In 1898 the Patriarch of Antioch Spyridon was forced to resign after a demand of the prelates of the throne of Antioch. His resignation brought the Church of Antioch into a very deep crisis which became known as the Antioch Question. The aspects of this question were not only ecclesiastical. Notwithstanding the fact that the parties involved mostly came from the area of the church, the rapid transformation of the issue into a political one involved non ecclesiastic authorities too.