IONIAN
92
IONIAN
The English Government, after sending Mr. Gladstone
to investigate the feeling of the population, at last de-
cided to surrender the islands to Greece. King George
I, upon ascending the throne at Athens, in 1863, con-
sented to succeed Otho I only upon England's under-
taking to cede the Ionian .Vrchipelago to the Hellenic
Kingdom. This cession was effected between 21 May
and 2 June, 1.S64. The Ionian Isles have since then
formed the three nomarchies, or departments, of
Corfu. C'eplialonia. and Zante. Cerigo alone has been
incorporateil in the continental nomarchy of Messenia.
The Ionian Isles must have received the Gospel at
a comparatively early date. The first known Bishop
of Corfu is Apollodorus, or Alethodorus, who assisted
at the Council of Nicsea in .325 (Gelzer, "Patrum
nicaenorum nomina", LXIII, no. 168; see also the
list of ancient Greek bishops in Lequien, II, 232-5).
comprises, besides the two islands from which it derives
its name, those of Santa Maura Leucas (or Leucadia),
Ithaca, and Cerigo. The archdiocese numbers about
6000 Catholics, all of the Latin Rite; the Diocese of
Zante-Cephalonia, 615 (Missiones catholics', 1907, 145-
7). (See Corfu, Archdiocese of; Zante-Cephalonia,
Diocese of.) The Orthodox hierarchy until 1900 con-
sisted of seven dioceses, one for each of the principal
islands of the Ionian Archipelago; since then it has
numbered but five, that of Paxos having been sup-
pressed, and the two titles of Leucas and Ithaca united
into one. Formerly dependent on the Phanar of Con-
stantinople, the ecclesiastical eparchies of the ancient
septinsular republic became connected in 1866 with
the Holy Synod of Athens, to which they are still
subject [Thearvic, " L'Eglise de Grece" in "Echos
d'Orient", III (1899-1900), 288 sqq.]. (See Greece.)
After the consummation of the Eastern Schism, the
Ionian bishoprics remained in the power of the schis-
matics. Until 1260 the archipelago of the seven
islands counted scarcely any Catholics. Under the
domination of the House of Anjou, Catholicism made
some progress there, and this was continued from 1386
to 1797 under Venetian rule. In the thirteenth cen-
tury Zante and Cephalonia were made Latin bishoprics,
suffragan to Corinth until 1386. These two dioceses
(Zante and Cephalonia) were then made one and suf-
fragan to Corfu, which was then raised to the status
of an archbishopric (see the list of Latin bishops of
the three sees in'Lequien, III, 877-82, 889-92; com-
pleted by Gams, 399, 430, and Eubel, I, 217). The
political vicissitudes through which the Ionian Archi-
pelago passed rluring the nineteenth century brought
adversity to the Ciitholic missions, which, however,
suffered less after 1S.")0. M the time of the cession
of the islands to (ireece in 1864. the Hellrnic Govern-
ment promised to secure to the three Latin bishoprics
their former rights and privileges. The .Vrchdinccse
of Corfu (which, besides the island of that name,
comprises the islands and i.slets of Merlera, Phano,
Samothrace, Paxos. and Antipaxos, as well as a few
places in Kpirus on the mainland Ix'tweeii the towns of
I'arga and Sasina) is now governed by a resident aieli-
bi.shop.whoisatthesametiine Adriunistia(or.\|iiist(ilie
of the Diocese of Zantc-t'ephalonia. This last diocese
BuNDtLMuNTL, LiJnr (ii.^uiai u n, A n li I fielagi, written in fif-
teenth century and published l>y Sinner in 1824; Kendrick,
The Ionian Islands (London, 1S22); Murray, Handbook for
Travellers in the Ionian Islands (London, 1840); d'Istria, Les
ties loniennes sons la domination venitienne et le protectoraC
anglais (Athens. 18.59); Whyte-.Jervis, The Ionian Islands dur-
ing the present centun/ (London, 1864) ; Lenormant, L'anntxion
des ties loniennes in Revue des Deux Mondes (Jan.. 1864);
KlRCKWALL. Four Years in the Ionian Islands (London, 1864);
Griechenland. II (Leipzig. 1872);
I KpaTov^ (Athens. 1874); Nolhac,
et le mont Athos (Paris, 1882);
les iles loniennes (Paris,
■ 'loviHiv I'ljtrur (Athens,
S. Salaville.
Geographii
tie, les ties lonie: Recherches archt'ologiqut 879-80); Mavrogiannib, 'IirTopic 1899).
BuRSI
Chiotis, La Dab, RiEM
Ionian School of Philosophy. — The Ionian School
includes the earliest Greek philosophers, who lived
at Miletus, an Ionian colony in .4sia Minor, dur-
ing the sixth century B.C., and a group of philosophers
who lived about one hundred years later and modified
the doctrines of their predecessors in several respects.
It is usuid to distinguish, therefore, the Earlier lonians
and the Later loniaiix.
I. E'lnii'-r Iiiniim.s. — This group includes Thales, .\naximandcr, and Anaximenes, with whom the history of philosophy in Greece begins. They are called by Aristotle the first "physiologists", that is, "students of nature". So far as we know, they con- fined their philosophical enquiry to the problem of the origin and laws of the phy.sical univer.se. They taught that the world originated from a primitive
