PROTASIUS
488
PROTECTORATE
6BN published a critical edition of the Chronicle in Mon. Germ,
Hist., IX (Berlin. 1S92). Prosper was a favourite at Port-Royal.
Sacy published a ver.'ie translation of the De ingralis in 1646,
a prose translation in 1650. Another prose translation was pub-
lished by LEQtJEUX in 1761, who also translated some of the other
works. Valentin, 5. Prosper d*Aauitaine (Toulouse, 19(X)).
F. J. Bacchus.
Protasius, Saint. See Gervasitjs and Prota-
BIU8, Saints.
Protectorate of Missions, the right of protection exercised by a Christian power in an infidel country with regard to the persons and establishments of the missionaries. The term does not apply to all protec- tion of missions, but only to that permanently exer- cised in virtue of an acquired right, usually established by a treaty or convention (either explicit or tacit), voluntarily consented to or accepted after more or less compulsion by the infidel power. The object of the protectorate may be more or less extensive, according as it embraces only the missionaries who are subjects of the protecting power, or applies to the missionaries of all nations or even to their neophytes, the native Christians. To comprehend fully the nature of the protectorate of missions, as it has been in times past and as it is to-day, it will be necessary to study sep- arately the Protectorate of the Levant and that of the Far East.
Protectorate of the Levant. — This comprises the missions of the countries under Turkish rule, especially Constantinople, the Archipelago, Syria, Palestine, Egypt, Barbary , etc. It is French in origin, and was, until near the end of the nineteenth century, the almost exclusive privilege of France. It was in- augurated in the Holy Land by Charlemagne, who secured from the celebrated Caliph Haroun al-Raschid a sort of share in his sovereignty over the Holy Places of Jerusalem. Charlemagne and his successors made use of this concession to make pious and charitable foundations in the Holy City, to protect the Christian inhabitants and pilgrims, and to insure the perpetuity of Christian worship. The destruction of the Arabian Empire by the Turks put an end to this first pro- tectorate, but the persecutions to which the new Mussulman masters of Jerusalem subjected pious visitors and the clergy in charge of the Holy Sepulchre brought about the Crusades, as a result of which Palestine was conquered from the infidels and became a French kingdom. The Christian rule was later re- placeci by that of Islam, but during the three centuries of Crusades, which had been undertaken and sup- ported mainly by France, the Christians of the East bad grown accustomed to look to that country for assistance in oppression, and the oppressors had learned to esteem and fear the valour of its warriors. In these facts we find the germ of the modern Pro- tectorate of the Levant.
The Capitulations. — The protectorate began to assume a contractual form in the sixteenth century, in the treaties concluded between the kings of France anci the sultans of Constantinople, which are histori- cally known as Capitulations. At first this name des- ignated the commercial agreement conceded by the Porte to Latin merchants (first to the Italians), and arose from the fact that the articles of these agree- ments were called Capitoli in the Italian redaction: the term has not, therefore, the same meaning as in military parlance. Francis I was the first king of France who sought an alliance with Turkey. To this he was urged, not by the spirit of the Crusaders, but entirely by the desire to break in Europe the dominating power of the House of Austria. By com- pelling Austria to spend its forces in defence against the Turks in the East, he hoped to weaken it and ren- der it unable to increase or even to maintain its power in the West. His successors down to Louis XV fol- lowed the same policy, which, whatever criticism it merits, was as a matter of fact favourable to Chris-
tianity in the Levant. The French kings sought,
by their zeal in defending Christian interests at the
Porte, to extenuate their alliance with infidels, which
was a source of scandal even in France. As early as
152S, Francis I had appealed to Solyman II to restore
to the Christians of Jerusalem a church which the
Turks had converted into a mosque. The sultan
refused on the plea that nis religion would not permit
alteration of the purpose of a mosque, but he prom-
ised to maintain the Christians in possession of all the
other places occupied by them and to defend them
against all oppression. However, religion was not
the object of a formal convention between France and
Turkey prior to 1604, when Henry \\ secured from
Ahmed I the insertion, in the capitulations of 20 May,
of two clauses relative totheprotection of pilgrims and
of the religious in charge of the church of the Holy
Sepulchre. The following are the clauses, which
form articles IV and V of the treaty: "IV. We also
desire and command that the subjects of the said
Emperor of France, and those of the princes who are
his friends and allies, may be free to visit the Holy
Places of Jerusalem, and no one shall attempt to pre-
vent them nor do them injury"; "V. Moreover, for
the honour and friendship of this Emperor, we desire
that the religious living in Jerusalem and serving the
church of Cotnaue (the Resurrection] may dwell there,
come and go without let or hindrance, and be well
received, protected, assisted, and helped in consider-
ation of the above."
It is noteworthy that the same advantages are stip- ulated for the French and for the friends and allies of France, but for the latter in consideration of, and at the recommendation of, France. The fortunate result of this friendship was the development of the missions, which began to flourish through the assistance of Henry IV and Louis XIII and through the zeal of the French missionaries. Before the middle of the seven- teenth century religious of various orders (Capuchin, Carmelite, Dominican, Franciscan, and Jesuit) were established, as chaplains of the French amba.s.?adors and consuls, in the chief cities of the Levant (Con- stantinople, Alexandria, Smj'rna, Aleppo, Damascus, etc.), Lebanon, and the islands of the Archipelago. Here they assembled the Catholics to instruct and confirm them in the Faith, opened schools to which flocked the children of all rites, relieved the spiritual and corporal miseries of the Christians languishing in the frightful Turkish prisons, and nursed the pest- stricken, which last office frequently made them mar- tyrs of charity. During the reign of Louis XIV the missionaries multiplied and extended the field of their activities. This monarch gave them at once a ma- terial and a moral support, which the prestige of his victories and conquests rendered irresistible at the Porte. Thanks to him, the often precarious tolerance, on which the existence of the missions had previously depended, was officially recognized in 1673, when on 5 June, Mohammed IV not only confirmed the earlier capitulatidns guaranteeing the safety of pilgrims and the religious guardians of the Holy Sepulchre, but signed four new articles, all beneficial to the mission- aries. The first decrees in a general manner "that all bishops or other religious of the Latin sect who are subjects of France, whatever their condition, shall be throughout our empire as they have been hitherto, and [niayl there perform their functions, and no one shall trouble or hinder them"; the others secure the tra;u)uil possession of their churches, explicitly to the Jesuits and Capuchins, and in general "to the French • at Smyrna, Said, Alexandria, and in all other ports of the Ottoman Empire".
The reign of Louis XIV marked the apogee of the French Protectorate in the East, for not only the Latin missionaries of all nationalities, but also the heads of all Catholic communities, regardless of rite or na- tionality, appealed to the Grand Roi, and, at the
