1718. heart was still amongst the secluded gardens of AD Athos, and the residue of his life was consumed in melancholy and regret. He resigned his archbishoprick in 1779, and retired to the Russian capital. Here the death of Potemkin destroyed his hopes of promotion, and, after an old age rendered miserable by the diseases of an inclement climate, and embittered by disappointment, he expired at St. Petersburgh in 1806. He was succeeded in the see of Cherson by his countryman and fellow-student Nicephorus Theotoky, who had shared with him the benefits of a domestic and foreign education. He attached himself, on his return from Europe, to the church of Samuel the Patriarch of Constantinople; but owing to a severe rebuke for a trivial offence,* he retired in disgust from the capital, and settled in one of the remote provinces. Here he spent several years in composing works of instruction for the Greeks, a system of geography, a treatise on natural philosophy, and a complete course of mathematics; and his productions, together with those of Bul * In delivering the funeral oration of a lady of the house of Gkika, the Hospodar of Wallachia, he had so highly exaggerated the virtues of his subject, that on his descent from the pulpit, Samuel repulsed his salutation, observing, that "The church wanted pastors, not parasites." A.D. 1750. garis, are the most valuable literary treasures which had yet been conferred on his country. In 1779, he was advanced by Catharine II. to the vacant archbishoprick of Cherson, and subsequently translated to that of Astrachan. In the latter, his evangelical labours have been extravagantly lauded by his admirers, who state that thousands of the Tartars were converted by his preaching. He resigned his dignity after a few years' enjoyment, and retired to join his early companion Eugenius at St. Petersburgh, where he died in 1800. It was by the exertions of such individuals as these, that a spirit of inquiry was early in the last century awakened throughout Greece, and a passion for knowledge was infused into the nation, which no pecuniary or local obstacles could suppress. The popular tastes and literature of the people assumed at once a new character; the barbarous poetry and rude romances of the Cretans were abandoned, and, after 1750, the catalogues of Grecian libraries will be found to abound with works of a scientific or historical cast. The progress of events was at the same time highly favourable to the advancement of the Greeks: the Phanariot nobles, rising into influence with the Divan, had infused a spirit of ambition and a sense, though feeble, of political importance into the 1750. minds of the people; and the efforts of the A.D. Sultans, after their final triumph over the Venetians, to destroy the power of the Armatolics,* so far from being adequate to such an object, tended only to arouse every vigorous feeling of indignant independence. The spirit of freedom and of knowledge sprang up simultaneously amongst them: every valley sent forth its own Tyrtæus, and the inspiring lyrics which still inflame the enthusiasm of the Greeks, resounded at once from Pindus to Hymettus.† Whilst this spirit was thus springing up in Greece, a new power was quickly rising into importance in Europe, which seemed destined to encourage and protect it. From the tenth century, when the faith of the Oriental church was established by Vladimir, as the national religion of Russia, there had been a constant intercourse, more or less intimate, between that nation and the Greeks. The barbarism and feebleness of the former had, however, prevented them from rendering any assistance to their See vol. i. of this History, c. xi. p. 425. + Villemain, p. 179; Rizo, Cours, &c. p. 154. M. Fauriel, in his introduction to his Chants Populaires de la Grèce Moderne, states that the earliest date he can assign with certainty to the greater portion of his collection, is about 130 years back, or the beginning of the last century. Introd. p. xcviii. † A.D. 980. 1750. A.D. coreligionists; and it was only when their power began, towards the close of the seventeenth and the commencement of the eighteenth century, to rise into importance, that the Greeks were induced to look towards them as patrons and future protectors. Alexis Michaelowitz, who ascended the throne of Russia in 1645, had endeavoured, towards the close of his reign, to unite the states of Christendom in a crusade to check the advances of the Turks, who were then harassing the territory of Poland, and, if possible, drive them back into Asia:* but Clement X. and the other potentates of Europe, met the proposal only with politeness and promises, nor were any steps ever taken for its execution. The subsequent advances of Russia under Peter the Great, excited the expectations of the Greeks to the highest degree; but their hopes were at once overthrown by the disastrous affair of the Pruth in 1711. Nor does it seem at all probable, although it has been so asserted, that the designs of the Czar against Turkey proceeded at any time to the same extent with * Mod. Univ. Hist. vol. xxxv. p. 352; Dufey, Hist. de la Régéneration de la Grèce, vol. i. c. i. p. 6; Voltaire, Histoire de Russie sous Pierre le Grand, vol. i. p. 87. + See vol. ii. of this History, c. xii. p. 26; Cantemir, P. ii. p. 452; Mod. Univ. Hist. v. xxxv. p. 452; Voltaire, Hist. de Russie, vol. ii. p. 1 Id. Hist. de Charles XII. l. v. vol. ii. p. 37. those of Alexis, or comprehended the restoration of the Greek empire. In his first war with the Sultan, although acting in conjunction with Poland, Germany, and Venice, his conquests were confined to the capture of Azoff,* an inconsiderable town at the extremity of a gulf in the Black Sea, which in his second unfortunate rupture with the Porte he was forced to surrender,† and finally, towards the close of his reign, he was even in alliance with the Sultan against the Persians. No direct overtures had as yet, in fact, been made to the Greeks by the agents of Russia; and their expectation of future co-operation was grounded solely on a natural hope of assistance from the only nation possessing the same faith with themselves, which was not subjected to a foreign enslaver, as well as on a reliance on some absurd prophecies which had been circulated even in the days of the Lower Empire, that the emancipation of Greece, at a late period, would be achieved by a fair-haired nation of the North. This idea was likewise strengthened by their intercourse with the Sclavonic tribes, who had inhabited the rude district * A.D. 1696. Voltaire, Hist. de Russie, &c. vol. i. p. 138. + Voltaire, Hist. de Russie, vol. ii. pp. 35. 46. Dufey, vol. i. p. 13. Some of those prophecies are mentioned in Dr. Walshe's Journey from Constantinople to Eng A.D. 1750. |