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their suffragans and may call specific synods (cf. P. Hinschius, Das Kirchenrecht, i. 538 sqq., 562 sqq., Berlin, 1869). There are six Uniate patriarchates as follows: (1) Patriarchatus Ciliciee Armenorum. This has had its home in Constantinople since 1862, and claims fourteen churches and about 16,000 adherents; the Armenian-Catholic communities in Russian Armenia and in the non-European dominions of the Sultan belong to this patriarchate. The title indicates the origin of the church among Cilician and Syrian Armenians (until 1867 the patriarch resided in the Lebanon). Under the patriarch are nineteen dioceses, but the total number of souls in his jurisdiction can not much exceed 100,000. (2) There are three Antiochian patriarchates: (a) Patriarchatus Antiochmus GracoMelchitarum. This includes the Uniate Greek nationals of the Turkish empire. The largest number are in Syria. The Melchites are organized in fifteen dioceses and number about 120,000 souls. (b) Patriarchatus Antiochenus Syro-Maronitarum. This represents the most compact Uniate church of the orient, most of its adherents living in Lebanon. It is organized with eight or nine dioceses, and the number of adherents is about 250,000. (c) The Patriarchatus Antiochenus Syrorum consists of a fragment of the Jacobites (q.v.). The patriarch resides in Mardin (near Diarbekr on the upper Tigris), and governs nine dioceses with perhaps 20,000 adherents. The inclusion of the name of Antioch in the title of these three patriarchates probably indicates a historical tradition of connection with that city. (3) The Patriarchatus Chaldeeorum Babylonensis represents a Uniate church won from the Nestorians (q.v.). The patriarch, with Mosul as see city, is at the head of eleven dioceses, and the estimates of adherents range from 40,000 to 70,000. They present an attractive subject for the historian on account of their past. The erection of a sixth Uniate patriarchate is due to the measures of Leo XIII., and is known as Patriarchatus Alexandrinus Coptorum. The seat of the patriarch is Cairo, and he has two dioceses; the number of adherents is in doubt, but does not exceed 21,000. In addition to the foregoing there are to be taken into account the Abyssinians and Thomas Christians (see NEsxoiuANs). The number of the first who are in affiliation with Rome is very small and they are under a resident vicar. Leo XIII. in 1887 established for the Thomas Christians three Vicariatus apostolici Syro-Malabarorum, the vicars using the Syrian rite, and the vicar-general having a council from the people to act as his advisers. The number of Thomas Christians involved here is about 100,000. (F. KATTENBUSCA.)

III. In America: By the conversion of the inhabitants of Greenland early in the eleventh century (see E(iEDE, HANs, § 2 ), Christian-

Greenland (q.v.), which is situated in both hemiand spheres, the Gospel had been preached

and Vineland (cf. Gams, Series episcoporum, p. 334). As shown by the sagas, one of those ecclesiastics, Bishop Eric, sailed in quest of Vineland in the year 1121, but of his having found it there is no mention. In the sagas now extant there is no evidence that any church was ever built in Vineland. It is only known that the Norsemen who visited that country were Christians. It is almost certain that the region in which they traded for centuries was within the present limits of the Atlantic States. No memorials of Norse activity have ever been found in America, and the discovery of any is hardly to be expected, for those intrepid mariners were simply traders or at most but the sojourners of a few seasons. The skraelings or natives appear not to have been influenced by the religion or the civilization of their visitors. In the very year that Columbus discovered America, Pope Alexander VI. confirmed the last bishop appointed to the see of Gardar. After a long struggle for existence that lonely outpost of Christianity was abandoned.

When Spain discovered the New World, her population, diminished by centuries of warfare, could

not have exceeded 6,500,000. Neverz. In theless, she endeavured to achieve what

the wildernesses of mighty continents and in vast archipelagos the Spaniards sought to civilize innumerable races of whom even the most advanced had scarcely attained to the upper stages of barbarism. In Brazil (q.v.), where the Jesuits and other Portuguese missionaries engaged in work similar to that undertaken by the Spanish friars, the aborigines were, if possible, still more degraded. In many parts of that vast country the practise of cannibalism was common. It was on this foundation that the first Christian missionaries were compelled to begin the civilization of two continents. For more than 2,000 miles along the Brazilian coast all the natives were brought under the superintendence of missionaries. They were taught to know God, to comprehend something of the universal laws of morality, and in many other ways prepared for civilization. Joseph Anchieta, who labored among them for forty-four years, composed a Brazilian grammar and also a dictionary of that dialect. The canticles prepared by him replaced the indecent songs of the natives. Antonio Vieyra, an author and statesman, continued in the succeeding century the splendid work of Anchieta. In districts from which Portuguese soldiers had been expelled the zealous missionaries established themselves. In this noble work the Frranciscans and the Dominicans were also engaged. At one time the Jesuits in South America numbered 1,700. Their number is not to be ascribed, however, to the pleasures of an apostolic career. In his History of Brazil (part I., 2d ed., pp. 320, 321, London, 1810), Robert Southey states that in the year 1570 sixty-nine missionaries set sail for South America in Portuguese vessels, and encountered the British and French (Huguenot) pirates off the coast of Brazil and were put to death. Missionaries had also been attacked by the Dutch. Even Portuguese merchants, with whose slave-trade they interfered, misrepresented the missionaries in Lisbon and in 1573 hundreds of them were deported