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Ukrains or Little Russians, and altogether they number about 30,000,000. After the, Tatar invasion in the thirteenth century, their land fell partly to the Poles and partly to the Lithuanians, and after the union of the two kingdoms (1385) to the Pcles. They were an unsafe element in this kingdom so long as they remained " orthodox." Particularly after "Great Russia" had won in Moscow, by the elevation of the metropolitanate into a patriarchate, a new center and new 46clat, there existed a great danger for the Poles. So there arose from political motives a movement for a union between the Ruthenians and Rome. The metropolitan of Kief, Michael Rahosa (Ragoza), found them only externally pliant; his successors, Hypatius Pociej (1600-13) and Velamin Rutski (1613-37), were the more eager; though in fact the negotiations had been completed at the Synod of Brest in 1596, yet actual union did not eventuate till the middle of the seventeenth century, the dioceses of Lemberg and Luzk, however, not coming in till 1700 and 1702. This union affected essentially that part of the kingdom which eventually fell to Austria. The Ruthenians have often complained of what they have had to endure at the hands of Latin bishops, and in Galicia complaints continue on both political and ecclesiastical grounds. Even in Russia the Ruthenians suffer under disabilities as a separate nationality, and consequently the Orthodox Church has little real attraction for them.

The church of the Rumanians exists only in Hungary, especially in Transylvania, and it may be traced back into the seventeenth century. The incidents of its changing history are not without interest. It was in connection with the Rumanians that the idea of " personal dioceses " first arose, under which it is possible to have several bishops (for the separate " rites ") at the same place, and of course the occasion was the existence in the same region of churches having separate rites, etc. This church came to possess its own ecclesiastical language first in the seventeenth century. At present it possesses an independent metropolitan at Fqgaras in Transylvania, and three suffragans at Lugos, Grosswardein, and Szamos-Uvjar, and its adherents number about a million. For the church of the Armenians there is an archbishopric at Lemberg, and a very large community at Vienna, and the Armenians of Venice belong in this communion also. The adherents number only about 5,000. The Mekhitarists (q.v.) are an important order of this branch.

The changes in fortune in the Ruthenian Church were, as already seen, closely connected with the Polish kingdom. At times it seemed as though this church would be coextensive with the 2. In Russia kingdom. The Polish Latin clergy

and was exceedingly zealous to transform Turkey, the union into annexation and to reduce the independent hierarchy to complete dependence; on the other hand, the Poles were politically too strong to permit the quashing of the independence attained. But in Kief there was established alongside of the Ruthenian or Latin an " Orthodox " (i.e., Greek) metropolitanate as early as 1620, and the political power of the Poles could not hinder the perpetuation of this " schismatic "

series of bishops, the most noted of whom was Petrus Mogilas (q.v.). After a great part of the region had been absorbed by Russia, Kief remaining in Poland but becoming ecclesiastically insignificant, this place was established firmly as a Uniate metropolitanate. Meanwhile, in 1775, 1793, 1795, and 1815 successive parts of Poland were incorporated in Russia, and in Prussia there was absorbed the Uniate diocese of Suprasl (1807). It became a settled policy of Russia to recover the Ruthenians for the Greek Church; the measures of Catharine II. were direct and restrained by no scruples, and she endeavored to have the see of Mef done away with entirely. It is reported that she recovered for the Greek Church no less than 8,000,000 Ruthenians, though she still suffered the archbishopric of Polotsk to continue. The next rulers, Paul I. and Alexander I., were in comparison tolerant, and the Uniates, especially in the northern Lithuanian districts, were reorganized. But Nicholas I. resumed the policy of Catharine, and by 1839 brought it about that the Uniates in Russia proper " voluntarily " asked to be received into the Greek Church. In 1875 the relatively small diocese of Chelm, which until then remained in the ranks of the Uniates, was also received into the national church, and this ended the existence of a Uniate Church in Russia. The " Easter decree " of 1905 issued by Nicholas II., which proclaimed freedom as to worship in the empire, apparently put it within the power of those who have secretly remained Uniates in sentiment to go over to Rome; but as yet there is no recognition of a Roman Catholic Church with the Greek rite in Russia. There are, however, scattered Uniates in Russia, belonging to the Armenian rite, and these are under a Latin vicariate.

The only Uniates to be considered in Turkey in Europe are those in the Balkan peninsula, and they are in small groups, considered as belonging to the " missions." There appeared to be hope for union so long as they were politically under an alien government and ecclesiastically dependent upon the ecumenical patriarchate. In 1860 a movement toward union was begun, but it was too energetically pushed by Pius IX., and it died out, especially after the foundation of the " Bulgarian exarchate " in 1872. Bulgarians have been ever since their conversion (see BULGARIANS, CONVERSION OF THE) an object of hope to the Roman Catholic Church, and as continually a disappointment. Leo XIII. in 1883 divided the " United Church of the Bulgs: rians " into three apostolic vicariates; but the adherents do not exceed in number 15,000. In Constantinople there are a number of Uniate Armenians and Melchites.

The Uniate churches in Asia and Africa have especial historical and legal interest owing to the fact that they are organized as patriarchates. But the measure of independence of the

3. In Asia Uniate patriarchs with reference to sad the pope lies in obscurity. The Roman Church is prepared to protect the old ecclesiastical rank and rights in definite measure so far as they are involved in the title of patriarch. The chief characteristic of this ecclesiastical order is that the patriarchs have the right to name