The alleged positive contribution of the highest hierarchy of the Church to the Revolution of 1821 is one of the greatest ideological deceptions of modern Greek History. Two hundred years later, the study of original sources, the excommunication encyclicals, and the counter-revolutionary actions of the patriarchate leave no room for misinterpretation.

This book includes a useful collection of such texts, published during the period from 1798 to 1828. The tracing of these historical documents remains an exceptionally difficult task even today, sometimes requiring the laborious search for rare or out-of-print editions.

In “The Black Book of 1821,” you will read: the texts of the excommunication of the Revolution by the Patriarchate of Constantinople, the reasons why the infamous lifting of the excommunication is an ecclesiastical myth, how Gregory V tried to appease the revolutionary sentiments of the inhabitants of the Ionian Islands and Peloponnese at the end of the 18th century, simultaneously ordering the burning of texts by Rigas Feraios, the reasons why the excommunication of the Klephts by Patriarch Callinicus V negatively impacted the Revolution of '21.

It also includes the encyclicals through which Gregory V attempted to control Greek publishing, launching an attack on the Natural Sciences, the excommunication penalty imposed on Bouboulina just months before the uprising of the Greeks, the texts of Patriarch Eugenios V, which aimed to intimidate the Greeks immediately after the outbreak of the Revolution, and the way in which Patriarch Agathangelos attempted to incite civil war in Greece during Ioannis Kapodistrias's time.