As regards the separate constitution of the three great sections of the Greek church, it will be enough to say that the church in the Turkish empire has remained subject to the patriarch of Constantinople, who from the beginning enjoyed a continued but pre carious protection from the sultan, and even held as regarded his own flock, a civil pre-eminence, with the rank of a "pasha of three tails." But in return for this civil status, the Porte claimed the right of appointing and also of deposing the patriarch, a right which was habitually exercised as a matter of purchase and sale, and which led to the grossest simony, not only as to the patriarchate, but in the entire ecclesiastical system. Formerly, the metropolitan of Russia (afterwards patriarch) was subject to the patriarch of Constantinople, as also the bishops of the modern kingdom of Greece; but both churches are now independent of Constantinople. The patriarch of Constan tinople, Jeremias II., in in the year 1589, consented to the creation of a separate but dependent patriarch: and this dependence continued until the time of Peter the great, by whom the partriarchate was first suspended and afterwards abolished. the Russian church being now governed by what is called the holy synod, an ecclesiastical corn mksion appointed by the czar. The independence of the church of the kingdom of Greece dates from the revolution. The "organic law of Epidaurus," of Jan., 1822, pro claimed the oriental Orthodox church as the church of the state, and soon afterwards measures were taken to organize this church in the new kingdom. For a time, the patriarch of Constantinople hoped to preserve his ancient authority; but the president of the new state, Capo d'Istrias. firmly resisted, and, after many preliminaries, the new
church was formally organized by a decree of July 15 (27). 1833..01/ a plan in great part borrowed from the constitution Russian church, as settled by Peter the great: The governing body in the church of the kingdom of Greece is, as in the Russian, the so called " Holy Synod," which consists of five members, who are ordinarily archbishops, or bishops, but may also admit into their number one or two priests or monks. This synod is the supreme ecclesiastical tribunal, and in name at least is independent in spirituals; but as its members are all named by the crown, and hold office but for a year, it is practically a state instrument; moreover, two officials of the crown have a right to assist, although without a vote, at all its deliberations. The synod elects bishops, but the crown has the right of confirming and granting investiture. To it also belongs the power of regulating the limits of dioceses, and all such general arrange ments. The last remnant of subjection to Constantinople was removed by a formal recognition of independence in 1868, and the bishops no longer seek consecration from the patriarch of that see. In 1869 a correspondence took place between tire arch bishop of Canterbury and the patriarch, with a view to the union of the Anglican and eastern churches. In the same year the government of Russia abolished the hereditary character of the Russo-Greek priesthood. The Russo-Greek church is believed to num ber about 55,000,000. The church of Greece comprehends a district of about 880 sq.m., and numbers about 800,000 members.