MURDER OF GREEK PATRIARCH



was led out in his sacred robes and hanged at the gate of his
palace. His body remained hanging throughout the Easter
celebration, and wvas then given to the Jews to be dragged
through the streets and cast into the Bosphorus. A similar
fate befell the Greek archbishops of Salonical, Tirnovo, and
Adrianople. The body of Gregorios floating in the sea was
picked up by a Greek ship and carried to Odessa. This re-
turn to Christian soil of the remains of the Patriarch was
baled as a miracle in Russia. Gregorios was solemnly buried
by the Russian Government as a martyr.
   If the will of the Russian people had been carried out,
the Russian army and nation would have a-venged the mur-
der of their high priest by an immediate war upon the Turks.
Strogonov, the Russian Ambassador at Constantinople, at
once proposed to his diplomatic colleagues to join him in call-
ing for warships to protect the Christians there. Lord Stran-
ford, the British Ambassador, refused to accede to this
proposition. Single-handed, Strogonov presented an ultima-
tum to the Sultan demanding the restoration of Christian
churches and tIle Porte's protection for Christian worship.
A written answer was exacted within eight days. Encour-
aged by England's attitude, the Sultan ignored Strogoiiov's
requests. On July 27 the Russian Ambassador left Con-
stantinople. To the amazement of his moujiks, the Czar did
not declare war.  The councils of Prince Iletternich pre-
vailed. With the help of the representatives of England,
Metternich persuaded the Czar to view the rebellion of Greece
as a mere unfortunate disturbance. Any countenance of it,
he argued, would imperil the peace of Europe.
   The murder of the Greek Patriarch was followed by ris-
ings of the Greeks throughout continental Greece and the
Archipelago. Here, as in the Morea, the cause of Greek
freedom was disgraced by massacres, and indignities to Turk-
ish women. The Sultan's troops, led by able commanders,
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1821