Until the establishment of the inde|iendence of Greece, the Turkish empire comprised nearly all the Greek churches of the world, except those of Russia and Austro- Ilungary. 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 tlie entire Church. In regard to ecclesiastical jurisdiction, he is, however, only the head of the patriarchate of Constantinople, the oth- er three patriarchs (of Antioch, .lerusalem, and Alex- andria), as well as the metropolitan of C}'prus and the al)bot of Mount Sinai, being independent of him. The three patriarchs named receive in their berat, or official decree of confirmation, the same rights and privileges as the patriarch of Constantinople; each of them lias his own patriarchal synod, which fills the see in case of vacancy. An attempt made by the patriarch of Con- stantinople to appoint the patriarchs of the three other sees led, from 1843 to 1845, to a violent controversy be- tween the patriarch of Constantinople and the Patri- archal Svnod of Jerusalem, in which the latter remained
victorious. The three patriarchs commmiicate, never- theless, with the Turkish government through the pa- triarch of Constantinople, and are not even allowed to come to the capital without his permission. The ag- gregate territory of these three patriarchates is, how- ever, small, and all the remainder of the Greek churches of Turkey was until recently under the immediate juris- diction of the patriarch of Constantinople. '1 he estab- lishment of the kingdom of Greece, in 1821, virtually severed the connection of the churciies of the king- dom with the patriarch of Constantinople, on whorii they had formerly been dependent. The entire inde- pendence of the Church of Greece was, however, not proclaimed until 1833, when a synod of the bishops of tJreece met for this purpose at Nauiilia, and the formal recognition of the independence by tlie patriarch of Constantinople did not take place until 1850. Servia and Roumania were virtually as independent of tiic patriarch of Constantinople in ecclesiastical affairs as they were of the sultan iu politics. The establish- ment of their entire political independence, in 1878, en- tails the complete severance of their ecclesiastical con- nection with Constantino|ile. 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 pa- triarch 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 patri- arch of Constantinople, the Bulgarian Clmrch was not only placed under the spiritual jurisdiction of the Greek patriarch, but entirely denationalized. Their bishops and priests were dismissed, tb.eir 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 liter- ature 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 stead}' progress in the province of education, and at length, in 1870, led to the reorganization of a national Bulgarian Cinirch. Notwithstaiuling the most desperate opposition to the Bulgarian movement by the patriarch of Constantino- ple and the Greek Eanar, the Porte found it necessary to yield to the Bulgarians so far as to issue a firman which constituted, under the title of The Buhjarian Exarchate, a separate spiritual administration, com- prising in its jurisdiction the towns and districts of Rustch'uk, Silistria, Shunda, Tirnova, Sophia, Vratcha, Lovtcha, Widdiii, Nish, Knstenji, Samakov, Veles (with the exception of about twenty villages and three towns), the sanjak of Slivmia (except a few villages), the dis- trict 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 tlie 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 Or- thodox 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 especial- ly with the election of the exarch and the bishops. Tlie exarch was to be named by imperial herat. He was to be bound, in conformity with ecclesiastical rules, to commemorate the name of the patriarch of Constan- tinople, and the synod of the exarchate was to be boun() to obtain the hoI\' oils in use in the Church from the patriarchate of Constantinople. Although the patri- arch of Constantinople at first excommimicated all who availed themselves of the firman and connected them- selves with the Bulgarian exarchate, the latter rallied more and more all members of the Ortliodox Church who were of the Bulgarian nationality. The treaty of Berlin of 1878, which provided for the establishment
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of a tributary principality of Bulgaria, and an autono- iiKiiis (irovince of Eastern Koiimelia, in both of which c<iiiiitries tlie Bulgarians are the predominant race, made tlie bulk of the Bulgarian nation virtiluUy inde|)endent ()t'l)otli the sultan and the patriarch of Constantinople, iuul canuiit tail to conqilete, ere long, the orgauizatiDU i)f a national Bulgarian Church, comprising all the ()r- tliodox Christians who speak the Bulgarian language, and enjoying an independence equal to the national churches of Russia, (ireece, Koumania, and Servia. The jurisdiction of the patriarch of Constantinople is there- by restricted to those Christians of the Eastern Orthodox Church who are of the Greek nationality. See Kl'sso- Gkkkk Ciirucn.