LE SYMPOSIUM INTERNATIONAL LE LIVRE. LA ROUMANIE. L ...

394 VIcTOR GODEAnU
national initiative other local would-be nations developed also a high
degree of self-consciousness. this situation led further to the constitution
of national states and autonomous Churches, thus reducing the ecumenical
patriarchate’s political influence to, nowadays, a consultative, almost
symbolic level.
the revival of the ancient Greek spirit on a Christian orthodox basis
has become in the 18 th century the main moral issue for the Greek people
submitted to the ottoman rule. the only independent Christian orthodox
power being russia, the expectations of freedom from the oppressive
ottoman empire pointed quite naturally to the russian empire, regarded
then as The Third Rome and heir of Byzantium. After the collapse of
Byzantium to the turkish conquest, russia, already the biggest and the
only fully independent orthodox country began building up on the idea
of ruling all over eastern Christianity. the Greeks residing in the russian
empire assiduously fed this belief, focusing their expectations to liberating
Greece on the russian tsar, considered nothing less than a new messiah.
Political and cultural Greek trends in Walachia and Moldavia
the peculiar position of Walachia and Moldavia bordering three main
european cultures – the Western (Catholic and protestant), the russian
Slavic (mystical orthodox) and the Balkan/levantine (of mixed genuine
Byzantine extraction and oriental) – induced throughout the centuries a
rather eclectic character to local people. Although the traditional romanian
historians tend to generalize, not without substance, on the phanariot epoch
as chauvinistic, oppressive and corrupt, a cultural approach re-evaluates
its impact on local culture and recognizes its obvious benefic influence in
this quasi-medieval society. In Walachia for example, a modern spirit in
the general policy of the state, in education, dissemination of knowledge
etc., was introduced by some open-minded phanariotes, prince nikolaou
Mavrokordatos being an illustrious example. Great friend and pen pall of
Chrysanthos notaras, nikolaou Mavrokordatos was a true Maecenas of his
time and one of the most significant princes of Moldavia and Walachia,
ruling alternatively in both for several times (however, his rule was not
without contestation from the contemporaries, some of the traditionalistic
chroniclers, not in the service of the court, being very critical about him).
even before the phanariot period, from late 16 th and early 17 th
century, the Greek culture becomes noticeable in Walachia and Moldavia,
encouraged by a number of rulers as an expression of their high cultural
status. the two capital cities, Bucharest and Iasi, are hosting therefore