Etchmiadzin belongs to Russia, they might easily be united, for they by no means hold the true Eutychian heresy. But, if we were to do anything with them, the Greeks would cry out that we had made union with the heretics." When he asked the Patriarch that question, the answer was, "Oh, do not ask me, my son ! Only know that all heresies in the world which are most pernicious and wicked are united in the heresy of the Armenians."

10. When speaking of the miserable state of the Greek clergy in the Levant, he said, "Guess how many orthodox there may be in the three Patriarchates of Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem;-put together. There are not more than 100,000!" Of these he gave 10,000, I think, to the Patriarch of Alexandria, 25,000 to that of Jerusalem; and the remainder, 65,000, to that of Antioch. But the Patriarchate of Constantinople has 10,000,000.

11. He said repeatedly, "Such intercommunion as you now seek would be impossible. If the Russian clergy could admit you to communion, the Anglicans, who regard the Russians and Greeks as barbarians and idolaters, would cry out against you for conforming to the customs of the Greek Church, just as the Greeks would cry out against us Russians, if we made a pacification with the Armenians. You have thought in an unusual way of these things; you see what pre

judices there are, and you would bring the two sides to agreement after a manner by explanations. You see that some things are of not such great importance, others may be reconciled, others are true and false in different respects. But people in general do not see this on either side. Now," he said, laughing, "do you mean to tell me that your friend, the chaplain at Cronstadt, or the other, who is here, would agree with you? No, no, they are Anglicans, I am sure, of the regular old school."

"If

12. As regards the Procession, notwithstanding what he had said about the reception of the Uniats, and though he confessed that there had repeatedly been intercommunion after the development of that controversy, he contended that this had been so only through inattention, and that the Greeks anathematize the Latin doctrine as a heresy, and the Latins as heretics. so," I said, "you are inconsistent; for then you ought no longer to talk, as you do, of the Eastern and the Western Churches, and of a General Council being now impossible, on account of the division; for, if the Latins are heretics, your own communion is the whole Catholic Church, and you ought no longer to call it Eastern, but Catholic."

13. He spoke of one of their chaplains abroad as having been neither more nor less than a Protestant. "That is the mischief," he said. "From ignorance they

too often have no idea of their religion beyond that of nationality; and when, out of their own country, among Protestants, they think it fine to be like gentlemen, like ministers or pastors, and they cut off their beards (this, however, they are allowed to do), and wear a laydress. Instead of thus imitating foreigners, they ought to show more attachment to their own national customs, and still more to the principles and peculiarities of their religion. He had just before said, that "it was this idea of a national religion which did all the mischief."

14. He said that the Greeks and Russians were deficient, as compared with the Westerns, in Missions; but he promised to introduce me to a Missionary priest, named Veniaminoff, who has converted and baptized 2000 persons in the Aleoutine Islands.

15. He spoke of the Patriarch Nicon, whom he admired as a fine character, and compared him with Thomas à Becket, Hincmar, and others in the West. Nicon, like them, thought the Church ought to be supreme, and for a time he had been used to have all his own way. M. Mouravieff, however, would not allow that Nicon was a Confessor for any great principle, as I was inclined to suppose and to wish.

CHAPTER XXXI.

Interview with Count Pratasoff.

EPTEMBER 23 [o.s.].-Saw Count Pratasoff at

SE

one o'clock at the Synodal Palace, and told him I had been translating (with Mr. Blackmore) the "Orthodox Confession" (of Peter Mogila). He did not quite approve of this, and said, "You should rather translate the Russian Catechism' of the Metropolitan Philaret." I said, "We mean to print all those documents which are of authority, so as to give a full idea of the actual state of theology in Russia. There is, however, some inconsistency in these documents. You have not only avoided in your Russian Catechism the definition of Transubstantiation by means of 'substance' and 'accidents,' but in your published translation of the XVIII. Bethlehem Articles, you have actually altered the text of the original, so as to omit that mention of accidents' which is found in the Greek, while in the Russian translation of the 'Ortho

dox Confession' the document from which the XVIII.

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Articles derived the term,"-he finished my sentence for me, we have retained the term which in the XVIII. Articles we have suppressed. It is true," he continued, "we are very desirous to improve education and sound learning, but the prevalent ignorance is great, especially in Greece and the Levant, and people cannot distinguish, but are blindly tenacious of all that they are used to. All the same a prodigious movement has been effected within a short time, even in Greece. We print everything both in Slavonic and in Greek, and send it to the churches of the Levant gratuitously, and so we hope to fortify them both against the Latins and the Methodists, who now ravage them. We have printed the Ecclesiastical Canons without note or gloss in full, in double columns, a folio volume, in Slavonic and Greek, and the 'Orthodox Confession,' and the 'Short and Long Russian Catechism' too, all in Greek."

He said, "If we can manage to co-operate together, so much the better." I answered, "We on our side, ought to be able; for we desire nothing but truth and the unity of the Church; and we have no other power or help, but what prayers and the grace of God may give us, for the civil government of England is now rather with the Popish and Protestant sectaries."

He asked, "Which of your bishops are most Catholic?" I replied, "It would be easier to name those who are least Catholic. As long as our Church was exclusively