In this work, the printed Greek confession books are subjected to extensive analysis for the very first time. These books, which appeared at the beginning of the 17th century in the orthodox East, enjoyed unprecedented popularity in their time. Examining the history of the confession books, this work provides new and very interesting insights into both the significant conflict between the patriarch of Constantinople, Kyrillos Loukaris, and the Sacred Congregation de Propaganda Fide, and the role of the protestant powers in this conflict. In addition, it also examines the role played by the confession books in the ambitions of influential Greeks in the Venetian occupied regions, to manipulate the development of church policies in the Orthodox East, in collaboration with Venice; for the most part, these ambitions, climaxing in an attempted union at the end of the 17th century unknown to research until now, are reconstructed here for the first time. Finally, this work demonstrates that, with one exception, the confession books printed in the 18th century were also printed for political purposes; in this case by the princes of Walachia and the emerging Kollyvades' reform movement. Through new findings, which radically revise the knowledge accrued through previous research, this work makes an essential contribution to research on the history of Orthodoxy under Ottoman rule.

Vasileios Tsakiris, Universität Erfurt.