ABSTRACT
The trifling material disputes over the rights of ceremony and repair at the sanctuaries of Bethlehem and Jerusalem during the first half of the 19th century demonstrate how religion can permeate things as real as war and diplomacy. During the 1830s and 1840s, the rivalry for confessional influence in Ottoman Palestine prompted the five great powers (Great Britain, France, Austria, Prussia and Russia) and the United States to expand and cultivate their presence through a combination of religious and cultural initiatives, including missionary societies, publications about Christian minorities and claims to treaty rights, precedents and trading privileges. Biblical and archaeological interest was supported by national associations that had confessional, scholarly and political agendas and, in some cases, publishing houses. At the dawn of the 19th century, Christian missionary societies led a remarkable resurgence in pilgrimage to the Holy Places. The fragmented religious landscape produced an atmosphere of rivalry and enmity over the highest principles relating to God and humanity. By 1853, the monk's quarrel had developed into something more than a storm in a samovar.
