and he called on the representatives of Catholic theology in Germany to labor in union with the theologians of the Greek Church for a scientific investigation of Christian truth, in the interest of a final reunion of the Churches.

A committee of seven members was appointed to make all the necessary preparations for the election of a bishop, and to draw a provisional constitution of Old Catholic congregations. It consists of three theologians, (Friedrich, Michelis, and Reusch,) two professors of canon law, (Maassen and Schulte,) and two other laymen. Another committee, of which Professor Döllinger is the chairman, and which has the right of cooperation, is to enter into communication with other Christian Churches about a reunion of the different branches of Christianity. And, with regard to this point, it was emphatically declared that the Old Catholics of Germany looked for a closer union not only with the Anglican and Greek Churches, with which they agree in most points of doctrines and of constitution, but also with the evangelical Protestants.

The Congress next discussed and adopted a series of resolutions relative to the legal condition of the Old Catholics. These resolutions demand that the State Governments recognize the Old Catholics as the sole representatives of the Catholic Church of Germany, because they alone professed the principle of the Catholic Church as it existed up to 1870, and as it had regulated its affairs by agreement with the State. They therefore demand the legal recognition of the Old Catholic bishops and priests by the State, and the payment of their salaries by the State, in accordance with the existing laws. They announce that the Old Catholics intend to establish before the German courts their claims to the property of the Catholic Church. They also represent the general introduction of the obligatory civil marriage as absolutely necessary.

For the present management and the further extension of the Old Catholic movement two central committees were appointed, one at Cologne for northern, and one at Munich for southern Germany. Switzerland already has a central committee of its own, and another will be appointed for the Austro-Hungarian monarchy.

The most important work of the Congress is undoubtedly the provision for the appointment of one or several bishops, which will take place in the course of the coming year. Then only it can be found out whether the new Church has vitality enough to grow.

THE GREEK CHURCH.

The rupture between the Greek Patriarch of Constantinople and the Bulgarian nation (see "Methodist Quarterly Review," 1872, p. 329) became complete by the election, in March, 1872, of Bishop Anthim as Exarch, or head of the national Bulgarian Church. The Exarch at once made efforts to bring about an understanding with the Patriarch. The latter replied that he would give a respite of forty days, after the lapse of which he must return to the orthodox Church, and during which he must abstain from exercising any episcopal function, under penalty of

the canonical law. The Exarch indeed abstained from all ecclesiastical functions, although the Passover of the Greek Church took place within this period. But in the latter part of May the Exarch yielded to the pressure brought upon him by the leaders of the national Bulgarian party, and solemnly released the three Bulgarian bishops who, in January, 1872, had been excommunicated by the Patriarch, from the excommunication. This induced the Patriarch to convoke a meeting of his synod and of many prominent laymen, which declared the negotiations with the Bulgarians to be at an end, and Anthim to have incurred the canonical censures. On the other side, the Exarch, on May 24, left out in the liturgy the prescribed mention of the Patriarch, and substituted for it the words "the orthodox episcopate," which immediately called forth the reading of a pastoral letter by the Patriarch, excommunicating Anthim, and pronouncing the great anathema against the three Bulgarian bishops. Notwithstanding these measures, the Bulgarian Church consolidated itself more and more. The Exarch soon consecrated a new bishop, and at Wodina, in Macedonia, the Bulgarians expelled the Greek bishop, and declared that, in accordance with Article X of the firman establishing the Bulgarian exarchate, (by which article it is provided that two thirds of the inhabitants of a diocese have the power of demanding the connection of the diocese with the exarchate,) they would join the Bulgarian Church. On September 10 the "Great Synod" of the Church met in Constantinople. All the Patriarchs and twenty-five archbishops and bishops were present. The Synod soon declared "phyletism," that is, the distinction of races and nationalities within the Church of God, as contrary to the doctrine of the Gospel and of the Fathers, and excluded six Bulgarian bishops and all connected with the exarchate from the Church. All the bishops signed the decree except the Patriarch of Jerusalem, who left the Synod before its close, and was therefor insulted by the Greek population of Smyrna, in Asia Minor, who received him with shouts of "Traitor!" "Muscovite !" The following is a translation of the decree of the Synod, which will remain an important document in the annals of the Greek Church:

"Decree of the Holy and Grand Council, assembled at Constantinople in the month of September, in the year of grace 1872. The Apostle Paul has commanded us to take heed unto ourselves and to all the flock over the which the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers, to govern the Church of God, which he hath purchased with his own blood; and has at the same time predicted that grievous wolves shall enter among us, not sparing the flock, and that of our own selves shall men arise speaking perverse things to draw away disciples after them; and he has warned us to beware of such. We have learned with astonishment and pain that such men have lately appeared among the Bulgarian people within the jurisdiction of the Holy Ecumenical Throne. They have dared to introduce into the Church the idea of phyletism, or the national Church, which is of the temporal life, and have established, in contempt of the sacred canon, an unauthorized and unprecedented Church assem

bly, based upon the principle of the difference of races. Being inspired in accordance with our duty, by zeal for God and the wish to protect the pious Bulgarian people against the spread of this evil, we have met in the name of our Saviour Jesus Christ. Having first besought from the depths of our hearts the grace of the Father of light, and consulted the Gospel of Christ, in which all treasures of wisdom are hidden, and having examined the principles of phyletism with reference to the precepts of the Gospel and the temporal constitution of the Church of God, we have found it not only foreign, but in enmity to them, and have perceived that the unlawful acts committed by the aforesaid unauthorized phyletismal assembly, as they were severally recited to us, are one and all condemned.

"Therefore, in view of the sacred canons, whose rulings are hereby confirmed in their whole compass; in view of the teachings of the apostles, through whom the Holy Ghost has spoken; in view of the decrees of the seven Ecumenical Councils, and of all the local councils; in view of the definitions of the Fathers of the Church, we ordain as follows: ART. 1. We censure, condemn, and declare contrary to the teachings of the Gospel and the sacred canons of the holy Fathers the doctrine of phyletism, or of the difference of races and national diversity in the bosom of the Church of Christ. ART. 2. We declare the adherents of phyletism, who have had the boldness to set up an unlawful, unprecedented Church assembly upon such a principle, to be foreign and absolutely schismatic to the only holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church. There are and remain, therefore, schismatic and foreign to the Orthodox Church the following lawless men who have of their own free will separated themselves from it, namely, Hilarion, ex-Bishop of Makariopolis; Panaretes, exMetropolitan of Philippopolis; Hilarion, ex-Bishop of Sostra; Anthimos, ex-Metropolitan of Widdin; Dorothea, ex-Metropolitan of Sophia; Partheonius, ex-Metropolitan of Nyssava; Gennadius, ex-Metropolitan of Melissa, before deposed and excommunicated; together with all who have been ordained by them to be archbishops, priests, and deacons; all persons, spiritual and worldly, who are in communion with them; all who act in co-operation with them; and all who accept as lawful and canonical their unholy blessings and ceremonies of worship. While we pronounce this synodal decision, we pray to the God of mercy, our Lord Jesus Christ, the head and founder of our faith, that he will preserve his holy Church from all dangerous new doctrines, and that he will keep it pure, spotless, and fast, on the foundations of the apostles and the prophets. We pray him to grant the grace of repentance to those who have separated themselves from her, and have founded their unauthorized Church assembly upon the principle of phyletism, so that they may some day nullify their acts, and return to the only holy, Catholic, and Apostolic Church, in order with all the orthodox to praise God, who came upon the earth to bring peace and good-will to all men. He it is whom we shall honor and worship, with the Father and the Holy Ghost, to the end of time. Amen.”

FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXV.-10

The decree is signed by his Grace the Ecumenical Patriarch and the three former Patriarchs, the Pontiff and Patriarch of Alexandria, the Patriarch of Antioch, the Archbishop of Cyprus, and by twenty-five metropolitans and bishops.

ART. VIII.-FOREIGN LITERARY INTELLIGENCE.

GERMANY.

A WORK by Professor Maassen, of Vienna, on the "History of the Sources and the Literature of the Canon Law in the West up to the End of the Middle Ages," (Geschichte der Quellen und der Literatur des canonischen Rechtes im Abendlande bis zum Ausgange des Mittelalters. Gratz, 1872,) is on all sides praised as a work of superior merit. The author, originally a Lutheran, joined some years ago the Roman Catholic Church, but is now one of the most gifted leaders of the Old Catholic movement.

Another prominent leader of the Old Catholics, Professor Lutterbeck, of the University of Giessen, has, in a monograph on The Clementines, (Die Clementinen. Giessen, 1872,) a book falsely ascribed to Bishop Clement, of Rome, undertaken to prove that the doctrine of infallibility, as well as that of the absolute power now claimed by the Popes, had its origin in this book, which, in the author's opinion, was compiled about the year 135. Heretofore most writers have regarded the second half of the second century as the time in which this book originated. Its spurious character is now almost universally admitted; only among the Ultramontane writers of Italy, France, and other Papal countries, there are occasionally found writers who have not heard of the modern investigations.

The Lutheran theologians of Germany continue to discuss the question of a Millennium. The millennial hope that the Jews, according to the biblical prophecies, will finally be converted and will be again gathered in Palestine, when, by the second appearance of Christ, they will be delivered from the hands of their enemies and establish a theocratic rule over all nations, has found a new champion in the Rev. A. Koch, (Das Tausendjährige Reich. Basel, 1872.) The author endeavors, in particular, to refute the arguments adduced against the doctrine of a Millennium by Hengstenberg, Keil, and Klieforth.

An important exegetical work on the Gospel of Mark and its relation to Matthew and Luke has been published by Prof. Weiss, (Das Marcus evangelium und seine synoptischen Parallelen. Berlin, 1872.) The author undertakes to prove that the Gospel of Mark was written before Matthew and Luke, but that prior to any of the three Gospels in their present form there was a brief record of the sermons of Jesus and of historical narratives, which Papias attributes to Matthew.

The work of Professor Köstlin on "The Doctrine of the Christian

Church according to the New Testament, and with Particular Reference to the Points Controverted between Protestants and Roman Catholics," has recently appeared in a second edition, (Das Wesen der Kirche. Gotha, 1872.) A point of special interest in this new edition is the discussion of the doctrinal bearing of the recent events in the Roman Catholic Church, and, in particular, of the views advanced in the addresses of Dr. Döllinger on the reunion of the Christian Church.

The highly-valued edition of the apologetic writers of the second century of the Christian Church, by Professor Otto, of Vienna, has been completed by the appearance of the ninth volume, (Corpus Apologetarum christianorum sæculi secundi, vol. ix. Jena, 1872.) This last volume contains the work of Hermias against the pagan philosophers and writings and fragments of writings of the Athenian Quadratus, of Aristides, of Aristo of Pella, of Melito of Sardes, and of Claudius Apollinaris.

Our knowledge of the ancient history of the Jews has been so much enriched by the discoveries of the Assyrian inscriptions that a special work on the relations of these discoveries to the Old Testament was highly needed. No more competent man could have undertaken to write on this subject than Dr. Schrader, Professor of Theology at Jena, (formerly of Giessen,) whose new work, Die Keilinschriften und das Alte Testament, ("The Cuneiform Inscriptions and the Old Testament." Giessen, 1872,) supplies all the information which those interested in the subject can desire. Professor Schrader is favorably known as a writer on the subject, and has in particular published a number of valuable articles in the Studien und Kritiken, to which the Methodist Quarterly Review has several times called attention. In the above work the author discusses all the passages of the Old Testament which are elucidated or explained by the cuneiform inscriptions, and then undertakes to establish a system of Hebrew and Assyrian chronology. Several appendixes give lists of Assyrian rulers, lists of administrations, a glossary of Assyrian words, and other interesting matter; and the use of the work is greatly facilitated by accurate registers, the key to the new chronological information which has been gathered from the Assyrian inscriptions to the discovery of the so-called "lists of Eponyms." Eponyms is the name which has been chosen for designating an officer in Nineveh who was elected annually, and who gave the name to the current year; every important occurrence of the year, as the wars and victories of the kings, the accession to the throne, the contracts of the merchants, etc., being called after him. On account of their similarity with the Athenian Archontes, they are also sometimes called Archontes. Now, of these Eponyms or Archontes we have complete lists from 900 to 600 B. C.; and as a tablet of king Sardanapal IV. fixes the year of the Eponym Purelsalche (under whose successor king Tiglath-pileser succeeded to the throne) by means of a solar eclipse which astronomers have shown to have taken place on June 15, 763 B. C., we have for the whole series of Eponyms, as well as for the kings whose names are mentioned in their lists, dates which are indisputably correct. It is apparent of what immense signifi.