 He refutes the notion that the Maronites are "saintly martyrs" but rather "as savage and bloodthirsty in their traditional warfare as their pagan neighbours".On 18 January 1861, Lord Dufferin wrote Henry Bulwer, British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire, that during the Civil War the rebel Maronite leaders "were encouraged and countenanced in their excesses by Bishop Tobia and some of his brother ecclesiastics".In the British "Journal of the Foreign Affairs Committees" dated 4 December 1861, Tobia Aoun and the Maronite bishops are described as "unprincipled, ambitious priests", guilty of "wickedness and audacious treason".