The establishment of a kingdom in independent Greece by the Protocol of London in 1830, and the simultaneous proclamation of the semi-independence of Serbia and Montenegro, were followed in 1839 by Turkey's publication of the document known as “Hatti Serif,” which gave pledge of security for the life, honor and property of all Turkish subjects, irrespective of their religious views. After the terrible Crimean War of 1854, Turkey issued in 1856 another declaration, the “Hatti Houmayioun,” which proclaimed full religious and civil equality, abolished the taxation of Patriarchs and bishops, removed all restrictions on the building of Christian churches and schools, recommended the setting up of committees consisting of both clerical and lay members to examine matters not strictly ecclesiastical in scope, and provided for the establishment of mixed tribunals on which members of other religions might sit together with Mohammedans. But that all this was a mere pretence adopted by the Turk to deceive the Western Powers, whose frequent intervention he bitterly resented, nourishing as he does an implacable hatred against all Christians, was clearly proved by the periodical and methodical attempts to exterminate all the followers of the Gospel which he never ceased to organize. In 1860, the massacre of Druses in Lebanon and Damascus claimed thousands of victims. In 1876, 1885 and 1896 hundreds of thousands of Armenians were massacred in Constantinople and in other parts of the Ottoman empire; and in the coastal and interior districts of Asia Minor, m 1922, the slaughter of Armenians and of the native Greeks, who had been established there since Homeric times, amounted to millions. However that may be, the Orthodox Christian peoples of Greece, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, Albania and the islands of the Mediterranean, who for centuries were tormented under the Turkish yoke, are now enjoying the great gift of freedom; and for that, at least, our thanks are due to God.

The Four Most Ancient Patriarchates and Cyprus.

The Patriarchate of Constantinople.

   The Patriarchate of Constantinople, which had formerly owed its superiority over the other Patriarchates merely to the historical significance of the city itself, assumed a much greater importance after the fall of Constantinople, because of the ecclesiastical and civil privileges accorded to it by the Turks. However far practice might lag behind, in theory and in principle the Patriarch of Constantinople had the right to resume in his own person and represent before the Divan the whole Orthodox race, whose national leader he was held to be; to watch over their spiritual life; to look after their churches and monasteries; to settle family disputes among his flock; to confirm wills, and to grant divorces. Moreover, since the other three Patriarchal Thrones of the East were situated far from the Sultan's capital and were themselves in a very sorry state, the Patriarch of Constantinople not infrequently took up the defense of their interests also before the Sublime Porte, not from a despotic wish to trample on their liberties, but from a brotherly spirit of concern for his weaker brethren. The half civil, half ecclesiastical functions of the Ecumenical Patriarch were indicated even by his vestments, which were similar to those of the Byzantine Emperors, and by the two-headed eagle depicted on his “encolplion” and on his seal.

The System of Government.

   During the first three centuries after the fall of Constantinople, the Patriarch had the co-operation of two administrative bodies; namely, the “Holy Synod,” which was composed of bishops and deliberated over the most important affairs, and the “Ecclesiastical Council/ which consisted of office-bearers, and dealt with less weighty matters. But in 1763, during the patriarchate of Samuel I, this system of Church government was replaced by the senatorial system, known as “Gerontismos.” Twelve bishops, that is to say, chosen from the places nearest to Constantinople, were continuously in attendance on the Patriarch, permanently assisting him in the work of government, and representing all their fellow-bishops. From one point of view, this system was a good one, because, through long experience and frequent contact with the rulers, it trained a group of men to knowledge of the dangers surrounding them and understanding of the methods by which such dangers might be averted. It had, however, the great disadvantage that in the course of time the rule of these “elders” became arbitrary, since all authority was centered in their hands. A hundred years after its institution, therefore, the system of Gerontismos was abolished, and a new administrative system, better suited to modern requirements, was introduced by the “General Regulations” drawn up in 1862. By these regulations, the affairs of the Patriarchate were divided into the purely “spiritual,” or those that concern faith and morals, and the “material,” which deal with the supervision of schools, the control of bills, the property of monasteries, the settlement of wills, and other kindred matters. The care of the former was entrusted to the “Holy Synod,” which was composed of twelve bishops of the Ecumenical Throne, elected in rotation, and was so constituted that its members were constantly being renewed, all the bishops in turn taking part in the administration; while to deal with the latter a “Mixed Council” was created, on which four members of the Holy Synod sat together with eight eminent laymen, duly elected by the people.

The Area of Jurisdiction.

   It was particularly during the eighteenth century that the area subject to the jurisdiction of Ecumenical Patriarchate reached its widest extent. At time there were dependent upon it about one hundred and Archbishops, Metropolitans and bishops, who had their in Thrace, Macedonia, Epirus, Albania, Greece, the an and Ionian Islands, Montenegro, Serbia, Bulgaria, Moldavia and Walachia, Hungary, and the region called e Russia,” which marked the limit of the Patriarch's authority; for although the Metropolis of Moscow had been promoted to the rank of an independent and self-sufficing Russian Ecclesiastical Center in the sixteenth century, Kiev the Archbishopric of Little Russia, still continued to acknowledge the Patriarch of Constantinople as its spiritual head. The desperate circumstances contributed towards the extension of the Patriarch's sphere of authority. Bulgarians, Serbs, Vlachs, Albanians and other peoples were being crushed by the all-powerful Turk, and needed protection if they were to save at least their faith; and what other refuge had they but the Ecumenical Patriarchate? Thus, in 1766 and 1767, under the previously mentioned Patriarch Samuel, the Archbishopric of Ipek and Ochrida, which were at that time the ecclesiastical centers of the Churches of Serbia and Bulgaria respectively, came spontaneously to the Ecumenical Patriarch, requesting him to take them under his authority. Such was the vast extent of the Patriarchate of Constantinople during the eighteenth century. But the political independence, which from the beginning of the nineteenth century onwards began to be enjoyed by Greece, Serbia, Rumania, Bulgaria, and, lastly, Albania, also resulted in the emancipation of these countries from the ecclesiastical authority of the Patriarchate. Consequently, — and particularly after the wholesale eradication of Christianity by the Kemalists from the land of the “Seven Stars of the Apocalypse,” — the boundaries of this Patriarchate, first in rank and in authority, have been signally reduced.