5. Relations with Rome

The great conversion to Romanism in 1182 was not complete. An anti-Roman reaction set in and was punished by a papal interdict, from which the country was not absolved until 1215. Rome took great pains to maintain the union, as, for example, in 1445, in consequence of the Council of Florence. A national synod was held at the command of Clement VIII. in 1596, in the monastery of Kanobin, to which Girolamo Dandini, a Jesuit, went as papal legate, charged with the revision of all Maronite affairs. According to his report (Mis sions apostolica al patriarca a Maroniti del Moats LZano, Cesena, 1656; Fr. transl. by Richard Simon, Voyage du Moat Liban, Paris, 1685), the council resuited in submission to the Roman see, and an agreement with respect to doctrines. The differences, however, were neither few nor unimportant. The Maronites retained the celebration of the Lord's Supper under both kinds, the Syriac liturgy, the marriage of the priests, their own fast-days, and their own saints. A new council was held in 1736 in the monastery of Mary, at Luweiza, in the district of Kesrawan. The celebrated MarOnlte scholar j J. S. Assemani was sent from Rome as papal legate; and the object was to secure among the Maronites acceptance of the canons of the Council of Trent. How incomplete the success of this mission was is shown by the remark of a Maronite monk: "(The Maronites) recognize the pope as head (of the Church); outside of that they have nothing essentially Catholic." The principal concessions by the Maronites were that they accepted the filioque and kneeling at the consecration, and acknowledged the

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councils of 787 (second Nicene), 869 (Constanti nople), 1439 (Florence), and the Council of Trent; the Roman catechism (in Arabic) and the Gregorian calendar were introduced.; the Tridentine exposi tion of the doctrine of transubstantiation was es tablished; the marriage of the clergy was confined to the lower degrees; the name of the pope was in troduced in the prayers and the mass. Other pro visions dealt with the preparation of the host, its reception by the clergy in both kinds, but by the laity in the form of a sop; the orders of the clergy and their ordination, and the general constitution of the Church. While this synod settled the mod ern form of the Maronite organization, in many particulars there has been reversion to the earlier customs.

In 1584 Gregory XIII. founded the Collegium Maronitarum in Rome, and from that institution issued a number of celebrated scholars-Georgius Amira, Gabriel Sionita, Abraham Ecchellensis, the Assemanis, and others. An earlier Maronite scholar of note was Theophilus, court astrologer to the Caliph al-Mahdi, who compiled a "Chronicle" and trans lated Homer into Syriac. But before theagreement with Rome there was little literary activity .among the Maronites. Even afterward, the people re mained backward in culture, in spite of schools es tablished among them, and retained many of their early customs. Two printing-presses 6. Modern were established at Mar Hanna in 1795, Conditions. and at Kashia in 1802; but they awa kened no interest in reading. For a long period the Maronites maintained a kind of supremacy over the Druses; but after 1840 their power became greatly weakened, feuds arose between them and the Druses, by which the country was often fearfully devastated. As a consequence the Maronite Church has greatly suffered. The priests are poor, being supported only by free-will offerings and fees for masses. The monasteries participate also in the general poverty, and many have been destroyed. The clergy includes, besides the patriarch, archbishops and bishops, presbyters, deacons, sub-deacons, readers and cantors. The temporal power is exercised by an emir, who is re sponsible to the pasha of Saida.

(K. Kessler†.)

The superior of the Syro-Maronite Church in the United States is the Rt. Rev. Joseph Yazbek, chor bishop, and rector of the Maronite church of Bos ton, which was dedicated in 1898. The 7. In the ceremony of the preconization of the United pastor of the church of Boston to the States. chor-bishopric took place there in 1900. The decree was conferred by the Mar onite patriarch, and was approved by the Roman Catholic archbishop of Boston. The title of chor bishop, it should be added, is equivalent to the title of a vicar in partzbo. It gives the right to use the miter.

The church of New York was organized in 1893. There are also churches in Philadelphia, St. Louis, Buffalo, Scranton, Pa., Youngstown, O., and Law rence, Mass., about ten in all, with an equal number of priests. The sect claims a membership of about 35,000 in the United States.

The Maronite priests in the United States, al- though appointed by the Maronite patriarch, are under the immediate protection and at the call of the Roman Catholic bishops in whose dioceses their churches are located.

A. A. Stamouli.

Bibliography: Sources for doctrine are their ecclesiastical books: Mireale cAaldaicum juxta ritum . . . Maronitarum, Rome, 1592-94, 2d ad., 1604; their service for the Eucharist was printed at Kozchaya in the Lebanon, 1816, 1855; Liber ministri misam justa ritum . . . Maronitarum, Rome, 1596; 08tcia sanctorum, 2 parts, Rome, 1656-66; Ofcium feriale, Beirut, 1876. Historical sources are John of Damascus, in MPG, xciv. 485, 1432; the presbyter Timotheus, in MPG, lxxxv. 165; J. 8. Aseemani, Bibliotheca orientalis, i. 496 sqq., iii. 2, pp. 22 sqq., Rome, 1719; Faustus Nairon, Enoplia idei caoroliccs Romance historvco-dogmatica, ib. 1694; a collection of sources is in M. Le Quien, Origins Christianus, iii. 1-100, Paris, 1740. An excellent religious orientation of Christian peoples in Syria is by H: H. Jessop, in History . . . of the sixth session of the Evangelical Alliance, ad. P. Schaf and 8. T. Prime, pp. 634-642, New York, 1874. Consult further: Robinson, Researches, vol. iii.; G. Guy, Sbjour . . . h Beirout et dons Is Liban, 2 vols., Paris, 1847; H. Petermann, Reisen im Orient, vol. i., Leipsic, 1860; C. H. Churchill, Mount Lebanon, vol. iv., Druzes and Maronites, London, 1862; A. Pichler, Geschichte der kirdlichen Trennung, ii. 533-557, Munich, 1865; AL, viii. 891-902; A. de Piolant Au pays doe Maronites, Paris, 1882; F. J. Bliss, in PEF, Quarterly Statements for 1892 (valuable); J. Dabs, Perpituelle Orthodozie des Maronites, Arras, 1896; F. Nan, Opusculee Maronites. fEuvres in6dites de J. Moron, Paris, 1899; J. Parisot, Rapport our une mission acientiftque en Turquie d'A" ib. 1899; K. Beth, Orientalische Christenheit, Berlin, 1902; F. Tyan, Sous lee eidres du Liban; la nationalitM Maronits, La Chapelle-Montligeon, 1905.

On the synod of 1736 consult: B. E. Assemani, Bibliothecat Mediced, pp. 118 sqq., Florence, 1742; Nouveaux mémoires des miesione de la compapnie de Jhua done de Levant, viii. 353 sqq., Paris, 1745; while a summary of the Acts was given by C. F. Schnurrer, in De ecclesia Maronitica, Tübingen, 1810-11, cf. Archiv fit- Kirk geschichte, i (1814 ), 32-82. Consult also J. 8. Aasemani, Synodus pmvincialia a . . . patriarchs Antiochsno, archiepiscapas et opiacopis, necnon clero . . . Maronitarum, Rome, 1820.