Ordination of a Bishop in the Metropolitan Church of Magnesia, Asia Minor, 1838

To improve his administration, Mohammed II institutionalized the millet system, which organized the Empire's subjects according to their faith rather than their racial origin. The Orthodox and Armenian millets were organized in 1453, whereas the Jewish remained unofficial. Within the millet, the zimmi reveled self-rule stayed faithful to their own religious law. The leader of each millet, the millet basi (for the Orthodox, the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople) could legislate for ecclesiastical matters and also marriage, divorce, inheritance and some matters relating to taxation. The non-Muslims inhabitants of the mahalle or the community would therefore contact the priest or the bishop for most issues relating to their daily affairs; they would only come into contact with the conqueror if there was disagreement with a Muslim.

Millet (millet):
group of non-Muslims that formed a legally recognized administrative unit within the state

Zimmi :
(from the Arabian word 'dimma', meaing agreement). At first this referred to the agreement between the imam and the delegate of the defeated infidels regarding the rights and obligations of both parties. From then on, the zimmi, as a non-Muslim, was protected by the Muslim state providing he obeyed its laws.

Two clergymen, a Christian and a Muslim sitting next to each other, 1825

The priest represented the spiritual head of the community and functioned as a link with the supreme ecclesiastical leadership. The millet, as an organic part of the Ottoman state, suffered as the imperial system fell into decline: when auctions for episcopal seats and even the ecumenical throne were held, the effect on the Orthodox millet can be imagined. And the financial burden of these auctions weighed on the shoulders of the raja, who revolted against the higher clergy.