Page:The invasion of the Crimea vol. 1.djvu/85

 BETWEEN THE CZAR AND THE SULTAN. 43 times, a convent in Palestine surrounded by a good CH a p. wall, and headed by a clever Superior, could gen- IIL erally hold its own. It was to establishments of this kind that the pilgrim looked for aid and hos- pitality, and in order to keep them up, the priests imagined the plan of causing the votary to pay according to his means at every shrine which he embraced. Upon the understanding that lie ful- filled that condition he was led to believe that he wou fur himself unspeakable privileges in the world to come ; and thenceforth .a pilgrimage to the holy shrines ceased to be an expression of en- thusiastic sentiment, and became a common act of devotion. Put since it happened that, because of the man- contest ner in which the toll was levied, every one of the poweifsion Holy Places was a distinct source of revenue, the shrink, prerogative of the Turks as owners of the ground was necessarily brought into play, and it rested with them to determine which of the rival Churches should have the control and usufruct of every holy shrine. Here, then, was a subject of lasting strife. So long as the Ottoman Empire was in its full strength, the authorities at Constantinople were governed in their decision by the common appli- ances of intrigue, and most chiefly, no doubt, by gold ; but when the power of the Sultans so waned as to make it needful for them to contract engage- ments with Christian sovereigns, the monks of one or other of the Churches found means to get their suit upheld by foreign intervention. In 1740, Patronage Trance obtained from the Sultan a grant which power! "