ANTHIM THE IBERIAN  , a notable figure in the ecclesiastical

history of Rumania . A Georgian by birth, he came to Rumania early in the second half of the 17th century, as a simple monk . He became bishop of Ramnicu in 1705, and in 1708 archbishop of Walachia . Taking a leading part in the political movements of the time, he came into conflict with the newly appointed Greek hospodars, and was exiled to Rumelia . But on his crossing the Danube in 1716 he was thrown into the water and drowned, as it is alleged, at the instigation of the prince of Walachia . He was a man of great talents and spoke and wrote many Oriental and European languages . Though a foreigner, he soon acquired a thorough knowledge of Rumanian, and was instrumental in helping to introduce that language into the church as its official language . He was a master printer and an artist of the first order . He cut the wood blocks for the books which he printed in Tirgovishtea, Ramnicu, Snagov and Bucharest . He was also the first to introduce Oriental founts of type into Rumania, and he printed there the first Arabic missal for the Christians of the East (Ramnicu, 1702) . He also trained Georgians in the art of printing, and cut the type with which under his pupil Mihail Ishtvanovitch they printed the first Georgian Gospels (Tiflis, 1709) . A man of great oratorical power, Anthim delivered a series of sermons (Didahii), and some of his pastoral letters are models of style and of language as well as of exact and beautiful printing .

He also completed a whole corpus of lectionaries, missals, gospels, &c . See M . Gaster, Chrestomathie roumaine (1881), and " Gesch. d. rumanischen Litteratur," in Grober, Grundriss d. rom . Philologie, vol. ii . (1899) ; and E . Picot,

Notice sur Anthim d'Ivir (Paris, 1886) . (M .