of the monastery. This is done willingly, for they are a religiously disposed people; no man, however poor he may be, refusing his mite towards the maintenance of the Church. We may, therefore, well conceive that among this primitive people, where religion forms the base of all their customs, manners and institutions, the influence of the clergy is unbounded.

CHAPTER XII.

Spirit of the Greek Church-Superstition-Clergy-Religious festivals Singular customs of the people-Traditions—Rivalry between the Greek and the Latin Church.

THE inhabitants of this mountain district, and indeed most of the Slavonian tribes, were evidently civilized by the Greeks at a very early epoch; whatever traces of refinement we meet with among them, whether here or on the steppes of Russia, the mountains of Illyria or the Karpathian, is of Greek origin.

The Athenian dance described by Homer, although somewhat modified, is still the dance of this peoplethe "Kolo." Even the "Pyrrhic" may be seen danced here, as well as in Tchernegoria, Bosnia and Albania. The whole of their superstitions, and their religion, they derived from the same source. The Vladica, or Patriarch of Constantinople, exercises an authority, in his spiritual character, greater than that of the Sultan: in him has been vested, by the people, the supreme jurisdiction, and from the decision of his tribunal there can be no appeal; for the laws of the Church are regarded

by every member of the Greek Church-whether in the Turkish, the Austrian, or the Russian empiresas the laws of God, and to its heaven-derived power everything temporal must submit.

The master-mind of Peter the Great, who was well acquainted with the religious tendencies of his people, controlled the influence of the patriarchs of the Greek Church, and, like our eighth Henry, invested himself with supreme ecclesiastical authority. What he so boldly commenced, his successors have perfected, and we now see a sovereign, who, in intellect and energy, has few equals not only the ruler over a mighty people, but regarded as political pontiff by every man who professes the Greek ritual. It is needless to expatiate on the supineness evinced by the Princes of the house of Othman, with regard to the Greek Church; instead of resisting the various encroachments on the jurisdiction of the Patriarch of Constantinople, they have yielded to every demand of Russia, till at the present day we see but the shadow of a pontiff at Stamboul, while the substance exists at St. Petersburgh; this being the last suicidal act of an administration without tact or wisdom in all that relates to the civil and religious rights of its Christian subjects, and which, to a certain extent, they enjoy under the rule of the present Sultan.

It is to this union of the Church with the State, to this investing the sovereign, not only with the temporal, but the spiritual crown, with a power which, according to the tenets of this Church, cannot err, since it is divine in its origin, that we must attribute the absolute

dominion exercised by the Emperor of Russia over his subjects, and the implicit obedience they render him, who they recognize as combining in his own person the office of monarch and pontiff.

To this cause, again we must ascribe the immense accession of political and temporal influence acquired by Russia within the last century, exercised as it has been by consummate wisdom, and more than ordinary tact. An influence all-pervading, and which is felt not only within the limits of that empire, but in every country in which the Greek ritual prevails. Enter any temple dedicated to this form of worship, whether in European Turkey, or in the Austrian Empire, and you are nearly certain to find that some of the sacred ornaments, used in decorating the church, were donations from St. Petersburgh, and that the prayerbooks, used in celebrating divine worship, were also sent from the Synod, on the banks of the Neva.

When we remember the severe persecution endured by the Greek Church during the all-powerful rule of the Latin Church, both in the early ages and a later date; when we remember the entire subjugation of every land professing the Greek ritual to the rule of the fanatic followers of Mahomet, Mongul Tatars, Nogay Tatars, and Turks, our admiration must be won for the constancy with which they clung to the religion of their fathers. Although assailed by persecution and death on one side, and on the other tempted by the allurements of riches and power, and a faith pre-eminently adapted to minister to the selfish desires of man, they now form not only the most numerous Christian Church in the

world, but from its exclusive character, the least exposed to the insidious seductions of our western philosophers, which character it acquired at an early epoch of its separation from the Latin. It was expressly forbidden by the Greek clergy, and indeed punished as heresy, for its members to read any religious work not written in the Cyrillic character, with the view to prevent them from being contaminated by the writings of their opponents. This irreconcilable schism, which divided Christendom into two hostile religious camps, has been the principal cause of the ruin of Papal Poland, by alienating from her rule her finest provinces, professing the Greek form of worship. History records many a dismal tale of the manner in which these unfortunate Poles of the Greek Church were persecuted by the dominant Latin Church, with fire and sword, till, driven to desperation, they annexed their country to the Russian empire.

Hungary also, in the days of its dominion and might, when its territories comprehended not only Hungary of the present day, but the fine provinces of Bosnia, Croatia, Servia and Bulgaria, extending from the Adriatic to the Black Sea; like Poland, armed with the authority of the dominant Church, sought to win over its erring subjects excommunicated by the Pope, to the fold of the true shepherd, by all those excesses and tyrannies considered justifiable in a dark, fanatic age; and how severe must have been the persecution, when an entire people in their agony were compelled to fly to arms, and call in the aid of the infidel Turk to assist them in expelling their Latin tyrants.