CHAPTER IX
ORTHODOX THEOLOGY
The Orthodox Church during the four centuries of Turkish oppression naturally sank to a low level of culture. One cannot expect any great theological movements, nor look for the names of famous scholars in a community that was ground down as were the Rayahs before the more tolerant laws of the 19th century. The one duty of the Orthodox, then, was to keep their faith in spite of everything, and this they did very nobly.
However, their Church was not really quite dead. She produced some theologians; was very conscious of her own position when the Protestants wanted to make an alliance with her, and she was on one occasion convulsed by a really serious trouble in the affair of Cyril Lukaris. These three points now require some notice.
1. Theologians since 1453.
The names of a few of the theologians whose works are still read over there, and who enjoy a reputation as classical exponents of the Orthodox faith, ought at least to be mentioned. These theologians all studied at the Western universities: there were no means of education in Turkey. Venice had a large colony of Greeks; and Greek students came to Padua, Pisa, Florence, Paris, Oxford, even Rome.
Since the Council of Florence there have always been a number of Eastern Christians of every rite who have accepted its decrees and who therefore, while keeping the liturgies, rites,
245
