re the population was indisputably much more Slav. Greek villages
were very scarce to the north of Lake Castoria; but after the
suppression of the two Slav Patriarchates in the eighteenth century
the only Christians who lead a dignified existence were the Greek
clergy. Among the Slav upper class there was a good deal of
Hellenization; to be a Greek was of much social value. But the people
generally stayed intact, because the schools so thoughtfully provided
by the Greeks were solely for the boys. The language spoken in the
home would therefore still be Slav. And it is not likely that the
people would have cherished their Greek clergy, even if they had been
archangels, when once the national awakening had begun. But what we
hear about this clergy is too seldom of a pleasing character. The
children of the Macedonian peasants might go into ecstasies on seeing
one of these episcopal processions, with the bishop's glorious white
horse and harness such as they had never dreamed of, with his footmen
round about him and with all those other priests, the old ones and the
young ones and the monks, and then the bishop's doctor and some other
men in spectacles, and then the bishop's cook and a few more monks.
But the Macedonian villagers who had to entertain all this rapacious
brood and pay terrific fees for everything--250 piastres for a
liturgy, 500 for a whole service, 500 for marriages among relatives up
to the seventh degree, large contributions under the name of charity,
and so forth--these had only rancour for the Church. Perhaps the
saintliest among the Greeks declined to go to Macedonia. One hears of
them so little and of people like Meletios so much. This savage person
was appointed in 1859 to be Bishop of Ochrida, although the reputation
he had left there--having previously been the coadjutor--was
atrocious. Protests and entreaties were sent to Constantinople, but
from 1860 until 1869 he stayed at Ochrida and carried on an implacable
duel with his flock. He was frequently received with hisses, sometimes
he was struck by stones, sometimes he was flung out of a church. But
he was not the man to be intimidated--a large man, with broad
shoulders, an arrogant expression and a bristling beard; they say he
had the appearance of a janissary in clerical garb. He took into his
service an Albanian bandit, through whom he terrorized the diocese. At
one time he had the young wife of a man who was away in Roumania
brought into his hare