Page:The Greek and Eastern churches.djvu/628

602 succeeded by a reforming patriarch, Christobulus, who built new churches, conducted ordinations of many bishops, laid down and exacted rules of discipline,—mostly concerning the rubric,—and travelled to and fro settling the affairs of the Church. He much reduced the sale of offices, but could not abolish the scandalous practice. A fresh outbreak of persecution took place in the time of Christobulus, and orders went forth for the destruction of churches and the seizure of their treasures. But these orders were only partially executed. The Fatimite caliphs were now very weak, and the government fell more and more into the hands of their viziers. The situation was an Oriental counterpart of that of France under the Merovingian kings, when the affairs of the State were administered by the mayors of the palace. There was a quarrel between the Turks and the negro slaves, during which the rioters behaved as genuine barbarians, ravaging the country, scattering and destroying books and works of art. Many of these treasures from palaces and monasteries fell into the hands of the Berbers, who tore off the bindings of books to make slippers out of them. In desperation the caliph sent for the victorious General Bedr-el-Jamal and made him dictator in order to restore order. This one capable man of his time, though of course a Mussulman, even settled a quarrel in the Church.