1. Ideological Background
The adoption of an anti-Enlightenment attitude by the official Church in the first two decades of the 19th century, while the Enlightenment was still in its heyday, led to the formation of an atmosphere against the clergy. This dispute was mainly expressed in matters concerning the curriculum. In this framework, the conflicts centred upon educational reforms worsened in the case of Smyrna1and took the form of a general social conflict.
Towards the late 18th century the Modern Greek Enlightenment, whose main representatives were Rigas Pheraios (or Velestinlis) and Αdamantios Korais, had already entered its mature period described by concrete ideological positions. The attitude of the Ecumenical Patriarchate at the time was dictated by its relations with Orthodox Russia, on the one hand, and its loyalty to the Ottoman power, on the other hand, that is, two often conflicting attitudes. Therefore, the Patriarchate adopts the principles of religious humanism in education (encouragement of education, respect for ideas as long as they do not offend the doctrine, avoidance of all political activities), always taking into consideration the attitude of the Sublime Porte. In this framework, schools are established, scholarships are granted and new books are published – always under the direct ecclesiastical control. The year 1791 may be considered as a turning point, as the attitude of Catherine of Russia changes radically: the war with the Ottoman Empire ceases, while at the same time the tzarina turns against the philosophers she had supported so far. This change allows the Patriarchate to maintain its good relations with the Russian Empire as well as oppose to all modernist ideas considered extreme. The anti-Enlightenment, a multidimensional movement fighting in many ways modernism and particularly the ideas of the French Revolution, is adopted from then onward: numerous works are released and relevant circulars are issued by the Patriarchate, while previously progressive scholars start to follow conservatism.2
The attack of the Church against the Enlightenment is concerted and open in the third term of Patriarch Gregorios V (1818-1821). However, Gregorios turned against modern spirit already from his first term (1797-1798), when he anathematised the French Revolution and excommunicated Rigas Velestinlis. One of the first texts he signed as a Patriarch in 1819 was the circular of March, where he addressed educational matters to the ruling body of the clergy, the priests and the congregation. His targets were the instruction of sciences, mathematics, the new linguistic theories and the tendency of parents to give ancient Greek names to their children. In essence, he turns against Korais and his followers, who represent the most radical trends of the Enlightenment. This text became the theoretical framework on which were based the future actions of the Patriarchate aiming to attack the ideas of the Enlightenment and their followers shortly before the outbreak of the Greek Revolution.
In the early 19th century a serious ideological conflict between the supporters of the Enlightenment and their opponents, mainly the Church, is on the way. In terms of geography, this conflict broke out in the oldest spiritual centres of the Greek world (Ioannina, Danubian principalities) as well as in the triptych Chios – Smyrna – Ayvalık (Cydoniae). In this last area with the increased commercial activities and the rapid economic development a new social status is formed, as evidenced by the activity of progressive scholars and the establishment of schools of secular character and scientific orientation, which were unfettered by ecclesiastical tradition. In all three cases the Academy of Cydoniae, whose central figure was Beniamin Lesbios, the Gymnasion of Chios with Neophytos Vamvas and the Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna with Κonstantinos Koumas became the targets of the conservatives and, as a result, they closed.
2. The Establishment of the Philological Gymnasion
In the early 19th century the Evangelical School dominated the educational life of Smyrna, although its conservative orientation caused reactions from the progressive circles of the city. Thus, in 1803, under the influence of the established Academy of Cydoniae, a group of scholars from Smyrna under Georgios Omiros, Dimitrios Toufexis and Filippos Kapparis from Chios and under the protection of Adamantios Korais, who encouraged them from Paris to update education, established the New Public School ("Nea Dimosia Scholi"). The school would belong to the "public", that is, it would be a public establishment protected by the dimogerontia and funded by the Orthodox community of Smyrna. It was accommodated in the quarter of St. Dimitrios, in a building granted by the church of St. Fotini, very near the Evangelical School. Tappas, Kopanos and Ierotheos are reported to have taught there.
In 1808, as it had happened in Cydoniae, the members of the dimogerontia of Smyrna made Dimitrios Vachatoris, the sole member of the board of the Evangelical School, hand the School over to another board, who would modernise it by employing new teachers. Because Vachatoris refused, a committee was formed consisting of Pantelis Rodokanakis, Filippos Kapparis and Dimitrios Toufexoglou, who decided the establishment of a new school that would continue the tradition of the New Public School. The new school was initially called Philological School ("Filologikon Scholeion") and later Philological Gymnasion ("Filologikon Gymnasion"). The three of them formed the first board of the school. The establishment of the Philological Gymnasion at the time in Smyrna was supported by the city’s merchants and took place after a bitter struggle against the local church.
Adamantios Korais, who had already been summoned by the above committee to Smyrna in order to take over the direction of the school, suggested Konstantinos Koumas. The latter actually took over the new school together with Κonstantinos Oikonomos. Koumas arrived in Smyrna on 23 July 1809 and, according to a letter he sent to Korais, met all the assembly of the ‘good potentates’, including Dimitrios Lotos, a bosom friend of Korais,3 an indication of the ideological orientation of the new school. In 1814 Konstantinos Oikonomos took over over as the principal of the Philological Gymnasion.
The Philological Gymnasion opened on 1 September 1809. In a letter sent by Koumas to Korais in January 1810, the former says that in the beginning there were more than 150 students, while a lot of Smyrniots hastened to attend the classes. They left their workshops and went to school. ‘When there are too many of them, I cannot confine myself while speaking on educational matters and the people call me benefactor of their city’.4 The seal of the Philological Gymnasion represented Homer, while a circular inscription said: ‘Homer. Seal of the Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna’. The Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna soon became a bastion of the Modern Greek Enlightenment.
3. The Conflict between the Philological Gymnasion and the "Evangeliki" School of Smyrna
Almost from the moment it opened, the Philological Gymnasion outdid the Evangelical School both in knowledge offered and in methods employed. The latter remained in a spirit of anti-modernism, attached to a conservative educational model. As a result, a fierce conflict broke out between the two schools leading to the closure of the Gymnasion.
In this conflict the local Church took sides with the Evangelical School, mainly based on the patriarchal synodal sigillium issued in February 1808 by Patriarch Gregorios V, which validated the independence and autonomy of the Evangelical School (from 1747 it had been enjoying the protection of the English Consulate), condemned those ‘moving against it in any way and for whatever reason’ and threatened them with ‘severe reprimands and curses’. The metropolitan of Smyrna Anthimos, the bishop of Erythrai Kallinikos and the board of the Evangelical School were against the progressive school, mainly accusing it of teaching atheism, Freemasonry and ‘magic’, that is, physics and astronomy. The director of the school Konstantinos Oikonomos was also accused of intervening in political matters, of undermining faith and the nation and of being extravagant.
In 1809 Gregorios sent a synodal letter to the metropolitan of Smyrna, the priests, the dimogerontia and the notables of the city. He recognised again the privileges of the Evangelical School and rejected the request put in by a group of Smyrna citizens for the merger of the Philological Gymnasion with the Evangelical School, as he considered that this would oppose the stipulations specified by the possessors of the Evangelical School. According to Stefanos Oikonomos, in 1810 the administration of the community included supporters of the diocese, who stopped offering the Gymnasion the funds necessary for the maintenance of the school and, as a result, suppressed its communal character.
Koumas reacted to this attitude and, supported by the grand Interpreter of the Sublime Porte Dimitrios Mourouzis, persuaded the 5 members of the dimogerontia, the 12-member council of notable potentates ("dodecanoi") and the masters of the guilds of Smyrna, and jointly rented in January 1810 a building in the central quarter Geranio to accommodate the Gymnasion, which really gladdened Adamantios Korais, while it caused the reaction of Athanasios Parios and the rest of the conservatives. The Evangelical School was still directed by Chrysanthos Karavias but, as he had grown old, he was substituted by the deacon Gabriel from Vourla. In August 1811 the Philological Gymnasion came again under the protection of the community, partly funded by the community and partly by fund raising, loans and endowments from churches and individuals.
In the same period Stefanos Oikonomos, brother of Konstantinos, and the assistant teachers Apostolos Smyrnaios, Ioannis Peloponnisios, Anastasios Ithakisios and Dimitrios Thettalos were included in the teaching staff of the Gymnasion. Crowds of students of all ages from Smyrna, the suburbs as well as the nearby islands went to the Philological Gymnasion in order to attend the classes the teachers of the Gymnasion gave, while at the same time the competition between the Gymnasion and the Evangelical School became more serious, as indicated by an article by the Hellenist Francois Thurot published in the Parisian Magasin Encyclopédique in 1812, according to which the metropolitan of Smyrna as well as senior priests attended classes at the Philological Gymnasion.5
In 1810 Theofilos Kairis was known to have returned to Cydoniae in order to become the principal of the Academy. This made the board of the Evangelical School consisting of Dimitrios Vachatoris, Stephen Kourtovik and Ioannis Perakis Skoufos, supported by the metropolitan of Smyrna, try to hire Korais as the director of the School in order to modernise it. Kairis accepted the post of the director at the Evangelical School and on 11 February 1811 he arrived in Smyrna, where he was warmly welcomed. However, the Evangelical School violated the economic agreement with Kairis, who left Smyrna in late November 1811 and went to Cydoniae. In 1818 Kairis was asked to return to the Evangelical School, but without result.
The conflict between the two schools continued and became even more serious until, in November 1813, the Ecumenical Patriarch Kyrillos VI summoned Koumas and Oikonomos to teach at the Greek Philosophical School of Katasteno in Constantinople, thus causing a strong reaction from the society of Smyrna. Finally, Oikonomos remained at the Gymnasion, while Koumas left for Constantinople until 1816, when he returned to teach in Smyrna. In April 1817 he went to Vienna aiming to publish books useful to the students of the Gymnasion. The school was funded by many Greeks living in the Ottoman Empire and abroad, such as Alexandros Mavros in Constantinople, who offered 10 thousand kuruş to the Philological Gymnasion in 1815, as well as the merchant Panagiotis Nikolaidis from Smyrna, who lived in Odissos (Odessa) and offered the same amount two years later. However, the most known benefactor of the Philological Gymnasion was the prince of Moldavia and Walachia Skarlatos Alexandros Kallimachis.
4. The Closure of the Philological Gymnasion
In the meanwhile, the conflict had acquired a political character as well. On 16 July 1819 the Philological Gymnasion was dissolved following a series of violent events that convulsed the city. There is no full study on the events concerning the closure of the school, only scarce information and, mainly, personal opinions. The teacher of the Philological Gymnasion Stefanos Oikonomos, who wrote a chronicle, named those responsible for the closure of the school: ‘First of all it is the holy metropolitan of Smyrna Mr. Anthimos. Second, the holy bishop of Erythrai Mr. Kallinikos. Third, the secret advisor of the holy diocese Mr. Perakis Skoufos. Fourth, the current advisor and minister and eavesdropper of the holy diocese Savvas Mousoudakis. Fifth, Manuil Peroglou. Sixth, his brother Perakis Peroglou. Seventh, the cheesemonger Konstantinos Marikas. Eighth, some Chatzi Antonios Michail’.6 It should be noted that Oikonomos in his text presents the 1819 events exclusively as a series of machinations of the diocese of Smyrna, which is not true because, as proven by the historian Filippos Iliou,7 they were not just the result of the ideological conflict between the supporters and the opponents of the Enlightenment, but part of the grave social crisis that broke out at the time in the community of Smyrna.
After the political events in the city, when the communal power was assumed by a part of the guilds, the Philological Gymnasion was closed violently by the guilds of the city. The latter were supported by the lower social strata, which held mainly conservative, anti-modernistic views. They allied with the diocese of Smyrna and turned against the potentates, the supporters of the Enlightenment ideas. Then they assumed power managing to get rid of the Philological Gymnasion.
However, the only thing the allies had in common was their opposition to the merchants, as indicated by the accusations made against the Gymnasion. The diocese was against the ideological orientation of the school, while the guilds focused their control on the expenses and the political activities of its principal, who was accused of being in favour of the potentates and against the ‘poor’.8 At the same time the inconsistent attitude of Gregorios V was puzzling. While the Patriarchate was planning to eliminate the centres of the Enlightenment, the patriarch was trying to protect the Philological Gymnasion and Konstantinos Oikonomos from their persecutors. He was under a lot of pressure coming from several directions. Oikonomos was protected by the prince of Moldavia and fought by the Phanariote Kallimachis family. On the other side, the metropolitan of Smyrna Anthimos was becoming increasingly powerful. The best way probably for the Patriarchate was the strengthening of his opponents, the supporters of the Philological Gymnasion. At the same time the patriarch wanted to implement the principles of the 1819 circular employing indirect, though equally effective, methods. Konstantinos Oikonomos, who had started to adopt more conservative views, accepted the content of the circular.
It seems that the solution to all these problems of the patriarch was given when the crisis broke out in Smyrna and he tried to turn the Gymnasion into a stauropegian establishment directly subjected to the Patriarchate, upon request of its supporters, in order to avoid its subordination to the local Church. In this way, Gregorios would weaken dangerous Anthimos and, at the same time, the Gymnasion would come under the full control of the Patriarchate. But the guilds reacted strongly. They denied to accept that the community would lose control over the management of Smyrna’s establishments and resorted to the Ottoman authorities in order to invalidate the patriarchal decision. The local Church had its reasons to support this movement and, as a result, the Philological Gymnasion closed down and the patriarchal decisions were never implemented.
The Philological Gymnasion closed and the members of the dimogerontia Pavlos Omiros, Savvas Moustakidis, Chatzi Antonios Michael and Konstantinos Merikas reached an agreement with the board of the Evangelical School consisting of Dimitrios Vachatoris, I. Boskovik, Christodoulos Isaias and Manuil Peroglou, according to which the community would fund the Evangelical School, while the curriculum would improve and new teachers would be employed.
After the Philological Gymnasion closed, Konstantinos Koumas went to Constantinople, where he was appointed Grand Oikonomos of the Patriarchate and preacher. In 1820 he returned to Smyrna, where he tried to open a private school, but without success. Stefanos Oikonomos remained in Smyrna until the Greek War of Independence broke out.
5. The Enlightenment in the Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna: The Curriculum
A curriculum inspired by the ideas of the Enlightenment was implemented in the Philological Gymnasion, taught by some of the most important scholars-supporters of the modernist ideas of the time who came from the circle of Adamantios Korais, whose presence had become felt from the very first moment the new school had been established. As a result, the Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna soon became a bastion of the Enlightenment, one of the most progressive educational centres of the Greek world under Ottoman rule.
The school was early equipped with instruments for the classes of physics, chemistry, geographical maps and a collection of minerals, while it also had a rich library. There were attempts to implement the pedagogical principles of Condillac, Kant, Rousseau and Campe, whereas the ideas of Adamantios Korais prevailed. There was particular emphasis on philosophical and scientific studies. Philosophical texts of the German idealism were analysed, modern Mathematics and Natural Sciences were taught. The school is described in a source of the period as a ‘scientific’ and ‘philosophical’ Gymnasion.9
Konstantinos Koumas teaches philosophy, astronomy, geography and natural history, in addition to the basic subjects. He introduces the experimental method of teaching physics and chemistry and the ‘German theories’ in the subject of philosophy. For his beginners he had edited a special edition called Synopsis of Sciences for Beginners Including Arithmetic, Geometry, New Geography, Astronomy, Logics and Ethics. Compiled by K.M.Koumas in Vienna of Austria in 1819.To Be Used by the Philological Gymnasion of Smyrna.Konstantinos Oikonomos teaches religion, grammar, rhetoric, poetry, Greek and Latin writers and Latin. Oikonomos also wrote teaching guides while being at the Philological Gymnasion, such as ‘Rhetoric’ (Books on the Art of Rhetoric, Vienna 1813) and ‘Grammar’ (Books on Grammatical or General Instructions, v. I, Vienna 1817). Stephen Oikonomos teaches natural history, chemistry and Latin.
Several other figures, followers of the new ideas, such as Sophoklis Oikonomos and Dionysios Pyrros the Thessalian, taught in the Philological Gymnasion, apart from Konstantinos and Stefanos Oikonomos and Konstantinos Koumas. They all were helped by assistant teachers. The names of Michail Apostolides from Crete, Georgios Ioannidis from Smyrna, Margaritis Tyrnavitis, Panagiotis Rodios or Venetoklis, poet and writer, the brothers Christodoulos and Panagiotis from the community of Trikkaion, Efstathios Ioannidis from Smyrna, Athanasios Ithakisios, Nikolaos Smyrnaios, Christodoulos Thessalos, Konstantinos Ithakisios and Dimitrios Kyprios are reported.10