Although the teachings of Wittenberg or Geneva could not be acceptable to Orthodoxy, there was one Church in the West with which they seemed to have much in common. The Church in England denied the authority of Rome, but retained apostolic succession. She believed in the equality of bishops by grace. She followed a rite that contained much that was traditional and familiar in the East. Her attitude toward the laity, who were allowed to take communion under two species and to participate in the councils of the Church, was akin to the Eastern tradition, as was her willingness to regard the monarch as the head of Christian society. Moreover, she was almost as reluctant to pronounce definite opinions on questions of doctrine as most theologians of the apophatic school, although their motives were different.

However, it was almost a century after the English Reformation before the two Churches came into contact. Few Greeks reached England, with the exception of merchants (they were called estradiots) such as Nicander Nucius of Corfu, a people who were generally prone to lawlessness, especially theft. 457 At the end of the fifteenth century, two eminent émigré scholars from Constantinople, John Argyropoulos and Andronicus Kallistos, visited the country, but they did not like the climate and soon left. William Weinfleet's secretary, Immanuel of Constantinople, had arrived earlier and remained there, helping his employer draft the statutes for Eton.458 Few Englishmen reached the Greek lands, except pilgrims to Palestine who passed through Cyprus. William Way included in his pilgrim's guide a few Greek phrases for such travelers, although he advised them not to stay long on this unhealthy island.459 John Locke, who traveled to Jerusalem in 1553, attended a church service in Cyprus; but it seemed to him incomprehensible. At the same time, however, he noted that the Greek monks led a simple and austere way of life, since he did not see a single fat man among them.460 Two of the scholars of the English Renaissance went to learn Greek from the Greeks; these were William Grosinus, who studied under Demetrius Chalkocondylos in Florence, and William Lily, who went to Rhodes and lived there with a Greek family. The leaders of the English Reformation, such as Thomas Cranmer, were lovers of ancient Greek, as were Queen Elizabeth I herself. Even Edward Brerewood's huge study of the world's major languages and religions in the 1614 chapters on the Greek Church is based on second-hand sources, and this information is indiscriminate and not very accurate, though not hostile.462

Robert Burton, in his Anatomy of Melancholy, published seven years later, on the basis of such unreliable evidence, accuses the Greeks of adding much to the true Creed, and concludes that they are "more than anyone else half-Christians."463

Brerewood and Barton must have known more, for more information was available at that time. English philhellenism, however, is actually rooted in commercial interest. In 1579, William Harbourne, the queen's representative, received letters from Sultan Murad III promising special protection to English merchants. This was confirmed by a charter the following year. In 1581, Queen Elizabeth granted a license to the Turkish Company, which in 1590 was renamed the Levantine Company, according to the renewed charter. In 1583 Harborne returned to Constantinople as a full envoy to the Sublime Porte.464

The merchants of the Levantine Company worked almost exclusively with the Greeks. The Greeks grew cinnamon and made sweet wine, which the English bought and in turn provided them with essential consumer goods such as jewelry, medicines, pepper, carpets, and patterned fabrics. They found that the Greeks were enterprising and trustworthy business people. The English, who had begun to settle in the Levant to engage in trade, moved freely in Greek circles; by the beginning of the seventeenth century, there was a small but growing Greek colony in London. Mutual sympathy grew. Sir Anthony Shirley, who visited the East in 1599, believed that it would be just and feasible to free the Greeks from their slavery. And his brother, Sir Thomas, who was in Constantinople from 1603 to 1607, had many conversations, as he wrote, "with wise and wealthy Greeks, who with tears asked for help in this matter."

Merchants had little interest in the Greek Church. But with the increase in their numbers and the opening of a permanent embassy in Constantinople and consulates in Smyrna and Aleppo, it became necessary to appoint chaplains of the English Church to each of these centers. Appointments were made by the Levantine Company, with the approval of the ambassador. These chaplains could not help but be interested in the varieties of Christianity that existed around them; At the same time, many of the merchants showed interest in theology. William Biddulph, the first of these chaplains, was in Constantinople for a short time in 1599 and was not interested in the Greeks. He lived there for a short time; 466 But from 1611 onwards there were regular successive chaplains, beginning with William Foord, of Trinity College, Cambridge, who arrived with a new envoy, Sir Peter Pindar. We know little about him and his immediate successors, most of whom came from Oxford. The chaplain from 1627 to 1638, that is, in the critical years of Cyril Lukaris's life, was a certain Mr. Hunt, of whom we know nothing but his name. Undoubtedly, he adhered to the old traditions because of the direct interest in patriarchy that his two predecessors, Sir Thomas Rohe and Sir Peter Witch, had taken in patriarchy. The next chaplain from Trinity College, William Gothobed, who was transferred from Smyrna in 1642, is known only for having contributed to the removal of an unpopular envoy, Sir Sackville Crowe. Far more prominent was the chaplain who was in Aleppo from 1630 to 1638, Edward Pocock; he was often in Constantinople and was there, on his way home, when Cyril Lukaris was killed. He wrote a moving account of the Patriarch's fate for Archbishop Laud. He used his time in Aleppo to improve his knowledge of the Arabic language, and later became the first and perhaps the most prominent English Orientalist.467

At the end of the century, two prominent theologians, Thomas Smith (1668–1670) and John Covel (1670–1676), served in Constantinople. Smith, of Magdalen College, Oxford, in turn, wrote a well-documented, attentive, but not particularly sympathetic essay on the Greek and Armenian churches, and published a collection of documents relating to Cyril Loukaris. He later became one of the clerics who did not take the oath.468 Covel, a member and later master of Christ's College in Cambridge, was less attractive. As a chaplain, he amassed a large fortune in the silk trade. He did not like the Greeks. "The Greeks are still Greeks," he wrote. "In deceit and treachery, they still deserve the characterization given to them by Iphigenia in Euripides: 'Trust them and hang them.'" He also later wrote a book on the Greek Church, less sympathetic than Smith's, although he considered himself the chief authority in England on the subject, and expected to be consulted when Greek priests visited England.

Such works introduced England to the Church of Greece, and the presence of chaplains in the Levant gave the Greeks an idea of the Church of England. Soon Greek theologians had a desire to visit England. The first of them got there half by accident. At the beginning of the seventeenth century, a young man from the Peloponnese named Christopher Angelus went to study at a newly established academy in Athens. He did not stay there long, and the Turkish governor expelled him as a Spanish spy. He set out for the West, armed with letters of introduction from two Peloponnesian bishops. His path passed through Venice to Germany, where someone told him to go to England. There, he wrote, "I will be able to find wise men, among whom I want to preserve my faith and not lose my learning; they told me that in England I would find both, because the English loved the Greeks and their learning." In 1608 he came to Yarmouth and presented his letters of introduction to the Bishop of Norwich, who sent him to Trinity College, Cambridge. Let us quote his words again: "The doctors of Cambridge received me cordially and sincerely: I spent almost a whole year there, as the reference given to me at Cambridge can testify. Then I fell ill and could hardly breathe: the doctors and doctors advised me to go to Oxford, because, as they said, the air in Oxford is better than in Cambridge." In 1610 he settled in Oxford, in Bagliola, and remained there until his death in 1638. Oxford historian Anthony Wood calls him "the purest Greek and an honest and harmless man." He published a biographical sketch in English under the title Christopher Angelus, the Greek Who Suffered Many Blows to the Turks for the Faith, a treatise excessively praising the English universities, called in Greek and Latin the Encheiridiori, i.e., a short guide giving a simple and unsophisticated description of the organization and rites of the Greek Church.

We do not know whether Archbishop Abbott, who was also a graduate of Ballol, was inspired by this friendly Greek, one of the Levantine chaplains, or their mutual Dutch friends, when in 1617 he sent Cyril Lukaris an invitation to send four young Greeks to study theology in England. In response, Cyril sent a young Macedonian, Mitrophan Kritobulus, whom he had met on Mount Athos in 1613 and whose intelligence had impressed him. Critovulus arrived in England around 1621 and was sent to Oxford, to Baillol. At first, everything went well; but by 1625 Abbott was writing to Sir Thomas Rohe complaining about the young man. He was prone to strife; he incurred debts that the archbishop was forced to pay; He was an intriguer and tried to make his way into court circles by making friends with the archbishop's enemies. Finally, when the time came for him to return to the East, the archbishop undertook to pay for his travel, but he refused to sail on a cheap ship of the Levantine Company, but insisted on traveling through Germany, because there he was invited to give lectures. Evidently he was a good lecturer and was successful both there and in Switzerland; but when he was in Venice, he insulted the authorities by trying to force the publisher to publish some of his highly controversial works by threats. In 1631 he returned to Constantinople. In 1633, Cyril granted him the metropolitan cathedra in Memphis in Egypt; the following year he became Patriarch of Alexandria. But gratitude was not his main virtue, as Archbishop Abbott had already been convinced. He turned against Cyril and was one of the bishops who anathematized him.471

Другой ученик Кирилла был более удовлетворительным. Его протосинкелл, критянин Нафанаил Конопиос, счел за лучшее поспешно удалиться в Англию. Он также учился в Бальоле, с тем отличием, что когда он получил свою степень, архиепископ Лауд назначил его младшим каноником Церкви Христовой. Он был непоследовательным богословом. Во время своего посещения Голландии он заявил о своем намерении перевести «Институции» Кальвина на греческий язык, возможно, в качестве благородного жеста для удовольствия своих голландских хозяев, или как дань памяти Кирилла. Но в 1647 г. пуритане изгнали его из Оксфорда по причине его связей с Лаудом, или, возможно, из?за его привычки петь акафисты по любому поводу. Кажется, он никогда ничего не публиковал, но прославился он другим. Приведем слова Энтони Вуда: «Когда он учился в Бальольском колледже, он приготовлял себе напиток под названием кофе и пил его каждое утро, и был первым, кто пил его в Оксфорде, как сообщили мне старожилы этого заведения». Коллега–студент в Бальоле, Джон Эвелин, хорошо помнил его. «Он был первым, кого я увидел пьющим кофе, – писал он, – этот обычай пришел в Англию только через тридцать лет». Конопиос закончил свою жизнь, употребляя кофе как архиепископ Смирнский.472

Издатель Никодим Метаксас никогда не учился в университете. Он был отправлен в Англию своим дядей, епископом Кефаллонии, но жил в среде торговых кругов своего брата в Лондоне.473

Эти студенты не рисковали высказываться по вопросам богословия своей Церкви, по которым у англичан существовали некоторые недоумения. Сэр Томас Роэ открыто писал архиепископу Абботу о кальвинистских взглядах Кирилла Лукариса. Но Эдвард Покок в письмах к архиепископу Лауду едва касался его богословских взглядов, подчеркивая только, что он стал жертвой интриг Рима. Последующие богословские споры в Константинополе не были известны в Англии. Следующий греческий священник, который учился в Оксфорде, Иеремия Герман, находился там в 1668–1669 гг., не имел желания обижать своих хозяев и тактично соглашался с ними по богословским вопросам.474 Не были определенными догматические мнения и куда более выдающегося клирика, Иосифа Георгирениса, архиепископа Самосского.

Георгиренис предпринял путешествие в Англию в 1676 г., чтобы напечатать там богослужебную книгу для своей паствы. Книга так никогда и не была опубликована: Георгиренис был слишком занят другим делом. К тому времени в Лондоне образовалась значительная греческая колония, главным образом в Сити, но распространявшаяся также на Сохо, где память о ней сохраняет название Греческой улицы. Многие из этих греков были богатыми и известными, такие как личный врач Карла II, Константин Родоканаки, который умер, сделав карьеру на создании патентованного лекарства под названием «дух соли». 475 У этих греков был постоянный священник, Даниил Вулгарис, но не было здания церкви. В 1674 г. Вулгарис с еще двумя греками явился в Тайный Совет за разрешением построить в Сити церковь, очевидно, при условии, что они станут английскими подданными. Вулгарис получил подданство в марте следующего года. Но место для строительства все еще не было найдено. Георгиренис заключил контракт с главным надзирателем за зданиями, Николасом Барбоном, который предложил свое сотрудничество, а затем нашел подход к Лондонскому епископу, Генри Комптону, более всех сочувствовавшему предприятию. Но у Комптона был свой собственный приближенный строитель, Ричард Ферт, который предложил участок земли на Хоглэйн (ныне улица Чарингкросс), который он взял в аренду у пивовара Иосифа Гирла, а тот, в свою очередь, арендовал его у коронованного арендатора, графа Сент–Альбана. Участок находился в приходе св. Мартина в Полях; и Комптон убедил приход арендовать участок Гирла и передать его грекам. Георгиренис, познания которого в английском были, как он сам признавался, недостаточными, ничего не понял, а приходские власти так составили документ, что они могли взять себе землю обратно в любой момент.

Место было официально передано грекам летом 1677 г. Георгиренис уже собрал достаточную сумму для начала работ; Р. Ферт начал строительство. Король Карл II даровал 100 фунтов, а его брат Иаков (Джеймс), герцог Йоркский, хотя и был общеизвестным католиком, проявил особенную щедрость. За несколько месяцев Георгиренис собрал 15 000 фунтов. Несмотря на то, что Ферт был оштрафован за использование плохих кирпичей, поставляемых бывшим владельцем Гирлом, здание было готово к концу 1677 г. Георгиренис затем собрал дополнительную сумму на украшение и ремонт храма, опубликовав в 1678 г. краткую книгу о Самосе и других частях Греции, которые он знал. Она была переведена на английский язык «одним знакомым автора в Константинополе» – на самом деле бывшим капелланом Левантийской компании Генрихом Дентоном. Книга была посвящена герцогу Йоркскому, в благодарность за его щедрость, невзирая на то, что в предисловии говорилось о различиях Римской и Греческой церквей. Была надежда собирать регулярный доход через одного родственника Георгирениса, некоего Лаврентия Георгирениса, который прибыл в Англию со специальным методом соления макрели. Английское правительство проявляло в этом заинтересованность и было готово дать Лоренсу патент; но план не осуществился.