chapter 9 Orthodoxy and Politics: The Patriarch Nikon of Moscow, the Prince Mihnea III Radu of Walachia and the Great Church of Constantinople1

Ovidiu Olar

Even a fool, if he questioneth about wisdom, shall be counted wise … Prov. 17: 28 ∵

“Warnerus hath been my condiscipulus at Bremen, found always a very honest and studious man, and a singular lover of ye oriental tongues”—that is how Henry Oldenburg, the first secretary of the Royal Society, portrayed the Dutch Resident in in a letter dated November 19, 1659.2 Undoubtedly, the testimonial was accurate.3 After publishing several tracts, which substantiated a solid scholarly reputation, the Lippe-born, Leiden-educated Levinus Warner had chosen to head east, towards the spellbinding capital of the (1644). Turning his back on the comfort of an academic career, and in

1 I would like to express my sincere gratitude to the Scaliger Institute (Leiden). The present re- search would not have been possible without the Fellowship granted in September–October 2009. Particular thanks are due to Prof. Dr. Harm Beukers, to Kasper van Ommen, MA, and to Dr. Arnoud Vrolijk. Their warm welcome and constant support facilitated tremendous- ly my use of the Special Collections of the Library. My thanks also go to Mrs Manuela Mihuţ, Mrs Vera Tchentsova, and Mr Andrei Pippidi for their valuable comments. 2 The Correspondence of Henry Oldenburg I, 1641–1662, ed. Alfred Rupert Hall and Marie Boas Hall (Madison, WI; London: University of Wisconsin Press, 1965), 281 (Oldenburg to Samuel Hartlib). 3 For Warner and his achievements, see Wilhelmina Maria Cornelia Juynboll, Zeventiende- eeuwsche beoefenaars van het Arabisch in Nederland (Utrecht: Kemink & Zoon, 1931), 222– 234; Levinus Warner and His Legacy. Three Centuries Legatum Warnerianum in the Leiden University Library: Catalogue of the commemorative exhibition held in the Bibliotheca Thysiana from April 27th till May 15th 1970 (Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1975), 5–16.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, 2018 | doi:10.1163/9789004366299_011 234 Olar spite of all inherent risks, he had finally managed to obtain the appointment as diplomatic representative of the Dutch Republic to the Sublime Porte (1655). Taking plain advantage of this propitious position, he had fostered his studies and acquired an impressive library.4 Warner decided to bequeath the entire corpus to the University of Leiden. After his somewhat mysterious death in June 1665, his brother Frederik ar- ranged for the manuscripts and books to be carried home. In 1674, the last of the shipments arrived. The “incomparable thesaurus” was carefully catalogued and put in a separate cupboard bearing Levinus’s name.5 There were 218 printed books, 1486 Arabic, Persian, and Turkish texts, as well as several Armenian, Coptic, Hebrew (including Karaite), and Syriac manuscripts.6 There were also eight Greek codices.7 Eight may not seem many. Yet numbers can be misleading, and, in this particular case, they are indeed so. For two of the Greek manuscripts in the Legatum Warnerianum allow us to address from a comparative point of view and to place in a proper context an intriguing phenomenon—the liturgical and ecclesiastical “reforms” of mid-seventeenth century Eastern and South- Eastern Europe. These two pieces will be discussed here. Brought to Leiden in 1674, they con- tain (in copy) five letters addressed to or sent by the Patriarch of Constantinople. BPG 65A has two parts. It opens with the two epistles dispatched in 1659 by the Prince of Walachia Mihnea (Mihai) III Radu to Parthenios IV, the first on January 21 (ff. 1–14 [1]), the second on March 21 (ff. 15–22 [2]). Irrespective of

4 See Albert van der Heide, Hebrew Manuscripts of Leiden University Library (Bibliotheca Universitatis Lugduni Batavorum—Codices manuscripti XVIII) (Leiden: Universitaire Pers, 1977), 10–15; Jan Schmidt, Catalogue of Turkish Manuscripts in the Library of Leiden University and other Collections in the Netherlands I: Comprizing the Acquisition of Turkish Manuscripts in the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries (Bibliotheca Universitatis Lugduni Batavorum— Codices manuscripti XXX) (Leiden: Brill, 2000), 43–44. 5 For more details, see Henricus J. Witkam, De dagelijkse zaken van de Leidse universiteit van 1591–1596 VI/2. Nrs 3001–3317 en andere: Alsmede Johannes van Hell en het Legatum Warnerianum (Leiden: Witkam 1973), appendix; Levinus Warner and His Legacy, 16–18; Alexander H. de Groot, “The Legacy of a Seventeenth Century Orientalist,” Prilozi za Orijentalnu Filologiju 30 (1980) [III Međunarodni simpozijum za predosmanske i osmanske studije—III Symposium international d’études pré-ottomanes et ottomanes, Sarajevo, 18–22. septembar 1978]: 159–165. 6 Levinus Warner and His Legacy, 37–44. 7 Karel A. de Meyier (adiuvante Elfriede Hulshoff Pol), Codices Bibliothecae Publicae Graeci (Bibliotheca Universitatis Lugduni Batavorum—Codices manuscripti VIII) (Leiden: Bibliotheca universitatis 1965), 60–62 (no 46), 62–65 (no 47), 89–90 (no 60 C), 96–99 (no 63 A), 99–101 (no 64 A), 102–3 (no 65 A), 133–4 (no 73 G), 154–6 (no 76).