Washington telegraph., 1853-05-18
The Holy Shrines.

In foreign paper We find history OF the
holy shrines, the possession OF which Is said
to be the chief cause of dispute between Rus
sa and Turkey. From this account we
learn that the sanctuares or churches built
on the site of the great miracles of the re-
demption were founded by st. Helena and
her son. Constantine the Great They were
DESTROYED by the sovereig On of Persia in GA,
reestablished by the Emperor Heraclius, and
some years after were taken possession of by
the Kalif Omar, who permitted the faithful
to have access to them. They were subse-
qucntlv destroyed by Amurath, and re-es-
tablished by his mother Mary, Christian,
in 1902. About the middle of the fourteenth
century, Robert, King Of Sicily, purchased
from the Soldan of Egypt the sanctuaries,
and placed them under the guardianship of
the Franciscan monks In the beginning
of the sixteenth century, the Holy Land
was conquered by Selim, and the treaty be-
tween his successor and Francis [, placed
under the protection of the crown of France
the holy places, as well as the monks who
guarded them.
In 1857 a serious collision took place be-
tween the Greeks and Latins, in consequence
of some Greek pilgrims having pillaged the
Latin convent of Jafa. Complaints were
made to the Divan and, after patient hear
ing of the matter, the Latins were expelled
from the Church of the Tomb of the Virgin
and that of Bethlehem and the Holy Sepul-
chre, and other sanctuaries were placed un-
der the guardianship of the Greek monks.
From this period the Latins gradually lost
the prerogatives they had previously pos
sessed
A new cause of dissension arose in 1903
The Holy Sepulchre was partly consumed
by fire. The Greeks claimed and obtained
from the Porte the right to rebuild the Gu
pola of the church, and, faving done so, they
claimed additional prerogatives; but their
architect was accused of having Intentional
" destroyed the tombs of the kings of Jeru-
salem that had been preserved in the same
church, and Of having used the materials in
the construction of the new cupola. Since
then disputes have been frequent between
the Latins and the Greeks, and even the
Armenians profted by their dissensions and
the cupidity of the Mussulmans, and pur-
CIdSeu iEOtf tic oilc INC cii,uy lleut OI
privileges which interfercd with both. To
put an end to these troubles an understand
ing was come to by Louis XVIII, who acted
on the ground of his being the hereditary
protector of the Catholics in the East" and
the Emperor Alexander, who acted as ''the
sovereign of the greater number of the fol-
lowers of the Greek Church, % to endeavor
to obtain some arrangement from the Porte
which, under the combined guarantee of the
three powers. might put an end TO the con-
slant disputes between the Greeks and Lat
ins, might define the prerogatives. and es-
tabish common enjoyment. negotiations
were opened, and the two agents-onc in be-
half of the French government and the other
in behalf of the Russian government-were
sent to Jerusalem to collect information upon
the subject. They returned with informa-
ton which led to the hope of attaining
satisfactory conclusion, when the negotiations
were interrupted by the Greek revolution,
which broke out in 1921 The struggle for
independence which followed, and the agita-
tion which survived even the battle of Nav
arlno, prevented the governments from re-
suming these negotiations.
Boston Journal.