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312 generally proved to be pliant instruments in the hands of the government. That is not very surprising, since they were selected with this end in view. They commonly obtained the post by bribery and held it by sycophancy. Thus the Church was confronted with the unedifying spectacle of her chief priest cringing before the infidel. In return for his subserviency the patriarch of Constantinople was allowed to summon synods and to hold courts, not only for ecclesiastical, but even for civil cases, among his own people.

The patriarchs were frequently deposed by the sultans quite arbitrarily, and they often bought their places back again; but some fell into perpetual disgrace, and some were strangled. At one time there were fourteen patriarchs in fifteen years. Some of the patriarchs were of notoriously degraded character. The patriarch Raphael was said to have been a confirmed drunkard ignorant of Greek.

Following the example in high places, bishops bought their positions, and were used by the government as magistrates and tax-gatherers. The orthodox patriarchs of Antioch, Alexandria, and Jerusalem were very differently situated. These chief pastors were still elected by synods of local bishops as in older, happier times. But they had very little power, most of the Christian inhabitants of their provinces being heretics out of communion with their church. The one patriarch who exercised effective control over the Greek Church was regarded by patriotic Greeks themselves as a renegade and a traitor to their cause.