100 Roman Catholics 100,100 Protestants 10,450 Maronites, etc. 487,000 Total Christians 2, 817,518 Jezides and Kizilbashi 62,000 Jews 106,000 Gypsies 67,000 Total 16,325,868
A Servian statistician, Jakshitsh, gives the following estimates of the population of European Turkey: Christians in Turkey proper, 2,484,501; in Eastern Roumelia, 559,776; in Bosnia, 780,276; in Bulgaria, 1,196,248;
total; 5,020,801. Mohammedans in Turkey proper, 1,883,127; in Eastern Roumelia, 359,434; in Bosnia, 400,635; in Bulgaria, 760,267; total, 3,403,463. Jews in Turkey proper, 55,018;. in Eastern Roumelia, 3969; in Bosnia, 6968; in Bulgaria, 8959; total, 74,914. Total population of European Turkey, 8,499,178. According to these authorities, the aggregate number of Mohammedans in European and Asiatic Turkey may be estimated at from 15,700,000 to 16,500,000, that of Christians of all denominations at about 8,000,000, that of the Jews at about 200,000. The aggregate population of the African dependencies, owing to the rapid expansion of the Egyptian dominions of late years, was estimated, in 1880, at 20,500,000, nearly all of whom, with the exception of the Copts of Egypt, are Mohammedans. SEE MOHAMMEDANISM.
V. The Christian Churches of Turkey. — Although the Turks, after the conquest of the Balkan peninsula, displayed all the horrors of Oriental despotism, they did not aim at the extermination of the Christian religion. There is probably no country of Christian Europe which has not imposed, at some time in the course of its history, more severe penalties upon the profession of a dissenting Christian creed than the Turks have done upon the profession of Christianity. The Christians, in their civil relations, found themselves greatly oppressed, but the Turks did not meddle with the internal affairs of the churches. The influence which they usurped by the appointment of the high dignitaries in the Eastern churches was inspired by considerations not of power or proselytism, but of greed. The social advantages which an apostasy to Islam involved gradually induced nearly the whole population of Albania, the entire nobility of the Bosnians, and large numbers of the Bulgarians and other Christian tribes to adopt the religion of the conquerors; but the immense majority of the population of the European dominions of Turkey and large numbers in Asia continued to adhere to the several Christian churches. As the military power of Turkey began to wane, Russia, France, and other powers claimed, and received by treaty, the right of protectorate over the Turkish subjects professing the national religions of the several European countries. In 1839 the sultan, by the hatti-sherif of Gulhane, proclaimed the equality of Christians and Moslems before the law. The provisions of this charter of religious liberty were renewed and extended by sultan Abdul-Mejid in the charter called the hatti-humayum, promulgated in February, 1856. The renewal of the charter was mentioned in the treaty of Paris as the consideration on which the powers admitted Turkey to the company of European states, and guaranteed to it its rights as an independent and inviolable power. The new Turkish constitution of December, 1876, promised to the professors of all religious denominations full equality of civil rights. In the first Turkish Parliament, which met in 1877, all the religions of the empire were fairly represented. Thus among the deputies returned from Constantinople were five Turks, four Christians, and one Jew; and of the Christians, one was a Greek, one a Roman Catholic Armenian, and two Gregorian Armenians. In 1878 the treaty of Berlin (art. 62) placed the establishment of the principle of religious liberty to its fullest extent under the guarantee of all the great powers of Europe. When the Turks completed the conquest of the Balkan peninsula, they designated the aggregate of the Christian subjects as rajah (herds), while the different tribes were distinguished as millet (nation). The Mohammedan Turks were, however, so strongly inclined to confound Church and State that they viewed the several millets as so many religious communions. Mohammed II, after the capture of Constantinople, made the patriarch of that city the secular head of all the rajah belonging to the Orthodox Eastern or Greek Church. The civil functions of the patriarch were shared in different degrees by the subordinate bishops, and thus the entire hierarchy of the Greek Church appeared as the actual administrator of the civil interests of the people, and as such were held by the Porte responsible for the loyalty of the population. Besides the millet of the Greeks, there are others for the Armenians, United Armenians, Latins, Protestants, and Jews. Their organization is similar to that of the Greeks. The secular jurisdiction of the Armenian patriarch includes the Jacobites. For various statistical statements of the present Christian population of Turkey, see above.
1. The Greek Church. — When the Turks took, in 1453, possession of Constantinople, the foremost episcopal see of the Eastern Church became subject to their rule. The patriarch of Constantinople had gradually become for the Eastern Church what the patriarch of Rome became for the West. SEE GREEK CHURCH. When the termination of ecclesiastical communion between the patriarchs of Rome and Constantinople became a fixed fact, all of the Orthodox Eastern churches looked upon the patriarch of Constantinople as the most eminent bishop of the Orthodox churches, although many of them, like the churches of Russia, were entirely independent of his jurisdiction. As long as there was a shadow of hope that the Eastern Roman empire would be aided by the Catholic Church of Western Europe in its resistance to the advance of the Turks, several patriarchs of Constantinople had shown a readiness to reunite with Rome. To the bulk of the clergy and the laity the idea of such a reunion was extremely distasteful, and after the conquest of Constantinople it was entirely abandoned. The sultans claimed the same rights with regard to the appointment of the patriarchs that had been possessed by the Eastern or Byzantine emperors, and the Eastern Church submitted to the demand. Georgius Scholarins, who was elected patriarch soon after the conquest of Constantinople, and assumed the name of Gennadius, accepted from sultan Mohammed II the investiture as patriarch of New Rome. The sultan showed, however, but little respect for the authority of the patriarch, and finally compelled him to resign, notwithstanding the petitions of the faithful in his behalf. The next patriarch, Joasaph, was banished by the sultan because he had refused to acknowledge the unlawful marriage of a Mohammedan minister with the daughter of an Athenian. prince. Patriarch Simon, also living in the second half of the 15th century, was the first who offered to the sultan one thousand ducats for the patriarchate. This money for the confirmation of the new patriarch is called kharatzion or peskesion; it has not only been always paid since, but the amount was constantly increased, and the Turkish government generally showed a disposition to sell the patriarchate to the highest bidder, and to vacate it as often as possible. Only a few of the patriarchs were allowed to remain in office for a long term; generally, after holding it for a short term, they were either compelled to resign, or they were banished, throttled, or degraded. The habit of the patriarch to purchase the confirmation by the sultans had a most disastrous influence upon the Church. The Simonistic corruption descended from the patriarchs to the archbishops and bishops, who had to pay heavy sums for their confirmation, and, in return, tried to indemnify themselves by extorting as much money as possible from their people. For political reasons, the external form of the Church was changed as little as possible; but in consequence of the corruption prevailing in the high places, the Church fell into great decay. The lower clergy, who were generally destitute of a higher education, showed but little sympathy with the people; and when the government conferred upon them some privileges, they looked with indifference upon the heavy taxes which oppressed the laity. Little resistance was even made by the clergy to the cruel institution of the Janizaries, a military corps formed by the children of Christians, who were taken away from their parents, educated as fanatical Moslems, and used for the compulsory extension of Mohammedanism. In some of the provinces the power of the Christian people to resist the proselytism of the Turks gradually relaxed. Especially was this the case in Albania, where the Christian population decreased from 350,000 to 50,000, during the period from 1620 to 1650. Among the apostates were even many priests and monks. The subsequent history of the Greek Church of Turkey does not offer many points of great interest. The growing power of Russia extorted from the Ottoman Porte in a number of treaties the official promise to protect the Christian religion and the Christian churches, and made itself chiefly felt in behalf of the coreligionists of Russia, the Orthodox Eastern Church. Between Constantinople and Rome an entire estrangement continued to exist. At the beginning of the 17th century the patriarch Neophytus II of Constantinople was believed to be favorable to a union with Rome; but no formal negotiations were opened, and none of the following patriarchs of Constantinople has shown any leaning in that direction. All the invitations and overtures that were made by the popes met, in Constantinople, with a firm and decided refusal: thus, in 1848, an invitation from Pius IX, addressed to the entire Eastern Church, for a corporate union with Rome, and another in 1869, addressed by the same pope to tile Greek bishops to attend the Vatican Council, were promptly and firmly declined in Constantinople and throughout the Greek Church. In the Asiatic part of Turkey the patriarch Athanasius IV of Antioch, who was elected in 1686, joined the communion of Rome, and was followed by a part of the clergy and laity. Thus arose the United Greek Church of Turkey, SEE GREEK CHURCH, UNITED, which, from Syria, spread over all parts of the Turkish Empire. In the 16th century both the Lutheran and the Calvinistic theologians endeavored to establish friendly relations with the Greek Church, and entered into correspondence with several patriarchs of Constantinople. The Lutheran attempts were never attended with any success. The Calvinists completely gained over to their side one of the most gifted patriarchs that have ever occupied the see of Constantinople, Cyril Lucar (q.v.), who went so far as to transmit to Geneva the form of a Calvinistic confession of faith; but, with the violent death of the patriarch, who was strangled, and whose memory was execrated by the Oriental patriarchs, this attempt, too, came to an end, and the Greek Church in Turkey, as well as in other countries, has kept aloof from all corporate negotiations with Protestant churches. In the 19th century the attempts made by the more congenial Anglican churches of the British isles and the United States to establish intercommunion with the various Episcopal churches of the East led to friendly correspondence between the patriarchs of the Greek Church, on the one hand, and the archbishop of Canterbury and other Anglican bishops, on the other. At the union conferences held at Bonn, Germany, in 1874 and 1875, between Oriental, Anglican, and Old- Catholic theologians, the Greek Church of Turkey was also represented by several theologians. SEE RUSSIA.
Until the establishment of the independence of Greece, the Turkish empire comprised nearly all the Greek churches of the world, except those of Russia and Austro-Hungary. Among the bishops of the Greek Church the patriarch of Constantinople holds the highest rank. He alone is invested by the Turkish government with the attributes of civil head of the entire Church. In regard to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he is, however, only the head of the patriarchate of Constantinople; the other three patriarchs (of Antioch, Jerusalem, and Alexandria), as well as the metropolitan of Cyprus and the abbot of Mount Sinai, being independent of him. The three patriarchs named receive in their beraat, or official decree of confirmation, the same rights and privileges as the patriarch of Constantinople; each of them has his own patriarchal synod, which fills the see in case of vacancy. An attempt made by the patriarch of Constantinople to appoint the patriarchs of the three other sees led, from 1843 to 1845, to a violent controversy between the patriarch of Constantinople and the Patriarchal Synod of Jerusalem, in which the latter remained victorious. The three patriarchs communicate, nevertheless, with the Turkish government through the patriarch of Constantinople, and are not even' allowed to come to the capital without his permission. The aggregate territory of these three patriarchates is, however, small, and all the remainder of the Greek churches of Turkey was until recently under the immediate jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople. The' establishment of the kingdom of Greece, in 1821, virtually severed the connection of the churches of the kingdom with the patriarch of Constantinople, on whom they had formerly been dependent. The entire independence of the Church of Greece was, however, not proclaimed until 1833, when a synod of the bishops of Greece met for this purpose at Nauplia, and the formal recognition of the independence by the patriarch of Constantinople did not take place until 1850. Servia and Roumania were virtually as independent of the patriarch of Constantinople in ecclesiastical affairs as they were of the sultan in politics. The establishment of their entire political independence, in 1878, entails the complete severance of their ecclesiastical connection with Constantinople. The Bulgarians, although agreeing in doctrine with the Eastern Orthodox Church, were, until 1767, independent of the jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople, having a primate and patriarch of the national Bulgarian Church at Ochrida; but in 1767 the last patriarch abdicated, and, by the joint efforts of the Turkish government and the patriarch of Constantinople, the Bulgarian Church was not only placed under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Greek patriarch, but entirely denationalized. Their bishops and priests were dismissed, their sees and parishes were occupied by Greeks, their monasteries and schools were seized, and the revenues appropriated by the Greek communities; but the greatest blow of all was struck in the elimination of the Bulgarian language and literature from all the educational establishments. A strong educational movement for re-establishing the rule of the Bulgarian language in school and Church set in about 1840. It made at once rapid and steady progress in the province of education, and at length, in 1870, led to the reorganization of a national Bulgarian Church. Notwithstanding the most desperate opposition to the Bulgarian movement by the patriarch of Constantinople and the Greek Fanar, the Porte found it necessary to yield to the Bulgarians so far as to issue a firman which constituted, under the title of The Bulgarian Exarchate, a separate spiritual administration, comprising in its jurisdiction the towns and districts of Rustchuk, Silistria, Shumla, Tirnova, Sophia, Vratcha, Lovtcha; Widdin, Nish, Kustenji, Samarkov,Veles (with the exception of about twenty villages and three towns), the sanjak of Slivmia (except a few villages), the district of Sisopolis, the town of Philippopolis, the district of Stanimaka (with the exception of a few villages), and the metropolitan diocese of Philippopolis (except a few monasteries). The firman further provided that the powers of the exarchate be defined by an organic code, which was to be in conformity on all points with the established laws and religious principles of the Qrthodox Church; but to exclude entirely, on the other hand, all interference, direct or indirect, on the part of the patriarch, with monastic affairs, and more especially with the election of the exarch and the bishops. The exarch was to be named by imperial berat. He was to be bound, in conformity with ecclesiastical rules, to commemorate the name of the patriarch of Constantinople, and the synod of the exarchate was to be bound to obtain the holy oils in use in the Church from the patriarchate of Constantinople. Although the patriarch of Constantinople at first excommunicated all who availed themselves of the firman and connected themselves with the Bulgarian exarchate, the latter rallied more and more all members of the Orthodox Church who were of the Bulgarian nationality. The treaty of Berlin of 1878, which provided for the establishment of a tributary principality of Bulgaria, and an autonomous province of Eastern Roumelia, in both of which countries the Bulgarians are the predominant race, made the bulk of the Bulgarian nation virtually independent of both the sultan and the patriarch of Constantinople, and cannot fail to complete, ere long, the organization of a national Bulgarian Church, comprising all the Orthodox Christians who speak the Bulgarian language, and enjoying an independence equal to the national churches of Russia, Greece, Roumania, and Servia. The jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople is thereby restricted to those Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church who are of the Greek nationality. SEE RUSSO-GREEK CHURCH.
The office of the patriarch is intended to be held by the occupant for life; but the Porte may remove him on account of high-treason, and the synod may ask the Porte for his removal on account of bad administration and of heresy. Charges of the first class are very frequent; and as it is the pecuniary interest of Turkish officials to have the patriarchs removed as often as possible, they are always found willing to co-operate in such removal. Depositions of patriarchs are therefore very frequent. The patriarch is assisted by a "Holy Synod"(Jemaat), which consists of from ten to twelve metropolitans, besides the patriarch, its president. The patriarch has the right to select them, with the exception, however, of the metropolitans of Heraclea, Cyzicus, Nicomedia, and Chalcedon, who are members ex officio, and among whom, as they are so near the capital, the patriarchal seal, which consists of four parts, is divided. As the keepers of the patriarchal seal must always be present in Constantinople, the four metropolitans occupy a peculiar position, which the Porte recognises by specially enumerating them in the berat of the patriarch. The patriarch has no right to send them to their dioceses. He may increase the number of the members of the synod, but is not allowed to reduce it below ten. It is customary for eight of the metropolitans who are members of the synod to be present at Constantinople. They are called "the prominent"(ἔγκριτοι), and are addressed as the "holy old ones"(ἃγιοι γέροντες).' In 1847, the Porte desired to add to the synod, for all questions not relating to the doctrine or discipline of the Church, three lay members-the grand logothete Aristarchi; the experience of Samos, Vogoridesi and a rich merchant of Chios, Psychari, generally called Messeyani; but the synod opposed the plan so strongly that it was abandoned by the Porte. According to a habit which is expressly recognised by the sultan, all the patriarchs and metropolitans of the Eastern Orthodox Church who happen to be present at Constantinople have a right to take part in the debates and resolutions of the Holy Synod. For questions of minor importance, especially such as relate to the administration of the Church, the decision of the patriarch and the four metropolitans who keep the patriarchal seal is deemed sufficient. The Holy Synod is the supreme tribunal for the clergy of-the Greek Church, and serves as a court of appeal from the decisions of the bishops. Without its consent, the patriarch can give no decision in ecclesiastical or temporal affairs, and appoint no bishop. The synod alone has judicial and punitive power over the patriarch; and the deposition of the patriarch by the Porte, except in cases of high-treason, takes place only at the request of the Holy Synod. The most important right of the synod is the election of a new patriarch. The synod regulates and distributes the ecclesiastical taxes, and keeps the seals of all the monasteries. It has its own seal, consisting of four pieces, one of which is kept by the patriarch of Constantinople, and the other three by metropolitans elected by the synod. The sessions of the synod are generally held on Sundays and holidays, after divine service. Most of its decrees need for their execution a firman of the sultan. When a new patriarch is to be elected, the members of the synod, and the archbishops and bishops present at the time in Constantinople, assemble at the synodicon, or patriarch's palace, which is situated in the Fanar, or Greek quarter, in order to nominate by ballot, in the presence of a commissary of the Turkish government, three candidates for the vacant see. All the candidates must be metropolitans. As soon as the nomination is made, it is communicated to the representatives of the Greek community, who are assembled in the vestibule of the synodicon. This assembly designates by acclamation, and the shout of ἄξιος (worthy), the candidate of its preference. The election, being thus completed, the minutes are signed by all present, and an official report is made to the Porte, which then orders the berat to be drawn up. This official berat, for which a large amount of money has to be paid, enumerates all the rights belonging to the patriarch and the synod. On the day after the election, the new patriarch officially visits the grand-vizier, who presents him with a magnificent suit of clothes, consisting of a caftan (a long silken robe), a cloak, a black capuchon, and a patriarchal hat; moreover, with a finely wrought patriarchal staff and a white horse. The patriarch pays also to the other ministers of the Porte an official visit. Soon after these visits follows the inthronization, an act of great simplicity, which is performed by the metropolitan of Heraclea. The ecclesiastical rights of the patriarch are very extensive. He appoints, with the concumrence of the synod, all metropolitans and bishops. He has supreme jurisdiction in all affairs relating to marriage and wills. Complaints against bishops can be decided by the government only with the concurrence of the patriarch. The arrest of a Greek prelate requires the consent of the patriarch and the co-operation of his officers. He has the right, without restraint, to excommunicate any member of the church; to deny ecclesiastical burial, etc. He enjoys the privilege of consecrating the holy oil, and has in all dioceses the right of the stauropegion, i.e. the right, at the foundation of a church or a monastery, to erect a cross on the spot where the altar is to stand, and thereby to subject to his control such church or convent. The civil jurisdiction which the patriarch enjoys as the head of the "Greek nation" (which means, in the official language, all the members of the Eastern Church), is in some respects even more comprehensive because it extends also over the other patriarchal dioceses. This power, however, is on the wane. As has already been indicated, the non-Greek nationalities have either achieved their entire independence of Turkish rule, or, like the Bulgarians, have severed their ecclesiastical connection with the patriarch of Constantinople, whose jurisdiction, ecclesiastical as well as civil, will be restricted to the Church members of the Greek nationality. The patriarch has his own court, before which especially cases of minor importance are brought, not only between Greeks and Greeks, but also between Greeks and people of other churches, even between Greeks and Turks. An appeal can, however, be had from the patriarch's court to the Turkish courts. The revenue of the patriarch is considerable. He inherits the property of metropolitans, bishops, priests, monks, and nuns who die without legal heirs. If there are legal heirs, the persons named may bequeath to the patriarch up to one third of their property. Other sources of revenue are the fees for ordination, the tax on the installation of metropolitans and bishops, the annual contributions from the bishops and from the convents which. are immediately subject to the patriarch, smaller contributions from each priest and each layman of his diocese, the fees of his chancery, fees for every marriage and burial, etc. The patriarch has the right to have all these dues collected by special commissaries, who, if necessary, can invoke the aid of the government officials. The patriarch is exempt from ordinary taxes, but has to pay a large sum annually to the government as a special tax, and to make frequent presents to the ministers. The patriarch is assisted in the administration of the patriarchate by a number of officers. They are divided into two choirs — one at the right, and the other at the left. The former consists of three sections, each of which embraces five persons, and is therefore called a πέντας . All these offices were formerly of great importance, and, with the exception of those which required an ordination or had the superintendence of convents, were in the hands of the noble Greek families, the so-called Phanariotes. The occupants had a vote at the election and deposition of the patriarch. At present, most of these offices are mere titles. The only officer who has still an important political position and considerable influence is the grand logothete (μέγας λογοθέτης), or the grand keeper of the seal. He is elected by the patriarch and Holy Synod from among the Greek notables for lifetime he is confirmed by the Porte, and can only be removed by the concurrent action of both powers. 'The patriarchate conducts through him all negotiations with the Porte relating to its secular privileges; and all the official communications from the patriarch to the Porte pass through his hands. He has the right to countersign all synodal resolutions relating to the appointment of metropolitans and bishops, and to receive certain fees for drawing up the official documents. SEE PATRIARCHS.
The three patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem are not subject to the ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople, but are co-ordinate to him. The berat by which they are appointed confers upon them the same rights, and each of them has a synod which has the same rights as the Synod of Constantinople. They are inferior to the patriarch of Constantinople only in so far as they have no civil jurisdiction. The patriarch of Alexandria has jurisdiction over the Greek churches of Egypt, Libya, Arabia, and Nubia; the patriarch of Antioch, who resides at Damascus, over those of Syria, Cilicia, Mesopotamia, Isauria, and other Asiatic provinces; the patriarch of Jerusalem, who resides at Galata, a suburb of Constantinople, over those of Palestine. The aggregate territory of the three patriarchates is, however, but small compared with that of Constantinople. Metropolitans with suffragan bishops are rare in the Turkish empire. The name metropolitan or archbishop is generally only a title which confers a higher dignity than the title bishop, but not a greater jurisdiction. The title of metropolitan is especially given to the bishops of the provincial capitals. As bishops must be unmarried, they are generally taken from the monasteries. If a layman is to be ordained a bishop, he has first to take all orders up to priesthood, and then can receive the episcopal ordination only after the expiration of thirty days. The candidate must be thirty years of age, and at his ordination three bishops must be present. Bishops are bound to reside in their dioceses; and if a bishop is absent from his diocese for more than six months, except it be by order of the patriarch, he is deposed. The bishop has entire control of the Church property of the diocese, and can impose taxes upon his diocesans. Without his permission, no convent can be built within the diocese. The revenue of metropolitans and bishops is derived from the same sources as that of the patriarch. They receive annual contributions from the priests and the laity of the diocese, besides fees and inheritances. The income of many bishops is considerable. The metropolitans and bishops have also an influential position in the political administration of the empire, as they are, in virtue of their office, members-of the administrative councils, by which the valis of the vilayets are assisted. In 1836, patriarch Gregory VI and the Holy Synod issued a circular in which all bishops were requested to establish in their dioceses an ecclesiastical committee, after the model of the one existing in Constantinople, for consulting on the spiritual interests of the dioceses. All the diocesan committees send reports to Constantinople, and thence receive advice. The committees consist of not less than three members, who are selected from among the educated, virtuous, and zealous clergy. One member of the committee has to examine the candidates for ordination and to instruct and guide the confessors. A second member has to superintend the printing and the sale of books, the ecclesiastical discipline, and the lives of the clergy. No book can be printed without his permission. The third member superintends education and preaching. The secular clergy are mostly uneducated and poor, and, to support themselves and their families, they often carry on some trade, cultivate a farm, and perform other manual labor. The parochial churches are maintained by the congregations, and on every Sunday and holiday collections are taken up for the purpose. The koja bachi, or chief of the congregation, administers the financial affairs, and has, in particular, to take care of the support of the priests, the churches, and the schools. No one can be admitted to a male or female convent without an examination, or before being ten years of age. Besides the monks and nuns who live in convents, there are eremites on Mount Athos, and anchorets in Macedonia. SEE MONKS, EASTERN.
The number of metropolitans and bishops who were subject to the patriarch of Constantinople before the churches of Roumania, Servia, and Bulgaria had severed their connection with him amounted, according to Silbernagl (Veifassung sammflicher Kirchen des Orients [1865]), to 131, of whom 92 belonged to Europe, 21 to Asia, and 18 to the provinces. In consequence of the decay of the Turkish empire, a very large number of the dioceses are now no longer subject to the jurisdiction of the patriarch, which, ere long, may be restricted to the dioceses in which the people are of the Greek nationality. Under the patriarch of Antioch were 12 dioceses, and to this patriarchate also belongs the archbishop of Cyprus, who is exempt, and has under his jurisdiction 5 suffragan bishops. Under the jurisdiction; of the patriarch of Jerusalem are 14 archbishops and bishops, under that of Alexandria, 4. The population, of the patriarchate of Alexandria is reported as only 5000 souls; that of Jerusalem as 15,000; while the patriarchate of Antioch comprises 29,000 families. The total population connected with the Greek or Orthodox Eastern Church of Turkey, after the great territorial changes made in 1878, was estimated at 3,800,000 (see Appletons Annual Cyclopaedia, 1878, art. "Greek Church"); but of this number a considerable part belongs to the Bulgarian dioceses of Eastern Roumelia, which have no longer any ecclesiastical communion with the patriarch of Constantinople. Of the convents of the Church, which are still numerous, the most celebrated are those on Mount Athos (q.v.). Of late, education has begun to make great progress among the population connected with the Greek Church. Two theological seminaries have been established, the one on the island of Chalki, near Constantinople, and the other at Jerusalem; and no one is henceforth to be appointed as bishop who has not been educated at one of these institutions, or is not fully up to the standard of the education there imparted. A flourishing teachers seminary, according to the German model, has been established at Salonica, in Macedonia. SEE EASTERN CHURCH.
2. The Armenian Church. — For more than three hundred years nearly two thirds of ancient Armenia has been under the rule of Turkey, SEE ARMENIA; and, therefore, although the head of the Church (the catholicos of Echmiadzin) is now a subject of Russia (q.v.), the large majority of the adherents of the Armenian Church are still to be found in Turkey. Among the Armenian bishops of Turkey, the patriarch of Constantinople occupies the highest rank; he is inferior only to the catholicos of Echmiadzin. An Armenian diocese was established at Constantinople as early as 1307. Archbishop Joachim, of Bursa, was raised to the rank of patriarch of Constantinople in 1461 by the sultan Mohammed II, and he was at the same time appointed the civil head of the Armenian nation. The patriarch is elected by the notables and the prominent clergymen of the Armenian community of Constantinople, and is confirmed by the Porte. Formerly the Armenian bankers had the ascendency in this assembly; but in 1839 several Armenian employees of the Turkish government obtained the leading influence. The patriarch is entirely dependent upon these laymen, who appoint a coadjutor, or have him removed by the Turkish government, whenever the please. The new patriarch has to make a profession of faith, which consists of nine articles, the eighth of which designates the patriarch, as the vicar of Christ. The berat which the patriarch receives from the Porte confers upon him a direct power over the priests and laity of his diocese. Like the catholicos, he has the right to ordain bishops and to consecrate the holy oil. With the exception of the patriarch of Jerusalem, he can appoint metropolitans and bishops throughout Turkish Armenia; remove, exile, and recall them; divide or unite their dioceses. The entire property of the Church is under his control; in the administration of it he is, however, limited by the lay synod, which consists of twenty members elected by the people and confirmed by the Porte. Moreover, he is assisted in the exercise of his ecclesiastical functions by a clerical synod consisting of his officials. As he has also civil jurisdiction, he has, like the Greek patriarch, his own court and a patriarchal prison. He is the civil head not only of the Armenian nation, but also of the Syrian Jacobites. All communications between the Turkish government and the Armenians pass through his hands; and even the Armenian patriarch of Sis and the bishops not directly subject to his jurisdiction receive their berat through him. Like the Greek patriarch, he enjoys a number of honorary rights and exemption from taxation, but, in return, has to pay ah annual tribute to the Porte. His revenue consists chiefly of taxes of installation and annual contributions from bishops; fees for ordination, for the holy oil, for marriages; inheritances and donations. Besides the patriarch of Constantinople, the Armenian Church of Turkey has patriarchs at Sis, in the vilayet of Adana, at Jerusalem, and at Aghtamar, on the island of Van.
The first patriarch of Sis was elected in 1440, when the clergy of Sis, after the death of the catholicos Joseph III, feared lest the residence of the patriarch, which had been at Sis since 1294, might be removed to Echmiadzin. Without waiting for a general assembly of the Armenian bishops, the clergy of Sis hurriedly proceeded, conjointly with the people of Sis, to the election of a catholicos. The bishops and vartabeds met, however, in 1441, at Echmiadzin, and elected as catholicos the monk Kyriakos, who was almost generally recognised by the Armenian churches. In order to prevent a permanent schism, the privilege was conferred upon Sis to be governed by a patriarch, on condition, however, that he receive the holy oil from the catholicos as a sign of his submission. The condition was accepted, and from that time Sis has had its own patriarchs. According to a concordat concluded between the catholicos of Echmiadzin and the patriarch of Sis, the jurisdiction of the latter was to extend over the Armenian churches of Cilicia, Syria, Egypt, and Palestine; but, as the bishop of Jerusalem made himself independent in the middle of the 17th century, his jurisdiction has since been limited to the Armenian churches of Armenia Minor, Cappadocia, and Cilicia. The patriarch of Sis has the title "Patriarch and Primate of Armenia Minor and the Armenians who are in Cilicia, Syria, and Palestine, Minister of the Right and of the Throne of St. Gregory the Illuminator." The patriarchate of Jerusalem has been in existence since the middle of the 17th century, when the catholicos Philippos conferred upon the archbishop of Jerusalem the right of consecrating, himself, the holy oil; and the archbishop consequently assumed the title of patriarch, and began to ordain bishops. The patriarch of Jerusalem, however, ceased long ago to exercise these functions; and his powers have been greatly curtailed, as the patriarch of Constantinople calls him to account when he pleases. In order to guard as much as possible his own independence, the patriarch procures from the Turkish government his own berat, and supports in Constantinople an agent of his own. He has to pay an annual tribute, not only to the Porte, but to the pasha of Damascus. He is elected by his suffragan bishops, and has his residence in the monastery of St. James at Jerusalem, His income is derived from the same sources as that of the patriarch of Constantinople, the presents from the pilgrims to Jerusalem constituting an element of special importance.
In 1114 bishop David of Tornik made himself patriarch of Aghtamar, in Lake Van, and assumed the title catholicos. The schism has continued to the present day; but the patriarchate is of little importance, since its jurisdiction extends hardly any farther than Lake Van. The patriarch is elected by the bishops and clergy under his jurisdiction, and is supported by the revenue of the monastery on the island of Aghtamar.
The metropolitans, or archbishops, are not distinguished from the bishops by any greater jurisdiction, but only by some honorary rights. The catholicos can only be elected out of their number. The bishops are regularly elected from the unmarried vartabeds, and only occasionally, and by special permission of the catholicos or the patriarchs, from the monks, since, according to the Church law, a monk is not to become a bishop. The bishop is generally elected by the clergy and the heads of families, and after the election he is presented for confirmation to the catholicos or the patriarchs, who appoint several (generally three) bishops for examining the candidate. It is required that he be fifty years of age, of legitimate descent for three generations, on both father's and mother's side, and well versed in the Holy Scriptures and the canonical law. Many of the metropolitans and bishops have no, dioceses, but live in convents, and there hold the office of archimandrite. Many of them are at the same time vartabeds. The patriarch of Constantinople, according to the regulations made by the provincial council on Nov. 20, 1830, has under his jurisdiction 18 archbishops, or metropolitans, and 35 bishops. The patriarchate of Sis embraces three towns and forty villages. Towards the close of the 16th century the patriarch of Sis still had 23 archbishops and bishops under his jurisdiction. The diocese of the patriarch of Jerusalem embraces the churches of Palestine, Syria Akra, and Tripolis. His residence, in the monastery of Mar Yakub on Mount Zion, was built in the 11th century, belonged to the Armenians as early as 1238, and has been in their undisputed possession since 1666. Besides the patriarch, 5 bishops and more than 100 priests, live in the monastery. The total number of suffragan bishops is reported to be 14. The diocese of the patriarch of Aghtamar comprises two towns and thirty villages. In the second half of the 17th century he had under his jurisdiction from 8 to 9 bishops residing in the monasteries on the shore of Lake Van. The population connected with the Armenian Church is estimated at about 2,400,000, of whom about 400,000 are in the European dominions of Turkey. SEE ARMENIAN CHURCH.
3. Other Oriental Churches. — Besides the Greeks and Armenians, Turkey has two other Oriental churches the so-called Nestorians and Jacobites. Both have been fully treated in former volumes of this Cyclopedia. SEE JACOBITES; SEE NESTORIANS.
4. The Roman Catholic Church in, Turkey. — There are only a few tribes and congregations in the present dominions of the Turkish Empire, which have always been in connection with the Church of Rome. They are chiefly to be found in Albania. The foundation of other congregations dates from the time of the crusades, which established the Latin Church on a permanent basis in Syria, Palestine, and Cyprus. The rule of the Venetians in the Mediterranean Sea, and the commercial intercourse between the Balkan Peninsula and the Catholic nations of Western Europe increased the number of Latin congregations in all the large cities of the empire. Finally, the unceasing efforts of the numerous missionaries which the Church of Rome has supported in all parts of the empire have won over fractions of all the various Oriental Christian denominations in which the empire abounds. These fractions have been allowed by the pope to retain a number of national and ecclesiastical peculiarities; and, while they have adopted the doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, recognize the pope as the head of the Church Universal, and must be recognised themselves, in the fullest sense of the word, as part of the Roman Catholic Church, they appear, especially in consequence of the retention at divine service of a rite different from the Latin, as a kind of semi-independent division of the Church. A correct view of the actual strength of the Roman Catholic Church in the Turkish Empire is best obtained by reviewing the several rites separately.
The Latin millet embraces the Roman Catholics of all rites, except the United Armenians, who have their own civil head. The head of the Latin millet is a layman, who has the title Vekil (representative). He is assisted by four deputies of the Latin population, with whom he constitutes a permanent council called the Latin Chancery. The functions of this council are similar to those of the Greek patriarch.
(1.) The Latin Rite. — A Latin patriarchate was established at Constantinople in 1203, in consequence of the crusades. The occupant received a rank next to the pope. When Constantinople, in 1453, became the residence of the sultan, the Latin patriarchs transferred the seat of the patriarchate to Venice, and sent to Constantinople as their representative a vicar, who for a long time was only a monk. When the Catholics, in consequence of their increasing number, applied for a bishop, the Propaganda prevailed upon the patriarch to appoint an assistant bishop for Constantinople, and to pay him a regular salary. This bishop sometimes called himself patriarchal vicar, sometimes suffragan of the patriarch. After some time, the Propaganda found it necessary to appoint, in its turn, an apostolical patriarchal vicar. When, after the middle of the 17th century, the patriarch took up his residence at Rome, and the patriarchate of Constantinople became a mere title in partibus infidelium, which was conferred upon a prelate residing in Rome, the apostolical vicar was invested with full jurisdiction over all Catholics of the Latin rite. The population of his diocese, which extends over Thrace and the opposite coast of Asia Minor, is estimated at about 15,000. The larger portions of the vicariate apostolic (formerly archbishopric) of Sophia, which had before the late war a Latin population of about 8000, and of the diocese of Nicopolis, which had a population of about 3000 are no longer under Turkish rule. Both the towns of Sophia and Nicopolis lie within the new principality of Bulgaria. A considerable portion of the archbishopric of Scopia, or Uskub, in Macedonia (now the western part of Roumelia) has been annexed to Servia. The whole diocese numbered before the war about 8000 Catholics of the Latin rite. Before the enlargement of the principality in 1878, the entire Roman Catholic population, numbering about 4000 persons, was included in the diocese of Belgrade and Semendria, SEE SERVIA, which belonged as a suffragan see to the ecclesiastical province of Antivari. The two vicariates apostolic of Moldavia and Wallachia, numbering in 1878 an aggregate Roman Catholic population of 114,000, now belong to the independent state of Roumania. The two vicariates of Bosnia and Herzegovina, which embrace the entire Roman Catholic population in the two provinces after which they have been called, were in 1878, by the treaty of Berlin, placed under Austrian administration. The Catholic population in these vicariates is numerous, especially in the northern and north-western districts of Bosnia, which before the conquest of the country by the Turks belonged to Hungary. The bishop of Bosnia fled, in consequence of the Turkish conquest, to Hungary, and established his residence at Deacovar. The occupant of this see still has the title bishop of Bosnia and Sirmium; but, as the Turks did not allow the jurisdiction of a foreign prelate, a vicar apostolic was appointed for the Catholics of the Turkish provinces. The Catholic population is estimated at about 140,000, that of Herzegovina at 42,000. In the European provinces remaining under Turkish rule the Roman Catholic Church has its greatest stronghold in Albania. There are two ecclesiastical provinces, in Albania, Antivari- Scutari and Durazzo. The latter has no longer any suffragan see, and consists only of the archdiocese of Durazzo. The archdiocese of Antivari and the diocese of Scutari were united in 1867, at which time they had an aggregate Roman Catholic population of about 33,000. The suffragan sees of Antivari and Durazzo are Sappa, Pulati, and Alessio, all in Albania, with an aggregate population of about 42,000. The diocese of Belgrade, in Servia, which has already been referred to, also belongs to this ecclesiastical province. The island of Scio, which belongs to Asiatic Turkey, has still an episcopal see, although the number of Roman Catholics is less than one thousand. It is a suffragan see of the archdiocese of Naxos, which belongs to the kingdom of Greece. In the Middle Ages, while this island was under the rule of the Venetians, it was very flourishing, and the Roman Catholic population was numerous; but during the Greek war of independence nearly the entire Christian population was exterminated or sold into slavery. 'The population of Cyprus, which in 1878 was placed under English administration, has rapidly increased during the last twenty years, and the Roman Catholic Church there numbers about 10,000 Catholics of the Latin and Greek rites, and 3000 Maronites. The flourishing city of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, has an archdiocese with about 15,000, nearly all of whom live in the capital. The archbishopric in this city was restored in 1818, and has now as a suffragan see the diocese of Candia, which, after being long conferred as a title in partibus infidelium, was restored in 1874. Besides these dioceses, the Church of Rome has an archbishop of Babylon, who resides at Bagdad. For the Roman Catholics of Jerusalem, who were formerly under the jurisdiction of Franciscan monks, an archbishopric was established in 1847, the occupant of which received the title of patriarch. The number of Roman Catholics in Palestine is estimated at about 15,000. Two "apostolic delegations" have been established, one called "Asiatic Turkey," and embracing Mesopotamia, Kurdistan, and Armenia Minor, and the other Syria; and two apostolical vicariates, Aleppo and Asia Minor. The number of Roman Catholics in all these dioceses and ecclesiastical districts is small, but the bishops and the comparatively numerous orders display a considerable activity among the Christians of the Oriental rites. Several Catholic congregations have been collected in the commercial towns of the Arabian coast. They are administered by the apostolical vicar of Aden. The number of Catholics in the African dependencies of Turkey is small, but is increasing by immigration from Catholic countries of Europe, especially France and Italy. The French population residing in Egypt in 1877 amounted to 17,000, the Italian to 13,900, the Austrian to 6300; the large majority of all these are Catholics. The patriarchate of Alexandria, like that of Antioch in Asia, is now a mere title conferred upon an Italian prelate who resides in Rome. For the 25,000 Catholics of Tunis there is a vicar apostolic, and for the 5000 of Tripoli a praefect apostolic.
(2.) The Armenian Rite. — The Church of Rome began to gain a firm footing among the Armenians at the time of the crusades. SEE ARMENIAN CHURCH. Although the bulk of the nation always continued averse to a union with Rome, considerable numbers accepted the union, and, retaining the rites of the national Church, were organized into a United Armenian Church. The Mechitarists (q.v.) have gained for this ecclesiastical community a greater literary distinction than can be claimed by any other Oriental communion. In regard to their political rights, the United Armenians were subject to the jurisdiction of the patriarch of the National Armenian Church until pope Pius VIII, in 1830, succeeded, with the aid of France and Austria, in making them independent. He erected at Constantinople the see of an archbishop primate for the Catholic Armenians, who was to be immediately subject to the Holy See. At the appointment of the first primate the pope appears to have taken into consideration the national wishes, and to have conceded to them the right to propose three candidates for the vacant see, from whom the pope chose one. In 1845 the pope appointed Anthony Hassun as successor of the primate, without consulting the nation. By a brief of April 30,1850,.pope Pius IX erected the towns of Ancyra, Artvin, Brousa, Erzrfim, Ispahan, and Trebizond into episcopal sees of the United Armenians, and made them suffragans of the Armenian archbishop of Constantinople. The same brief appointed the bishops of these sees without consulting the nation. The United Armenian nation gave its consent to the establishment of the sees, but refused to recognize the bishops, because they had not previously been consulted. After some time, they yielded this point also, in order to prevent a schism; and the Turkish government, through the mediation of France, gave to the new bishops the necessary berat. When the pope established the see of an archbishop-primate at Constantinople, it was intended to confer upon him also the secular jurisdiction over the Catholic Armenians; but the Porte did not recognize the primate, and clothed, by a berat of 1831, a priest of the Order of Mechitarists with the praefectura nationalis. At the request of the French ambassador, after some time, a patriarch was appointed, but without any ecclesiastical functions, and having only those secular rights which are connected with the offices of the Greek and the Gregorian-Armenian patriarchs. The patriarch was to be elected by the United Armenian community, and to be confirmed by the Porte. He was to be assisted by a council of administration consisting of twelve members, who were likewise to be elected by the nation and to be confirmed by the Porte. The berat given to the patriarch extended his jurisdiction over all the United Eastern churches; but, in consequence of the religious controversies and inner dissensions which arose, the patriarch lost the right to represent the other Catholic nationalities at the Porte, and this right passed over to the vekil of the Latins. In 1866 Hassun, the archbishop-primate of Constantinople, was elected also patriarch of Cilicia, and assumed as such the name Anthony Peter IX. Thus for the first time the highest ecclesiastical dignity of the United Armenians, the patriarchate of Cilicia, was united in one person with the civil headship of the United Armenian nation which was attached to the office of the primate of Constantinople. Simultaneously with confirming the new patriarch, pope Pius IX, in July, 1867, issued the bull Reversurus, which abolished the rights that hitherto the United Armenians had enjoyed with regard to the election of their patriarch and their bishops, and reserved for the pope rights hitherto not exercised by him. The opposition which at once manifested itself against this bull led in 1870 to an open schism. The opponents secured the assistance of the Turkish government; Hassun was exiled from Constantinople and from Turkey, and Kupelian chosen in his stead patriarch of the United Armenians. Besides, a number of bishops sympathizing with Kupelian were appointed for United Armenian dioceses. Notwithstanding repeated excommunications by Rome, the party headed by Kupelian remained in opposition to the pope, and assumed a position similar to that of the Old Catholics. in Western Europe. The Kupelians continued for many years to enjoy the patronage and active support of the Turkish government, but never succeeded in bringing over to their side the majority of the United Armenian laity. In 1876 a general amnesty, granted by the new sultan, Murad, on his accession to the-throne, permitted Hassun to return to Constantinople. The schism continued, however, until 1899, when the efforts made by the papal delegates and the ambassador of France secured the submission of Kupelian and the other bishops of the opposition, and the entire end of the schism.
(3.) Other United Oriental Rites. — The Roman Catholic Church has also gained over the entire tribe of the Maronites, as well as portions of the Nestorians and the Jacobites in Asia, and of the Copts in Egypt. The United Nestorians are generally called Chaldeans, while the United Jacobites are designated United Syrians. These United Orientals have already been referred to in the articles SEE MARONITES; SEE CHALDEANS; SEE COPTS; SEE JACOBITES. The aggregate number of these religious denominations is not large. The number of Chaldeans (inclusive of the congregations in Persia) is estimated at from 20,000 to 30,000, that of the Syrians at from 9000 to 30,000, that of the Copts at 10,000. From 1870 to 1879 almost the entire community of the Chaldeans, including their patriarch, and, and all their bishops, was in a state of open rebellion against Rome. The patriarch desired to extend his jurisdiction over the Christians of St. Thomas in British India, who, like the Chaldeans, are United Nestorians, and number about 100,000. Rome objected to this, desiring the Christians of St. Thomas to remain as heretofore under the jurisdiction of the vicar apostolic of Verapoli, who is of the Latin rite. The Chaldeans, moreover, protested against a Roman bull, issued in 1869, which forbade the patriarch to ordain bishops without the previous approbation of the pope. The Chaldeans had possessed and exercised this right from the time when they joined the communion of Rome, and they denied the right of the pope to abolish it without their consent. The patriarch and the bishops long resisted all the efforts made by Rome. One of their bishops visited India and prevailed upon a large portion of the Christians of St. Thomas to place themselves under his jurisdiction, and withdraw from that of the Latin vicar apostolic of Verapoli. At length, however, they relented in their resistance; and, after the death of patriarch and, the pope succeeded, in 1879, in securing the submission of the Chaldeans, and in the election of a new patriarch who declared himself willing to concede all the demands made by Rome. SEE THOMAS (ST.), CHRISTIANS OF.
(4.) Protestantism. — The most important Protestant churches in the Turkish empire are under the care of American missionary societies. The Rev. Pliny Fisk and the Rev. Levi Parsons were appointed by the American Board in 1818 missionaries to Palestine, and arrived at Smyrna in 1820. In the next year Mr. Parsons went to Jerusalem. A printing-press, designed to print books for, Turkey, was set up at Malta by the Rev. Daniel Temple in 1823, and was removed in 1833 to Smyrna. The Rev. Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird were stationed at Beirut, where they began the Syrian mission in 1823, and opened schools the next year. In the same year the circulation of the Scriptures was forbidden by the government. The station at Jerusalem was suspended for nine years after the death of Mr. Fisk, in 1825, and the mission in Syria was suspended for a short time in 1828. It was soon resumed; the Rev. William Goodell was appointed to Constantinople, and a deputation was sent to visit the Armenian populations of the empire. Mr. Goodell visited the Armenian patriarch and ecclesiastics at Constantinople in 1831, and was at first welcomed by them. Schools were opened near Constantinople, and in 1834 stations were established at Trebizond and Brousa. The Greek and Armenian ecclesiastics became jealous of the progress of the missions, and a strong opposition was instigated against them; but in 1839 the new sultan made the first of a series of concessions of religious liberty. In 1841 the Rev. Cyrus Hamlin opened a school at Bebek, near Constantinople, which was the beginning of what is now Robert College.
Churches were formally organized at Constantinople, Adabazar, and Trebizond in 1846. In the next year the Protestants were recognised by the government as an independent community, and in 1850 they were accorded a charter, placing them on the same basis as the other Christian communities of the empire. In 1856 the sultan granted, and in 1860 formally proclaimed, the hutti-humayum by which religious liberty and equal rights were conferred upon all classes. The missions in Syria were transferred to the Board of Foreign Missions of the Presbyterian Church in the United States of America in 1870. The churches of the American Board are distributed through a territory extending from Mosul, on the Tigris, to Monastir, in Macedonia. They are arranged into four missions, which are known as the Eastern Turkey (Armenia), Central Turkey (embracing the country south of the Black Sea), Western Turkey (Asia Minor), and European Turkey (Constantinople, Eastern Roumelia, Bulgaria, and Macedonia) missions, and include 90 churches, with 9890 members. The Presbyterian Church has 19 churches in Syria, with 1493 communicants. The Synod of the Reformed Presbyterian Church of North America has a mission at Latakia, with 171 members; the Free Church of Scotland has two missionaries, with 109 members; an independent Baptist missionary reports a few members, and the Friends have 145 members, all in Syria. The Rev. Samuel Gobat, an agent of the Church Missionary Society, went to Palestine in 1841, and was afterwards appointed Bishop of Jerusalem. He founded schools, which passed in 1877 under the control of the Church Missionary Society. This society returns 9 native Protestant congregations in Palestine, having 1616 members. Other societies engaged in Palestine are the London Jewish Mission, the Jewish Mission of Berlin, the Crischona Mission, and the Kaiserswerth Deaconesses Association.
The Methodist Episcopal Church has a mission in Bulgaria, begun in 1857, which included, in 1889, 12 stations, 116 members, and 51 probationers. The Disciples of Christ appointed a missionary to Constantinople in 1878. The mission of the United Presbyterian Church of North America in Egypt, after twenty-five years of development, has 9 churches and 947 communicants. The Protestant churches have in all in the empire about 385 preaching-places, more than 100 ordained missionaries with as many churches, and about 14,500 communicants. Besides these, the Jewish mission societies of London, the Established and Free Churches of Scotland, and the Irish Presbyterian Church have stations and schools at Alexandria, Smyrna, Beirut, Constantinople, Salonica, Adrianople, and Rustchuk.
The Protestant religious work is supplemented by efficient schools of every grade. The American Board has 300 common-schools, 16 boarding- schools for girls, and 12 seminaries and training-schools, with a total attendance of more than 17,000 pupils; the Presbyterian Mission in Syria has 1 10 common-schools, 3 high-schools, and 3 female seminaries, with a total of 4950 pupils, a college, and a theological seminary; the Reformed Presbyterian Mission has 659 day-school scholars; the Society of the British Syrian Schools and Bible Mission, 30 schools and 3000 scholars; and in Syria proper, not including Palestine or Asia Minor, there are 11,000 children in evangelical schools, of whom about one-half are girls. In Palestine there are under the control of the Church missionary and other societies some 36 or 37 Protestant schools, which are attended by Mohammedan, Jewish, Druse and Samaritan pupils. The United Presbyterians in Egypt have 82 schools, with 5601 pupils, and 10 theological students in the training-schools. The English Church schools at Cairo and Damietta have 590 pupils. Of the Jewish mission-schools, those of the Church of Scotland return 1792 Jewish and other than British pupils. At the Syrian Protestant College of the Presbyterian Mission at Beirut instruction is given in the English language, while the Arabic is taught as a classic. The college has a faculty of 8 professors, 120 students, and a "medical department which had 23 students in 1877, and which has sent out several graduates, who are practicing as physicians in different parts of the empire. Robert College, near Constantinople, is not immediately connected with any Church organization, but is under Protestant direction, with a board of trustees composed of citizens of the United States. It has a faculty of 15 instructors, including American, European, Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, and Turkish professors, and registered, in 187879, 151 students, among whom fifteen nationalities and all the religions prevailing in the empire were represented. Instruction is given in the usual collegiate studies and in fifteen ancient and modern languages. The college has a library of 6000 volumes. Central Turkey College, at Aintab, is also an independent Protestant institution, in which instruction is given in the branches of science and literature, the English, Turkish, and Armenian languages.
The American Board has a press at Constantinople, and the Presbyterians have one at Beirut, at both of which religious, educational, and scientific books are published in the languages of the people. The Arabic Bible published at Beirut is circulated in all Mohammedan countries. Other editions of the Bible are published in all the languages spoken in the empire. The whole number of copies of books, tracts, etc., printed at the press of the American Board from the beginning of its operations to 1879 is 2,248,354, comprising a total of 325,503,988 pages, in the Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, Greco-Turkish, and Bulgarian languages; and the whole number of pages printed on the Presbyterian press from the beginning to 1889 is 365,112,219.
The organization of Protestant churches has been generally confined to other than Mussulman populations — chiefly to Greeks, Bulgarians, and Armenians. It was until recently a capital offence, by the Turkish law, for a Moslem to become a Christian. More attention is now given to the evangelization of the Turkish population; but the number of Protestant Turks is still very insignificant. The Protestants have acquired a good reputation in the communities among whom they live, and have gained their esteem and confidence to a degree that is rarely accorded to persons professing a strange religion. SEE SYRIA, MISSIONS IN.
VI. Other Religious Denominations. — The most important of the other religious denominations of the Turkish empire are the Jews. Their old native land, Palestine, is now a part of Turkey in Asia, but the overwhelming majority of its population consists at present of Mohammedans, the total number of Jews in all Asiatic Turkey being estimated at only 50,000, it is believed that their first appearance in European Turkey may have been connected with the conquests of Alexander the Great, who planted many colonies of Jews about his empire. Philo mentions Jews in Thessaly, Bceotia, Macedonia, etc. Luke speaks of them at Thessalonica and Bercea. The Jews have probably been settled in Macedonia from the first emigration to the present time. In consequence of their expulsion from Spain, a large number of Spanish Jews settled in Thessalonica. Paul Lucas says that in his day there were 30,000 in that city, with twenty-two synagogues. The descendants of these Spanish Jews spread throughout the empire; they continue to speak among themselves the Spanish language, but their written correspondence is carried on in Hebrew. The great mass of the Jews in Turkey are Talmudists, but there exists a small section of Karaites (q.v.). The latter have about a hundred families at Has-Keui, near Constantinople; there are also many in Galicia, and the Crimea; but the great bulk of the Jews of this persuasion are, outside of the Turkish empire, in Galicia and the Crimea. There is also a curious sect of Jews at Salonica called Manaim, which signifies 'turncoat.' They believe in the fourteenth false Messiah, Sabati Levi, who, to save his life, became with his followers Mohammedans; but these, again, have their religious differences, and are divided into three sects. They are still Jews at heart, but their trifling with two creeds makes them despised and looked down upon. They marry among themselves only, and live together in a particular quarter of the town. There are others of the same sect in parts of Russia. At Salonica they are Mohammedans ill public and Jews in private life. The-Jews have no hierarchy, but each congregation is independent, and is governed by its own chief rabbi; but they have a representative head at Constantinople, called the khakham-bashi, who is chief of the Israelitish nation in the empire. The khakhambashi at Constantinople has a court or council to assist him in administering both ecclesiastical and civil law. It is divided into two parts-first, the Mejliss-i-rouhani, or spiritual council, composed of six grand rabbins, which, as its name implies, deals with questions relating to the Jewish religion; and, second, the Mejliss-i- jesmdni, or civil council, which deals with questions of civil law, and assists the Turkish courts in any questions relating to Jews. The same organization applies to each grand rabbi, who, in his turn, is assisted by two similar councils. As the Jewish law, like that of the Mohammedan, is explained by the teaching of the sacred books, the establishment of these councils forms a ready means of arriving at a judgment on all religious and civil cases arising in the Jewish community. The khakham-bashi takes rank immediately after the Greek and Armenian patriarchs. The Jewish population of the Turkish Empire is estimated at 158,000. The poorer are entirely dependent upon the liberality of the upper classes for education and relief in case of want, and the obligation is met in a most commendable spirit. They possess an institution called the 'Universal Israelitish Alliance,' which is charged with the administration of education, etc. In 1875 the alliance had twenty-one schools throughout the empire, which gave instruction to 2094 children of both sexes, and of this number 809-were admitted gratuitously. The teachers of these schools are educated in the Rabbinical Seminary at Paris, and they give their pupils instruction in foreign languages and all the elements of a first-class education. The elementary schools, or talmudtorla, are crowded with children of both sexes, who are simply taught to read and write"(Baker). The estimates of the Jewish population in the Turkish empire vary greatly. It has already been mentioned that Baker, in his work on Turkey, gives the total number as 158,000, and that in the Asiatic possessions they are supposed not to exceed 50,000. The Servian statistician Jakshitch estimates the Jews in the immediate European possessions at only 55,000, distributed as follows among the several vilayets: Constantinople, 22,943; Adrianople, 13,492; Salonica, 7409; Monastir, 2566; Kossovo, 1323; Yanina, 4085; Crete, 3200 total, 55,018. The same statistician gives the number of Jews in Roumelia at 3969, in Bosnia at 6968, in Bulgaria at 8959-total in Turkish empire in Europe, 74,914. In the African dependencies, the Jews are chiefly represented in Tunis, where they are supposed to number 45,000 souls. SEE JEWS.
There are a number of sects peculiar to Turkey. The most prominent among them are the Ansarians (q.v.) and the Druses (q.v.). The number of gypsies is estimated at about 200,000.
VII. Literature. — For information on the religious denominations of Turkey, see Baker, Turkey (Lond. and N.,Y. 1878); Audouard, L'Orient etses Peuplades (Paris, 1867); Zur Helle von Samo [a Mohammedan dervish, previously an Austrian diplomatist], Die Volker des osmanischen Reiches (Vienna, 1877); Ubicini, Etudes Historiques sur les Populations Chretiennes de la Turquie d'Europe (Paris, 1867). (A. J. S.)
Postscript. — Since the above was in type, the political situation of Turkey has undergone no material change. The Turks, as well as the natives, made so much opposition to carrying out the provisions of the treaty of Berlin, that a naval demonstration by the great European powers in the Archipelago became necessary in order to compel the surrender to Montenegro of Dulcigno, a seaport of Albania, on the Adriatic. Meanwhile both Greece and Turkey continued their warlike attitude and preparations, both parties declining the mediation of the other powers; but as none of these seemed disposed to aid either of the contestants, the latest advices (April, 1881) are that a compromise of the boundary question will be peaceably effected (by the absolute cession to Greece of a part only of the disputed territory in Albania and Thessaly, as suggested by Turkey and recommended by the other governments), and that thus a new lease of life, for a short time, will be granted to the Turkish rule in Europe.
