Greek identity and education in the seventeenth century: Theophilos Korydalleus’ political movement in the Orthodox East

At the beginning of the seventeenth century the Athenian philosopher Theophilos Korydalleus launched a political programme intended to reinvigorate Hellenic culture and education in South-Eastern Europe as a core element of Greek Orthodox identity. Korydalleus’ ideas on political intervention in the educational affairs of the Orthodox Greeks are recorded in one of his public speeches as well as in his private letters. In these texts it is possible to trace the emergence of a group of loyalists and disciples, who worked together in a political movement: a ‘party of friends’. This article presents and discusses sources which have been overlooked or have received little scholarly attention. It identifies the characteristics and the ideological underpinnings of this movement from a political, religious, and educational perspective and analyses Korydalleus’ views on contemporary political developments.