the instincts of religion; in the infancy of his faith, he is an enthusiast, and superstitious; but as he passes through the various grades of intellectual cultivation, he reflects on the forms and ceremonies he has been accustomed to reverence, and if they are not consonant with his advanced intellect, rejects them as frivolous and unmeaning, philosophizes, and too often becomes an infidel; and as it is with man individually, so it is with the Church collectively.

The Agios Synodos of Constantinople, still exercises a considerable power over that portion of the Oriental Church within the dominions of the Sultan. This assembly consists of a certain number of the highest dignitaries of the Church, in whom is vested the power of electing the Patriarch, and who constitute the highest ecclesiastical tribunal. In conjunction with the Patriarch, they impose the taxes necessary for the maintenance of the Church, appoint and consecrate the bishops; but as the Sultan reserves to himself a veto, he can annul the nomination, which always requires a firman to render it legal.

In Turkey, where money is omnipotent, the same venality is practised in the administration of the Oriental Church, as in everything else. The ecclesiastical appointments, from that of the Patriarch down to the village Papa, are bought and sold at the usual marketable value. Then the exactions of the Divan must be complied with. It is but natural that the

Turkish Government should be satisfied with the political opinions of the various candidates for ecclesiastical preferment; this can always be affected by the eloquent pleadings of money. Hence the degree of toleration, such as it is, enjoyed by the Rayahs from the earliest ages of Turkish rule, their wealth and industry being one of the surest fountains from which to draw when funds were required.

When the appointments of the Church are made from a mercenary motive, no good result can follow; but here, to aggravate the evil, the administration is confided entirely to members of the Greek nationalitya people who are not celebrated for being scrupulously honest when money is in the way: consequently, it is not talent or theological attainments which causes an Episkopos to be preferred to a diocese, or a Kosmoipapades to a commune, but the weight of his purse.

The bishops, always selected from some monastic order, are too often extremely superstitious and ignorant; but the papas, especially those in the Slavonian provinces, though really pious and virtuous, frequently cannot even write their name, and recite the service of the Church in the same nasal tone as a schoolboy repeats his lesson. The sacerdotal profession being generally hereditary in families, the customary fee is paid to the bishop on ordination, and no questions are asked. As for an examination, with reference to learning, divinity,

and such other qualifications as are necessary in a clergyman, it is deemed altogether superfluous.

The revenues of the Church are partly derived from old church property that escaped the rapacity of the Turks, or was secured by treaties, the donations of pious individuals, some funded property, and an annual hearth-tax; but the amount of this is trifling compared with the other sources of its income. This arises from the fees paid for religious ordinances-the ordination of the clergy, baptism, marriage, burial, extreme unction, prayers, masses for the souls of the departed, the ordinary service of the mass, the sale of consecrated waxcandles, of holy water, holy cakes, absolution and various other holy objects too numerous to mention.

It is certain an unendowed Church must resort to the voluntary offerings of its members for supporting its clergy; but it is the abuse to which the system gives rise, that excites the wish that some other mode of providing for the clergy could be devised. The papa of the commune is obliged to contribute to the support of the bishop, the bishop to that of the high dignitaries, and these to the patriarch, and in order to provide funds for all these wants and claims, unhappily, much charlatanism is resorted to. Absurd stories are circulated, far and wide, of the miracles wrought at some celebrated shrine, of the sudden appearance of the Virgin, or saints and angels, diseases cured by the influence of

relics, the marvellous effects of particular amulets, the necessity of making pilgrimages and processions to this or that holy place, all of which are regarded as legitimate sources of wealth to the clergy.

A thousand opportunities are afforded to the higher clergy, in their visitations to their dioceses, to increase their revenues. Their benediction is to be pronounced on all the new houses, on the fields of the husbandman, on the valleys and mountains of the shepherd, on the rivers; the sick are to be healed by the efficacy of their prayers, masses to be said for the repose of the dead, noxious reptiles and vermin to be excommunicated, the guilty to be absolved, the evil spirit to be chased from the maniac, &c.

These abuses tend to degrade the clergy, encourage superstition, and debase the people—the natural result of a church having no certain income, and existing on the alms of the laity; consequently, it excites our admiration, when we find here and there among the higher clergy men of rare theological attainments, and of unexceptionable moral character, and who, in the bitterness of spirit, mourn over the debasement of their Church.

The deplorable picture we have drawn is by no means exaggerated; the system of leaving the administration solely to the Greeks, thus excluding every member of the Slavonian race from filling any office in the Church, except that of an inferior, has ever been the aim of the

Turkish Government. Confiding in the acknowledged antipathy of the two races, and it may be in the venality of the Greek, the Divan calculated there could be no danger to Turkish rule, so long as the Slavonian nationality were not preferred to the dignities of the Church. The system has answered too well; the Greek fulfilled the injunction of the Divan with greater alacrity, because, by engrossing all the learning and power of the Church,he was advancing his own nationality, and gradually paving the way for it to assume the lead, and perhaps to rule, in a country so exposed to accidents as Turkey. To this cause we must ascribe the utter ignorance of the Slavonian Papa, and the indifference manifested as to the attainments of those who are ordained ministers of the Church.

Notwithstanding all this preventive wisdom, the example of independent Servia may show that the eloquence of an unlettered Haiduc can set it at nought, may show what a people can achieve who are at once united and brave; and the Sultan ought to remember, that of the eight millions of Rayahs in these provinces of his empire, at least six are of the Slavonian race. They may be ignorant and superstitious, still their intellect is not so obtuse but they know how to appreciate and applaud a patriotic orator when the subject is popular; and how lamentably has this poor people been neglected, both by their superior clergy and the government, since I can with truth affirm that