influence and brought into contact with Protestant learning. Such
a revolution would be most dangerous, not only to the external influence
of Russia, but even to her despotism at home, because a Protestant
movement amongst the Greek churches of Turkey would sever every connection
between them and Russia, and very likely extend to the last-named country.
It is therefore most probable, as has been observed by the celebrated
explorer of Nineveh, Layard, that the movement alluded to above, which has
recently begun to spread amongst the Armenian churches of Turkey, was not
without influence on the mission of Prince Menschikoff and its
consequences.

I have said above that the mutual position of the Graeco-Russian and Roman
Catholic Churches towards one another is that of two rivals. The dogmatic
difference between them turns upon some abstruse tenets, which are
generally little understood by the great mass of their followers, whilst
the essential ground of divergence, the real question at issue, is,
whether the headship of the church is to be vested in the Pope, in the
Patriarch of Constantinople, or in the Czar. The Pope has allowed that
portion of the Greek Church which submitted to his supremacy at the
council of Florence in 1438, to retain its ritual and discipline, with
some insignificant modifications. The Roman Catholic Church considers the
Graeco-Russian one in about the same light as she is regarded herself by
that of England. She acknowledges her to be _a church_, though a
schismatic one, whose sacraments and ordination are valid, so that a Greek
or Russian priest becomes, on signing the union of Florence, a clergyman
of the Roman Catholic Church exactly as is the case in the Anglican Church
with a Roman Catholic priest who renounces the pope. The Graeco-Russian
Church does not, however, return the compliment to the Roman Catholic one,
any more than the Catholic does it to that of England; because a Roman
Catholic priest who enters the Graeco-Russian Church not only loses his
sacerdotal character, just as is the case with an Anglican clergyman who
goes over to the communion of Rome, but he must be even baptised anew, as
is done with Christians of every denomination who join that church,
whether Jews or Gentiles.

The system of reaction which the Roman Catholic Church has been pursuing
for many years, with a consistency, perseverance, and zeal worthy of a
better cause, and not without considerable success, has crea