ATHENS
46
ATHENS
Latin archbishop was Nicholas Protinius. He died
in 14S3. After liis death Rome continued to ap-
point titular Latin arclibishops to the f^'ee of Atliens.
Under Turkish domination the Church and all its
property again became Greek. All the suffragan sees
were again filled by Greek bishops, and the monas-
teries were again occupied by Greek monks. The
Parthenon, however, was appropriated by the con-
querors, who converted it into a mosque. The Greek
bishops continued to live in the lower town, and
during the latter half of the Turkish supremacy they
usually resided near the church of the Panagia Gor-
goepekoos, which they used as a private chapel.
They lived elsewhere at times, however, for Father
Babin mentions Archbishop ^^nthimos as Hving near
the church of St. Dionysios. which was at the foot
of the Arcopagos Hill. In Turkish times, as previ-
ously, the sees under Athens were not always the
same in number. Nor were they all identical with
those that had been under the Latin archbishops.
Some of them were Koroneia, Salona, Bodonitsa,
Davleia, E\Tipos, Oreos, Karystos, Porthmos, An-
dros, Syra, and Skyros.
Amongst the religious orders that lived in Athens imder Turkish rule were the Franciscans. They were there as early as 1658. But they had already been in Greece under the Franks. The Franciscans are to be mentioned with the Dominicans as being the first Western Europeans who sent students to Athens and other places in the East for the purpose of studying the language and literature of the Greeks. Another fact to the credit of the Franciscans of Athens is that, although not primarily interested in antiquities, they fruitfully contributed to the awakening of our interest in such studies. There appeared m Paris in the second half of the seventeenth centurj', a book by Guillet or "de la Guilletiere", which is entirely based on information received from the Franciscans of Athens. Franciscans sketched the first plan of mod- ern Athens. Considering how suspicious the Turks were of any kind of description of their possessions and castles, it was quite a feat for the Franciscans to have made so good a plan as they did. It was pub- lished by Guillet in liis book, " Athenes, anciennes et nouvelles", 1675. In those days the Capuchins had a comfortable monastery in Athens, which they built on ground bought from the Turks in 1658, belrind the choragic monument of Lysikrates. The monument itself served them as their little Ubrary. In this monastery many a traveller found hospitality. It was destroyed by fire in 1821, and the site is now owned by the French Government. The Jesuits were also active in Athens. They came in 1645. It must be noted that it was Father Babin, a Jesuit, who wrote the first careful account of the modern condi- tion of the ruins of ancient Athens. This he did in a letter to the Abbe Pecoil, canon of Lyons. This letter was written S October, 1672. It was pubhshed with a commentary by Spon in 1674 under the title of " Relation de l'6tat present de la ville d'Athcnes". The Jesuits finally withdrew from Athens, leaving the entire field to the Franciscans. The Franciscans remained until the beginning of the war of the revolu- tion. In the time of Babin and Spon there were about two hundred churches in Athens, all of the Greek Rite, except the chapels in the monasteries of the western monks. With the war of the insurrec- tion, in 1821, ends the history of the older Church of Athens. A new Latin archbishopric has again its residence in Athens. (See Athens, Modern Dio- cese OF.) Since 1833 the Church of the Greek Rite has undergone serious changes of jurisdiction, for it, no longer recognizes the leadership of the Patriarch of Constantinople, but is a national autocephalous church.
Gregorovius, Geschichte der Stadt Athen im Miltelnller (Stuttgart, 1889), Greek tr. by Lampros, with additional notes
and an appendix (Athens, 1904-00); HoPF, Geachichie Griechen-
lands vom Beginn dfs Mittelnttrrs bis auf uusere Zeit (Leipzig,
1S70); Gkorgiades. 'I<rTopfa tuk ' XdrivCiv (Athens); Nerout-
sos, XptffTiapiKai 'Aff^Koi (Athens. 1SS9 sqq.); Lequien,
Orwns Christianas; MoMMSEN, Athence Christiana: (Leipzig,
186S); .Antonio Rubio v Lluch, La Expedicion y la Domina-
cidn de los Catalanos en Oriente (Barcelona, 1883); Gulden-
crone. L'Achaie feodnle (Paris, 1886); K.\mpodroglos,
'lo-TOpla tQv 'Afirfvuiv. TovpKOKparla (Athens, 1889-93);
Philadelphevs, laropla twv 'Ad-qt/Qv eiri lovpKOKpaTiai
(Athens, 1904).
Daniel Quinn.
Athens, modern diocese of. — The Greeks have long regarded their religion as a national affair. This notion is so deep-rooted that they cannot imder- stand how a citizen can well be a true Greek if he gives his allegiance to any religion which is not that of the Greek Church. At the present time the majority of Catholics who live within the Diocese of Athens are therefore foreigners, or of foreign descent. Of the foreigners who are Catholics, the greater part are of Italian nationality. Most of those who are of foreign descent have come into Athens and other portions of this diocese from the islands of the ^Egean and Ionian seas. The Catholics of these islands are largely descendants of the Western con- querors who held possession of the islands for two or three centuries, or even longer, beginning with the Fourth Crusade. As a rule, they are of Venetian and Genoese descent. In these islands some of the native Greeks, on account of the higher social and political standing of the foreign element, accepted the Catholic Faith and obedience. From these con- verted Greeks some Catholics in the Diocese of Athens are now descended. On three or four of the islands, outside of the Diocese of Athens, there are many such Catholics who are pure Greeks, being descended from converts to Catholicism in the time of the foreign feudal governments. These Catholics from the is- lands are the nucleus of the future prosperity of Catholicism in Greece, for gradually they are identifying themselves with the good of the country and its worthier ideals. Although they are still conscious of their foreign extraction, or former foreign sympathies, they now feel that their residence of centuries in Greek territory has made them Greeks. The real foreign element is made up of those Catholics who have migrated into Greece since it has become a free country. These are chiefly Italians and Maltese. Most of them are labourers who came to find employ- ment on the railroads and other public works, or to live as fishermen or boatmen in the larger seaport to\\'ns. The e.xact number of Catholics cannot easily be estimated. Possibly in the entire Diocese of Athens there are about 10,000, of whom about one- fourth attend church regularly. From amongst the members of the Greek Church no converts are made to Catholicity. At least, they are extremelj' rare. It is against the positive and explicit law of the State for any other church to make proseljles from the established Greek or Orthodox Church. In the first National Assembly, which was held at Epidavros in 1822, it was declared that the Orthodox Church is the State Church. This declaration was repeated in the Assembly at Trcezen in 1827. Such has been the strict law ever since. But, except that propa- gandism is severely prohibited, the Catholic Church is perfectly free, is fairly treated, and highly respected.
(jtho of Bavaria, the first king of regenerated Greece, was a Catholic. In his reign the Catholics were few. But arrangements were made that the Catholics could have a place of worship wherever they existed in sufficient numbers. After Athens became the seat of government, in 1834, an abandoned Turkish mosqvie was given to the Catholics as a place of worship. It is still used as a church, and is at- tended chiefly by Maltese and Italians who live in
