, p. 11.]

[Footnote 185: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 28, 356, 367.]

The first outstanding event in the recent rise of the Bulgarian race was
the acquisition of spiritual independence in 1869-70. Hitherto they, in
common with nearly all the Slavs, had belonged to the Greek Church, and
had recognised the supremacy of its Patriarch at Constantinople, but, as
the national idea progressed, the Bulgarians sought to have their own
Church. It was in vain that the Greeks protested against this schismatic
attempt. The Western Powers and Russia favoured it; the Porte also was
not loth to see the Christians further divided. Early in the year 1870,
the Bulgarian Church came into existence, with an Exarch of its own at
Constantinople who has survived the numerous attempts of the Greeks to
ban him as a schismatic from the "Universal Church." The Bulgarians
therefore took rank with the other peoples of the Peninsula as a
religious entity., the Roumanian and Servian Churches having been
constituted early in the century. In fact, the Porte recognises the
Bulgarians, even in Macedonia, as an independent religious community, a
right which it does not accord to the Servians; the latter, in
Macedonia, are counted only as "Greeks[186]."

[Footnote 186: _Turkey in Europe_, by "Odysseus," pp. 280-283, 297; _The
Peasant State_, by E. Dicey, pp. 75-77.]

The Treaty of San Stefano promised to make the Bulgarians the
predominant race of the Balkan Peninsula for the benefit of Russia; but,
as we have seen, the efforts of Great Britain and Austria, backed by the
jealousies of Greeks and Servians, led to a radical change in those
arrangements. The Treaty of Berlin divided that people into three
unequal parts. The larger mass, dwelling in Bulgaria Proper, gained
entire independence of the Sultan, save in the matter of suzerainty; the
Bulgarians on the southern slopes of the Balkans acquired autonomy only
in local affairs, and remained under the control of the Porte in
military affairs and in matters of high policy; while the Bulgarians who
dwelt in Macedonia, about 1,120,000 in number, were led to hope
something from articles 61 and 62 of the Treaty of Berlin, but remained
otherwise at the mercy of the Sultan[187].

[Footnote 187: Recius, Kiepert, Ritter, and other geographers and
ethnologists, admit that the majority in Macedonia is Bulgarian.]

This unsatisfactory state of things promised to range the Principality
of Bulgaria entir