PART I.

CENT. sentiments of veneration and zeal for the authority XVI. of the pope. Such an institution, accompanied SECT. III with the efforts and labours of the missionaries, could not fail, one would think, to gain an im mense number of proselytes to Rome, considering the unhappy state of the Grecian churches. But the case is quite otherwise; for the most respectable writers, even of the Roman Catholic persua. sion, acknowledge fairly, that the proselytes they have drawn from the Greek churches make a wretched and despicable figure, in point of number, opulence, and dignity, when compared with those, to whom the religion, government, nay, the very name of Rome, are disgusting and odious. They observe farther, that the sincerity of a great part of these proselytes is of the Grecian stamp; so that, when a favourable occasion is offered them of renouncing, with advantage, their pretended conversion, they seldom fail, not only to return to the bosom of their own church, but even to recompense the good offices they received from the Romans with the most injurious treatment. The same writers mention another circumstance, much less surprising, indeed, than those now mentioned, but much more dishonourable to the church of Rome; and that circumstance is, that even those of the Greek students who are educated at Rome with such care, as might naturally attach them to its religion and government, are, nevertheless, so disgusted and shocked at the corruptions of its church, clergy, and people, that they forget, more notoriously than others, the obligations with which they have been loaded, and exert themselves with peculiar obstinacy and bitterness in opposing the credit and authority of the Latin church [i].

XXI. In

[] See, among other authors who have treated this point of history, Urb. Cerri, Etat present de Eglise Romaine, p. 82, in

XVI.

SECT. III.

churches

XXI. In their efforts to extend the papal empire CENT. over the Greek churches, the designing pontiffs did not forget the church of Russia, the chief bulwark PART 1. and ornament of the Grecian faith. On the contrary, frequent deliberations were held at Rome, A junction about the proper methods of uniting, or rather the Russian subjecting this church to the papal hierarchy. In and Roman this century John Basilides, Grand Duke of the attempted Russians, seemed to discover a propensity towards in vain. this union, by sending, in the year 1580, a solemn embassy to Gregory XIII. to exhort that pontiff to resume the negociations relative to this important matter, that so they might be brought to a happy and speedy conclusion. Accordingly, the year following, Antony Possevin, a learned and artful Jesuit, was charged with this commission by the Roman pontiff, and sent into Muscovy to bring it into execution. But this dexterous missionary, though he spared no pains to obtain the purposes of his ambitious court, found by experience that all his efforts were unequal to the task he had undertaken; nor did the Russian ambassadors, who arrived at Rome soon after, bring any thing to the ardent wishes of the pontiff, but empty promises, conceived in dubious and general terms, on which little dependence could be made [k]. And, indeed, the event abundantly shewed,

which, speaking of the Greeks, he expresses himself in the following manner: "Ils deviennent les plus violens ennemis des Catholiques lorsqu'ils ont apris nos sciences, et qu'ils ont connoissance de nos imperfections:" i. e. in plain English, They (the Greeks)ecome the bitterest enemies of us Roman Catholics, when they have been instructed in our sciences, and have acquired the knowledge of our imperfections. Other testimonies of a like nature shall be given hereafter.-Mich. Le Quien has given us an enumeration, although a defective one, of the Greek bishops that follow the rites of the Roman church, in his Oriens Christ. tom. iii. p. 860.

[k] See the conferences between Possevin and the duke of Muscovy, together with the other writings of this Jesuit, rela

tive

CENT. shewed, that Basilides had no other view, in all XVI. these negociations, than to flatter the pope, and SECT. 11I. obtain his assistance, in order to bring to an advantageous conclusion the unsuccessful war, which he had carried on against Poland.

PART I.

The vota

merous

The ministry of Possevin and his associates was, however, attended with more fruit among that part of the Russians who reside in the Polish dominions, many of whom embraced the doctrine and rites of the Roman church, in consequence of an association agreed on in the year 1596, in a meeting at Bresty, the capital of the Palatinate of Cujavia. Those that thus submitted to the communion of Rome were called the United, while the adverse party, who adhered to the doctrine and jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople, were distinguished by the title of the Non-united [l]. It is likewise farther worthy of observation here, that there has been established at Kiovia, since the fourteenth century, a congregation of Russians, subject to the jurisdiction of the Roman pontiff, and ruled by its own Metropolitans, who are entirely distinct from the Russian bishops that reside in that city [m].

XII. The Roman missionaries made scarcely riesof Rome any spiritual conquests worthy of mention among still less nu- either the Asiatic or African Monophysites. About among the the middle of the preceding century, a little insites, Nesto-Significant church, that acknowledged the jurisrians, and diction of the Roman pontiff, was erected among the Nestorians, whose patriarchs, successively

Monophy

Armenians.

named

tive to the negociation in question, that are subjoined to his work, called Moscovia.-See also La Vie du P. Possevin, par Jean Dorigny, livr. v. p. 351.

[1] Adr. Regenvolschii Histor. Ecclesiar. Slavonicar. lib. iv. cap. ii. p. 465.

[m] See Mich. Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tom. i. p. 1274. and tom. iii. p. 1126.-Acta Sanctorum, tom. ii. Februar. p. 693.

XVI.

named Joseph [n], reside in the city of Diarbek. CENT. Some of the Armenian provinces embraced the SECT. III. doctrines and discipline of Rome so early as the PART I fourteenth century, under the pontificate of n John XXIII. who, in the year 1318, sent them a Dominican monk to govern their church, with the title and authority of an archbishop. The episcopal seat of this spiritual ruler was first fixed at Adorbigana, in the district of Soldania [o]; but was afterwards transferred to Naxivan, where it still remains in the hands of the Dominicans, who alone are admitted to that ghostly dignity [p]. The Armenian churches in Poland, who have embraced the faith of Rome, have also their bishop, who resides at Lemberg [q]. The Georgians and Mingrelians, who were visited by some monks of the Theatin and Capuchin orders, disgusted these missionaries by their ferocity and ignorance, remained inattentive to their counsels, and unmoved by their admonitions; so that their ministry and labours were scarcely attended with any visible fruit [r].

man mis

these sects,

XXIII. The pompous accounts which the pa-Thelabours pal missionaries have given of the vast success of of the Rotheir labours among all these Grecian sects, are sionaries equally destitute of candour and truth. It is evi- among all dent, from testimonies of the best and most re-produce lit spectable authority, that, in some of these countries, they do nothing more than administer clandestine baptism to sick infants who are committed to their care, as they appear in the ficti

par.

p. 1084.

[n] See Assemanni Biblioth. Orient. Vatican. tom. iii. I. p. 615.-Le Quien, Oriens Christianus, tom. ii. [0] Odor. Raynald, Annal. tom. xv. ad A. 1318, sect. iv. [p] Le Quien, Oriens Christian. tom. iii. p. 1362, and 1403. Clemens Galanus, Conciliatione Ecclesiæ Armeniæ cum Romana, tom. i. p. 527.

[q] Memoires des Missions de la Compagnie de Jesus, tom. iii. p. 54.

[r] Urb. Cerri. Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 162.

tle fruit.

SECT. III..

PART I.

CENT. tious character of physicians [s]; and that, in XVI. other places, the whole success of their ministry is confined to the gathering together some wretched tribes of indigent converts, whose po verty is the only bond of their attachment to the church of Rome, and who, when the papal largesses are suspended or withdrawn, fall from their pretended allegiance to Rome, and return to the religion of their ancestors [t]. It happens also, from time to time, that a person of distinction among the Greeks or Orientals embraces the doctrine of the Latin church, and promises obe dience to its pontiff, nay, carries matters so far as to repair to Rome to testify his respectful submission to the apostolic see. But in these obsequious steps the noble converts are almost always moved by avarice or ambition; and accordingly, when the face of their affairs changes, when they have obtained their purposes, and have nothing more to expect, then they, generally speaking, either suddenly abandon the church of Rome, or express their attachment to it in such ambiguous terms, as are only calculated to deceive. Those who, like the Nestorian bishop of Diarbek [u], continue stedfast in the profession of the Roman faith, and even transmit it with an appearance of zeal to

their

[s] Urb. Cerri Etat present de l'Eglise Romaine, p. 164. Gabr. de Chinon, Relations nouvelles du Levant, par. I. c. vi. p. 174. This Capuchin monk delivers his opinions on many subjects with frankness and candour.

[t] See Chardin's Voyages en Perse, tom. i. p. 186. tom. ii. p. 53, 75, 206, 271, 349, and principally tom. iii. p. 433, of the last edition published in Holland, in 4to; for, in the former editions, all the scandalous transactions of the Roman missionaries among the Armenians, Colchians, Iberians, and Persians, are entirely wanting.-See also Chinon, Relations da Levant, par. II. p. 308, which regards the Armenians and Maillet, Description d'Egypte, tom. iii. p. 65. which is relative to the Copts.

[u] Otherwise named Amidad and Caramit.