page_title: Gennadius Scholarius
section_title: Ottoman period
hierarchical_section_title: Gennadius Scholarius / Biography / Ottoman period
caption_attribution_description: English: Gennadios Scholarios with Mehmet IIΕλληνικά: Ο Πατριάρχης Γεννάδιος Β και ο σουλτάνος Μωάμεθ Β,Ψηφιδωτό από τον Πατριαρχικό Οίκο στην Κωνσταντινούπολη
context_page_description: Gennadius II was a Byzantine philosopher and theologian, and Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople from 1454 to 1464. He was a strong advocate for the use of Aristotelian philosophy in the Eastern Church.
  Gennadius was, together with his mentor, Mark of Ephesus, involved in the Council of Florence which aimed to end the schism between East and West. Gennadius had studied and written extensively on Western theology. After the failure of the union of Florence and the Fall of Constantinople, Gennadius became the first Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople under Ottoman rule.
  A polemicist, Scholarios left in writing several treatises on the differences between Eastern and Western theology, the Filioque, a defence of Aristotelianism and excerpts from an exposition of the Orthodox faith addressed to Mehmed II.
context_section_description: After the fall of Constantinople, Gennadius was taken prisoner by the Turks.  In administering his new conquest, 21-year-old conquering Sultan Mehmed II wished to assure the loyalty of the Greek population and above all avoid them appealing to the West for liberation, potentially sparking a new round of Crusades.  Mehmed therefore sought the most anti-Western cleric he could find as a figure of unity for the Greeks under Turkish rule – and Gennadius as leading anti-Union figure was a natural choice. On 1 June 1453, just three days after the fall of the city, the new Patriarch's procession passed through the streets where Mehmed received Gennadius graciously and himself invested him with the signs of his office – the crosier (dikanikion) and mantle.  This ceremonial investiture would be repeated by all sultans and patriarchs thereafter.
  The city's famous patriarchal basilica, the Hagia Sophia, had already been converted into a mosque by the conquerors, so Gennadius established his seat at the Church of the Holy Apostles.  Three years later the edifice, which was in a dilapidated state (in 1461 it was demolished by the Ottomans to make way for the Fatih Mosque), was abandoned by the Patriarch, who moved again to the Church of the Pammakaristos.
  The Ottomans divided their Empire into millets or subject nations, of which the Greeks were the largest, known as the Rum Millet. The Patriarch was appointed the official head or Ethnarch of the Greek millet, which was used as the Ottomans as a source for imperial administrators.  Gennadius became a political authority as well as a religious one, as were all his successors under the Ottomans.
  As was normal when a monk or lay scholar was appointed patriarch, Gennadius was consecutively ordained, first as a deacon, then as a priest, then finally as a bishop before being appointed patriarch.
caption: Patriarch Gennadios with Mehmet II depicted on a 20th-century mosaic[14]
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