The Relationship of the Ecumenical Patriarchate with the Ottoman State

Between the schism of 1054 and the Greek Revolution, the conflict of Orthodoxy and Catholicism and the division between unionist-Europeans and anti-unionist Orthodox was a constant feature of political and spiritual development within Greece. After the Fall of Constantinople, the Church inherited the burden of the Byzantine Empire. The Ottoman conquerors ceded some important political privileges to the Church and applied the ecclesiastic hierarchy to the Orthodox. Orthodox Christians formed a millet led by the ecumenical patriarch of Constantinople. The patriarch, apart from being a religious leader, was a millet-basi (head of the nation) accountable to the sultan for the Orthodox Christians. Hence, the Church became an intermediary between the sultan and his Christian subjects. It was believed that the sultan was sent by God to save men's souls. The Ottoman authorities, hostile towards the European powers, wished to protect the Orthodox Church from Catholicism, its principal opponent. The mutual interests of the Church and the Porte inevitably led to an alliance. According to some historians, Orthodox institutions subordinated the Ottoman authorities.

Lead seal of the Patriach
Grigorios V, 1779

The hanging of Patriarch Grigorios V

Although the Orthodox had some mutual interests with the Ottoman state, the Patriarchate wished to revive the Byzantine Empire. This wish became more obvious as the Catholics ceased to be considered the Empire's enemy and a new threat came from the Russians. Officially the Church condemned actions against the Empire, while keeping the memory of Byzantium alive. The Russian victories had given many Orthodox officials hopes for the reestablishment of the Christian Empire. For example, after the fall of Azof (1696), the Patriarch of Constantinople, Kallinikos II, and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Dositheos secretly sent envoys to the Tsar congratulating him. Other Greek clergymen such as Serafeim, and the dethroned Metropolite of Thessaloniki Methodios travelled to Moscow in 1704; they wanted to meet Peter the Great and plead for the liberation of the Greek nation.

Grigorios V: Patriarch of Constantinople. During his third patriarchy (1818-21) the Turkish authorities held him responsible for the Greek revolution: he was hanged on 10 April 1821.

The Church was friendly to the Ottoman state during the French Revolution and the Enlightenment. Such an attitude originated from the clergy's distrust of Catholics and its instinctively negative reaction to any revolutionary idea. In 1798 Patriki Didaskalia was published in Constantinople: it was written by the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Anthimos. The text is also attributed to the Ecumenical Patriarch Grigorios V. It expressed God's designs to protect the Orthodoxy from heretics (Catholics).