[Footnote 47: As reference has been made from time to time to Roumanian ecclesiastics, the following brief particulars may not be uninteresting. Christianity was introduced into the provinces bordering on the Danube at a very early date. According to A. de Gerando (_Siebenbürgen und seine Einwohner_, p. 211, Lorck, Leipzig, 1845), a MS. was found in Hungary, bearing a cross and the date 274 A.D.; and in 325 A.D. a Bishop Theophilus was spoken of amongst the Goths. In 370 A.D. Athanaric, the Gothic king, persecuted and put many Christians to death. In 527 A.D. the Christian churches of Roumania (as then constituted) were taken in charge by the metropolitan of the Greek Church. But it was not until 865 A.D. that the Bulgarians and the native population associated with them were actually converted to Christianity (Lauriani, p. 29). About that time intrigues existed between the heads of the Eastern and Western Churches for the possession of the headship in these countries, but the influence of the former predominated. About 860 A.D. a Slavonian liturgy was introduced into the churches, and, notwithstanding the denunciations and embassies of the Roman Pontiff, a separation occurred about 880 A.D., and the Roumanians joined the Orthodox Greek Church. Of the negotiations between Innocent III. and Johannitz, King of the Second Wallacho-Bulgarian monarchy, we shall speak hereafter, and although after that time the Papal power was in the ascendant in Wallachia and Moldavia amongst the princes and nobles, the people always leaned to the Greek rite, and at length, in 1440, the metropolitan of Moldavia succeeded (Romish writers say by a religious _coup d'état_) in making the Greek Church dominant. In the middle of the seventeenth century the most important Roman Catholic bishopries were suppressed, and down to the present time the Greek Church has been the state religion, and it is professed by nearly the whole nation; even the King, who was formerly a Roman Catholic, now conforms to the faith. Of the secularisation of the monasteries and other religious movements we shall speak in Part II, and it is only necessary to add that at present there are two metropolitans or archbishops, six bishops with dioceses and several without; in 1876 there were 9,800 secular priests, 1,700 monks and 2,270 nuns, 6,550 churches and 173 monasteries and nunneries. The priests or 'popes' marry and follow secular occupations in the country; in the towns they are 'non-productive' so far as labour is concerned. The services of the Greek Church are not impressive; but although much has been written concerning their superstition, the Roumanians do not differ greatly from the people of other Catholic countries in that respect. There is great indifference to religion, if not absolute atheism, amongst the higher classes, which no doubt results from the great ignorance of the priesthood. The thing most to be regretted, however, is that whilst