reflections occasionally introduced, and the profoundly metaphysical character of some of the Author's observations,-all blended with no ordinary talents for picturesque description, often reminding us of Martin's imaginative creations, and a style, always nervous and frequently eloquent,-cannot fail to procure for the Temple of Melekartha not merely a fugitive popularity, but a permanent place in English literature, as one of the few works of fiction which the scholar must admire, and the philosopher and Christian moralist may safely recommend.

Art. III. 1. Religion in Greece: containing an Authentic Account of the Revival of Scriptural Knowledge and general Education during the last few Years, through the Means of Missionary Exertion with Facts and Anecdotes, illustrative of Manners and Customs. 18mo. pp. 392. Price 3s. Dublin, 1831.

2. The Present Condition and Prospects of the Greek, or Oriental Church: with some Letters written from the Convent of the Strophades. By the Rev. George Waddington, Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge. Author of a "Visit to Greece", &c. &c. sm. 8vo. pp. 207. London, 1829.

HE first of these publications has been hastily compiled, in order to meet, at the present crisis, a general demand 'for information on the subject of religious exertion in Greece'; and the volume is published for the benefit of the Greek Mis'sion'. Happy shall we be to promote in any measure the Editor's benevolent design; and we can safely recommend the volume as containing, within a small compass and a very cheap form, a great variety of interesting Missionary detail, which will render it a very suitable book for vestry libraries and small reading societies. Mr. Waddington's volume is a work of higher pretensions, which we are glad to take this occasion to notice. Its Author was already advantageously known by his Travels in Ethiopia, and his Visit to Greece, to which latter work the present volume may be considered as a sort of supplement. For any account of the state of religion in Greece, we should in vain consult the pages of most of our travellers.

The political interest which Modern Greece at one time awakened, an interest never commensurate, however, with the intrinsic claims of an injured and suffering people to our national sympathy, now seems to have almost entirely subsided. The crown of Greece has been put up to auction, and bought in for want of bona fide bidders; and Capo d'Istrias is still a sovereign malgré soi. If his life could be insured for twenty years, we should rejoice in this state of things; as it is now, we believe, generally admitted, that no other individual could

easily be found, who should bring to the discharge of his functions, whether as sovereign or minister, half the administrative capacity, knowledge of Greek affairs, and tried patriotism which distinguish that noble Hellenist. Mr. Waddington bears testimony to his enlightened character in the following terms.

'Capodistrias knew better than any man the real necessities of his country, and he boldly proclaimed the only effectual method to relieve them. He was not so mad as to imagine that mere emancipation from political servitude would create national virtue, or insure national happiness. His eye was fixed on the moral wants of his country: because the end of his anxiety was not her immediate brilliancy, but her perpetual and substantial prosperity; and he saw that the cure for her moral disorders was no where to be found except in her religion.

These are principles', adds Mr. W., which the wisest statesmen have ever been the slowest to question, because they are taught by the universal history of nations; and never did nation more urgently demand their diligent and judicious application, than Greece demands it now. She stands on the very shores of infidelity. The tumult of revolution; the influx of licentious opinions, vaguely delivered and imperfectly understood; the growing connexion with the French; the lively genius and restless impatience of the people; the low intellectual condition of the great proportion of the clergy; form a combination of dangerous circumstances which cannot otherwise be resisted, than by the infusion of new energy into the system of the church, by the careful education of its ministers, and the removal of its most obvious abuses. These cares demand the earliest attention of the Government.' pp. 141, 2.

Agreeing with Mr. Waddington to a certain extent, we feel ourselves nevertheless compelled to regard with suspicion the views of a Writer who stands forward as the advocate of the sinister policy indistinctly hinted at in what follows:

'Hereafter, when these instant perils shall have passed away; when a purer system of religion shall have established juster moral principles; when a pious and enlightened priesthood shall have been raised up as a barrier against the evils which attend universal education, (as some evil will generally attend every important blessing,) I should no longer hesitate to throw open the gates of knowledge; nor would I distribute her treasures with a sparing or a fearful hand.' p. 142.

Till then-what is it that our Author means to recommend? That the gates of knowledge should be shut or jealously guarded? That the progress of education should be suspended, the distribution of the Scriptures, the establishment of schools, the exertions of foreign Missionaries be interdicted, and the press submitted to ecclesiastical license? He does not say all this, but he leaves it to be inferred, since he deprecates the random introduction of knowledge' and the unrestrained 'exercise of the faculties', as leading only to general scepti

cism; and he thinks that the intellectual advancement of the 'priesthood should precede any general attempt to enlighten the mass of the people.' How admirably consonant is this policy with the conduct of the Divine Founder of Christianity and his Apostles! How scrupulously did they abstain from enlightening the common people, lest they should lose their respect for their religious teachers! What a pity that Luther, and Zwingle, and Wickliffe, did not perceive how desirable it is, that reform should' always be commenced and conducted by the priesthood', lest the vulgar should discover too soon 'the gross corruptions of their religion', and the fraud that had been practised upon them! If Capo d'Istrias has really imbibed notions of this nature, all that we can say is, that, while he may well know the moral necessities of his country, he does not yet understand the most direct means of remedying them *; and that Mr. Waddington's book would render him little assistance. To regenerate the people through the clergy, and the clergy through the Government,' says our Author, is the 'best wisdom of Greece'. We say, there is a more excellent way; and that is, to regenerate the clergy and the people together, by the great instrument of civilization, as well as moral regeneration, the word of God.

It was not, however, for the sake of combating Mr. Waddington's mistaken opinions, that we took up his volume, but with a view to avail ourselves of the information he has supplied respecting the present condition of the Greek Church, and the people nominally subject to its authority. Now that the subject of Greek affairs has been dropped by our politicians, the moral and religious interests of the nation may, perhaps, have a better chance of engaging the attention of the Christian public. As a field for Missionary exertion, Greece and the adjacent territories form, if not the most inviting and encouraging, the most interesting region of the world, and no other can have stronger or more urgent claims upon our sympathy. It is not to our honour as British Christians, that the state of the countries in which Paul preached, in a language still vernacular, though in a corrupted form, should apparently excite a more lively concern in the western hemisphere, than among us, their political neighbours.

The Eastern or Greek Church comprises three distinct communions: the Constantinopolitan Church, consisting of all the

* We infer better things, however, respecting the enlightened President's policy, from the statements of Dr. Korck and other pious labourers in Greece. We are not merely suffered to operate', says Dr. K. in one letter, but the Government begins to claim our assistance.' Church Missionary Society's Report for 1828-9. p. 70.

churches which acknowledge the supremacy of the Ecumenical Patriarch; the Russian Greek Church, the head of which is the Emperor, and which is governed by the Holy Legislative Synod; and the Anti-Byzantine Churches, which have renounced communion with both the Orthodox Greek and the Roman Churches. Besides which, there are numbers of Greeks and other Eastern Christians who, as acknowledging the su premacy of the See of Rome, are distinguished as Greek, Armenian, or Syrian Catholics. It is to the first great division of Oriental Christendom that Mr. Waddington refers, under the name of the Greek Church, and the actual Head of which is the temporal successor of Mohammed.

The Greek Church is governed by four Patriarchs; those of Constantinople, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. The last three are equal and independent, but they acknowledge the superiority of the other, and his authority in so far, that nothing important can be undertaken in the regulation of spiritual affairs without his consent. The Patriarch of Constantinople is elected, by plurality of votes, by the metropolitan and neighbouring bishops, and presented to the Sultan for institution. This favour is seldom refused if he bring with him the usual presents, which have varied, according to the varieties of wealth or avarice, from 20,000 to 30,000 dollars. But, having conceded this formality in the election, the Sultan retains the unmitigated power of deposition, banishment, or execution; and it is needless to add, that even the paltry exaction on institution is motive sufficient for the frequent exertion of that power; and it has sometimes happened that the Patriarch, on some trifling dispute, has been obliged to purchase his confirmation in office. He possesses the privilege (in name, perhaps, rather than in reality) of nominating his brother patriarchs; and, after their subsequent election by the bishops of their respective patriarchates, of confirming the election; but the barat of the Sultan is still necessary to give authority both to themselves and even to every bishop whom they may eventually appoint in the execution of their office. The election of the other Patriarchs, as they are further removed from the centre of oppression, is less restrained, and their deposition less frequent. But this comparative security is attended by little power or consequence; and two at least of the three are be lieved to number very few subjects who remain faithful to the Orthodox Church.' PP. 99-101.

The Patriarch of Antioch has two rivals, who assume the same title and dignity, the one as the head of the Syrian Jacobite Church, the other as the Maronite patriarch or head of the Syrian Catholics. The Patriarch of Alexandria, who resides generally at Cairo, has also his Coptic rival; and the few who are still faithful to the Orthodox Greek Church, are chiefly found in the villages or capital of Lower Egypt. The Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem reside chiefly at Constantinople, and enjoy very slender and precarious revenues.

VOL. VI.-N.S.

F

Thus, the Byzantine Church would seem to be very nearly reduced to the limits of Turkey in Europe, Greece, and Palestine. Of the population included within its pale, it is not easy to form a correct estimate. The Greek population (properly so called) of the Morea, the islands, Livadia, Epirus, Thessaly, and Macedonia, cannot be estimated at more than a million and a half; and those resident in the other provinces of European Turkey, including the principalities of Moldavia and Wallachia, in Asiatic Turkey, and Egypt, would probably be overrated at the same number. Three millions, we are inclined to think, would be a full allowance for the subjects of the Ecumenical Patriarch, the Universal Bishop of the Eastern World! Some writers have absurdly estimated the members of the Greek Church at thirty millions, which is considerably more than the total population of the Turkish empire. If we include the subjects of Russia in the calculation (of whom, out of 62 millions and a half, 46,300,000 are rated as Greeks,) the estimate will be as much below the truth.

The Anti-Byzantine or Monophysite Churches consist of, 1. The Syrian Jacobite Church; 2. The Coptic Church; 3. The Abyssinian Church, which, as acknowledging the supremacy of the Jacobite patriarch of Alexandria, may be considered as a branch of the Coptic; 4. The Nestorian-Chaldean Church, the head of which is the patriarch of Babylon, residing at Mousul; 5. The Armenian Church; and 6. The Syro-Indian Church, under the Metropolitan of Malabar, who acknowledges, however, the supremacy of the Patriarch of Antioch.

The doctrines of the Orthodox Greek Church find, in Mr. Waddington, a very liberal and indulgent expositor. The doctrinal differences of the three Churches, the Roman, the Greek, and the Anglican, are, he assures us, not numerous ; and those especially which subsist between the Greeks and 'ourselves, are not of a nature which can ever disturb our religious concord.' It is true, the Greeks worship the Virgin and the Saints, adore their paintings, hold transubstantiation, and pray for the dead; but these are points which our Author deems not of fundamental importance,' being himself, as it should seem, on some of these points, half a Greek The following declaration, coming from a Protestant clergy-man, a member of an English University, will startle some of our readers.

6

In truth, to pray for the souls of our departed friends, is the most natural and pardonable error of piety; and though it be dangerous and improper to inculcate as a church doctrine the efficacy of such prayers, it would neither be right to discourage their private and individual effusion, nor easy to disprove the possibility of their acceptance.'