The Orthodox Church as we have it, then, is structured by a combination of the ancient pentarchy with the mediaeval and modern notion of a national Church. The first church to be permanently formed in this way was the Church of Russia which declared independence in 1448, using as pretext acceptance of the Council of Florence by the Greek Church in 1439. With the disintegration of the Ottoman Empire in the nineteenth century, the Churches of Greece, Serbia, Bulgaria and Rumania also left the Church