their ancient glories, and how happy we should be to see them return to the splendour of their first greatness!"
In September, 1880, he published the Encyclical Grande Munus, whereby he extended the cult of the Apostles of the Slavs, St. Cyril and St. Methodius, to the whole Church.[1]
In a Consistory of December 13, 1880, he said: "At the beginning of our Pontificate we hastened to occupy ourselves with the people of the East. There, indeed, was the cradle of the salvation of the whole human race, and the first fruits of Christianity; thence, as a mighty river, all the blessings of the Gospel came to the West."[2]
In 1882 Leo XIII did a graceful and friendly thing towards the schismatical Eastern Christians. Till then it had been the custom to give to Latin auxiliary bishops titles of old dioceses in the East, which no longer had Catholic Ordinaries. There are many such which have fallen into the hands of the Moslems; in some there were no longer any Christians at all. Since a bishop must have some title, the titles of these were used for non-diocesan bishops in the West. To these titles was added the form "in partibus infidelium." But during the nineteenth century many of these places have been restored to Christian hands, though not to those of Catholics. Still, there is a great difference between Christians of any Church and people who are not Christians at all. It would naturally be offensive to Greeks, for instance, to know that we spoke of the cities of their kingdom as being "in partibus infidelium." So the Pope abolished this form altogether, and substituted for it the harmless description "sedes titulares."
In August, 1892, Leo XIII sent Cardinal Langénieux as his legate to the Eucharistic Congress at Jerusalem. The Cardinal says in his letter on this occasion: "Shall not the Greeks, our brothers, be met by a glance of Jesus, whom they love, as was the Apostle Peter?" And in his inaugural address: "I come as a pacifier; I come in the name of him whom history calls the chief pacifier of modern times. It is he who sends me, to give a new proof of his sympathy and admiration for the Eastern Churches, which are the first-born daughters of the Church of God."
In 1894 Leo instituted at the Vatican conferences for the union of Churches. The Uniate Patriarchs were invited to attend these as well as theologians and others who would be interested in the question. It is true that not much came of
