Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

They have suffered much persecution from the Mohammedans, especially from the Suljuk Turks, which had much influence in arousing the knighthood of Europe to enter upon the crusades. After the failure of the crusades these Christians were again subject to Moslem misrule at the hands of the Mohammedan sultans of Egypt and invaders from Turkey. The whole land was conquered in 1517 by the Ottoman Turk, Selim I. Except for the brief period (1832-1841) when Syria was held by Ibrahim Pasha, this country and this church have been under the rule of the sultan who sat upon the throne in Constantinople.

As the manuscript Bibles, liturgy, and church books were in Syriac, while the common people spoke and understood only the Arabic, Christianity became largely a matter of form from which the spirit had departed. The same conditions prevailed here which we shall discuss later in the Gregorian Church.

THE GREEKS

The Greeks claim that they have the oldest Christian Church, since they are the heirs to the old Byzantine empire at Constantinople, and use even now in their worship the Greek of the apostles and the liturgy of the early fathers. They constituted the majority at the first seven ecumenical councils, dominating in no small degree by their philosophy and thought the doctrines there established. They contend with the Syrian Church over priority of origin. The political history of the Greek Church began with the conversion of Constantine in 312 a. d., when persecution ceased and Christianity became the state religion.

We do not need for our present purpose to trace the history of the Church of Constantinople down to its separation from the Church of Rome in 1054, and the capture of the city by the Turks in 1453.

During this period the Church conducted a vigorous missionary propaganda. Cyril and Methodius went into Thessalonica and Bulgaria and there did substantial fundamental Christian work. Russia was also reached from this center and the czar was baptized and the nation became Christian.

In government, the Greek Church is Episcopal. The temporal power centers in the patriarch. There are several of these, the chief of whom resides at Constantinople, although the patriarchs at Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem have nominally the same authority. Under Turkish rule the office of the patriarch has been exalted into practically the head of the Church, the bishops exercising spiritual authority alone. This arrangement is the same that exists in the Gregorian Church, as we shall see later. The general synod, made up of the bishops of the surrounding provinces, is presided over by the patriarchs, whom they are supposed to elect, but whose election must always be confirmed by the sultan of Turkey. The authority by which the patriarch acts comes from a firman or charter granted by the sultan.

In 1833 the branch of the Greek Church now included in the kingdom of Greece severed itself from primary dependence upon the patriarch at Constantinople. The Church of Russia, up to the middle of the seventeenth century, was holden to the Constantinople patriarch to confirm the primate of Moscow. Peter the Great in 1712 curtailed the authority of this primate, putting in his place the Holy Synod, over which the czar is supreme. These changes left the patriarch at Constantinople with authority over only the Greek churches within the bounds of the Turkish empire. The Greek Church of Roumania and Servia soon became independent and in 1870 the Church of Bulgaria withdrew and reunited under one chief bishop called the Bulgarian exarch.

One prominent fact that must be constantly kept in mind is that after these churches had separated from the mother Church and become independent of her control, they constituted what is virtually another Church. Relations one with the other were completely severed, and often violent hostility prevailed. In 1905 a severe and bloody conflict was waged in Macedonia between officers of the Greek Church who claimed allegiance to the Synod at Athens, and officers of the same Church who recognized as their head the Bulgarian exarch. Hostility was as severe and bloody as between Moslems and Christians. Church buildings were captured, the one from the other, and loyal subjects fought to the death in resistance of these attacks. This is a fact that must be taken into consideration as the various Churches and Christian sects in that part of the world are studied and their relation to Mohammedanism and the Turkish empire weighed.

We are not especially concerned here with the peculiar beliefs of this Church. We are not dealing with the question from a theological standpoint, but from the general standpoint of its relations to the government of Turkey and to the other coreligionists within the empire.