Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 10.djvu/654

 MOSCOW

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MOSCOW

out as Demetrius, the son of Ivan the Terrible, who had in some way escaped Boris GodunofT, another ehild having been murdered. King Sigismund of Poland espoused his chiims, furnished him an army, with wliieh and its Russian accessions the pretender fought his way back to Moscow, proclaiming himself the rightful heir to the throne. All who looked on Boris GodunotT as a usurper flocked to his standard, the widow of Ivan, then a mm, recognized him as her son, and he was crowned in the Kremlin as the Tsar of the Russias. For ten months he ruled, but, as he was too favourable to the Poles and even allowed Catholics to come to Moscow and worship, the tide then turned against him, and in 1606 he was assassinated at his palace in the Kremlin by the Slrellsi or sharpshooters who formed the guard of the Tsars of Russia.

After seven years of civil war and anarchy Michael Romanoff, the founder of the present dynasty, was elected Tsar in 1613. But Moscow never regained its earlier pre-eminence, although it became a wealthy commercial city, until the first part of the reign of Peter the Great (16S9-1725). He sent persons abroad, and, having observed the advancement and progress of Western Europe, determined to improve his realm radically by introducing the forms of western civili- zation. Ail the earlier part of his life was spent in war with the Swedish invaders and the Polish kings. In 1700 he abolished the Patriarchate of Moscow, left the see vacant, and established the Holy Synod. These acts set Moscow, the old Russians and the clergy against him, so that in 1712 he changed the imperial residence and capital from Moscow to St. Petersburg, which he had caused to be constructed for the new capital on the banks of the Neva. After the departure of the Tsars from Moscow, it di- minished in political importance, but was always re- garded as the seat and centre of Russian patriotism. In 17.55 the University of Moscow was founded. In 1812 during the invasion of Russia by Napoleon, the Russians determined after the Battle of Borodino to evacuate Moscow before the victorious French, and on 14 September, 1812, the Russian troops deserted the city, followed by the greater part of the inhabi- tants. Shortly afterwards the French entered, and Napoleon found that he had no submissive citizens to view his triumphal entry, but that the inhabitants were actually burning up their entire city which was even then built largely of wood. He revenged him- self by desecrating churches and destroying monu- ments. The Russian winter begins in October, and, with a citj' in smoking ruins and without supplies or provisions. Napoleon was compelled on 19-22 Octo- ber, to evacuate Moscow and retreat from Russia. Cold and privation were the most effective allies of the Russians. The reconstruction of the city com- menced the following year, and from that time hardly any wooden buildings were allowed. In May, 1896, at the coronation of Nicholas II, over 2000 persons were crushed and wounded in a panic just outside the city. In 190.5 the Grand Duke Sergius was assassi- nated in the Kremlin and revolutionary riots occurred throughout the city. Although Moscow is no longer the capital, it has steadily grown in wealth and com- mercial importance, and, while second in population to St. Petersburg, it is the latter's close rival in com- merce and indu.stry, and is first above all in the heart of every Russian.

In the religious development of Russia Moscow has held perhaps the foremost place. In 1240 Kieff was taken by the Tatars, who in 1299 [)illagcd and destroyed much of that mother city of Christian Russia. Peter, Metroijolilaii of Kieff, who was then in union with Rome, in liilti changed his see from that city to the city of Vla<limir upon the Kliazma, now about midway between Moscow and Nizhni- Novgorod, for Vladimir was then the capital of Great

Kussia. In l.'?22 ho again changed it to Moscow. After his death in 1328 Thoognostus, a monk from Constantinople, was consecrated Metropolitan at Moscow under the title "Metropolitan of Kieff and Exarch of all Ru.ssia", and strove to make Great Russia of the north ecclesiastically superior to Little Russia of the south. In 1371 the South Rus.sians jM'tilioned the Patriarch of Constantinople: "Give us anotlicr nielropiilitan for KicIT, Sniolcn.sk, and Tver, and for Little Kussia." In 1379 I'inicii took at Mos- cow the title of "Metropolitan of Kieff and Great Russia ", and in 1408 Photius, a Greek from Constanti- nople, was made "Metropolitan of all Russia" at Moscow. Shortly afterwards an assembly of South Russian bishops was held at Novogrodek, and, deter- mined to become independent of Moscow, sent to the Patriarch of Constantinople for a local metropolitan to rule over them. In 1416 Gregory I was made " Metropolitan of Kieff and Lithuania", independently of Photius who ruled at Moscow. But at the death of Gregory no successor was appointed for his see. Gerasim (1431-5) was the successor of Photius at Moscow, and had correspondence with Pope Eugene IV as to the reunion of the Eastern and Western Churches. The next Metropolitan of Moscow was the famous Greek monk, Isidore, consecrated under the title of "Metropolitan of Kieff and Moscow". When the Council of Florence for the reunion of the East and the West was held, he left Moscow in com- pany with Bishop Abraham of Suzdal and a large company of Russian prelates and theologians, at- tended the council, and signed the act of union in 1439. Returning to Russia, he arrived at Moscow in the spring of 1441, and celebrated a grand pontifical liturgy at the cathedral of the Assumption in the Kremlin in the presence of Grand Duke Vasili II and the Russian clergy and nobility. At its close his chief deacon read aloud the decree of the union of the churches. None of the Russian bishops or clergy raised their voices in opposition, but the grand duke loudly upbraided Isidore for turning the Russian people over to the Latins, and shortly afterwards the Russian bishops assembled at Moscow followed their royal master's command and condemned the union and the action of Isidore. He was imprisoned, but eventually escaped to Lithuania and Kieff, and after many adventures reached Rome.

From this time the two portions of Russia were entirely distinct, the prelates of Moscow bearing the title "Metropolitan of Moscow and all Russia" and those of Kieff, "Metropolitan of Kieff, Halich, and all Russia". This division and both titles were sanctioned by Pope Pius II. But Kieff continued Catholic and in communion with the Hoi}' See for nearly a century, while Moscow rejected the union and remained in schism. After Isidore the Musco- vites would have no more metropolitans sent to them from Constantinople, and the grand duke thereupon selected the metropolitan. Every effort was then made to have the metropolitans of Moscow inde- pendent of the Patriarch of Constantinople. After the Turks had captured Constantinople, the power of its patriarch dwindled still more. When the Bishop of Novgorod declared in 1470 for union with Rome, Philip I, Metropolitan of Moscow, frustrated it, declaring that, for signing the union with Rome at Florence, Constantinople had been punished by the Turks. This hatred of Rome was fomented to such a point that, rather than have one who favoured Rome, a Jew named Zozimas was made Metropolitan of Mo.scow (1490-4); as, however, he oiicnly sup- ported his brethren, he was finally (li'puscd as an unbe- liever. Yet in 1.525 the mctnipolitan Daniel had a correspondence with Pope Clement \ll in regard to the Florentine Union, and in 1.5S1 the Jesuit Possevin visited Ivan the Terrible and sought to have him accept the principles of the Union. In 1586, after