EMESA
402
EMIGRANT
reason of his high position than of his superior wis-
dom. M. Emery was called by Providence to be the
guide throughout the long interregnupi of the episco-
pate during the revolution" (L'Ancien Clerg^% III,
549). And Cardinal de Bausset declares that he was
the "real moderator of the clergy during twenty
years of the most violent storms ".
The decisions of the Archiepiscopal Council at Paris concerning the several oaths demanded of the clergy, inspired by Emery, were accepted by large numbers of priests and violently assailed by others. To their ac- ceptance was due whatever practice of cult remained in France during the Revolution ; to their rej ection was due, in large part, the cessation of worship and the opin- ion which came to regard the clergy as "the irreconcil- able enemies of the republic". Emery did not, like many others, mistake purely political projects for vital questions of religion. He felt free to take the "Oath of Liberty and Equality", but only as concerning the civil and political order; he upheld the lawfulness of declaring submission to the laws of the Republic (30 May, 1795), and of promising fidelity to the Constitution (28 Dec, 1799). He lent his influence to Mgr. Spina in his efforts to obtain the resignation of the French bishops, according to the will of Pius VII (15 Aug., 1801). While ready, for the good of religion, to go as far as the rights of the Church permitted, he was stanch in his opposition to the Civil Constitution of the Clergy (1790). Public religious services were sus- pended tluring the Revolution, and the seminaries closed ; St-Sulpice was taken over by the revolution- ists, and Father Emery was imprisoned and several times narrowly escaped execution. His faith, cour- age, and good humoiu- sustained many of his fellow- prisoners and prepared them to meet death in a brave and Christian spirit; the gaolers, in fact, came to value his presence because it saved them annoyance from prisoners condemned to death. The closing of the sem- inaries in France led Father Emery, on the request of Bishop Carroll, to send some Sulpicians to the United States to found the first American seminary at Balti- more (St. Mary's, IS July, 1791) . The future religion of the country, he wrote to Father Nagot.the first superior, depended on the formation of a native clergy, which alone would be adequate and fit for the work before it. Despite the discouragements of the first years, he con- tinued the supporter of the institution and welcomed the foundation of the college at Pigeon Hill, and later at Emmitsburg, for young aspirants to the priesthood. At one time, however. Bishop Carroll feared the with- drawal of the Sulpicians, but his arguments and above all the advice of Pius VII convinced Father Emery that the good of religion in America required their presence.
After Napoleon came into supreme control. Father Emery re-established the Seminary of St-Sulpice. His defence of the pope against the emperor caused Napoleon to expel the Sulpicians from the seminary; this, however, did not daunt Father Emery, who de- fended the papal rights in the presence of Napoleon (17 March, 1811) and gained the emperor's admira- tion, if not his good will. " He was ", remarks Sicard, " the only one among the clergy from whom Napoleon would take the truth." The death of Father Emery occurred a month later. He left many writings which have been published by Migne in his collection of theo- logical works. They deal chiefly with the politico- religious questions of the day. He is best remem- bered, perhaps, by his dissertation on the mitigation of the sufferings of the damned. He wrote also on Descartes, Leibniz, and Bacon, and published from their works extracts in defence of religion. While clearly perceiving the intellectual evils of his day and the necessary remedies, he did not himself possess the fertility and originality of intellect, or the peculiar genius needed to counteract the influence of the powerful minds which then ruled France and Europe.
GossELiN, Vie de M. Emery, 2 vols. (Paris, 1861-1862);
Meric. Histoire de M, Emery et de leglise de France pendant la
revolution et pendant I'empire, 2 vols. (Paris, 1S95); Sicard,
L'Ancien Clerge de France (Paris, 1903), III.
John F. Fenlon.
Emesa, a titular see of Phoenicia Secunda, suffragan of Damascus, and the seat of two Uniat archdioceses (Greek Melchite and Syrian). Emesa was renowned for its temple of the sun, adored here in the shape of a black stone, whose priests formed a powerful ar- istocracy. One of them, Bassianus, became Roman emperor under the name of Elagabalus (a. d. 218). A native Arab dynasty ruled over the city between 65 B. c. and a. d. 73, from which period the series of Emesa coins dates. Emesa was the birthplace of the philosopher Longinus (c. a. d. 210), the friend of Queen Zenobia, and St. Romanes, the great Byzan- tine hymnographer (in the sixth century). Among twelve Greek bishops, known from the fourth to the eighth century, are: St. Silvanus, a martyr under Maxi- minus in company with the physician Julian (c. 312); Eusebius, a famous rhetorician suspected of Arianism; Nemesius (fourth century) and Paul, writers and friends of St. Basil and St. Cyril of Ale.xandria (Le- quien. Or. christ., II, 837). Another, whose name is unknown, was burned by the Arabs in 666 (Lammens in "Melanges de la faculte orientale de Beyrouth", 1906, 3-14). The diocese was never suppressed and still exists for the Greek Melchites, both non-Catholic and Uniat (Echos d'Orient, 1907, 223, 226). It was raised to the rank of an autocephalous archbishopric in 452, when the supposed head of St. John the Baptist was foimd at the monastery of the Spela?on, and it was made a metropolitan see with four suffragan sees in, 761, when the relic was transferred to the cathedral (Echos d'Orient, 1907, 93-96, 142, 368). Sozomen (Hist.eccl., Ill, xvii) speaks of this church as a mar- vel ; the Arabs on capturing the city in 636 took over half of it; later it was changed into a mosque. In 1110 Emesa was taken by the Crusaders, and in 1157 suffered severely from an earthquake. The modern city, which the Arabs call Homs (Hems, Hums), built on the Orontes in sand-coloured basalt, is the chief town of a caza, in the sanjak of Hamah, vilayet, of Damascus. The population is about 50,000 including some 30,000 weavers. There are 33,000 Mussulmans, 14,500 Greeks, 1000 Jacobites, 500 Greek Catholics, 350 Maronites, and a few Catholics of other rites. The Orthodo.x Greek metropolitan and the Jacobite bishop live at Homs. (For lists of ancient Jacobite bishops see Lequien, op. cit., II, 1141, and " Revue de I'Orient Chretien", 1901, 196, 199.) The Greek Melchite metropolitan resides atlabroud; he has jurisdiction over 8000 faithful, 20 priests, 12 churches, 7 schools, and 2 monasteries of Shooerites. The SjTian Catho- lic archbishop resides at Damascus; his diocese in- cludes 2000 faithful, with 4 parishes and 5 churches. The Jesuits have a residence and school at Homs, and native Mariamet Sisters conduct a school for girls.
Fauly-Wissowa, Real'Encyc., s. v.; Dussaud, Histoire et religicm des Nosairis (Paris, 19()0), passim; Idem, Voyage en Syrie (Paris, 1896); Lammens, Notes epigraphigues et topographi- ques sur VEm^sene (Louvain, 1902); Kalinka in Jahreshefte des dsterr, arch. Institute in Wien (1900), III; Cuinet, Syrie, Lihan et Palestine (Paris, 1898), 447 sqq.; Jullien, SinaX et Syrie (Lille. 1893), 186 sqq,; Idem, La nouvelle mission de la Compag- nie de Jesus en Syrie (Paris, 1899). II, 189 sqq.; Missiones catholica: (Rome, 1907), 781, 804; Smith, Diet. Greek and Roman Geogr. (Lon^ion, 1878) 824.
S. Vailhe.
Emigrant Aid Societies. — Records of the early immigration to the North American colonies are in- definite and unsatisfactory. The first legislation on immigration enacted by the United States was on 2 March, 1S19, when Congress provided that a record be kept of the number of the immigrants arriving from abroad, their ages, sex, occupations, and nativity. Ireland has always supplied a large proportion of those landed at American ports, the steady stream
