I have just had an audience with one of the chief religious functionaries of the oriental world. The Patriarch of Jerusalem is first in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, and as the head of the Greek Church in Syria, Palestine, and Arabia, he is the pope of the East. Most of the people of Russia belong to what was once a part of the Greek Church, and it has other millions of members in Greece, Turkey, and Asia Minor. As a result of immigration, there are also hundreds of Greek churches in the United States. It is the most powerful and the richest church of all the denominations represented in Jerusalem.

There is no king in the world who appears in such splendour upon state occasions as the Patriarch of Jerusalem. He wears cloth of gold and his great hat is covered with magnificent diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. The bishops who march with him have crosses of diamonds hanging about their necks, and their dresses are of gold and silver brocade. The mitre and other church insignia are of solid gold and silver. In the treasury of the Greek Church here there are jewels which would make the treasures of many a palace seem commonplace, for the rich men and the kings of the world have for generations been giving to this collection, thinking that in so doing they have been buying their way into heaven.

The Greek Church has a score of monasteries and convents in the Holy City where it can accommodate pilgrims by the thousands. Its believers come to worship here from the borders of Siberia, from the isles of Greece, and from the wilds of Arabia, and as I write there are thousands of Russian pilgrims paying their devotions in the gorgeous Greek chapel of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. The Greek Church has a faith which might be called a cross between Roman Catholicism and Protestantism. It differs from Catholicism chiefly in denying the spiritual supremacy of the Pope, in not demanding the celibacy of the clergy, except the bishops, and in authorizing all of its people to read the Scriptures. It claims to be the original Christian church and says that the Roman Catholics broke away from it. The dispute between the two branches of the Church arose three or four hundred years after Christ. It was a question as to what should be the rank of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and as the Pope would not give in the trouble began. It continued off and on until about 1000 A.D., when the two churches broke apart, and from that time the Greek Church has existed on its own footing.

The head of the Greek Church is the Patriarch of Constantinople, and under him are the patriarchs of Jerusalem, Antioch, and Alexandria. Since the sixteenth century, the Russian branch has been independent of the main body. These patriarchs are elected by the clergy and the laity. They have limited terms of office, but the Patriarch’s power over the people here in Jerusalem is to a large extent that of a judge as well as of a pope.

But let me tell you about my talk with His Beatitude. It was arranged by one of the church and the audience took place in the Patriarch’s house, a great stone building near the Pool of Hezekiah and not far from the Church of the Sepulchre. His Beatitude lives there with one hundred monks, and I saw many fine-looking Greek priests as I went up the stairs of rose-coloured marble. I passed through several rooms filled with high-capped, black-gowned ecclesiastics, and as I waited priests and bishops from the four quarters of Greek Catholicism passed in and out. One of the priests, who spoke English, went with me into the audience chamber and gave me a seat at the right of the throne. He asked me to wait, telling me that the Patriarch would be in shortly.

Meantime, there were others who had come for an audience, and the chairs about the long table in the centre of the room were soon filled. Most of the men were bearded priests dressed in black gowns and high caps.

As we waited a servant brought in a silver tray containing a plate of rose-and-white cubes of Turkish delight and several glasses of water. Upon the tray were many silver forks, each having two fine tines as long as my little finger. As the candy was passed each one of us took a fork and stabbed it into a cube of the sweets, and thus conveyed it to the mouth. It was delicious.

By and by the Patriarch entered. He talked first with some of the priests, so I had a good chance to study him. Imagine a tall, full-bearded, fair-faced man of middle age dressed in a long black gown and a rimless black hat which rises eight inches over his forehead.

The gown, which is cut full, falls to his feet. His cap is draped with black cloth which covers his shoulders, and about his neck is a long, heavy gold chain to which hangs an ivory medallion as big as the palm of your hand. The rim of this medallion is studded with diamonds and inside the rim is a painting of the Madonna with the Holy Child in her arms.

I watched the Patriarch as he talked. He gestured now and then and I saw that his hands were soft and his nails well kept. His face changed with the subject and the man he spoke to. At times he was serious, again his eyes sparkled with animation, and now and then he broke into a smile.

My talk with him was through the Greek priest, who spoke English. I asked His Beatitude about the condition of the Church. He spoke of many sects of Christians now in the Holy Land, saying that they were gradually growing more liberal, and that they would work more in harmony than they had in the past.

I asked about the life of the priests and whether he thought it was as pious as that of the hermits who lived in the second and third centuries after Christ. He replied that he doubted whether man was as good now as then, but that the Church was doing what it could to bring him back to the faith. He said he believed that the time would come when all mankind would be Christian, although that time would probably be far in the future. I was surprised to hear him speak well of the Protestants and say that all Christian sects would eventually unite and work together as one for the salvation of man.

His Beatitude was much interested in America and at my request gave me the blessing which he gives to all true believers, saying that I must transmit it to the American people, each of whom could regard it as being made especially for him. This blessing was given to me in a golden frame. The words are printed in Greek in letters of gold. Literally translated, it reads:

Then there was a little more talk about the Greek Church and a second servant came in with another tray more elaborate than was the first one. Upon this were wine glasses filled with a liquor the colour of the dark moss rose. It was flavoured with peppermint and had the rich, oily strength of age. Though scarcely more than three thimblefuls, it brought a pleasant warmth to the whole frame five minutes after it was drunk, and the discussion of the doctrines of the Greek Church fell on my ear like the poetry of Moore.

This refreshment was followed a few moments later by a third servant who brought in Turkish coffee served in little cups of fine china, each the size of the smallest egg cup. The coffee was as thick as Vermont molasses. It was sweet and delicious and was served without cream. After coffee is served in Jerusalem the caller can politely terminate his visit. We sipped the aromatic liquid and then arose to say good-bye. This we said in American style, shaking hands with “His Blessedness” and receiving from him a present of a Bethlehem egg. My egg lies before me as I write. Its ground is the same red as the coloured eggs of the American Easter, but this red is covered with etchings and on one side there is a rude picture of Christ ascending to heaven, with the cross in the background and with the Virgin Mary holding up her hands in adoration. On the other side in a wreath of olive branches is the date.

There is room in Palestine for the Patriarch’s hope that some day the Christian sects will get along better together than is now the case. The Holy Land often boils and seethes with the quarrels of the religious fanatics. Almost every sacred place in the country is claimed at the same time by the Greeks, Latins, Armenians, and Copts. Some of the holiest spots are divided up, and lines are drawn here and there indicating the sect to which each part belongs. The various denominations are frequently divided among themselves as to who shall control the monasteries, convents, and other institutions belonging to them, and quarrelling even goes on over the very spot where Christ was born and upon that where it is supposed the Crucifixion took place.

These quarrels are sometimes serious. Knives have been drawn and people have been killed in these religious riots. Some years ago a monk was shot by an American pilgrim in the Church of the Nativity at Bethlehem, and more recently a gigantic candle was sent to Jerusalem addressed to the care of certain priests. This candle was nine feet high and two feet thick, and as far as its outward appearance was concerned seemed to be entirely of wax. It was shipped in from abroad, and was intended to be lighted inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and to burn there while the Easter celebrations were at their height. At that time the church would have been filled with Greeks, Armenians, Latins, and Abyssinians. When the candle came to Jaffa, the customs officers held it for duties, and sent word to the priests to come and get it. When they failed to appear it was cut open and five thousand little dynamite balls were found inside it. Had it exploded at the time of the ceremonies ten thousand or more people would have been in danger of losing their lives.

That candle might have been sent by a Greek who was disgruntled at the Church, and in his desire for revenge cared not how many he killed. I am told that some of the factions in the Greek Church have refused to go to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre until their wrongs are righted. The Greeks who are natives of Palestine claim that they have the sole right to the church and church property. There have already been numerous riots between these Greeks and the foreign monks, and at one time the people demanded that the Patriarch of the Greek Church resign.

The fight among the Greeks is to some extent sentimental, but it is also said to be largely one for the loaves and fishes. The Greeks are the most powerful religious body in Palestine, and their property runs high into the millions. Scattered over the Holy Land from Dan to Beersheba are their monasteries, convents, and hospices, to all of which pilgrims who travel over the country make contributions. Some of the places are so valuable that the priests in charge are said to pay a lump sum of a thousand dollars or more a year for the privilege of presiding at them, expecting to recoup themselves from the gifts of the pilgrims. Here in Jerusalem there are thirty-five Greek monasteries and other big buildings managed by six hundred monks.

The Church of the Holy Sepulchre, the greater part of which belongs to the Greeks, brings in tens of thousands of dollars every year to the Church. There are thousands of Russians who make pilgrimages to this city, and each is expected to leave an offering according to his wealth and spiritual desires.

The Greek Church also owns the shops of a bazaar near the Holy Sepulchre and holds the titles to the most valuable of the buildings about the Jaffa Gate and David’s Tower, including the Grand New Hotel building.

The native monks say that the Greek priests who have come in from Constantinople, Athens, Smyrna, the Isle of Samos, and other places now hold all the fat jobs, and that they themselves are compelled to work for only a few dollars a month. They do the pastoral work of the villages and act as the priests of the towns. On the other hand, the outsiders have amassed fortunes. They pretend to be hermits and devoted to fasting and prayer, but they are accused of living luxuriously and of keeping establishments by no means as good as they should be.

Indeed, the fights among the warring Christians have sometimes been so bad that the Mohammedan soldiers here had to use whips to keep them in order. I have seen Moslem soldiers in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre at Easter time whipping the quarrelling Greeks, Armenians, and Copts in order to separate them. It is not an uncommon thing for blood to pollute the Holy Sepulchre on festal days.

Conditions are especially bad at Easter time when the thousands belonging to the different sects go marching about singing their fanatical songs and denouncing each other. One of their cries is: “This is the tomb of our Lord.” Another is: “Oh, Jews! Jews! your feasts are the feasts of pigs.”

As they go the Greeks jostle the Armenians and the Abyssinians bump against the Latins. Not long since the followers of one sect set fire to some rich hangings that had been placed in a grotto of the church by the followers of another sect. The fire spread, the church was filled with smoke, and it narrowly escaped being burned.

The Greeks of Palestine claim that they have the right to all the churches, convents, and monasteries belonging to their church in the Holy Land. They demand that the money changers, as they call the foreign priests, be whipped out of the temple, and that the gifts of the pilgrims be applied to the building of hospitals, old-age homes, and schools for their children. This movement is not confined to Jerusalem, but extends throughout Palestine and has the approval of the best element of the communities.

Until recent years we have had so few Greek Christians in the United States that it is hard for us to appreciate what the Greek Church means. It is one of the strong churches of the world. It has altogether about one hundred and twenty million members, or one fifth of all the Christians on earth, and more than two thirds as many as all the Protestants. I have before me the latest statistics of religious denominations. There are in the world two hundred million Roman Catholics, about one hundred and sixty million Protestants, one hundred and twenty million Greek Christians—five hundred thousand who belong to the Church of Abyssinia—and about seven hundred thousand Armenians. The sum total of Christians is less than six hundred million, and less than one third of the population of the world.

On the other hand, there are three hundred and ten million who worship Confucius, two hundred and fifteen million Hindus, two hundred and thirty million Mohammedans, and one hundred and forty-seven million Buddhists.