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 IONIAN

92

IONIAN

The English Government, after sending Mr. Gladstone to investigate the feeling of the population, at last de- cided to surrender the islands to Greece. King George I, upon ascending the throne at Athens, in 1863, con- sented to succeed Otho I only upon England's under- taking to cede the Ionian .Vrchipelago to the Hellenic Kingdom. This cession was effected between 21 May and 2 June, 1.S64. The Ionian Isles have since then formed the three nomarchies, or departments, of Corfu. C'eplialonia. and Zante. Cerigo alone has been incorporateil in the continental nomarchy of Messenia. The Ionian Isles must have received the Gospel at a comparatively early date. The first known Bishop of Corfu is Apollodorus, or Alethodorus, who assisted at the Council of Nicsea in .325 (Gelzer, "Patrum nicaenorum nomina", LXIII, no. 168; see also the list of ancient Greek bishops in Lequien, II, 232-5).

comprises, besides the two islands from which it derives its name, those of Santa Maura Leucas (or Leucadia), Ithaca, and Cerigo. The archdiocese numbers about 6000 Catholics, all of the Latin Rite; the Diocese of Zante-Cephalonia, 615 (Missiones catholics', 1907, 145- 7). (See Corfu, Archdiocese of; Zante-Cephalonia, Diocese of.) The Orthodox hierarchy until 1900 con- sisted of seven dioceses, one for each of the principal islands of the Ionian Archipelago; since then it has numbered but five, that of Paxos having been sup- pressed, and the two titles of Leucas and Ithaca united into one. Formerly dependent on the Phanar of Con- stantinople, the ecclesiastical eparchies of the ancient septinsular republic became connected in 1866 with the Holy Synod of Athens, to which they are still subject [Thearvic, " L'Eglise de Grece" in "Echos d'Orient", III (1899-1900), 288 sqq.]. (See Greece.)

After the consummation of the Eastern Schism, the Ionian bishoprics remained in the power of the schis- matics. Until 1260 the archipelago of the seven islands counted scarcely any Catholics. Under the domination of the House of Anjou, Catholicism made some progress there, and this was continued from 1386 to 1797 under Venetian rule. In the thirteenth cen- tury Zante and Cephalonia were made Latin bishoprics, suffragan to Corinth until 1386. These two dioceses (Zante and Cephalonia) were then made one and suf- fragan to Corfu, which was then raised to the status of an archbishopric (see the list of Latin bishops of the three sees in'Lequien, III, 877-82, 889-92; com- pleted by Gams, 399, 430, and Eubel, I, 217). The political vicissitudes through which the Ionian Archi- pelago passed rluring the nineteenth century brought adversity to the Ciitholic missions, which, however, suffered less after 1S.")0. M the time of the cession of the islands to (ireece in 1864. the Hellrnic Govern- ment promised to secure to the three Latin bishoprics their former rights and privileges. The .Vrchdinccse of Corfu (which, besides the island of that name, comprises the islands and i.slets of Merlera, Phano, Samothrace, Paxos. and Antipaxos, as well as a few places in Kpirus on the mainland Ix'tweeii the towns of I'arga and Sasina) is now governed by a resident aieli- bi.shop.whoisatthesametiine Adriunistia(or.\|iiist(ilie of the Diocese of Zantc-t'ephalonia. This last diocese

BuNDtLMuNTL, LiJnr (ii.^uiai u n, A n li I fielagi, written in fif- teenth century and published l>y Sinner in 1824; Kendrick, The Ionian Islands (London, 1S22); Murray, Handbook for Travellers in the Ionian Islands (London, 1840); d'Istria, Les ties loniennes sons la domination venitienne et le protectoraC anglais (Athens. 18.59); Whyte-.Jervis, The Ionian Islands dur- ing the present centun/ (London, 1864) ; Lenormant, L'anntxion des ties loniennes in Revue des Deux Mondes (Jan.. 1864); KlRCKWALL. Four Years in the Ionian Islands (London, 1864); Griechenland. II (Leipzig. 1872); I KpaTov^ (Athens. 1874); Nolhac, et le mont Athos (Paris, 1882); les iles loniennes (Paris, ■ 'loviHiv I'ljtrur (Athens, S. Salaville.

Geographii

tie, les ties lonie: Recherches archt'ologiqut 879-80); Mavrogiannib, 'IirTopic 1899).

BuRSI

Chiotis, La Dab, RiEM

Ionian School of Philosophy. — The Ionian School includes the earliest Greek philosophers, who lived at Miletus, an Ionian colony in .4sia Minor, dur- ing the sixth century B.C., and a group of philosophers who lived about one hundred years later and modified the doctrines of their predecessors in several respects. It is usuid to distinguish, therefore, the Earlier lonians and the Later loniaiix.

I. E'lnii'-r Iiiniim.s. — This group includes Thales, .\naximandcr, and Anaximenes, with whom the history of philosophy in Greece begins. They are called by Aristotle the first "physiologists", that is, "students of nature". So far as we know, they con- fined their philosophical enquiry to the problem of the origin and laws of the phy.sical univer.se. They taught that the world originated from a primitive