THE COMPARATIVE INFLUENCES OF THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND PROTESTANT FAITHS IN
SYRIA.
There is perhaps no country in the world which so much engages the
attention of the Propaganda of Rome as Syria and the Holy Land. To
possess a leading influence on its destinies, has ever been the ambition
of the Pope. What could have been more iniquitous than the absurd
pretensions of the Roman Catholics in the Jerusalem question? It may be
necessary to go back a little, and to acquaint the reader, that France
has for many years claimed a sort of protection over the Romish Churches
in Syria, and in periods of commotion in Mount Lebanon has exhibited the
French colours from the convents, whilst all the appearance of state
protection from the Propaganda has been kept up of late years, as must be
well known in Europe. Thus a perpetual excitement is created in Mount
Lebanon, the Roman Catholics looking to France, the Greeks to Russia, and
the Druses to England. All this must be naturally displeasing to the
Turkish government, and destructive to the country itself, whilst the
agents of each of these parties are exciting them to perpetual outbreaks;
and most disgraceful scenes are continually occurring at Jerusalem, even
around the sepulchre of our blessed Lord; so that there is presented to
Christendom, the melancholy spectacle of Turkish soldiers called in to
prevent Christians massacring one another. To increase the confusion,
the last French ambassador at the Porte, M. Lavalette, demanded a renewal
and ratification of some privileges, stated to be the substance of an old
treaty with France, and so far succeeded as to obtain a promise from the
ex-minister, Reschid Pasha, to comply with his wishes. Pending the
negotiation, however, the French minister being absent for a time, Russia
went to work and had this promise set aside. His Excellency M.
Lavalette, returning and finding this, prepared to stand to his colours,
and brought the _Charlemagne_ man-of-war to sustain his demand. The
grand vizier was called upon for an explanation, and as he could not
defend his conduct, was dismissed from office, and the question thus
remained in abeyance for months, but has now again been mooted. France
has got a renewal of the original privilege, whilst Russia continues
obstinately to oppose these concessions. The question is thus still at
issue, and it is difficult to say how, when, or where it will end, unless
England, as the only power best suited to do so, mediate between such
conflicting parties. At least such is my humble opinion. {371} The Holy
Sepulchre once exclusively in the possession of the Roman Catholics would
indeed be a bright gem in the diadem of the Romish Church, the acme of
their ambition, and a keystone to the hearts and affections of every
Christian inhabitant in Syria; but though they have as yet failed in
this, they have many other strongholds and fastnesses in the land. Look
at their convents at Carmel, Jaffa, Ramlah, Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Sidon,
Beyrout, Acre, Damascus, and Aleppo, and which are daily increasing. In
these, and many other towns, they are the chief point of attraction to
the weary wayfarers; to these they flock for rest and for sustenance—to
these the sick betake themselves for medical advice and medicine—and all
is afforded them gratuitously. They have also schools for the
instruction of children in Arabic, Italian and French; and though many
poor members of the Greek Church would gladly abstain from sending their
children to be under the tuition of the priests, did any other
opportunity offer itself for their education, still, in many instances,
they have now no alternative if at least they desire that their children
should be instructed in the European languages. At the present day, the
sea-coast towns of Syria are rising into such great importance from the
rapidly-increasing commerce with Great Britain and America, that to be
possessed of a smattering of foreign languages is a source of gain to the
rising generation of Syria; hence, all are desirous of obtaining this
knowledge; and for the accomplishment of their desire, there is no choice
left but to attend the Roman Catholic schools.
There is, as I have already stated, an innate enmity between the Greeks
and Latins in Syria—a deadly strife in a doctrinal point of view; still
the young Syrians of the Greek persuasion, and even Moslems who, from
self-interest, are prompted to attend daily these Romish schools, are
also compelled to submit to their rules; and the course of instruction
there consists almost exclusively of books and lessons well adapted to
impress upon the young imagination the doctrines and observances of that
Church. What follows from this intercourse? The teacher begins to plot
against the pupil; he softens down difficulties; he wins confidence by
kind words, and occasionally by small gifts, whilst a strict endeavour is
made to mix up with these studies as much pleasure and amusement as is
admissible with the drier pursuits of knowledge. These and a hundred
other methods are adopted by the Roman Catholic priests to gain over the
esteem and regard of the pupils; and as a natural result, the child,
perhaps innately of an affectionate disposition, feels an impulse to be
grateful—gratitude warms into friendship—friendship ripens into
attachment; and then the battle is won; the child is only nominally a
Greek—in principle and at heart a Romanist. The parents and friends may
be long in discovering the painful truths of the case (if ever they
arrive at the knowledge), for in exact proportion as the child becomes
imbued with his teacher’s notions, so does he imbibe that unchristian
spirit of concealment and deception, which it is the great aim of his
preceptors that he should be possessed of; and having reached this point,
as he grows in years so he grows deeper in cunning, and becomes a
powerful instrument in the hands of his instructors, “a wolf in sheep’s
clothing,” turned loose among the flock of his unsuspecting brethren, and
whilst a strict adherent to the outward observances of the Greek Church,
is a very Jesuit at heart, working out with secret but almost certain
success, the utter slavery of all those that fall into his meshes. This
is the existing evil in Syria—a growing danger—a picture of truth not at
all overdrawn. This is the “wild beast” of the present day in Lebanon,
which is “passing by and treading down the humble and unsupported
Thistle.”
Hospitality is the prevailing feature of the East; it is a precept and
practice handed down from generation to generation since the time of the
patriarchs. Abraham, when he unconsciously received and waited upon the
three heavenly messengers, was doing exactly what is practised by the
wild Arabs of the desert to this very day. “_Baëtic baetuc_” (my house
is your house) is, with a very few exceptions, the maxim in the heart of
every inhabitant of Syria, the more refined citizens of Damascus and
Aleppo placing the best rooms in their houses at the disposal of the
stranger, as well as their horses, their servants, the best fruits of
their gardens, and even themselves. All is cheerfully given up to their
guests; and that man is a black sheep of the flock who is wanting in
courtesy to the stranger, be he Christian, Moslem or idolater, rich or
poor.
The poor peasant, in his lowly hut in the village, and the Arab in his
tent, will gladly share his frugal repast with the friendless stranger,
and allot him a corner of his own cushion and portion of his own
bed-covering, if he have nothing better to offer. In fact, the latter
will not allow a stranger to pass without entering his tent-door and
tasting the bread and salt of hospitality. A man without hospitality is
looked upon as worthless and unnatural; but a people without
hospitality—the idea is too monstrous for an Oriental to conceive. {375}
The Latin convent on Mount Cannel has a widespread fame in the East. The
Hadgi from the far-distant shores of India, whom chance or speculation
has brought from Mecca into Syria, has ofttimes been refreshed, and
rested under the shadow of these its hospitable walls; and he naturally
returns to his friends and his country full of the good deeds and the
kindness of the monks of the great _deher_ (convent) of _Mar Elias_.
Another, perhaps, has been sick nigh unto death, and in his sickness was
nursed, kindly waited upon, restored to health, and then sent forth with
a blessing, by the _Hakeems_ of this convent. What follows? The virtues
and charities of these Catholic brethren are ever afterwards the theme of
his daily conversation. Again—a pilgrim, penniless and starving, has
received food and raiment, with a small sum of money to carry him on his
way home, from the Carmelite friars. The pilgrim, through after-life,
cherishes a thankful gratitude towards his timely benefactors; and this,
to a greater or less extent, is the case with all the minor convents and
monasteries in Syria.
Now, while the Roman Catholics have their convents, the Greeks and
Armenians their monasteries; while the Druses, Maronites, and Arabs have
a corner in their humble dwellings, and a crust and a sup for the
penniless pilgrim and the weary wayfarer; yet, alas! not even in Beyrout
can the English boast of ever so mean an establishment for the exercises
of charity—charity, that golden rule, laid down by Him whom they profess
to look to as their only Saviour and Redeemer, as the great Pattern and
Example of their lives. When I reflect upon the enormous sums spent in
sending fleets to fill Syria with bloodshed and misery, to the ruin of
many of my unfortunate countrymen, I must confess my surprise is turned
into indignation.
Amongst the fraternity constituting the monks of the various convents,
there is always one or more somewhat skilled in the art of healing; and
generally attached to these establishments, as in the instance of the
convent on Mount Carmel, is a dispensary well stocked with drugs, and
with the newest and best medicines recognised and used by physicians. In
some few of the principal towns in Syria there are resident European
doctors, principally Italians and Frenchmen, with a sprinkling of Germans
and Poles, and one or two Americans. With the exception of the
last-mentioned, they are mostly in the pay of the Turkish government, and
are either connected with the quarantine establishments, belong to the
troops, or are attached to the court of the Pasha. Relative to these,
however, I may quote what Dr. Thompson, who was for some time at Damascus
on a medical mission, and who was extremely beloved and esteemed by the
natives there, states, viz.,—
“That on one occasion he was requested by the seraskier, or commander
of the forces for Arabia, to perform an important operation on a
soldier, as the ordinary medical staff were not able or willing to do
it. In the course of the operation, the medical staff one and all
failed in their aid, and some of them even fainted; and the writer
had to rely on his own presence of mind, and unaided, to terminate
the operation. Imagine an epidemic in a hospital under such
surveillance; the mortality is frightful even under ordinary
circumstances. In acute cases, and in serious surgical cases, there
is little or no chance for a successful result; and the soldiers and
sailors seldom resort to the doctor if they can avoid it. The
European renegades in the service are very little better, with a few
exceptions. The monks that practise medicine as a profession have a
very fair knowledge of simples, and compound their own medicines, and
employ a good many recent chemicals and modern ingredients in the
European _Materia Medica_; but their knowledge of acute disease is
necessarily limited.”
The natives, in the hour of sickness, have first of all recourse to
simple herbal remedies, which have been handed down through many
generations, and are chiefly held in estimation by the old people of the
villages. When these remedies are found to fail, then, and oftentimes
only at the eleventh hour, they bethink them of the Franks inhabiting
some convent in the neighbourhood; and as all Franks are supposed to be
physicians by birth, recourse is had to their healing art in preference
to Italian or other quack medical professors, who are harsh in their
treatment of the sick, unconscionable as to charges, and in any real case
of difficulty seldom, if ever, successful. The monks are always ready
and willing to avail themselves of any such opportunity of displaying
their skill and charity, and it requires no second invitation before one
or more of them are at the threshold of the sick man’s house, and a few
minutes find them busily employed about the cure, if it be practicable.
In many instances, the patient is only suffering from severe
constipation, or it may be a severe attack of ague; and in these cases a
quick and almost miraculous cure is soon effected. That it should be
considered a miracle, or an interposition of Divine Providence, brought
about by the prayers and benedictions of the holy friars, is the main
object they have in view, hence no opportunity is lost, on the first
arrival of the priestly doctors, to impress upon the minds of the
relatives and friends in secret the almost certainty of the patient’s
demise, unless a special interposition be made by them on his behalf. If
this does not ultimately lead to the conversion of the household, it
shakes them in their own creed, engenders confidence towards their
benefactors, and leaves a grateful impression behind for many gratuitous
charities rendered. The least return they can then make, is to comply
with the oft-urged request of the monks to send their children to be
educated at the convent school.
Luckily for the credit of Great Britain, she sends few charlatans from
her colleges; and an English or American quack is a thing heretofore
unheard of in Syria, whereas charlatans of all other nations have been
superabundant. An English doctor possesses an unsullied reputation in
Syria. He is looked upon in the same light as an English gun, or an
English watch—a thing that can only be manufactured or brought to
perfection in England. Hence, if the report be spread that an English
Hakeem, or even an Englishman of any denomination, be travelling in the
neighbourhood, the halt and lame, and blind, and otherwise ailing of all
the surrounding villages will congregate near to where his tent may be
pitched, and pester him incessantly for remedies, if it be only a little
white sugar weighed out by his skilful hands, to be used in cases of
ophthalmia. Every sect, and even Mahommedan ladies, came and consulted
Dr. Thompson, and received him at their own houses unveiled. The
judicious physician is treated in the light of a gifted individual; he is
looked upon as having the power of life and death in his hands: in the
sick-room he is courted and treated with the greatest deference and
respect; and even whilst passing in the streets, the occupants rise to
salute him. It is not uncommon for him to find himself impeded in his
progress by the prostration of the female members of the family to kiss
his garments, even his shoes. This has occurred repeatedly, to my
knowledge, in Damascus; and the doctor was also appealed to in private
matters as the umpire, and for his advice in domestic and personal
affairs.
I may also here relate an incident in my own life in support of the
influence which a Hakeem can obtain over the prejudices of Eastern
people. During my last visit to Constantinople, whilst visiting at the
house of Husseen Pasha, His Excellency, in the course of conversation,
hinted to me, that the rumour of my medical studies in Europe had reached
him; and after a little introductory preamble, he begged of me to see his
wife, who had been confined to her bed for some days. I can hardly
describe my astonishment at such a request coming from such a quarter;
however, I expressed my readiness to do all in my humble power to
alleviate the sufferings of the invalid. I was accordingly conducted by
a eunuch through a perfect maze of dark and mysterious passages (coughing
all the way, as is the fashion, to give notice of the approach of a male,
for the females to veil themselves) to the bed-chamber of the sick lady,
whom I found reclining upon a mattress, laid upon a carpet on the floor.
It being announced to her, that the Hakeem Bashi was at hand, an
attendant, old Dudu, came forward, and our interview commenced.
After a short conversation, in which she made many anxious inquiries
relative to the Frank country and the English ladies, about whom I found
she had very absurd notions, we came to the real object of my visit. I
asked where the pain lay, and it will cause my readers to smile when I
state her reply. She told me that I must cast her nativity according to
Eastern customs, and thus discover the seat of pain myself. I told her
that the system of medicine which I had learnt in England did not admit
of such practices, and went on to shew her the utter fallacy of such
doings. She answered me, that her own doctor in Circassia formally
adopted this plan, and that, after ascertaining the star under which she
was born, appropriate verses from the Koran were written upon three slips
of paper: one was put in water, which she afterwards drunk; one was burnt
with perfumes to drive evil spirits from the room; and the third was
placed upon the affected part. After some little difficulty I discovered
the seat of her malady, and that she was suffering under a tumour. I
then felt her pulse, and requested her to shew me her tongue. Here
another difficulty arose, as she could not shew me her tongue without
unveiling; but the old lady who stood by told her that the Prophet
allowed it before the Hakeem and Priest, at the same time quoting verses
from the Koran in assertion of what she stated. This had the desired
effect; and on her removing her veil, I was perfectly dazzled with the
intense sweetness and beauty of her face. She was a Circassian, one of
the fairest of her race, and had just arrived at Constantinople. After
some trouble she permitted me to inspect the part affected; on beholding
it, some lectures delivered by my revered Mentor, Mr. Phillips, and also
by Mr. Ferguson, immediately recurred to my mind. In the lectures they
said, that incision with the knife was the only remedy in such cases.
After two days I ventured to break this to my trembling patient, much to
her terror; but on my assuring her that I would remove it without her
being sensible to pain, she at last consented, and I successfully
performed the operation, putting her under the effects of chloroform,
which appeared to the bystanders pure magic. They had heard tell of such
things from the Arabian Nights, but could hardly believe their senses
when actually beheld by themselves in the present day.
I have already endeavoured to show in how many various ways the Latins
possess superior opportunities, and are in a better position than the
Greeks, in having greater facilities daily afforded them as far as
regards the work of conversion; but there is yet another great source of
advantage to them, and one which holds out many tempting inducements to
the heavily-taxed peasantry to embrace at once, and without any further
hesitation, the Roman Catholic faith. This is the privilege exercised by
the consular authorities, and even by the very priests themselves, of
protecting from outrage or insult every one who has embraced their
religion, and who gives evidence of the sincerity of their intentions by
regular attendance at mass, and by the rigid observance of high-days and
holy-days, feasts and fasts. They also give them employment; and they
become, _de facto_, protected by the French government; their taxes are
light in comparison with those levied on their fellow-countrymen, and
they are entirely exempted from that grinding system so commonly
practised and played off upon the peasantry by the soldiery and
underlings of government—a class of individuals that are a perfect bane
to the Ottoman empire.
Before concluding these remarks, I must point out another glaring
instance in which the Latins have gained a decided ascendancy over the
Greeks in the East. I allude to the establishment by the Sisters of
Charity of a hospital at Beyrout, in which the first medical advice there
procurable has been secured. Here the poor fever-stricken natives have
every attention paid to their wants in the hour of sorrow and sickness;
while, side by side, on neat iron-bedsteads covered with snowy linen, we
stumble across the last sad remains of the French Roman Catholic sailor,
and, in the next bed to his, the Protestant British tar. Both have been
equally cared for, as far as bodily concerns go, but there has been a
fearful distinction between the spiritual consolation of the two. The
Frenchman has received daily—hourly visits from the nuns, who have spoken
to him smilingly of heaven, and lighted death’s dark pathway with the
rays of cheerfulness. The Englishman, on the contrary, has felt himself
friendless and solitary—no gentle lips have stooped down to whisper
comfort and holy counsellings to the quickly departing soul. The reason
is, that there is not at present an English clergyman or an English
doctor in Beyrout.
The Sisters of Charity, and their other kindred agencies in the East, are
beneficial in their way. During seasons of sickness they are all in full
requisition, and deserve their meed of praise. As to these religious
ladies, whatever may be their proselytising propensities—we know, that
where they chiefly confine themselves to their meek and humble calling,
their indefatigable zeal and never-ceasing exertions at all seasons and
at all hours, are greatly to be commended. The patients visited at their
own houses retain a grateful sense of the patient attention shewn them in
the hours of need and in seasons of epidemic, when in the East friends
desert each other. The institutions under their control are remarkably
well kept, and far more neatly and economically conducted than any
hospitals or schools in England. The manner in which their internal
economy and household arrangements are conducted and _efficiently_
superintended is highly creditable to them.