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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 18 September 2017
This article examines the tombstone of Meletios II, a native of Tenedos, who was briefly Ecumenical Patriarch in 1768–9. It also offers an account of his troubled patriarchate and sketches events in the rest of his ecclesiastical career. This hitherto unknown tombstone has rested for an indeterminate number of years in the garden of North Bank, a large Victorian mansion in Pages Lane in the North London suburb of Muswell Hill. It appears to have been in the grounds of North Bank before the house became an annexe of Muswell Hill Methodist Church. It is not known where in the Ottoman Empire Meletios' grave was originally situated, nor has it been possible to establish the circumstances in which the tombstone came to North Bank. On the basis of the inscription on the tombstone it is possible to establish Meletios' previously unknown date of death, 5 January 1780. It appears to be one of the earliest known tombstones of an Ecumenical Patriarch during the period of the Tourkokratia.
1 Marindin, G. E. (ed.), The Letters of John B. S. Morritt of Rokeby Descriptive of Journeys in Europe and Asia Minor in the Years 1794-1796 (London 1914) 159 ffGoogle Scholar. A new edition, with an introduction by P. J. Hogarth, was published in 1985.
2 Hillaire Belloc satirized the pretensions of some of the local grandees in his Cautionary Tales for Children (1907), when he wrote that the obnoxious Charles Augustus Fortescue acquired an immense fortune with which he built ‘the Splendid Mansion which is called the Cedars, Muswell Hill’.
3 The assistance of Dr Maria Litina, Gill Simpson, Dr Vasileios Tsakiris, Revd Nikolaos Voulmes and the Holy Metropolis of Mytilene is also gratefully acknowledged.
4 In the sense of ‘brave’: cf. Plutarch, Moralia XII, Bruta animalia ratione uti 988D 2-3.
5 Makraios, S., Ὑπομνήματα Ἐκκλησιαστικῆς Ἱστορίας, 1750-1800 , in Sathas, K. N. (ed.), Μεσαιωνικὴ Βιβλιοθήκη, III (Venice 1872) 273–4Google Scholar.
6 See the articles by Μ. D. Chamoudopoulos, ‘Ἡ Πατριαρχικὴ Μεγάλη τοῦ Γένους Σχολή’; M. Paranikas, ‘Περὶ τῆς ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει Πατριαρχικῆς Σχολῆς’; idem, ‘Περὶ τῆς ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει Πατριαρχικῆς Σχολῆς (1691-1835)’; and A. Mazarakis, ‘Ἡ Πατριαρχικὴ Μεγάλη τοῦ Γένους Σχολή’, reprinted in Δελτίο Ἑταιρείας Μελέτης τῆς καθ’ ἡμᾶς Ἀνατολῆς 1 (2004) 531, 582, 639, 659 respectively; Τ. Α. Gritsopoulos, Πατριαρχικὴ Μεγάλη τοῦ Γένους Σχολή, 2 vols [Βιβλιοθήκη τῆς ἐν Ἀθήναις Φιλεκπαιδευτικῆς Ἑταιρείας, 37, 59] (Αthens 1966, 1971), I, 377-84, 414, 416, 420, 423-4, 444, 450-2, 464-5; II, 51, 54-5, 59, 378-85 (documents 9-10, Meletios’ Synodal letters dated March 1769). On Meletios’ possible involvement in the founding of a school in Trikke (Trikala) in 1721 or earlier, see M. K. Paranikas, Σχεδίασμα περὶ τῆς ἐν τῷ Ἑλληνικῷ ἔθνει καταστάσεως τῶν Γραμμάτων ἀπὸ Ἁλώσεως Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (1453 μ. Χ.) μέχρι τῶν ἀρχῶν τῆς ἐνεστώσης (1Θ′.) ἑκατονταετηρίδος (Constantinople 1867) 84 with n. 1.
7 See Gritsopoulos, T. A., ‘Μελέτιος ὁ Β′, Πατριάρχης Κωνσταντινουπόλεως (1768-1769)’, in Θρησκευτικὴ καὶ Ἠθικὴ Ἐγκυκλοπαιδεία, VIII (Athens 1966), col. 959 Google Scholar.
8 A. Komninos Ypsilantis, Ἐκκλησιαστικῶν καὶ πολιτικῶν τῶν εἰς δώδεκα βιβλίων Η′, Θ′, καὶ Ι′, ἤτοι τὰ μετὰ τὴν Ἅλωσιν (1453-1789) . . . (Constantinople 1870) 519-20.
9 Op.cit., 419-39.
10 Op.cit., 419.
11 Op.cit., 422.
12 Ibid.
13 Op.cit., 434, ad fin.
14 Op.cit., 439.
15 Turkish tulum, a bag made of the skin of an animal.
16 [G. Ar.], ‘Ἱστορικὸν ἀπομνημόνευμα Μελετίου Πατριάρχου τοῦ Τενεδίου’, Πανδώρα 11, no. 263 (1 March 1861) 572-6; S. Lampros, ‘Ἐνθυμήσεων ἤτοι χρονικῶν σημειωμάτων συλλογὴ πρώτη’, Νέος Ἑλληνομνήμων 7 (1910) 241, no. 463; Kleomvrotos, I. G., Τὰ κατὰ τὴν εὕρεσιν καὶ μετακομιδὴν τῶν ἱερῶν λειψάνων τοῦ ὁσίου Γρηγορίου ἐπισκόπου Ἄσσου πολιούχου Γέρας (Mytilene 1965) 62 Google Scholar.
17 Cf. Goudas, A. N., Βίοι παράλληλοι τῶν ἐπὶ τῆς Ἀναγεννήσεως τῆς Ἑλλάδος διαπρεψάντων ἀνδρῶν, I: Κλῆρος (Athens 1869) 10–14 Google Scholar.
18 This information and Meletios’ subsequent adventures are not mentioned by Koumas, K. Μ., Ἱστορίαι τῶν ἀνθρωπίνων πράξεων ἀπὸ τῶν ἀρχαιοτάτων χρόνων ἕως τῶν ἡμερῶν μας, ἐκ παλαιῶν ἀπανθισθεῖσαι, καὶ τὰ νεώτερα ἐξ ἀρίστων Γερμανῶν ἱστοριογράφων ἐλευθέρως μεταφρασθεῖσαι, X (Vienna 1831) 402–3Google Scholar, who erroneously states that after Meletios ‘was found innocent he was only condemned to lose his office, and after five months of his patriarchate he was sent (1769) to Tenedos, where he spent the rest of his life’ (403). This is repeated by Vyzantios, S. D., Ἡ Κωνσταντινούπολις, ἢ περιγραφὴ τοπογραφική, ἀρχαιολογικὴ καὶ ἱστορικὴ τῆς περιωνύμου ταύτης μεγαλοπόλεως . . ., II (Athens 1862) 543 Google Scholar; Goudas, Βίοι παράλληλοι, Ι, 14; and Mathas, Z. N., Κατάλογος ἱστορικὸς τῶν πρώτων ἐπισκόπων καὶ τῶν ἐφεξῆς πατριαρχῶν τῆς ἐν Κωνσταντινουπόλει Ἁγίας καὶ Μεγάλης τοῦ Χριστοῦ Ἐκκλησίας (Athens 1884) 157–8Google Scholar. See A. Kerkineoglou, ‘Η Τένεδος ως τόπος εξορίας’, H Τένεδος 8 (January-March 2009), accessible online at: http://users.otenet.gr/~Tened0s/TenedosExoria1.htm (accessed 25 June 2016).
19 [G. Ar.], ‘Ἱστορικὸν ἀπομνημόνευμα’, 576; Lampros, ‘Ἐνθυμήσεων ἤτοι χρονικῶν σημειωμάτων συλλογὴ πρώτη’, 241, no. 463.
20 We would like to thank the Revd Meliton R. Oakes for drawing our attention to these documents, now accessible online at: http://eib.xanthi.ilsp.gr/gr/boundmaterials.asp?vmode=vselect&vid=71#selectedAnchor (doc. 5) (accessed 3 July 2016).
21 Gedeon, M. I., Πατριαρχικοὶ Πίνακες. Εἰδήσεις ἱστορικαὶ βιογραφικαὶ περὶ τῶν Πατριαρχῶν Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, ἀπὸ Ἀνδρέου τοῦ Πρωτοκλήτου μέχρις Ἰωακεὶμ Γ′ τοῦ ἀπὸ Θεσσαλονίκης, 36-1884 (Constantinople, 1885-90) 661Google Scholar.
22 Cf. Gedeon, M. I. (ed.), Κυρίλλου Λαυριώτου, Πατριάρχαι μετὰ τὴν Ἅλωσιν (1453-1794) (Athens 1887) 47 Google Scholar.
