Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 1.djvu/862

Rh ASIA

782

ASIA

which has been scrupulously prescribed and insisted upon by the Roman pontiffs, under penalty of sus- pension and exconiniuiiication; no clerical or lay member being allowed to change his rite without a special dispensation of the Holy See.

Catholicism in Asia. — Asiatic Turkey. The entire Christian population of Asiatic Turkey is 3,349,882, of which 692,431 are Catholics, 97,370 Protestants, and the remaining schismatics. They may be classified as follows: Asia Minor: 6,423 Cafhohc Armenians; 193,416 Schismatic Armenians; 994.922 Schismatic Greeks; 2,079 Jacobites; 5,838 Latins, and 3,400 Protestants. Armenia and Kur- distan: 51,306 Catholic Armenians; 712,842 Schis- matic Armenians; 8,600 Chaldeans; 92,000 Nestori- ans; 572 Jacobites; 353,762 Schismatic Greeks; 2 Latins, and 61,256 Protestants. Mesopotamia: 36,320 Chaldeans, 13,990 Syrians; 27,754 Jacobites; 11,670 Catholic Armenians; 61.590 Schismatic Armenians; 1,993 Latins; 340 Greek Melchites; 9,325 Schismatic Greeks, and 11,194 Protestants. There are also 308,740 Maronites; 141,219 Melchites; 304,230 Schismatic Greeks; 19,459 Catholic Armenians; 23,834 Schismatic Armenians; 1,865 Chaldeans; 25,632 Syrians; 47,805 Jacobites; 39,034 Latins, and 21,520 Protestants in Palestine, Phoenicia, and Syria as far north and west as the Euphrates, or a total of 308,740 Maronites; 141,559 Melchites; 1,662,239 Schismatic Greeks; 88,858 Catholic Armenians; 991,682 Schismatic Armenians; 46,785 Chaldeans; 92,000 Nestorians; 39,622 Syrians; 78,210 Jacobites; 46,867 Latins, and 97,370 Protestants. The popula- tion of Arabia is entirely Mohammedan, except, in the sea-port of Aden, where th-ire is an Apostolic vicariate with about 1,500 Christians.

Persia. — There are in Persia 20,000 Chaldeans; 50,500 Nestorians; 5,035 Catholic Armenians; 81,654 Schismatic Armenians; 200 Latins, and about 2,670 Protestants. In Afghanistan there is not a single Christian church or any organized Christian com- munity.

India. — The number of Catholics in India, includ- ing Ceylon, is about 2,069,791, with 4,938 churches and chapels; 105 seminaries and colleges; 2,312 schools; 37 hospitals; 2,190 European missionaries; 1 patriarch (in Goa); 7 archbishops; 26 bishops; 3 Apostolic vicars, and 3 Apostolic prefects. The num- ber of the Jacobites is about 120,000, the Chaldeans (independent of the Chaldean Patriarch of Baby- lonia, although formerly dependent on him) about 100,000. The number of Protestants in India is about 700,000 (1889).

China. — The Catholic population of China is about 820,000, governed by 39 Apostolic vicars and 2 Apostolic prefects, with 955 European mis.sionaries, having 4,067 churches and chapels, 90 colleges and seminaries, 4,067 schools and orphan asylums, and 62 hospitals. The number of Protestants, in 1900, is given by Warneck as 200.000.

Korea. — There are in Korea 45,000 Catholics, with 1 bishop and 42 priests; Protestants (Metho- dists and Haptists) 7,000.

Japan. — In Japan the Catholics number 60,500, with 1 archbishop (Tokio), 3 bishops (Nagasaki, Osaka, and Hakodate), and about 130 missionary priests. The numbc^r of Protestants is about 51), and that of the Orthodox Greek Russians, about 5,0(X), with 1 bishop.

/nrfo-C/nnn.— (French Colony) 820,000 Catholics, with 410 missionary' priests; .3,304 churches and chapels; 24 seminaries and colleges; 2,349 schools and orphan asylums, and 38 ho.spitals.

Philippine I.ilaml.i. — (.Xmorican Colony). The en- tire population of the Philippine Lslands is cstiruMted at iibout seven millions, of which about (iOO.OdO are wild tribes and pagans, about six millions Catliolics, and the rest Mohammedans and pagans. The

Catholic Church is go\erned by an Apostolic delegate, 1 archbishop, and 4 bishops with numerous secular and regular priests.

Asiatic Russia. — The Christian population of Asiatic Russia is estimated at about fourteen mil- hons, 75,000 of whom are Cathohcs. and the rest schismatic Greeks (Cirseco-Russian Churdi).

All the above statistics are only approximately correct, as the warious censuses so far published are often doubtful, contradictory, and misleading. Ac- cording to P. Pisani (Vacant, Dictionnaire de th^- ologie catholique, I, coll. 2096-2097), the entire population of Asia, according to their various re- ligions and creeds, may be appro.ximately classified as follows:

I.— Buddhists. 400,000.000; Brahmins, 200,(H)1),000; Mohammedans. 10(1.0(1(1.0011; other hcatlicn rrligions, 80.000,000; Christians, Jll. (1(10.(1(1(1; tutal, SdO.dOd.OUO.

II. — Protestants: In Western .\sia. ,S.'),OdO; India, 817,000; China and Korea, 210,000; Japan, 50,000; total, 1,162,000.

III.— Catholics: Asiatic Russia. 70,000 to 75,000; Asiatic Turkey and Persia, 700,000; India 2,140.000; China, Korea. Japan, and Indo-China, 1,710,000; Philippine Islands, 6,000,000; total, 10,625,000.

Gabriel Oussani.

Asia Minor, tlie peninsular mass that the Asiatic continent projects westward of an imaginary' line nmning from the Gulf of Alexandretta (Issus) on the Mediterranean to the vicinity of Trebizond (Trapezus) on the Black Sea. It is washed by three great seas, the Euxine (Black Sea) on the north, the Mediterranean on the south, and the JEgean on the west. It is located between 36°-42° north latitude and 26°-40° east longitude. The extreme length is about 720 miles and the extreme breadth about 420, though the average is 650 and 300 miles respectively. At its extreme western limit it almost touches the European mainland, from which it is separated for several miles by the narrow straits of the Bosphorus and the Dardanelles (Hellespont) and by the small Sea of Marmora (Propontis) through which connect- ing waters the Mediterranean and the Black Sea are brought into mutual contact.

I. Name. — In remote antiquity it had no common designation, being known variously after the races or kingdoms that it included. The term "Asia" was soon popularized by the Romans for whom it meant only the populous and cultivated western sea-board, organized by them into a province, together with neighbouring territory (Mysia, Lydia, Caria, Phrj-gia) more or less civilized after the Gra^co- Roman ideas. The first writer to use the term Asia Minor is the Christian Orosius (Hist., I, 2, 10), about the year 400. The early Byzantine writers often refer to it as i) /uKpi. 'Ao-Ja, " Little Asia ". In Byzan- tine administration it came soon to be known imder the somewhat elastic name of 'AraroXi) or "rising sun", i. e. "the East". It was, politically speaking, "the Anatolic theme", one of the twenty-nine prov- inces of the Byzantine empire from the seventh century to the eleventh century, when it became a Turkish land. Since then it has become oHicially known as Anatolia (Anadoli, Natolia, Nadolia), and as such constitutes an important part of .\siatic Turkey, is in fact the chief political and religious mainstay of the present Moslem constitution as far as it is based on i'onstantinople. Asia Minor is also known iis "the Levant", a Western (Italian and French) equivalent for Anatolia. This term how- ever, applies chiefly to the commercial and indus- trial centres of the southern and western coasts, though in ecclesiastical language and history it often includes both Egypt and the Holy Land. It was only gradually, and in rcsiionse to divers influences and agencies, that under the name of Asi» Minor