other affairs of little moment, are suffered to | English parliamentarians, who, when they opoperate without the consent of the civil power. posed Charles I. in the field, pretended to act With regard to the monasteries, it appears, in his name. that the election of the head depends, in some, upon the pope, and, in the rest, upon the bishops.

In the grand duchy of Tuscany, after the laudable efforts of Leopold in opposition to papal encroachments, little remained to be done in the present century to establish the independence of the temporal sovereign. It appears, indeed, that the pope ostensibly supplies the vacancies in episcopal preferments; but the rule is, that the names and pretensions of

In the kingdom of Naples, the pope's authority is seriously checked by the spirit of the government, although the doctrines which he maintains are still professed by the people. No bulls, rescripts, or dispensations, are effective without the royal assent; and, in the ap-four candidates are communicated to him by pointment of bishops, the court justly assumes a paramount authority.

the Tuscan minister at Rome, who points out the one more particularly favoured by the grand duke; and with this recommendation his holiness feels himself obliged to comply. The ordinary benefices are conferred on such persons as are deemed by the king or the bishops the most deserving; and the pope's confirmation of any appointment of this kind is considered as

the pontiff are allowed to have some influence in cases of conscience or of private penance; but, if the answers to these cases should affect in any way the civil state of the persons who have solicited the illuminations of his wisdom, the acceptance is noticed and sometimes pu

In speaking of Naples, our attention is called to a remarkable society, which was formed in the year 1812, while Murat (that is, the usurper Joachim) filled the throne of Ferdi nand. We are induced to mention it, not for its chief object, which was evidently political, but because its members mingled a sense of re-absolutely unnecessary. The injunctions of ligion with their general views, and professed a high regard for evangelical truth, declaring that their grand aim was to establish on that basis a system of freedom and justice. Our Redeemer, they said, was the victim of despotic tyranny; and it was therefore the duty of his votaries to use all their efforts for its ex-nished as a misdemeanour. tinction. The founders of this association Even the hereditary bigotry of the king of were the friends of the exiled family; but many Sardinia does not render him a slave to the persons of different political principles were pope. He bestows the highest ecclesiastical encouraged to join them; and, borrowing the preferments at his own discretion, and rejects symbol of their confederacy from the charcoal such orders from Rome as relate to the extertrade, they did not disdain the degrading ap-nal polity of the church. He indeed suffers pellation of Carbonari. The existence of such appeals to be made from bishops or their judia society did not escape the vigilance of Mu-cial deputies to the pontiff, in those few causes rat, who took measures for the repression of which are still subject to the jurisdiction of an its audacity; and, being thus endangered it ecclesiastical tribunal; but these appeals are not was reduced to a comparatively small numb actually transferred to Rome, unless each subfor the leaders dismissed a very considerable ject should have been thrice investigated, withpart of their force, and carried on their in- out a uniformity of decision, by pontifical detrigues with greater caution and secrecy. Af-legates, chosen from the whole number of ter the death of Joachim, Ferdinand, the re-churchmen resident within the kingdom. stored king, or rather his minister the prince of Canosa, instituted a new association as a counterpoise to the Carbonari; but this did not prevent the great increase of the latter, who now propagated their principles of reform over many parts of Europe. At length, in the year 1820, their intrigues produced a revolution in the Neapolitan kingdom; but it was easily suppressed by the operations of an Austrian army, and many of these malcontents were punished in various modes. The society then desisted from its machinations, and declined into insig-bound to adhere invariably to the opinions of nificance.

In Sicily, so feeble is the papal power, that it is treated with a freedom bordering on contempt; and the intercourse still maintained with the court of Rome is confined to the formality of procuring either patents for bishoprics, to be granted to those who are nominated by the king, or dispensations for spiritual wants, when the individuals who apply for them have received the royal permission. If these applications should be disregarded, the king, being (by an ancient grant) a legate of the holy see by birth, would, in all probability, order the prelate who acts for him in that capacity, and who presides in the spiritual courts, to accede to the different requests in the pope's name, like the

VOL. II.-52

CHAPTER II.

History of the Greek Church, and of the Christian

*Communities in Asia and Africa.

WHEN the Roman empire was divided into two great states, it could not be expected, either that a community of interest, or an entire coincidence of religion would long prevail. As adult persons, who have left their homes and formed new families, do not feel themselves

the practices of their parents, nations, when disjoined by mutual consent, gradually adopt new sentiments, both in religion and in politics: we cannot, therefore, be surprised on finding that the Greeks soon began to differ from their former friends and fellow-subjects. The occasional religious differences between them have been stated by our predecessor; they were not essentially important, but sufficient in the eyes of irritable theologians to justify a secession. The schism still subsists to such an extent, that there are many Greeks, especially in the Morea, who are more unwilling to be upon friendly terms with the members of the Latin church, than even with Moslems or pagans. These haters of their Christian brethren, we

may conclude, are men of weak minds and il- || respect. The termination of fasting necessarily liberal dispositions; and the majority of the leads to the idea of feasting; but devotional Hellenic race, we hope, are not so bigoted and exercises and pompous ceremonies in the intolerant, though they certainly do not har-churches precede the general indulgence and monise with the Romanists. A respectable vo- merriment. All the inhabitants of the towns tary of the Greek church, we are informed, and villages, in holiday trim, or in their best made a formal application to the pope in 1825, apparel, sally forth to pay visits and to receive requesting his authoritative aid and support in congratulations; and they salute each other on the present contest, and holding out the pros- the cheek, saying at the same moment," Christ pect of a religious union: but it does not appear has risen." Beside private rejoicings, firings that he was authorised on this occasion by the from the batteries and discharges of small arins leaders of the insurgent confederacy, or that announce the prevailing joy; and, not content they are disposed to sacrifice any point of with putting powder into their muskets or pisdoctrine or even of ceremonial practice for the tols, they introduce bullets, not, we hope, with insignificant assistance which they can derive a malicious intent, but from the wantonness of from the feeble remains of power and influ- joy. In the evening a grand ceremony takes ence, yet enjoyed by the head of the Romish place in the chief towns: all men who sustain church. public characters, after attending divine service in the principal church, meet in the street, and the members of the executive body, approach

drawn up in a line, embrace them with an air of affection. On Easter Monday, the festivities are renewed. In the environs of the towns, while many of the women, dressed in a tasteful manner, are reclining on the grass, listening to the attractive sounds of the guitar and the flute, equestrian bands are scouring the plain, and hurling their javelins; other parties are en

The contest to which we incidentally referred, did not arise from any new provocation, but from continued reflection upon the enor-ing the legislative subjects of the state, who are mity of existing abuses. The Greeks, habituated to the most disgraceful slavery, seemed to submit with patience to the sway of the most brutal barbarians that ever obstructed the progress of humanity and civilization: but, when the Spaniards, Portuguese, and Neapolitans, had roused themselves from that torpor which was apparently inconsistent with the warmth of their dispositions, the descendants of an il-gaged in the Romaic dance, while discharges lustrious nation resolved to exert their energy for the recovery of their independence. They boldly took up arms in the year 1821, and soon formed a new government, which, unaided by the jealous and selfish powers of the continent, they are still defending against their savage oppressors. Without speculating on the probable event of the contest, we shall merely observe that they are entitled to encouragement and support from all the advocates of freedom, and all the professors of Christianity. But, say the abettors of arbitrary power, rebels ought rather to be punished than assisted. As a general rule, we admit that position; but we may venture to affirm, that an exception ought to be allowed in the case of the Greeks, the injured slaves of a government which is in itself an anomaly and an outrage.

of pistols add to the effect of the music; children, fancifully arrayed and crowned with flowers, sport around their delighted relatives and friends; and apparent joy and hilarity animate the scene. Yet there is no great degree of true piety or sincere devotion in this celebration of Easter;-not more, indeed, than we observe in the Christmas festivities of England, where few think of the religious origin of the general joy.

As the Russian ecclesiastical establishment scarcely differs in any respect from the motherchurch, there is no occasion for the formality of descriptive remark. Ceremonies are more regarded both by the clergy and the laity than the dictates of sound morality. Prostrations before the pictures or figures of saints,—

"Who never yet had being, The ministers of the church, in general, Or, being, ne'er were saints;" were among the promoters of the revolt, and pilgrimages over immense deserts to favourite many of them are even engaged in the military chapels and shrines, and other marks of super service, in which some have displayed great stition, are the general substitutes for true piealertness and courage. The priests, also, in ty. The majority of the priests are men of numerous instances, take part with the rest of low birth and imperfect education, and many the community in agricultural labours, and in of them attend more to the length of their the mechanic arts, and thus eke out their scan-beards than to the propriety of setting a good ty incomes in a mode which detracts from the example to their flocks. respect that would otherwise be paid to them. The late emperor Alexander, while he folThe doctrines and ceremonies of this church lowed the rules of the established church, toledo not appear to have been altered since the rated all sects in the exercise of their respective beginning of the century. The priests have modes of worship, but did not suffer them to continued their old course; the people have not make proselytes. It was on this ground that called for any innovation; and, since the insur-he banished the Jesuits from his dominions. if rection unfolded the banners of liberty, religion has been treated as a secondary concern. Adverting to the state of the Greek church in one point of ceremonial observance, which also exhibits traits of national manners, we are induced to take notice of the celebration of Easter. This festival, being deemed the most important of all, is observed with great joy and

they had been content with teaching the ele ments of literature, he would have left them unmolested; but they endeavoured to seduce the youth into the pale of the Romish church. The same prince treated the Jews, and the Moslem and pagan tribes of his Asiatic empire, with mildness and forbearance, promoting without enforcing their conversion. When he com

pleted the reduction of Georgia under his yoke, he found the people already Christians; and, allured by his beneficent sway, they seemed more observant, than they had before been, of the ordinances of the Greek church. Over Armenia and Kurdistan he had some influence, because those countries seemed not to have any regular government; but he did not ostensibly direct either their religion or politics.

and to assist him in the propagation of his doctrines. These sectaries resemble the Quakers in the plainness of their dress and the simplicity of their manners, in the avoidance of frivolous amusements, in that opinion of the profaneness of an oath which does not exclude a strict regard to honour and truth, and in their detestation of war and violence. They believe in the immortality of the soul, and expect a day of final judgment. Many of those who have intercourse with our missionaries seem inclined to become Christians; but, even among these well-disposed men, conversions are yet uncommon.

Directing our course to the neighbouring territory of Chaldæa, we meet with a numerous body of Christians. They inhabit the country on each side of the Tigris, and are said to amount to 500,000 persons. They form an unconquered state, and are so determined In the territory of Canara we still find a large to resist all attempts for their subjugation, that Christian community, sufficiently remarkable they constantly bear weapons of defence, which to claim our notice. It was from the settlethey do not lay aside even when they assemblement of Goa that the rays of evangelical light for public worship. Their ostensible ruler is a diffused their lustre over Canara; but at what patriarch, who exercises both a spiritual and time a Christian colony was first formed in civil jurisdiction; but he is not invested with this part of Southern India, cannot be ascerthat arbitrary power which is so prevalent intained. The influence of the Portuguese goAsia; for the government is, in effect, rather vernment not only conduced to the protecrepublican than monarchical. The most intel- tion of the settlers, but procured for them ligent men in Chaldæa do not pretend to know the favour of princely patronage, so that they either at what time, or by whom, Christianity obtained from the rajahs of the country, grants was first preached in that country; but it is pro- of land and various privileges. They receivbable that Gregory, styled the Enlightener, ed occasional accessions of European devotees whom the Armenians consider as the founder and of native converts from Goa, and, by their of their church, introduced the Gospel likewise forcible persuasions, drew many of the inhabiamong the ancestors of those tribes of which tants from the darkness of idolatry; and the we are now speaking. Yet, as the majority establishment became so flourishing, that about of their number follow the opinions of Nesto- 80,000 persons are said to have belonged to it at rius, they differ from the Armenians, who are the time when Hyder Ali, the bold usurper of the Monophysites. They appear to be divided into throne of Maissour, attacked and subdued Catwo hostile parties, namely, the Nestorians, nara.* They were terrified at the success of who compose an independent church, and the a Moslem conqueror; but he treated them with converts to the Romish persuasion. Literature, mildness and humanity, and confirmed their at present, is at a very low ebb among them; privileges. Far different was the conduct of and we need not wonder at this circumstance, his son Tippoo, who, although he found them when their neighbours, in every direction, are ready to submit to his authority, pretended to equally unenlightened, or still more ignorant.* suspect that, under the influence of Christian In Persia are found the remains of sects that zeal, they would not long remain faithful subhave Christianity for the basis of their religion; jects to a prince of his religion. He therefore but the superstructure is a miscellaneous kind insisted on their adoption of that system which of erection, not fully suited to the foundation. || he preferred, and, observing their reluctance, The Sabeans, near the Persian Gulf, have te-proceeded to acts of violence and outrage. He nets and practices borrowed from the Jewish banished or imprisoned the priests; sent the and Mohammedan systems; but, as they be-greater part of their flocks to Seringa patam lieve in the divinity of Christ, and the redemption and atonement, they are justly considered as Christians. The Sefis resemble our Quakers in their regard to moral duties, and their endeavours to subdue the violence of the pas

sions.

In India the Christians are widely diffused, not only in consequence of the invigorated exertions of modern missionaries, but from the remains of ancient conversions. Some have thought that the Saads are Christians in their hearts, though not in their external professions: but it appears that they are still heathens. About 155 years ago, one Jogee Das declared, at Dahli and other places, that he had been commissioned by the divine pupil of the Supreme Being to deliver the people from the clouds of error, in which they had been long enveloped; and he soon found many who were willing to secede from the Hindoo idolatry,

* An account of the Chaldæan Christians, by the Rev. Dr. Robert Walsh.

and other towns, to linger in poverty and wretchedness; destroyed the churches, and seized the lands. The fall of the tyrant, however, in 1799, revived the establishment. Those who had been compelled to renounce the Christian faith, were re-admitted into the church; many who had emigrated during the persecution returned into Canara; religious structures gradually arose in various parts; and, in 1818, the population was estimated at 21,800. Agriculture is the occupation of the majority of this number; and, in that and other employments, the industrious habits and orderly conduct of the people are eminently conspicuous.

The spiritual concerns of this community are conducted by about twenty-five priests, who receive instructions from the primate of Goa. The religion of the establishment is consequently that of the Romish church. The

*In the year 1767.

great measure, the descendants of the crusaders of the middle ages, it might be expected that they would be disposed to listen to the exhortations of Christian preachers. Many of them certainly are so inclined; the reigning emir is said to be a Christian in his heart; and we are assured that the votaries of the Gospel in their country outnumber the followers of the Koran. However that may be, the Druses certainly live on more friendly terms with the Christians than the subjects of any other go

mass is solemnized in Latin, while the sermon || are supposed by some antiquaries to be, in a and other parts of the service are delivered in the vernacular tongue. Images of our Redeemer, the Virgin Mary, and favourite saints, are exhibited in the churches, and receive humble adoration; but public processions are avoided, from an unwillingness to shock the prejudices of the Hindoos. There is no ecclesiastical tribunal in the province, and the only punishment inflicted by the church is that of excommunication, of which there are two species, one trifling, and the other not so severe as to preclude the exercise of kind and chari-vernment in Western Asia. table offices toward the delinquent.

counteracted by the efforts of itinerant Moslems, sent from a college at Cairo to enforce the doctrines of the pseudo-prophet.

In Egypt, the few Europeans who undertake Other parts of India, as well as a part of the task of conversion are treated with mildCanara, have received the Gospel from catho- ness by the pasha who now rules over that lic emissaries. A missionary, writing to a country as an independent prince; but, though friend in the year 1806, represented the Ro- he is fond of European arts, he is not inclined mish places of worship as very numerous in Tra- to assist in the propagation of that faith which vancour; but he added, that, in most of them, his hereditary prejudices teach him to repre mass was performed only once in two years.bate, and the labours of the missionaries are Notwithstanding this apparent neglect of exterior ordinances, he thought that above 1000 catholic missionaries were dispersed over India; but this, we apprehend, is an exaggeration. We know, however, that the protestant missionaries are very numerous, extending their labours in one direction from Lahor to Cape Comorin, and, in another, from the Persian frontier to China. The mission in the province of Bengal appears to be the most flourishing; and it is more regularly organized, in consequence of the establishment of an episcopal see and a college at Calcutta. The late Dr. Middleton laboured with great zeal for the diffusion both of Christianity and learning among the Hindoos; and his successor in the bishopric (Dr. Heber) is usefully employed in the promotion of the same objects.

The promoters of Christianity are not very successful in the Chinese empire. They are rarely suffered to penetrate into the interior parts of the country; and, even at Canton, where the British influence is very considerable, they are viewed with an eye of jealousy, and checked in their benevolent purposes. In the hope of more auspicious times, they carry on their operations at Macao, and also at Malacca, where a college has been erected, in which are many Chinese students. The New Testament has been translated into the Chinese language; and copies have been gladly accepted by many of those emigrants who have transferred their industry and arts to the islands of the Indian ocean.

In Syria and the Holy Land, our missionaries are also actively engaged. They hold religious conversations with the natives of all persuasions, preach the pure word of God, distribute translations of the Scriptures and religious tracts, and establish schools. Their success is not equal to their wishes: yet they are not discouraged. If they convert few of the Jews or Moslems, they guide the members of the Greek and Latin churches into a better path in their religious journey. As the Druses

* It is affirmed that, in the year 1815, the French

missionaries and their converts had chapels at Fokein and other towns, but that a persecution arose against them, and ruined a concern which seemed to promise well.

The Abyssinians might be called a religious people, if we could depend on their professions of piety; but, when they make pompous boasts of their zeal, they speak more like Pharisees than lovers of truth. They are more attentive to forms and ceremonies than to the practice of true holiness and virtue; for their morality hangs loosely upon them, and their conduct is not sufficiently regulated by the laws of honour or by good principles. Their addiction to perjury is an odious trait in their characters; for they will frequently imprecate curses upon themselves if their assertions should be false, knowing at the same moment that they are wholly unfounded; and, when the king has sworn that he will pardon a delinquent, whom he afterwards wishes to punish, he says to his attendants, 'Take notice that I scrape this oath away from the tongue which pronounced it,'-making movements and gestures corresponding with his faithless declaration. They do not regard marriage as a religious obligation, and the priests therefore do not officiate on the occasion; and chastity is little regarded by either sex. They consider fasting as a strong proof of piety; but the priests, while they order the laity to fast about 190 days in a year, only practise that kind of forbearance for 70 days. At the end of each fast the chief priest entertains his brethren, who greedily devour the raw flesh of a cow, sing hymns, and drink some fermented liquor until they are stupified. With regard to the authority of the abuna or metropolitan, it does not appear that he has a great extent of power or patronage. Officers, who are not required to be priests, administer the revenues of the churches and monasteries, and determine spiritual causes, an appeal to the king alone being permitted, if the decision should not give satisfaction.

CHAPTER III.

History of the Ecclesiastical Communities of the

Lutherans and Calvinists.

THE Lutherans still bear the chief sway in the Swedish and Danish kingdoms. Their

and ecclesiastical concerns, but that its resolutions should be submitted to the rulers of the state for confirmation; and that the appointment of pastors should be subject to similar recognition or approbation. If the contributions of the different communities should be insufficient for the support of the officiating ministers, the government promised to increase the amount to a fair allowance. As the incorporation of a part of Germany with France had added a multitude of Lutherans to the state, it was provided by the same concordat, that their church should be regulated, under the authority of the consuls, by consistories both general and local, and by councils of inspection. The ministers of the Calvinist persuasion were to be educated at Geneva, and those of the Lutheran church at a peculiar seminary of their own religion. When the territories in which these protestants resided were withdrawn by the allied powers from the French yoke, in the year 1815, such regulations were made as softened the arbitrary clauses of the former compact, and yet left a controlling authority in the hands of the civil power.

zeal, however, is less fervent than it formerly || sistorial churches, should regulate all religious was, and they are less arbitrary and intolerant. They begin to partake of the candour and liberality which are now more prevalent than even in the last century; they entertain more just sentiments of the right which all persons have to think for themselves in points of religion and of conscience; and they are more disposed to follow, in practice, that rational and wellfounded axiom. Indeed, they now grant full toleration, from which even the Jews are not excluded. The addition of Norway to the kingdom of Sweden, in the year 1814, tended to infuse a more liberal spirit into the government. The easy acquisition of a new territory puts a prince into good humour, and he instantly becomes more mild and conciliatory: but, even before that event, it was ordained, in the new constitution which was promulgated in 1809, that no person should be harassed or called to an account for his religious opinions, unless it should clearly appear that his avowal of them, or the exercise of that religion to which they appertained, might be injurious to the state. This exception, it may be said, furnished a pretence for molesting the sectaries; yet the ordinance, we believe, was intended to convey a complete toleration.

The present Danish government is liberal and beneficent; and the king is as attentive to the interests of the church as to that of the state. Aware of the poverty of his clerical subjects in Iceland, he allows pensions to those who cannot procure a sufficiency of income from the limited bounty of their congregations; and he evinces his Christian zeal in the promotion of missionary undertakings.

In the kingdom of the Netherlands, formed in the year 1814, by the union of the seven United Provinces with those which the French had wrested from the hands of the Austrian emperor, the sovereign, though a Calvinist, granted to his new subjects an entire freedom of religious opinion and worship, and an equal share with the protestants in the representative government. This equality did not satisfy the prelates, who were of opinion that the Romish faith, followed for so many ages by the people of the Netherlands, entitled its professors to superior privileges: but the king, instead of adopting their suggestion, merely promised that every proposal connected with their religion should be submitted to the consideration of an executive committee, consisting of catholics. Since that time, they have occasionally vented their ill humour in complaints and remonstrances; but they cannot effectually resist the commanding influence of the protestants. In 1825, the king gratified them by the establishment of a seminary, in which candidates for the catholic ministry might acquire a sufficient fund of learning for the proper discharge of their sacred trust. With the same view, and in the same spirit of complacency, the college of Maynooth in Ireland is supported by the liberality of a protestant parliament.

In France, the protestants are chiefly Calvinists. With regard both to the French and German branches of that sect, it was stipulated, in the agreement between Napoleon and the pope, that a synod, composed of five con

The attachment of the elector (now king) of Saxony to the Romish faith did not induce the people of that country to relinquish their habitual regard for the Lutherán system; and therefore no catholic bishop is allowed to act or reside in that realm, except the king's confessor, to whom the pope grants the authority of an apostolic vicar. In Upper Lusatia, some dignitaries who form a chapter, elect a mitred dean, in the presence and with the approbation of an Austrian commissary; and, at Bautzen, there is a chapter which, though catholic, has a Lutheran president. In civil rights, the members of the two communions now stand upon an equal footing in Saxony. In the Hanoverian territories, the catholics were long subjected, by the Lutheran rulers of the state, to various restrictions. They were not allowed to carry the host publicly, or to have any processions; and, in points of ecclesiastical jurisdiction, they were obliged to have recourse to the odious authority of a Lutheran consistory. But more auspicious days at length dawned upon them; and they are now gratified with all the rights of citizens.

In the three electoral archbishoprics (Mentz, Cologne, and Treves,) which were incorporated with the Prussian monarchy by the congress of Vienna, it might be supposed that the catholics, forming the bulk of the population, would be treated with lenity and indulgence, if not highly favoured; and, in fact, they have greater privileges than their brethren who reside in other parts of the king's dominions. They have, at the court of Roine, an agent who promotes their interest, and encourages the pope to counteract the arbitrary spirit of Frederic. In Silesia, where the catholics form only a third part of the population of the capital, the king has suppressed some of their monasteries, and precluded all appeals to Rome. In East Prussia he suffers no Romish bishop to act, though the priests are retained; and, in Brandenburg and other provinces, he rules the sect with a high hand, yet not with oppressive