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SIR SAMUEL WHITE BAKER
CYPRUS AS I SAW IT IN 1879
page 435 View PDF version of this page from funds specially invested for that purpose in thai hands of certain monasteries, bishops, &c , are g'rosslyi neglected, and it has already been suggested that a l commission should be instituted by the British autho-| rities, under the presidency of the archbishop, for, a rigid investigation of the resources of all monas-i teries and the actual revenue of bishoprics, together! with the disbursement of all sums that should have-; been expended either for education or for charitable]
purposes. The tithes exacted by the bishops from the peasantry add seriously to the imposts of ordinary tax-] ation, and there is every probability of a reform beingjj demanded by the inhabitants at the hands of thai British administration. When under Turkish ruley. the Greek Church enjoyed not only perfect freedom, | but an immunity from taxation, as, although they wercl legally liable, the law was never enforced upon thej clergy. The English government has determined uponi the observance of all laws by all classes, and the Church has awakened to the fact that there is no exception.
" From the earliest times the Greek Church of Cyprus has enjoyed an especial degree of independence; ini the reign of the Emperor Zeno, A.D . 473, exceptional privileges were conceded to the Archbishop of Cyprus^ who, although he owns the supremacy of the Patriarch of Constantinople over the orthodox Greek Church, claims to be entirely independent of him as regarda Church discipline ; he wears purple, carries a goldheaded sceptre, has the title of Beatitude, signs in red as the Greek Emperors were wont to do, and uses a seal bearing a two-headed imperial eagle. It is saie that these dignities were conferred in consequence o: the fortunate discovery at Salamis of the body of St Barnabas, with a copy of the Gospel of St. Matthew
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