Chapter 7. The End of the Empire

By the middle of the fifteenth century, it became clear to any impartial observer that the time of the life of the ancient Empire was coming to an end. Its territory now consisted only of the city of Constantinople itself, half in ruins, with a dwindling population, as well as a few cities along the coast of the Sea of Marmara and the Black Sea coast of Thrace and the islands of Tenedos and Imvros at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The vassal of the imperial house remained the despotate of Morea, which now included the whole of the Peloponnese, with the exception of a few Venetian fortresses. In the east of the Empire, the Empire of Trebizond of the Great Comneni dragged out a miserable existence. There were several other minor Latin states on the territory of Greece and the islands; other islands, as well as several port cities, belonged to Venice and Genoa. Everywhere, from the Danube to the Tauride Mountains, everything was in the hands of the Ottoman Turks. The Ottoman Empire was ruled by strong and capable rulers; The Ottoman army was the best and most modern in the world. When the Ottoman throne passed to the brilliant and ambitious nineteen-year-old Mehmed II in 1451, it could not be expected that he could long tolerate the fact that the great city would continue to exist as an alien island in the very center of his dominions.

There was a tense life in the city. The philosophical and theological disputes that had been waged in Byzantium in previous centuries were now subordinated to the burning political question: Could the Empire be saved? But this problem necessarily led to a religious question. If the Empire was destined to be saved, it could only happen with help from outside; and help from outside meant help from the West, the price of which was the union of the Churches under the dominion of Rome.

In this last moment of the agony of the Empire, the Church of Constantinople could do little to help its people. Its provincial administration was disrupted by the Turkish offensive. In Constantinople itself, the official policy in favor of the union caused chaos. There was no patriarch. The last to occupy the throne, Gregory Mammas, left for Italy. Since the episcopal sees were vacant, the emperor could not find anyone who could replace them and support the union. The clergy and communities of the city avoided divine services in the Great Church - St. Instead of her, they went for advice to the monastery of Pantocrator, where the monk Gennadius, formerly George Scholarius, delivered fiery sermons against the Unia. Did the Byzantines have reason to seek to save their bodies at the cost of the destruction of their souls? And could they really be physically saved? For Gennady and his followers, it was all too clear that the aid provided by the West could be tragically unequal. The Holy Scriptures stated that sooner or later the Antichrist would come as the forerunner of Armageddon and the end of the world. Many Greeks thought that this moment was near. Was this the right time to betray the purity of the faith?

Despite this, when the critical moment came, it was difficult to find a man or woman in Constantinople who would not stand up for the defense of the city. The Western Allies were few in number. But no matter who they were, whether they were Venetian and Genoese merchants whose main motive was self-interest, or noble adventurers such as the Bocciardi brothers, or the Spaniard Don Francisco of Toledo, or the clerics of Cardinal Isidore's retinue, all fought bravely until the last moment, until the bravest of them, Giustiniani of Genoa, mortally wounded, left the field of battle. The Greeks were overwhelmed by omens and prophecies, they were really aware that the city could not hold out for long, and although some of them were convinced that only Turkish conquest could now bring a solution to their problems, they all unanimously entered the battle. Old men and women restored the destroyed fortifications night after night. Even the monks were on duty on the walls as sentries and, forgetting the ancient prohibitions of the Holy Fathers, took up arms against the besiegers. There was envy and enmity between the allies, between the Venetians and the Genoese, among the Greeks among themselves, and between the Greeks and the Latins in general. But quarrels never seriously weakened the defense. Pride and devotion to the emperor and Christianity were stronger than their contradictions; and on the last night before the decisive assault, all who could be freed from the protection of the walls, regardless of their affiliation, came to the last liturgy in the Great Church to pray for deliverance, which, as they all knew, could only be brought about by a miracle.

The empire ended its existence in glory. And only when the news spread through the city that the emperor had been slain, and the Sultan's banner was waving on the Holy Palace, the Greeks stopped fighting and tried to adapt as best they could to life under the yoke. [250]

Book II The Church under the Ottoman Sultans

Chapter 1. A new life

On Tuesday, May 29, 1453, the old story ended. The last heir of Constantine the Great lay slain on the battlefield; the city founded by Constantine as the capital of the Christian Empire was triumphantly entered by a non-Orthodox sultan. There was no longer an emperor who ruled in the Holy Palace, symbolizing to the believers of the East the greatness and power of Almighty God. The Church of Constantinople, which for more than a thousand years was in alliance with the Orthodox state, became a Church of subject people dependent on the whim of a Muslim master. All her activities, views and entire way of life had to undergo radical changes.

The changes were profound; However, they were not as cardinal as it may seem at first glance. For many centuries the historic patriarchates of the East—Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem—had been under the political authority of Muslim rulers, with the exception of brief interruptions. When the Turks conquered the regions of Asia Minor in the eleventh century, there were already communities belonging to the Patriarchate of Constantinople that lived under Muslim rule. In recent decades, the rapid expansion of the Ottoman Empire into Europe and Asia had increased their numbers, and by 1453 the bulk of the patriarch's flock was in the sultan's possessions. There were also many Greek lands which had for some time passed into the hands of the Latins, and which were destined to remain for some time under their rule. Although the Genoese lost most of their Greek colonies immediately after 1453, they held on to Chios until 1566.[251] The Venetians held fortresses in the Peloponnese and on some islands of the Aegean Sea as early as the sixteenth century; Crete was in possession until 1669, and Tinos until 1715, and Cyprus, which was still an independent kingdom at the fall of Constantinople, was in the hands of the Venetians from 1487 to 1570.252 The Italian Duchy of the Archipelago continued to exist until 1566, when the Turks made their Jewish vassal duke there. [253] The Knights of St. John ruled Rhodes until 1522.[254] The Ionian Islands along the western coast of Greece never came under Turkish rule. They remained in the hands of the Venetians until the end of the eighteenth century, when they were conquered by the French and then passed to the British, who ceded them to the Kingdom of Greece in 1864.[255] There were thus still a few provinces over which the authority of the patriarch could not always extend. Yet, from a certain point of view, the ecclesiastical administration and discipline of the patriarchate benefited from the Turkish conquest, because the broad boundaries of its territory were once again united under one civil authority.

But this civil power was heterodox. Throughout the existence of the Christian Empire in Constantinople, the Church and the state were united into one sacred region. The emperor may indeed have been terribly weak, but theoretically he was still the head of the Christian universe, the representative of God before men and men before God. Now the Church was separated from the state. She was associated with second-class citizens. And here, as the only organization of these citizens, she was allowed to lead them, and her disciplinary power over their communities increased. However, the highest sanction of freedom was taken away from it.

The conquering sultan was well aware of all the problems facing the Church, and he was not hostile to its welfare. He was a fierce enemy until Constantinople was conquered, and the conquest itself was accompanied by bloody and destructive cruelty. But after the conquest, he could not be denied nobility. Greek blood flowed in his veins. He was well read and interested in Greek learning. He was proud to be the heir of the Caesars, and he was willing to assume the religious obligations of his predecessors as far as his own religion permitted. As a pious Muslim, he could not allow Christians to participate in the supreme power in the Empire. But he wanted them to live in peace and prosperity and be content with their government as a complement to this. [256]