Theophilos Corydalleus

He was also an Eastern Orthodox cleric (Metropolitan of Nafpaktos), physician, physicist, astronomer, mathematician, author, educator and geographer.

[4][5][6][7] The new philosophical interpretation attempted to liberate Aristotelian thought from ecclesiastical control and apologetic objectives.

His work analyzed the conflict between the Christian conception of Creation and Aristotelian ideas on the eternity of substance.

[8][9] He taught Italian, Greek, and Latin in Venice from 1608 to 1609 at the Flanginian School, in Athens 1613–19, 1643–46, in Cephalonia (1619–21), and in Zakynthos 1621–22, 1628–36.

The astronomical model assumed the Earth and planets revolve around the Sun at the center of the Solar System.

The drawback of this reintroduction was that Ancient Greek thought superseded the new scientific advancement put forth by Galileo Galilei, Copernicus, and contemporaries.

Calvinism and Protestantism were brought into the Orthodox world both Corydalleus and Cyril Lucaris were accused of following the new faith.

Corydalleus was never seriously persecuted and continued to teach, his student's included: patriarch Nectarius of Jerusalem, loannis Karyophyllis, Meletios Syrigos, Evgenios Yannoulis, Alexandros Mavrokordatos, and Georgios Sougdouris.

Zerzoulis tried to explain Aristotle's authority in the church by showing discrepancies between several Aristotelian and Christian views.

The Modern Greek Enlightenment during the second half of the 18th century presented alternatives to Neo-Aristotelian thought or Corydalism.

Religious scholar Vasilios N. Makrides suggests that Corydalleus's Neo-Aristotelian legacy was not an entirely positive one, stating that By the end of the eighteenth century, it had become a hindrance to introducing new scientific ideas from Europe.

This is why the Greek bearers of Enlightenment ideas criticized it, and why scores of scholars entered into debates about the validity of Neo-Aristotelianism and its place alongside Christian doctrine.

[19] In contrast, Anastasios Tamis believes that Corydalleus's appointment as director of the academy ... was of paramount importance for the transmission of humanist and secular thought and culture into the Greek lands under the Turkish yoke.

Corydalleus reorganised the Academy of the Patriarchate along the lines of Padua University, imposing a secular philosophy as the basis for higher education, and thus breaking away from its connection with theology.