This study focuses on changes that occurred within the Orthodox Patriarchate of Constantinople in the second half of the seventeenth century in response to the difficulties and challenges the Ottoman Empire faced. The intent of the thesis is that the Patriarchate was an integral part of the Empire and that its institutional vagaries can only be understood as a result of the close relationship between it and the Ottoman Empire. The focus is on the legal, financial, and administrative relations between the Patriarchate and the Ottoman Empire in the second half of the seventeenth century.