BUHL, bul, FRANTS PEDER WILLIAM MEYER :
Danish Semitic scholar; b. at Copenhagen Sept. 6, 1850. He was educated at the University of Copenhagen (Ph.D., 1878), and was successively professor of Old Testament exegesis at Copenhagen (1882-90) and Leipsic (1890-9S). In 1898 he was recalled to the University of Copenhagen as professor of Semitic languages, a position which he still holds. In theology he is dogmatically conservative, but liberal in isagogics. Since 1900 he has been a member of the Royal Society of Sciences at Copenhagen. In addition to numerous briefer contributions, he has written: Jesaja over sat og fortolket (8 parts, Copenhagen, 1889-94); Gennesaret So og dens Omgivelser (1889); Palastina % kort/attet geografisk og topografisk Fremstilling (1890); Kanon und Text des Alten Testaments (Leipsic, 1891; Eng. transl. by J. Macpherson, Edinburgh, 1892); Det israelitiske Folks Historie (Copenhagen, 1892); Geschichte der Edomiter (Leipsic, 1893); De messianske Forjcettelser i det Gamle Testament (1894); Til Vejledning i de gammeltestamentlige Undersogelser (1895); Geographie des alten Palastina (Freiburg, 1896); Hebraisk Syntax (Copenhagen, 1897); Die socialen Verhdltnisse der Israeliten (Berlin, 1899) ; Psalmerne oversatte og fortolkede (12 parts, Copenhagen, 1898-1900); and Muhammeds Liv (1903). He has also collaborated in editing the twelfth, thirteenth, and fourteenth editions of the Hebraisches und aramav?ches Handworterbuch iiber das Alte Testament of Gesenius (Leipsic, 1895-1905).
BULGARI (BOURGES): Name of a heretical sect. See New Manicheans, II.
BULGARIA: A principality under the suzerainty of Turkey in the northeastern part of the Balkan Peninsula, bounded on the north by Rumania, on the east by the Black Sea, on the south by Turkey, on the west by Servia. It was created by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 and attained its present extent in 1885 by the addition of Eastern Rumelia (the territory south of the Balkan Mountains) after a revolt of the' Bulgars there; in 1908 it proclaimed its independence; area, 38,080 square miles; population (1900), 3,744,283.
In race and religion the population is very diverse.
The majority are the Bulgars, who number some
2,880,000 and belong to the Oriental Orthodox
Church, their prince Boris having
Bulgarian adopted Christianity in 864, two cen-
Church. turies after they had entered the region south of the Danube (see Bulgarians, Conversion of the). Simeon, the successor of Boris as prince or czar, established an autonomous Church for his extensive domains, placing at its head a bishop, or exarch, who had his seat at Ochrida on the frontier of Albania. This diocese lapsed after the fall of the Bulgarian state, nor was it revived when the principality was reorganized. The Slavic bishoprics were gradually replaced with Greek, and the Bulgarian Church was first restored in 1870-72, when, through the insistence of Russian diplomats, the Sultan permitted the Bulgarian Church to separate from
Bulgaria Bullinger
THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
the patriarchate and to appoint an exarch in Constantinople who should be the Slavic head of all those communities which might wish to join the new ecclesiastical body. Although condemned by the patriarch in 1S72 as schismatic, large numbers of Slavs in the Turkish provinces soon declared themselves Bulgarians.
The governing body of this Church is the Holy Synod, which consists of four bishops chosen for four years by secret ballot of all the bishops and presided over by the exarch; it meets annually in May. The rights and external organization of the Bulgarian Church are recognized throughout the principality by the constitution, which declares it to be the State Church. Other religions are tolerated, however, while the exarch can issue commands to his bishops only after reaching an agreement with the minister of foreign affairs. According to the exarchial statute of Organiza- 1SS3, the laity exercise a considerable tion. influence on the election of bishops, and, with the Turkish districts of the Bulgarian Church, even on the choice of the exarch. In each eparchy, or diocese, three clerical and three lay members form a committee which selects two 11 ames from a large list of candidates, sending these names to the Holy Synod, by which the list in question is drawn up and constantly renewed.
In the principality of Bulgaria there are eleven dioceses, or eparchies, at Varna, Rustchuk (Cherven and Dorostol), Tirnova, Lovatz, Vratsa, and Widin north of the Balkans, and Sofia, Philippopolis, Stara Saghra, and Sliven south of this mountain range. These dioceses receive from the State an annual revenue of 800,000 francs, while the monasteries supply the funds for twenty-four archimandrites. One of the richest monasteries is that of St . John in the Rilo mountains, and other important cloisters are those of St. Nicholas near the Shipka Pass and Tcherepis at the northern end of the Iskcr gap. The majority of the parish clergy lack the requisite education, and the monks are very inferior in education to those of Servia. The parish priests .are accordingly reverenced but little by the peasants and citizens. They number nearly 2,000, and there arj 240 monks in seventy-eight monasteries.
Not all the Slavs recognize the authority of the exarch, and in the southeast 60,000 Creeks have the four small dioceses of Varna, Mesembria, 8ozopolis, andAnchiolo, as well as the mctropolitanate of Philippopolis. Roman Catholicism has but scant representation in Bulgaria. Nicopolis is the name of the bishopric for Danubian Bulgaria, but in reality the bishop resides at Rustchuk. In the south is the apostolic vicariate of Other Sofia and Philippopolis, in charge of Churches, the Capuchins since 1841. The majority of the Roman Catholics are Bulgars, partly descended from the Paulicians, who were formerly numerous (see Paulicians). The minority are immigrants from Austria-Hungary and other Roman Catholic countries, and have churches and small congregations in various cities along the Danube, as well as in Sofia, Philippopolis, and Burgas. The Armenians have their own bishop in Rustchuk. Bulgarian Protestants are mainly
the result of American missionary propaganda- [The Methodists entered the country north of the Balkans in 1857 and the American Board commenced work south of the Balkans at about the same time. The educational work of Robert College near Constantinople has done much for the Bulgarians.] There are also Protestant communities of some 500 Germans in Sofia and Rustchuk. The Jews in Bulgaria are for the most part descendants of exiles from Spain in the sixteenth century. The Gipsies number about 50,000, although some of them declare themselves Orthodox. Non-Chris- The great majority of the Mohamtian medans are Turks; the number has Religions, decreased owing to extensive emigration since 1878. They have many schools, including a theological school at Shumla. [The religious statistics of the census of 1900 are: Orthodox Greeks, 3,019,296; Mohammedans, 643,300; Jews, 33,663; Roman Catholics, 28,569; Armenian Gregorians, 13,809; Protestants, 4,524; Unknown, 1,122.] Wilhelm Goetz.
Bibliography: C. Jirecek, Geschichte der Bulgaren, Prague, 1876 (authoritative); idem. Das Fiirstentum Bulgarien, Vienna, 1891; J. Samuelson, Bulgaria, Past and Present, London, 1888 (best general account in English) ; L. Lamouche, La Bulgarie dans le passe et dans le present, Paris, 1892; A. Strausz, Die Bulgaren, ethnographische Studien, Leipsic, 1898; Acta Bulgariw ecclesiastica, 1565-1799, collegit C. Fermendziu, Agram, 1868; A. d'Avril, La Bulgarie chretienne, Paris, 1898; J. S. Dennis, Centennial Survey of Foreign Missions, New York, 1902.
BULGARIAN NATIONAL CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES, THE: There are, according to moderate calculations, about 25,000 Bulgarians in the United States and Canada, the immigration of Bulgarians becoming greater since 1903. They have settled in large numbers at Granite City and Madison, 111.; Hopkins, Mich.; and St. Louis, Mo., and are scattered also farther westward, while a considerable number of them are to be found in New York City, and also in Toronto and parts of northern Canada. The first Bulgarian church in the United States was built in 1907 in Madison, 111., being followed by those at Granite City and St. Louis. There are at present three Bulgarian priests in the United States. A. A. Sta.mouli.
BULGARIANS, CONVERSION OF THE: According to Jirecek, who follows Schafarik, the Bulgarians were originally related to the Finns. Jordanis says that they lived on the shores of the Black Sea in the fifth century, clashing frequently with the Ostrogoths in the reign of Theodoric, who, according to Ennodius, checked their victorious advance toward the west in 487; Cassiodorus mentions another victory in 504. But their attacks were directed also against the Byzantine Empire. Under Constantine Pogonatus a Bulgarian horde established itself in 679 between the Danube and the Balkans, extending their conquests gradually as far as the mouth of the Save. This territory seems to have been inhabited by people of Slavic race, who first gave their language to the conquerors and then gradually amalgamated with them. The race formed by this fusion was so strongly pagan that it resisted the introduction of Christianity, which had its martyrs in the first half of the ninth