Page:The nomads of the Balkans, an account of life and customs among the Vlachs of Northern Pindus (1914).djvu/32

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been validated.
FROM TIRNAVOS TO SAMARINA
23

of Theodore, bishop of Ghrevena. We next hear of the bishopric in 1383 and an ecclesiastical document of the Patriarch of Constantinople dated 1395 mentions κύσρον Γρεβενὸν λεγόμενον. From other sources we learn that on December 6th 1422 Neophytos Bishop of Ghrevena died, and that in 1538 the bishop was called Symeon. In lists giving the dioceses under the Patriarch of Achrida and in the synodical acts and other documents of the same Patriarchate of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries the diocese and its bishops are frequently mentioned. The earliest bishop given is Gregory who was alive in 1668. He was followed by Theophanes who flourished about 1676. This energetic prelate although the synod had already chosen another Patriarch of Achrida, journeyed to Adrianople and obtained the see through the Sublime Porte. He was formally dethroned by the Patriarch of Constantinople. His accusers alleged that though only a monk he had seized the bishopric of Ghrevena and had acted as such without being consecrated. Further he was said to have induced the Patriarch of Achrida, Ignatios a man of no intelligence and ignorant of ecclesiastical law to consecrate him. He was also accused of perjury, adultery, theft and of trying to take from the Patriarchate of Constantinople and bring under his own authority the diocese of Beroea. Other bishops mentioned are Pankratios, Theophanes (this name occurs from 1683 to 1740, so probably there were two of the same name), Seraphim, Makarios and Gabriel.

After the Turkish conquest Ghrevena obtained the position which it held throughout Turkish times, as the capital of a district, first as the seat of a mudir till i860, and then of a kaimmakam till 1912. In the sixteenth century according to Aravandinos, it was made the centre for one of the capitanliks of armatoli, a kind of Christian militia maintained by the Turkish government to guard the roads and keep order. These armatoli were often brigands, who were taken into service on the principle of setting a thief to catch a thief. Robbers frequently betrayed one another to the authorities, and if any armatoli and brigands fell in a skirmish, the Turks