Note 31 — Chapter VI · THE SPREAD OF ISLAM AMONG THE CHRISTIAN NATIONS IN EUROPE UNDER THE TURKS.

In a work published by Joseph Georgirenes, Archbishop of Samos, in 1678, during a visit to London, he gives us an account of the income of his own see, the details of which are not likely to have been considered extortionate, as they were here set down for the benefit of English readers: in comparing the sums here mentioned, it should be borne in mind that he speaks of the capitation-tax as being three crowns or dollars (pp. 8–9). “At his (i.e. the Archbishop’s) first coming, the Papas or Parish Priest of the Church of his Residence presents him fifteen or twenty dollers, they of the other Churches according to their Abilities. The first year of his coming, every Parish Priest pays him four dollers, and the following year two. Every Layman pays him forty-eight aspers”—(In the commercial treaty with England, concluded in the year 1675, the value of the dollar was fixed at eighty aspers (Finlay, v. 28))—“and the following years twenty-four. The Samians pay one Doller for a Licence; all Strangers two; but he that comes after first marriage for a Licence for a second or third, pays three or four” (pp. 33–4). ↑