Changes

For over 400 yrs. The years, the Church under Islamic rule experienced a “dark age”. The Church was completely dominated by the state, its administration became corrupt, and its faithful suffered from frequent pogroms. Yet the Church never ceased to exist as the Church.

*Turks invaded and conquered Constantinople on '''''[[May 29]], 1453''''' under the leadership of Mohamed II. The invasion brought the end of Byzantium, crushing the prestige of the Christian East.

*Shortly after his victory Mohammed invited the Greeks to elect their own [[patriarch]]. [[Gennadius Scholarius]], was chosen. He had participated in the Council of Florence, initially as a supporter of union, but [[Mark of Ephesus ]] brought him to see the errors of the Council and he began a vehement opponent of union. He became a historical figure for his theological works and was recognized as a good leader in a difficult time.

*Initially other than paying a head tax to the Sultan the Orthodox were left to their own business. In fact, the Orthodox Patriarch enjoyed an historically unparalleled amount of power as milet pasha. The Muslims did not much distinguish between Church and State and therefore in recognizing the Patriarch as the head of the Church also recognized him as head of the Christians in a Political sense as well. Even in the glory days of the Empire the Patriarch patriarch did not enjoy this kind of position, Michael Celarius way have been close.

*The Church hierarchy was given the right to civil administration over their Christian population. The bishops[[bishop]]s, under the Patriarch patriarch judged Christians according to Greek laws, rather than Islamic ones. All sentences were imposed by the Turkish authorities. They were allowed their own schools and basically became a state within a state.

*Political decline shortly settle in to the [[Ottoman empire|Ottoman Empire]]. Corruption became the rule. The sultans fleeced their pashas, who in turn fleeced their faithful. These were desperaten time and there was no one to listen to the complaints of the Christian, no one within the territories and no one without.

*Even the rights of the patriarch as milet pasha were reduced to nothing in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. He was left the “right” of being held responsible for the Christians. Persecutions and martyrdom [[martyr]]dom were becoming prevalent. All of Europe feared the Ottomans and Russia alone came to their aid, but this only worsened their position and infuriated their occupiers.

*The situation grew much worse, as national awareness and hope for freedom grew in the captive Christians. The Greeks throughout Turkey paid in blood for the Greek uprising of ''1821'' and Patriarch [[Gregory V of Constantinople|Gregory V]] was martyred that same year.