was baptized in 863, and entered immediately in correspondence with Photius, the patriarch of
Constantinople. His baptism, however, occasioned a revolt among his subjects, and the horrible
punishment, which he inflicted upon the rebels, shows how little as yet he had understood the
teachings of Christianity.
Meanwhile Greek missionaries, mostly monks, had entered the country, but they were
intriguing, arrogant, and produced nothing but confusion among the people. In 865 Bogoris addressed
himself to Pope Nicolas I., asking for Roman missionaries, and laying before the Pope one hundred
and six questions concerning Christian doctrines, morals and ritual, which he wished to have
answered. The Pope sent two bishops to Bulgaria, and gave Bogoris very elaborate and sensible
answers to his questions.
Nevertheless, the Roman mission did not succeed either. The Bulgarians disliked to submit
to any foreign authority. They desired the establishment of an independent national church, but this
was not to be gained either from Rome or from Constantinople. Finally the Byzantine emperor,
Basilius Macedo, succeeded in establishing Greek bishops and a Greek archbishop in the country,
and thus the Bulgarian church came under the authority of the patriarch of Constantinople, but its
history up to this very day has been a continuous struggle against this authority. The church is now
ruled by a Holy Synod, with an independent exarch.
Fearful atrocities of the Turks against the Christians gave rise to the Russo-Turkish war in
1877, and resulted in the independence of Bulgaria, which by the Treaty of Berlin in 1878 was
constituted into "an autonomous and tributary principality, under the suzerainty of the Sultan," but
with a Christian government and a national militia. Religious proselytism is prohibited, and religious
school-books must be previously examined by the Holy Synod. But Protestant missionaries are at
work among the people, and practically enjoy full liberty.
§ 36. The Conversion of the Magyars.
Joh. de Thwrocz: Chronica Hungarorum, in Schwandtner: Scriptores Rerum Hungaricarum, I.
Vienna, 1746–8.
Vita S. Stephani, in Act. Sanctor. September.
Vita S. Adalberti, in Monument. German. IV.
Horvath: History of Hungary. Pest, 1842–46.
Aug. Theiner: Monumenta vetera historica Hungariam sacram illustrantia. Rom., 1859, 1860, 2
Tom. fol.
The Magyars, belonging to the Turanian family of nations, and allied to the Finns and the Turks,
penetrated into Europe in the ninth century, and settled, in 884, in the plains between the Bug and
the Sereth, near the mouth of the Danube. On the instigation of the Byzantine emperor, Leo the
Wise, they attacked the Bulgarians, and completely defeated them. The military renown they thus
acquired gave them a new opportunity. The Frankish king Arnulf invoked their aid against
Swatopluk, the ruler of the Moravian empire. Swatopluk, too, was defeated, and his realm was
divided between the victors. The Magyars, retracing their steps across the Carpathian range, settled
in the plains around the Theiss and the Danube, the country which their forefathers, the Huns, once
had ruled over, the, present Hungary. They were a wild and fierce race, worshipping one supreme
god under the guise of various natural phenomena: the sky, the river, etc. They had no temples and