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THE rise of the see of Constantinople, the
'Great Church of Christ,' is the most curious development in the history of
Eastern Christendom. For many centuries, the patriarchs of New Rome have been
the first bishops in the East. Though they never succeeded in the claim to
universal jurisdiction over the whole Orthodox Church that they have at various
times advanced, though, during the last century especially, the limits of their
once enormous patriarchate have been ruthlessly driven back, nevertheless since
the fifth century and still at the present time the Patriarch of New Rome fills
a place in the great Christian body whose importance makes it second only to
that of the Pope of Old Rome.
To be an orthodox Christian one must accept the
orthodox faith. That is the first criterion. And then as a second and visible
bond of union all Greeks at any rate, and probably most Arabs and Slavs, would
add that one must be in communion with the œcumenical patriarch. The Bulgars
are entirely orthodox in faith, but are excommunicate from the see of
Constantinople; a rather less acute form of the same state was until lately the
misfortune of the Church of Antioch. And the great number of orthodox
Christians would deny a share in their name to Bulgars and Antiochenes for this
reason only. Since, then, these patriarchs are now and have so long been the
centre of unity to the hundred millions of Christians who make up the great
Orthodox Church, one might be tempted to think that their position is an
essential element of its constitution, and to imagine that, since the days of
the first general councils New Rome has been as much the leading Church of the
East as Old Rome of the West. One might be tempted to conceive the Orthodox as
the subjects of the œcumenical patriarch, just as Roman Catholics are the
subjects of the pope. This would be a mistake.
The advance of the see of Constantinople is the
latest development in the history of the hierarchy. The Byzantine patriarch is
the youngest of the five. His see evolved from the smallest of local dioceses
at the end of the fourth and during the fifth centuries. And now his
jurisdiction, that at one time grew into something like that of his old rival
the pope, has steadily retreated till he finds himself back not very far from
the point at which his predecessors began their career of gradual advance. And
the overwhelming majority of the Orthodox, although they still insist on
communion with him, indignantly deny that he has any rights over them. Though
they still give him a place of honour as the first bishop of their Church, the
other orthodox patriarchs and still more the synods of national churches show a
steadily growing jealousy of his assumption and a defiant insistence on their
equality with him. An outline of the story of what may perhaps be called the
rise and fall of the see of Constantinople will form the natural introduction
to the list of its bishops.
We first hear of a bishop of Byzantium at the
time of the first General Council (Nicaea, 325). At that time Metrophanes (315—325)
ruled what was only a small local see under the metropolitan of Thrace at
Herakleia. Long afterwards his successors claimed St Andrew the Apostle as the
founder of their see. This legend does not begin till about the ninth century,
after Constantinople had become a mighty patriarchate. There was always a
feeling that the chief sees should be those founded by apostles; the other
patriarchates—Rome, Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem—were apostolic sees
(Alexandria claimed St Peter as her founder too), and now that Constantinople
was to be the equal of the others, indeed the second see of all, an apostolic
founder had to be found for her too. The legend of St Andrew at Constantinople
first occurs in a ninth century forgery attributed to one Dorotheos, bishop of
Tyre and a martyr under Diocletian. St Andrew's successor is said to be the
Stachys mentioned in Rom. xvi. 9; and then follow Onesimos and twenty-two other
mythical bishops, till we come to a real person, Metrophanes I. The reason why
St Andrew was chosen is the tradition that he went to the North and preached in
Scythia, Epirus and Thrace.
No one now takes this first line of Byzantine
bishops seriously. Their names are interesting as one more example of an
attempt to connect what afterwards became a great see with an apostle. Before
the ninth century one of the commonest charges brought against the growing
patriarchate was that it is not an apostolic see (e.g. Leo I. Ep. 104, ad
Marcianum), and its defenders never think of denying the charge; they
rather bring the question quite candidly to its real issue by answering that it
is at any rate an imperial one. So the first historical predecessor of the œcumenical
patriarch was Metrophanes I. And he was by no means an œcumenical patriarch. He
was not even a metropolitan. His city at the time of the first Nicene synod was
a place of no sort of importance, and he was the smallest of local bishops who
obeyed the metropolitan of Herakleia. The council recognized as an 'ancient
use' the rights of three chief sees only—Rome, Alexandria and Antioch
(Can. 6). The title 'patriarch' (taken, of course, from the Old Testament
as 'Levite' for deacon) only gradually became a technical one. It is the case
of nearly all ecclesiastical titles. As late as the sixth century we still find
any specially venerable bishop called a patriarch (Greg. Naz. Orat. 42,
43, Acta SS* Febr. III. 742, where Celidonius of Besancon is called 'the
venerable patriarch'). But the thing itself was there, if not the special name.
At the time of Nicaea I. there were three and only three bishops who stood
above other metropolitans and ruled over vast provinces, the bishops first of
Rome, then of Alexandria and thirdly of Antioch. It should be noticed that
conservative people, and especially the Western Church, for centuries resented
the addition of the two new patriarchates— Jerusalem and Constantinople—to
these three, and still clung to the ideal of three chief Churches only.
Constantinople eventually displaced Alexandria
and Antioch to the third and fourth places: they both refused to accept that
position for a long time. Alexandria constantly in the fifth and sixth
centuries asserts her right as the 'second throne,' and Antioch demands to be
recognized as third. The Roman Church especially maintained the older theory;
she did not formally recognize Constantinople as a patriarchate at all till the
ninth century, when she accepted the 21st Canon of Constantinople IV. (869)
that establishes the order of five patriarchates, with Constantinople as the
second and Jerusalem as the last. Dioscur of Alexandria (444—451) bitterly
resented the lowered place given to his see. St Leo I. of Rome (440—461)
writes: 'Let the great Churches keep their dignity according to the Canons,
that is Alexandria and Antioch' (Ep.
ad Rufin. Thess., Le Quien, Or. Christ. I. 18), and he
constantly appeals to the sixth Canon of Nicaea against later innovations (Ep.
104, ad Marc). He says: 'The dignity of the Alexandrine see must not
perish' and 'the Antiochene Church should remain in the order arranged by the
Fathers, so that having been put in the third place it should never be reduced
to a lower one' (Ep. 106, ad Anatolium). St Gregory I. (590—604) still
cherished the older ideal of the three patriarchates, and as late as the eleventh
century St Leo IX. (1045—1054) writes to Peter III. of Antioch that 'Antioch
must keep the third place' (Will, Acta et scripta de controversiis eccl.
graecae et latinae, Leipzig, 1861, p. 168). However, in spite of all
opposition the bishops of Constantinople succeeded, first in being recognized
as patriarchs and eventually as taking the second place, after Rome but before
Alexandria. It was purely an accident of secular politics that made this
possible. The first general council had not even mentioned the insignificant
little diocese of Byzantium.
But by the time the second council met
(Constantinople I.,381) a great change had happened. Constantine in 330
dedicated his new capital 'amid the nakedness of almost all other cities' (St
Jerome, Ckron. A.d. 332).
He moved the seat of his government thither,
stripped Old Rome and ransacked the Empire to adorn it, and built up what became the most gorgeous city of the world. So the bishop of Byzantium found himself
in a sense the special bishop of Caesar. He at once
obtained an honoured place at court, he had the ear of the emperor, he was always at hand to transact any
business between other bishops and the government. Politically and civilly New Rome
was to be in every way equal to Old Rome, and since the fourth century there
was a strong tendency to imitate civil arrangements in ecclesiastical affairs.
Could the prelate whose place had
suddenly become so supremely important remain a small local ordinary under a
metropolitan? And always the
emperors
favoured the ambition of their court bishops; the greater the importance of their capital in the Church, as well as in the State, the more would the loyalty of their subjects be
riveted to the central government. So
we find that the advance of the Byzantine see is always
as desirable an object to the
emperor
as to his bishop. The advance came quickly
now. But we may notice that at every step there is no sort of concealment as to its
motive.
No one in those days thought of claiming any other
reason for the high place given to the bishop except the fact that the imperial court sat in
his city. There was no pretence of an apostolic foundation, no question of St Andrew, no claim to
a glorious past, no record of
martyrs,
doctors nor saints who had adorned the see of this new city; she had taken no part in spreading the faith, had been of no importance to anyone
till Constantine noticed what a splendid site the Bosphorus and Golden Horn offer. This little bishop was parvenu of the parvenus; he knew it and everyone knew it.
His one argument—and for four centuries he was never tired of repeating it—was that he was the emperor's bishop, his see was New
Rome. New Rome was civilly equal to Old Rome, so why should he not be as great,
or nearly as great, as that distant patriarch now left alone where the weeds choked ruined gates by the Tiber? Now that the splendour of Caesar and his court have gone to
that dim world where linger the ghosts of Pharaoh and Cyrus we realize how weak was the foundation of this claim from the beginning. The Turk has answered the new patriarch's arguments very
effectively. And to-day he affects an attitude of conservatism, and in his endless
quarrels with the independent Orthodox Churches he
talks about ancient rights. He has no ancient rights. The ancient rights are those of his betters at Rome, Alexandria and
Antioch. His high place is founded on an accident of politics, and if his argument were
carried out consistently he would have had to step down in 1453 and the chief bishops of Christendom would now be those of Paris, London and New York. We must
go back to 381 and trace the steps of his progress.
The first Council of Constantinople was a small assembly of only 150 eastern bishops. No Latins were present, the Roman Church was not represented. Its
third canon ordains that: 'The bishop of Constantinople shall have the primacy of honour 
after the bishop of Rome, because that city is New Rome.'
This does not yet mean a patriarchate. There is no question of extra-diocesan jurisdiction. He is to
have an honorary place after the pope because his city has become politically New Rome. The Churches of Rome and Alexandria definitely
refused to accept this canon. The popes in accepting the Creed of Constantinople I. always rejected its canons and specially rejected this
third canon. Two hundred years later Gregory I. says, 'The Roman Church neither acknowledges nor
receives the canons of that synod, she accepts the said synod in what it defined against
Macedonius' (the additions to the Nicene Creed, Ep. VII. 34);
and when Gratian put the
canon into the Roman canon law in the twelfth century the papal correctors added to it a note
to the effect that the Roman Church did not acknowledge it. The canon and the note still stand in the Corpus juris (dist. XXII. c. 3), a memory of the opposition with which Old Rome met the first beginning of the advance of New Rome.
after the bishop of Rome, because that city is New Rome.'
This does not yet mean a patriarchate. There is no question of extra-diocesan jurisdiction. He is to
have an honorary place after the pope because his city has become politically New Rome. The Churches of Rome and Alexandria definitely
refused to accept this canon. The popes in accepting the Creed of Constantinople I. always rejected its canons and specially rejected this
third canon. Two hundred years later Gregory I. says, 'The Roman Church neither acknowledges nor
receives the canons of that synod, she accepts the said synod in what it defined against
Macedonius' (the additions to the Nicene Creed, Ep. VII. 34);
and when Gratian put the
canon into the Roman canon law in the twelfth century the papal correctors added to it a note
to the effect that the Roman Church did not acknowledge it. The canon and the note still stand in the Corpus juris (dist. XXII. c. 3), a memory of the opposition with which Old Rome met the first beginning of the advance of New Rome.
The third general council did not affect this advance,
although during the whole fourth century there are
endless cases of bishops of Constantinople, defended by the emperor, usurping rights in other
provinces—usurpations that are always indignantly opposed by the lawful primates. Such usurpations,
and the indignant oppositions, fill up the history of the Eastern Church down to our own time.
It was the fourth general council (Chalcedon in
451) that finally assured the position of the imperial bishops. Its 28th canon is the vital point in all this story. The canon—very long and confused in its
form—defines that 'the
most holy Church of Constantinople the New Rome' shall have a primacy next
after Old Rome. Of course the invariable reason is given: 'the city honoured because of her rule and her Senate shall enjoy a
like primacy to that of
the elder
Imperial Rome and shall be mighty in Church affairs just as she is and shall be
second after her." The canon gives authority over Asia (the Roman province, of course— Asia Minor) and Thrace to Constantinople and so builds up a new patriarchate.
Older and infinitely more venerable sees, Herakleia, the ancient metropolis, Caesarea in
Cappadocia, that had converted all Armenia, Ephesus where the apostle whom our Lord loved had
sat—they must all step down, because Constantinople is honoured for her rule and her senate. The Roman legates (Lucentius, Paschasius
and Boniface) were away at the fifteenth session when this canon was drawn up. When they
arrive later and hear what has been done in their absence they are very angry,
and a heated discussion takes place in which they appeal to the sixth canon of Nicaea. The council sent an exceptionally
respectful letter to Pope Leo I. (440—461) asking him to confirm their acts (Ep.
Conc. Chal, ad Leonem, among St Leo's letters, No. 98).
He confirms the others, but rejects the twenty-eighth categorically. 'He who seeks undue honours,'
he says, 'loses his real ones. Let it be enough for the said Bishop' (Anatolios of Constantinople) ' that by the help of your' (Marcian's) 'piety and by the consent of my favour he has got the bishopric of so great a city. Let him not despise
a royal see because he can never make it an apostolic one' (no one had dreamed of the St Andrew legend then); 'nor should
he by any means hope to become greater by offending others.' He also appeals to
canon 6 of Nicaea against the proposed arrangement (Ep. 104).
So the 28th canon of Chalcedon, too, was never admitted at
Rome. The Illyrian and various other bishops
had already refused to sign it. Notwithstanding this opposition the new patriarch continued to prosper. The Council of Chalcedon had made the see of Jerusalem into a patriarchate as
well, giving it the fifth place. But all the eastern rivals go down in importance
at this time. Alexandria, Antioch and Jerusalem were overrun with Monophysites;
nearly all Syria and Egypt fell away into that heresy, so that the orthodox patriarchs had scarcely any flocks. Then came
Islam and swept away whatever power they still had. Meanwhile Caesar was always
the friend of his own bishop. Leo III., the Isaurian (717—741), filched his own
fatherland, Isauria, from Antioch and gave it to Constantinople; from the seventh to the ninth centuries the emperors continually affect to
separate Illyricum from the Roman patriarchate and to add it to that of their own bishop. Since Justinian
conquered back Italy (554) they claim Greater Greece (Southern Italy, Calabria,
Apulia, Sicily) for their patriarch too, till the Norman Conquest (1060—1091) puts an
end to any hope of asserting such a claim. It is the patriarch of Constantinople who has the right of crowning the emperor; and the patriarch John IV., the Faster (
582—595), assumes the vaguely splendid title of Œcumenical Patriarch.' The new kingdom of the Bulgars forms a source of angry dispute between Rome and Constantinople, till just after the great schism the œcumenical patriarch wins them all to
his side, little thinking how much trouble the children of these same Bulgars will someday give to his successors.
Photios (857—867, 878—886) and Michael Kerularios (Michael I., 1043—1058) saw the great schism between East and West.
Meanwhile the conversion of the Russians (988) added an enormous
territory to what was already the greatest of the Eastern patriarchates.
582—595), assumes the vaguely splendid title of Œcumenical Patriarch.' The new kingdom of the Bulgars forms a source of angry dispute between Rome and Constantinople, till just after the great schism the œcumenical patriarch wins them all to
his side, little thinking how much trouble the children of these same Bulgars will someday give to his successors.
Photios (857—867, 878—886) and Michael Kerularios (Michael I., 1043—1058) saw the great schism between East and West.
Meanwhile the conversion of the Russians (988) added an enormous
territory to what was already the greatest of the Eastern patriarchates.
The Turkish conquest of Constantinople (1453), strangely enough, added still
more to the power of its patriarchs. True to their unchanging
attitude the Mohammedans accepted
each religious communion as a civil body. The Rayahs were grouped according to their
Churches. The greatest of these bodies was, and
is, the Orthodox Church, with the name ' Roman nation'
(rum millet), strange survival of the dead empire. And the recognized civil head of this Roman nation is the oecumenical patriarch.
So he now has civil jurisdiction over all orthodox Rayahs in the Turkisk empire, over the other patriarchs and their subjects and
over the autocephalous Cypriotes
as well as over the faithful of his own patriarchate.
No orthodox Christian can approach the Porte except through his court at the Phanar. And the Phanar continually
tries to use this civil jurisdiction for ecclesiastical purposes.
We have now come to the height of our patriarch's power.
He rules over a vast territory second only to that of the Roman patriarchate. All Turkey in Europe, all
Asia Minor, and Russia to the
Polish
frontier and the White Sea, obey the great lord who rules by
the old lighthouse on the Golden Horn. And he is
politically and civilly the
overlord
of Orthodox Egypt, Syria,
Palestine and Cyprus as well. So for one short period, from 1453 to 1589, he
was not a bad imitation of
the real
pope. But his glory did not last, and from this point to the present time his power
has gone down almost as fast as it went up in the fourth and fifth centuries. The first blow was the independence of Russia. In 1589 the czar, Feodor Ivanovich, made his
Church into an autocephalous patriarchate (under Moscow), and in 1721 Peter the Great changed its government into
that of a 'Holy directing Synod.' Both the independence and the synod have been imitated by most
Orthodox Churches since. Jeremias II. of Constantinople (1572—1579,1580—1584,1586—1595) took money as the price of acknowledging the Russian Holy Synod as his 'sister in
Christ' It was all he could do. His protector the Sultan had no power in Russia, and if
he had made difficulties he would not have prevented what happened and he would
have lost the bribe. Since then the œcumenical patriarch has no kind of jurisdiction in Russia; even the holy chrism is prepared at
Petersburg. In two small cases the Phanar gained a point since it lost Russia. Through the unholy alliance with the Turkish government that had become
its fixed policy, it succeeded in crushing the independent Servian Church of Ipek in 1765 and the Bulgarian Church of Achrida (Ochrida in Macedonia) in
1767. The little Roumanian Church of Tirnovo had been forced to submit to Constantinople as soon as the Turks conquered that city (1393). In
these three cases, then, the Phanar again spread the boundaries of its jurisdiction. Otherwise it steadily retreats. In every
case in which a Balkan State has thrown off the authority of the Porte, its Church has at once thrown off the authority of the Phanar. These two powers had been too
closely allied for the
new independent
government to allow its subjects to obey either of them. The process is always the same. One of the first laws of the new constitution is to declare that the national Church is entirely orthodox,
that it accepts all canons, decrees and declarations of the Seven Holy Synods, that it remains in
communion with the œcumenical throne and with all other
Orthodox Churches of
Christ; but that
it is an entirely autocephalous Church, acknowledging no head but Christ. A
Holy Synod is then set up on the Russian model, by which the theory 'no head but Christ' always
works out as unmitigated Erastianism. The patriarch on the other hand is always filled with indignation; he always
protests vehemently, generally begins by excommunicating the whole of the new Church, and (except in the Bulgarian case) Russia always makes
him eventually withdraw his decree and recognize yet another sister in Christ.
In 1833 the first Greek parliament at Nauplion declared the Greek Church
independent; Anthimos IV. of
Constantinople first
refused to acknowledge it at all and then in 1850 published his famous Tomos,
allowing some measure of
self-government.
The Greek Church refused to
take any notice of the
Tomos,
and
eventually Anthimos had to give way altogether. In 1866 the cession of the Ionian Isles, and in
1881 the addition of Thessaly and part of Epirus to the kingdom of Greece, enlarged the territory of the Greek Church and
further reduced the patriarchate. In 1870 the Bulgars founded an
independent national Church. This is by far the worst trouble of all. They have set up an Exarch in Constantinople and he claims
jurisdiction over all Bulgars, wherever they may live. The Bulgarian Church is
recognized by Russia, excommunicate and most vehemently denounced by the patriarch. The inevitable moment in
which the Phanar will have to
give way and welcome this
sister too has not yet come. The Serbs set up their Church in 1879, the Vlachs in 1885— both establishments
led to disputes that still distress the Orthodox Church. The Austrian occupation of lands inhabited by orthodox Christians has led to the establishment of independent Churches at Carlovitz in
1765, at Hermannstadt (Nagy-Szeben) in 1864, at Czernovitz in 1873 and of a practically independent one in
Hercegovina and Bosnia since 1880. The diminishing power of the oecumenical patriarch is further shown by the resistance, always more and more
uncompromising, shown when he tries to interfere in the affairs of the other patriarchates and autocephalous
Churches. In 1866 Sophronios III. of Constantinople wanted to judge a case at the monastery of Mount Sinai. Immediately the Patriarch of Jerusalem summoned a synod and
indignantly refused to acknowledge his 'anti-canonical interference and his
foreign and unknown authority.' The Church of Greece since its establishment has had many opportunities of resisting the patriarch's foreign authority. She
has not failed to use each of them. The see of Antioch still bears the excommunication proclaimed against her late Patriarch
Meletios (fFeb. 8, 1906) rather than allow the Phanar to interfere in her affairs. The patriarch of Alexandria (Photios) has sent away the legate whom the Phanar wished to keep at his court. The Church of Cyprus, now for nearly nine years in the throes of a quarrel that disturbs and
scandalizes the whole orthodox world, has appealed to
every sort of person—including the British Colonial Office—to come and
help her out of her trouble. From only one will she
hear of no interference. Every time the Phanar volunteers a little well-meant
advice it is told sharply that it has no authority in Cyprus; the Council of Ephesus in 431 settled all that, and,
in short, will his All-Holiness of Constantinople mind his own business?
The diminished authority of the œcumenical throne now
covers Turkey in Europe (that is, Thrace, Macedonia and part of Epirus) and Asia Minor
only. And in Macedonia its rights are denied by the Bulgars; and both Serbs and Vlachs are on the point of setting up independent
Churches here too. The patriarch however takes
precedence of all other orthodox
bishops. His title is 'Archbishop of Constantinople, New Rome and Œcumenical
Patriarch'. He is addressed as 'Your most divine All-Holiness'. To assist him
in his rule he has two tribunals, a synod for purely ecclesiastical affairs and
a 'mixed national council for affairs that are partly ecclesiastical and partly
secular. Since i860 the
patriarchs are
elected—nominally for life—in this way: a committee of the metropolitan bishops
present in Constantinople,
with
certain laymen and representatives of twenty-six provincial bishops, meets not less than forty
days after the vacancy and submits to the Porte the names of all for whom their
votes have been recorded. From this list the Sultan may strike out not more than three
names. Out of the
corrected
list the mixed council chooses
three; and the synod finally elects
one of the three.
But the candidate who has steered his way through all
these trials is not yet appointed. He must be confirmed by the Sultan, who may even
now reject him. The patriarchelect at last
receives a berat, that is a form of appointment by the Sultan, in which his civil and ecclesiastical
rights are exactly denned, is solemnly invested by the Great Wazlr in the Sultan's name, pays certain visits of ceremony to various
Turkish officials and is finally enthroned in the Church of St George in the Phanar. The enthronement is performed by the metropolitan of Herakleia (last shadow of his old jurisdiction
over Byzantium) after the Turkish officer has
read out the berat. The patriarchs are still obliged to
pay heavy bribes for their berat. Their dress is the same as that of other orthodox bishops, except that the veil of the patriarch's Kalemaukion
is often violet. As arms on their seal they bear a spread eagle imperially
crowned.
The first glance at the list will reveal what is the greatest abuse of the œcumenical throne,
namely the enormous number of its occupants and the short length of their reigns. Even
before 1453, and very much more since the Turk has reigned here, the patriarchs are deposed
incessantly. Sometimes it is the government, more often the endless strife of parties in the Church, that brings
about this everlasting course of deposition, resignation and reappointment. The thing has reached
incredible proportions. Scarcely any patriarch has reigned for more than two or
three years before he has been forced to resign. Between 1625 and 1700, for
instance, there were fifty patriarchs,
an
average of eighteen months' reign
for each. But when a patriarch is deposed he does not take final leave of the œcumenical throne. He always has a party on his
side and that party immediately begins intriguing for his restoration.
Generally there are three or four candidates who go backwards and forwards at
short intervals; each is deposed and one of his rivals reappointed. All the Phanariote Greeks then naturally
swerve round to the opposition and move heaven and earth
to have the present occupier removed and one of the ex-patriarchs re-elected. They quarrel and
criticize all the reigning patriarch's actions, the metropolitans refuse to work with
him; everyone besieges the Turkish Minister of Police with petitions till he is made to resign. Then one of his old rivals is appointed again and
everyone begins trying to oust him. So the proceeding goes on round and round. And the Porte gets its bribe for each new
berat. Some patriarchs
have had as many
as five tenures at intervals (Cyril Lukaris had six). There are always three or
four ex-patriarchs
waiting in angry
retirement at Athos or Chalki for a chance of reappointment; so unless one has just seen the current number of the 
it is never safe to say certainly which is the patriarch and which an ex-patriarch.
it is never safe to say certainly which is the patriarch and which an ex-patriarch.
The reigning patriarch, Joakim III., had already
occupied the see from 1878 to 1884.
When Constantine V. fell in 1901 he was re-elected and has reigned for nearly
seven years—an almost unique record. There are now three ex-patriarchs, each with a party
angrily demanding its favourite's reappointment, Neophytos VIII., Anthimos VII.
and Constantine V. Anthimos VII. has made himself specially conspicuous as a
critic of his successor's
actions. He constantly
writes to point out how much better he managed things during his reign
(1884—1897) and how much better he would manage them again if he had the chance. In 1905 nine metropolitans
(led by Joakim of Ephesus and Prokopios of Durazzo) proceeded to depose Joakim
III. They telegraphed to Petersburg, Athens, Belgrade and Bucharest that the patriarchal see was again vacant.
Joakim of Ephesus was the popular candidate for the succession. This was all natural and
right, and would have four ex-patriarchs instead of three—till they had ousted the Ephesian. Only this time they counted
without their host. The
Porte means—or
meant then—to keep Joakim III.; and the only thing that really ever matters in the Byzantine patriarchate is what the Sultan decides. So these metropolitans
were severely lectured by Abdurrahman Pasha, the Minister of Police; Joakim was lectured too and
his duty as patriarch was plainly explained to him, but he kept his place, and
for once the Porte threw away a chance of selling another berat. Abdurrahman
seems to be the normally appointed person to point
out the laws of the Orthodox Church to its metropolitan,
and there is an inimitable touch of irony in the date,' 18 Rabi'al-awwal, 1323,' for instance, that he puts
at the end of his canonical epistles to the patriarch.
The list that follows contains an astonishingly
small number of great names. One is
always reminded that but for the protection of the emperor and then of the Sultan the see of Constantinople has no claim to dignity. Alexandria, Antioch
and Jerusalem have all incomparably more honourable memories. At Constantinople only two really great patriarchs have brought honour to their see—St John Chrysostom
(398—404) and Photios (857—867, 878—886). Nestorios (428—431), the Monotheletes Sergios I. (610—638),
Pyrrhos I. (638—641) and Paul II. (641—652), and especially poor Cyril Lukaris
(1621 at six intervals to 1638), made a certain name for themselves, but their
successors would hardly glory in their memory. On the other hand, in a long list that tells
of little but time-serving, grovelling
subjection to the Turk and ludicrous intrigue, there
are some names that stand out as those of men who stood boldly for the cause of Christ against the unbaptized tyrant to whom they owed
their place; and there are even martyrs who have left to this see a more real
glory than that of the
mythical
apostle-patriarch, St Andrew. Isidore II; (1456—1463) was murdered for refusing
to allow a Christian woman to become the second wife of a Mohammedan, Maximos III. (1476— 1482) was mutilated for the same cause and Gregory V. (1797 at
three intervals to 1822) was barbarously hanged on Easter-day 1821 as a revenge
because his countrymen were defeating his master.
And lastly, of the reigning patriarch, Joakim III., there is
nothing to say but what is very good. He began his second reign by sending an
Encyclical to the other Orthodox Churches
in which he proposed certain very excellent reforms (for instance that of their Calendar), wished
to arrange a better understanding between the sixteen independent bodies that make up their
communion and expressed his pious hope for the re-union of Christendom. Pity that their never-ending jealousies made
those of these Churches that
answered at all do so in the
most
unfriendly way. But of Joakim himself one hears everything that is
edifying. He is evidently really concerned about the scandals that disgrace the Orthodox name—the affairs of Bulgaria, Antioch, Cyprus and so
on—and he has shown himself in every way a wise, temperate and godly bishop. So
one may end this note by expressing a very sincere hope that he may be allowed
to go on ruling the Great Church of Christ for many years still before the inevitable deposition comes.
And for the sake of removing the crying scandal of these constant changes in the patriarchate, as well as for the sympathy we all feel
for his character, the Western outsider will
join very heartily in the greeting with which he
was received at his enthronement: 
ADRIAN FORTESCUE.
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