GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE

GENNADIUS OF CONSTANTINOPLE, patriarch, theologian (ca. 1405–1472). The first to serve as Ecumenical Patriarch following the fall of Constantinople (qq.v.) in 1453, he was appointed and confirmed in office by Sultan Mohammed II, though he suffered (as was to become the pattern) periodic exiles as a result of the Sultan’s displeasure. The Sultan established with him the concordat, which lasted until 1923, and which governed the relationship between the Orthodox Church in Constantinople and the Moslem ruler.

His name before monastic tonsure was George and his surname Scholarius (the scholar). He was one of the most noted intellectuals at the close of the Byzantine era (q.v.), and one of the few Greeks to learn Latin, evidenced by his translations of and admiring commentary on Thomas Aquinas. As such, Scholarius was invited to accompany the Byzantine delegation to the Reunion Council (q.v.) of Ferrara-Florence in 1438 to 1439, and was one of the signers of the Decree of Union. Afterward, converted to opposition to the Union by Mark of Ephesus (q.v.) and tonsured by the latter, he led the resistance following Mark’s death. Doubtless, this opposition to union with the Roman Catholic West was one of the reasons for his appointment by the Sultan, although Gennadius was also the most qualified of available candidates for other reasons. He died in exile in the year of Constantinople’s formal repudiation of the Florentine Union.