Methodios Anthrakites

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The Reverend
Methodios Anthrakites
Born1660
Kaminia, Epirus, Ottoman Empire
Died1736
Ioannina, Epirus, Ottoman Empire

Methodios Anthrakites (

Orthodox
cleric, author, educator, mathematician, astronomer, physicist, and philosopher.

He directed the Gioumeios and Epiphaneios Schools in

Korydalism. He is known for being persecuted for introducing modern philosophical thought to Greek education, the incident is widely known as the Methodios Affair. He made a significant contribution to the growth of the Modern Greek Enlightenment during the Ottoman occupation of Greece.[1][2]

Life

Methodios Anthrakites' signature.

Anthrakites was born in the village of

Roman Catholicism living in Venice. He urged Methodios to publish three of his works at the printing house of Nikolaos Glykis. In 1699 Christian Theories and Spiritual Advises, 1707 Spiritual Visitation and in 1708, Shepherd of Reasonable Sheep. He returned to Greece in 1708 and become the first director of the Ierospoudasterion, a new school founded in Kastoria in Macedonia. The benefactor was Georgios Kastriotis, a wealthy Greek from Kastoria, who lived in Wallachia. Anthrakites focused on teaching contemporary European philosophy and mathematics.[4]

In 1710, he was called to take over the management of the Kyritzi School in Kastoria. At the institution, he taught Mathematics, Elements of Euclid, Spherics of Theodosius, geometry theoretical and practical use of geometric instruments. He also taught micrometry, altitude, surface metering, geodesy, iconography, choreography, stereometry, holometry, and sometimes trigonometry. He taught the study of spheres, astrolabe, geography, and optics. Anthrakites was an educational pioneer and became extremely popular very fast. The Galileo affair of 1633 was the persecution of Galileo Galilei involving Greek scholar Corydalleus's professor Cesare Cremonini. The issue dealt with the disbelief in heliocentrism.[5]

The Catholic education as well as the Greek education was centered around

heliocentric system, although he supported the geocentric system.[7][8]

Anthrakites also began to introduce spoken language into his teaching. This contrasted with the view in Constantinople. The elders of the church felt Greek tradition lies in the complex Ancient Greek language. He used unconventional teaching methods of which the church became very suspicious. Just as Galileo and Descartes tried to break barriers. Anthrakites also suffered the same fate as his contemporaries. He was eventually involved in the Methodios affair as Galileo faced the inquisition for Heliocentrism. Anthrakites faced a similar fate for teaching it.[9]

His teachings were regarded as unusual and gave rise to suspicion in church circles they began questioning his teaching methods at the school. Anthrakites resigned from the Ierospoudasterion in 1718 and moved to

Nikopolis Paisios.[11]

On 23 August 1723, the

Quietism and issued a condemnation of his teachings. While he was in Constantinople he hid in the basement for months refusing to burn his notes and books. It was the most difficult period in his life. His books reflected his thoughts on geometry, logic, physics, euclidean arithmetic, and philosophy. He was accused of a satanic conspiracy. He eventually burned his books in the courtyard.[12]

Anthrakites was restored as a teacher but he was only allowed to follow Korydalism. The incident like the condemnation of

Quietism by Pope Innocent XI and the Galileo affair is termed the Methodios affair. The Methodios affair led Greece into the Modern Greek Enlightenment.[13] From 1725 he became director of the Epiphaneios School in Ioannina, probably until his death in 1736.[14] Some of his students became very important within the Greek community and used his teaching methods and theories. Eugenios Voulgaris his student eventually taught at the Maroutsaia School from 1742 to 1746. He taught the physics and mathematics of Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz and Isaac Newton. He also explored the philosophers John Locke, and Thomas Hobbes. Eventually, the church began to persecute Eugenios Voulgaris
and he went to another institution. He did not receive the same harsh persecution as Methodios.

Works

Some of his manuscripts have been lost because of his excommunication. His known works are:

  • Επίσκεψις Πνευματική "Spiritual Visitation", Venice, 1707
  • Βοσκός λογικών προβάτων "Shepherd of Reasonable Sheep", Venice, 1708
  • Θεωρίαι χριστιανικαί και ψυχοφελείς νουθεσίαι "Christian Theories and Spiritual Advises", Venice, 1708
  • Οδός Μαθηματική "The Way of Mathematics" (edited Balanos Vasilopoulos), Venice, 1749
  • Λογική ελάττων "Lesser Logic", 1953
  • Εισαγωγή της Λογικής "Introduction to Logic", (manuscript)
  • Λόγος εις τον προφήτην Ηλίαν "Sermon on Prophetes Elias", (manuscript)

References

  1. ^ Editorial Staff (September 1, 2016). "Methodios Anthrakites". Zagori Physics and Education. Retrieved May 14, 2021.
  2. ISBN 9781108863353
    .
  3. ^ Χρήστου Π. Μεθόδιος Ανθρακίτης. Βίος – Δράσις – Ανέκδοτα έργα, Ioannina 1953.
  4. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 2
  5. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 3
  6. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 3
  7. ^ Pappas V & Karas I. "The printed Book of Physics: the Dissemination of Scientific Thought in Greece 1750–1821 before the Greek Revolution", Annals of Science 44(1987):237–244
  8. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, pp. 3–4
  9. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 3
  10. ^ Χρήστου Π. Μεθόδιος Ανθρακίτης. Βίος – Δράσις – Ανέκδοτα έργα, Ioannina 1953.
  11. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 4
  12. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, p. 4
  13. ^ Μπόμπου-Σταμάτη Β., "Ο Μεθόδιος Ανθρακίτης και τα 'Τετράδια'", Ελληνικά 45, 1995.
  14. ^ Stavros, Vallidis, 2018, pp. 4–5

Bibliography


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